Simply Professional
Add up to 24TB of pre-configured massive storage space to your Mac Pro under minutes.
24TB (RAID 0 - Optional)
18TB (RAID 6 - Default)
Not a computer expert? We offer onsite installation and offsite phone support. Pre-configured Stardom SOHORAID8 is not complicated to setup. If you already have a SAS HBA installed, all is left is to plug in the SAS cable and reboot (not sure? contact us). The drive will show up on your desktop when your Mac Pro is booted, no software required. If you do not have a SAS HBA already, installing one is same as installing a graphic card, or a video capture card.
Stardom SOHORAID8 works with Mac Leopard, Snow Leopard & Lion, only on Mac Pro
Pro SAS connection for Mac Pro
Protection against failure
With Stardom SOHORAID 8 on RAID 6, out of the 8 drives total, you data are still available with up to 2x any hard disk failures. There is no downtime either when hard disk fails. Please keep on reading, if you want to know how often does a hard drive fail and why is RAID protection important for your data. Else please visit other tabs above for design and features.
RAID 0: 100% Capacity, if there is failure on any single hard drive, data is lost.
RAID 6: 75% Capacity, if there is failure with up to 2x hard drives, data is OK.
About hard drive
A hard drive is a mechanical device, like your car. It contains moving parts including "disk platters", "motor", "header" and complex electronics such as "circuit board". Now like everything else that manufactured by human, it is not hard to see there will be failures.
Why does a hard drive fail?
There are a number of reasons for a hard drive to fail, there is no simple answer. General heat, complexity in design, along with durability loss on the wearing parts make a drive imminent to fail. Human operation error such as "minor shock", "plug the wrong power cable", or disasters like "earthquake", "power surge", could permanently destroy data. There are many other factors to consider about, such as motor failure, reader header failure, chipset burnt, too much dust. These being said, a hard drive is not too easy to fail. When they do fail, there is usually no cheap fix and a very high percentage of the failures will render the hard drive inaccessible immediately and there is simply no time to get the data out.
"Real world" vs. "Spec sheet"
According to the manufacturer specification sheet, mainstream desktop hard drive has the following: "750,000 hours, annual failure rate 0.34%". By looking this number, one would think, their data is safe in general. Real world studies on the other hand, told us a different story: "Roughly 100,000 drives conducted by Carnegie Mellon University and more than 100,000 drives from data centers run by Google, PDF Ref Link (0.27MB) with the annual replacement rate was at between 2% and 4% and spiked up to 13% observed on some systems." This is shocking result, this means out of 50x hard drives, one could fail within the first year, and another may follow fail in the same year. The failure rates from the studies could be biased to certain environments and there could be wrongly addressed "failures" due to human error on judgment. Never the less, the collections of data (200,000 hard drives) from both of studies show: In real world, the failure rate of a hard drive is high, and it cannot be taken lightly.
Tough & durable
Stardom SOHORAID8 does not go cheap on built. With thick full aluminum built body, removable handler for portability. Robust to withstand the most demanding of usages, the aluminum body dissipates heat much faster than a plastic shell. A greater stability and performance helps to extend the lives of the hard drives by keeping their operating temperature low. It is the Stardom's goal to build strong, long lasting systems and to provide protection for your data.
Keeping it cool
2 x Silent 90mm MagLev fan mounted at the rear panel. The fan is levitated from the fitting by magnetic force. There is next to no friction. This makes fan spinning freely, increasing the durability while reducing the noise level. Thanks to this great technology, you can work quietly without suffering from fan noises all the time.
Easy replacement
No time to take a drive out. Turn off the unit and simply pin the lock with the key. All Stardom range share universal key, if the key is misplaced, don't panic, it can be replaced by a pen or needle. Labeling & storing hard drives off-site also comes handy, drives can be pulled out and carried away with specially designed boxes Link. (Optional, not included in the package)
User-friendly
The Stardom SOHORAID8 can be configured with the button based control. RAID configuration, hard disk status, fan… is fully accessible with a few button presses. LCD status display comes with navigation buttons. Eight indicators, built for each drive with color. User activities such as copying (flashing blue), and system activities such as rebuilding (flashing red) are clearly represented at real time rate. Moreover, there are visual and audio alarms (mutable) to notify on situations when failure occurs.
