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Fusion D400QR5 (4TB)
Overview
Performance and Data Security Considering a multi-drive storage system? If so, you already know about the benefits of striping data across multiple drives-you’ll gain the faster performance necessary for working with HD video formats when you connect the system to an eSATA host controller. Sonnet’s Fusion D400QR5 desktop and Fusion R400QR5 rack mount SATA storage systems deliver speed, reliability, and versatility in easy to deploy packages. Fusion D400QR5 and R400QR5 systems offer security, too-each one features a high performance internal RAID controller that manages the enclosed drives and supports RAID 5 drive formatting, which provides data protection in case one of the drives fails. Available in configurations from 4 to 12TB(1), these Sonnet storage systems incorporate an informative display and status LEDs, and simple to use controls that enable you to easily configure the drives or select information to be displayed. High Performance with Data Protection Connected to a Sonnet Tempo SATA E4P PCIe or X4P PCI-X host controller installed in a Mac or Windows computer, a Fusion D400QR5 or R400QR5 system’s drives can be accessed at maximum speed(2), whether configured as a RAID 0 or RAID 5 set. With its drives configured as a RAID 5 group (four 1TB drives striped with parity across all group members), a single Fusion D400QR5 or R400QR5 system achieves data throughput of 225 MB/sec read and 177 MB/sec write, fast enough to support multiple streams of DV, HDV, DVCPRO, ProRes 422, or a single stream of uncompressed 10-bit NTSC video. Do you want even more performance? Up to four Fusion D400QR5 or R400QR5 systems can be ganged on a single Tempo SATA E4P or X4P controller for enhanced data throughput and multiple times the available streams (as well as increasing the number of supported video formats).
Key Features
Four swappable drive modules equipped with 1TB Sonnet-certified desktop hard drives(1)
High Performance, Protected Data
RAID 5 Onboard—Integrated hardware RAID controller supports RAID 5 drive configuration on its own; no need for a specialized RAID controller card
Four Interfaces, Single Cable Connection—Choose from eSATA(2), FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB 2.0 interfaces, and connect to your computer with a single cable
Informative Display and LED Indicators—Provide operating status at a glance
Simple Configuration—Integrated controls enable you to select RAID modes and configure the drives to meet your performance and data security needs, no matter which interface you choose
Quiet Fans—Low fan noise levels make these Fusion storage systems suitable for use in noise-sensitive environments
eSATA, FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB cables included
Compatible with Sonnet Tempo™ SATA II PCI-X, PCIe, and ExpressCard/34 host controllers
RoHS compliant
Performance and Data Security
Sonnet2
Considering a multi-drive storage system? If so, you already know about the benefits of striping data across multiple drives—you’ll gain the faster performance necessary for working with HD video formats when you connect the system to an eSATA host controller. Sonnet’s Fusion™ D400QR5 desktop SATA storage systems deliver speed, reliability, and versatility in easy to deploy packages. Fusion D400QR5 systems offer security, too—each one features a high performance internal RAID controller that manages the enclosed drives and supports RAID 5 drive formatting, which provides data protection in case one of the drives fails. Fusion D400QR5 storage systems incorporate an informative display and status LEDs, and simple to use controls that enable you to easily configure the drives or select information to be displayed.
Review
Storage Solutions come in many shapes,sizes, connection formats and speeds.
Unlike most, however, the Fusion D400Q from Sonnet Technologies actually comes in multiple connection formats and speeds at once. This is a four-drive Raid storage device with hot-swappable drive trays and a hinged panel at the front, with a suite of connection options at the back.
Whether you want to connect using USB 2, FireWire 400, the higher-speed FireWire 800, or eSata (external Sata), this drive has what you need. You're unlikely to swap back and forth a lot, but it does mean that you can connect it to any machine you like. This is really best used with an eSata PCI card, as that's what will give you the best performance. But if you need to connect to another Mac using either flavour of FireWire or even USB, you're free to do so.
And this is where the variety of speeds comes in. Sata is designed as a very high-speed interface and, in our tests with this interface and the unit configured as Raid 0, it managed a sustained throughput of 63MB/sec with bursts of upto 135MB/sec.
When we switched to FireWire 800 and ran the tests again it did well, but not quite as well as that; it reached a sustained 33.1MB a second and peaked at 53MB/sec. Switching to the FireWire 400 connection showed a slight drop again, to 33MB/sec dead for the constant throughput and a peak of 36.9MB/sec. Finally, the USB performance was the slowest of the lot, which was exactly what we expected. Our sustained throughput test managed 16MB/sec, and it reached peaks of 17MB/sec. This is significantly less than USB 2's theoretical maximum, but it isn't unusual in real-world USB performance.
With test results like these it is pretty clear what interface you should use. Of course, Macs don't come with eSata ports as standard, so you'll need to add a PCI card such as the Sonnet Tempo Sata X4P that we used for our tests. It doesn't need a separate Sata port for each drive, and it works well with PCI-X-based Power Mac G5s as well as PCI-Express machines.
The connections at the back all route through its internal Sata controller, whichever ports you actually choose to use. When using the FireWire or USB connections, you have to use the supplied 6in Sata 'loop-back' cable to connect its out-bound port to its in-bound port, or you won't be able to connect. At this point we should mention that you can't use more than one connection at once. Doing this won't cause a catastrophic failure, but you won't be able to mount or use the drives until you remove all but one connection. Most importantly, this means that you don't need to reformat the drives to use a different interface.
As a Raid-ready device, the four hard disks are on removable trays, each individually lockable. We used the Raid features in Apple's Disk Utility to set up a number of different Raid configurations, all without hassle. We did notice one thing that was a little disconcerting, although it wasn't a serious issue. The time from powering up the Fusion to when the disks mounted was unusually long. It took about a minute before the drives responded, then it took a few more seconds before the volumes mounted. However, from then on the performance was as good as the selected interface could manage.
The fan in the device was noticeable only in its silence; it was exceptionally quiet when in use, so it should do well in quiet offices. The Fusion D400Q is an excellent choice for anyone who needs high-speed data transfer, both in bursts and sustained streams. The delay in mounting was a little odd, but we didn't note any other issues.