Organized
Are transformers taking too much your desktop space? Tired of having to label every transformer? Stardom SOHORAID8 uses the same NZ power cable just like your Mac. It is so easy to arrange everything when it comes with only the power cord.
Built for productivity
Stardom SOHORAID8 offers great performance; it goes over 500MB/s over RAID 6 (Protection mode), 700MB/s over RAID 0 (Strip mode). Compared to super fast Firewire 800 drives, Stardom SOHORAID8 out performances by up to 10 times. Video and audio editing software experience depends on the performance of the storage drive. Also, being the slowest component of your computer, your hard drive is limiting the performance of the entire system. Stardom SOHORAID8 boost your hard drive speed up to 8 x local hard drive speed, offers great work space for your creative needs. Stardom SOHORAID8 also support Apple Time Machine for backup purpose.
Data is everything
Stardom SOHORAID8 protects your data from 2 x hard drive failures from any random order. Hard drives do fail from time to time, when handling with multiple hard drives, the failure rate increases dramatically. Stardom SOHORAID8, when set on RAID 6 default, will continue to function upon the failure of 2 x hard drives. Upon the drive failure, there is no performance cut, neither will your Mac suffer any speed loss. When there is a failure with hard drive, the light indicator of the fail drive will become solid red, and the audio alarm will be triggered to warn the operator. It is possible to mute the alarm with a button located on the front panel of the Stardom SOHORAID8. RAID 6 will reduce the likely hood of data loss due to hard drive failures; however it only protects your data from up to 2 x hard drive failures, if there are more than 2 hard drives failures all at once, the data will be lost. We strongly recommend to always backup important data as much copies as possible.
Two approaches
For user convenience, Stardom SOHORAID 8, has built with two separate systems to interact with operator. Front panel, LCM button controlled management offers every simple tool for configuration, quickly setup and get the system running. A Web-GUI based control with more detail information is also available; it offers detail management including different setups for RAID, or combination of RAID. One could possible for example setup up two lots of RAID 6 and make both of them appear on your Mac. For more detail information, please check the product manual. PDF Link (2.70MB)
Fast Mac Pro add-on (Required)
Stardom recommend to this powerful SAS 6Gb/s host adapter card for your Mac Pro. (Shown above on the left) It features 2x External MiniSAS ports (1 required for Stardom SOHORAID8) and utilizes the bandwidth of PCI-Express2.0 x 8. If you haven't already got something similar, you will need this card for Mac Pro. If you are not sure about this, please feel free to contact us. This card can be bought along with the Stardom SOHORAID 8, or separately from this link, support Mac Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion. Link
Physical characteristics:
170mm(W) x 287mm(H) x 292mm(D)
Aluminum rugged build
Audio (Mutable) & Visual Alarm
Rocker Switch & Built-in Transformer
Highlighted features:
Capacity: No HDD, 8 x1TB, 8 x2TB, 8 x3TB
SAS HBA listed required*
RAID support: RAID 0 / 10, RAID 6 (Default)
Auto rebuild over RAID 6 (Default)
Packaging Contents:
Stardom SR8 External MiniSAS RAID
External MiniSAS Cable (1M) x 1
NZ Power Cord x 1
Product Manual x 1
Go with SAS 6Gb/s
External MiniSAS has been standard connection for high performance devices for awhile. The latest addition is the SAS 2.0 which runs at 6Gb/s. It offers stunning performance with a single cable connection. There is also a way to "daisy-chain" two Stardom SOHORAID8 for future expansion, similar to Firewire 800 drives. There is no preload software with Stardom SOHORAID 8.
Shipping and boxing
We keep the stock locally in Auckland for fast delivery. Stardom package comes with anti shock protection to help reduce the chance of damage over transit.
Required for Mac Pro*
Stardom recommends LSI high speed SAS 6Gb/s for your Mac Pro Tower. (Works with all existing Mac Pro models) It adds 2 x lightning fast External SAS ports to your Mac Pro. This card is required if you do not already own a SAS HBA. If you are not sure about it, please feel free to contact us. Please click the Link for more information of this card.
If you require any further information, or assistant, please call us on 09 477 0086 or e-mail us: contact@datasquare.co.nz