Review: Promise Pegasus R4i – add TONS of storage to you Mac Pro!

27 Comments on Review: Promise Pegasus R4i – add TONS of storage to you Mac Pro!

1. Thanks my mac pro was really running out of space

   • Antonio Gelati More like my bank account running out of space

2. I am salivating at the mouth.

3. I am amazed the mac pro does have an option for this in the config setup when you buy a mac pro.

4. Wow!

   Just to put some perspective; this thing is as fast as my SSD in my 2013 15″ MBP. So 4 HDs in RAID 5 performing this well is impressive.

   I did a quick price comparison and a similar performing external solution would cost about $1700. So this would be a $600 premium. in addition, you’re losing one drive’s capacity for parity bringing down total storage to 24TB.

   Use case: If you’re a high-end, high-volume creator, this can be a great tool to have. Instead of working live off a NAS: just work locally. Then you can get a much less expensive NAS for archiving only. It would also be awesome while on set. To have everything in one box if you’re moving from different locations frequently.

   I think most people buying a Mac Pro will buy this system. It will sell well.

   • Great insight Ricardo. I think it will sell well also. The convenience is hard to match. I also used to use a NAS for working storage before moving to a DAS, and now this thing. Now I only use my NAS for archival purposes.

5. Nice video. Thank you. A comparison with the new 8TB OWC Accelsior would be great

6. Why is it that every youtuber who has the new Mac Pro only shows examples of basic video editing? C’mon.

7. People are so confused why this uses a hdd. They forgot that this is for a raid system storage. Instead of using an external raid storage system it is now internal, this is not just an ordinary storage where you buy a ssd plug it in the system and your good to go

   • Jason C. Data storage does not need speed, it needs reliability and hdd are more reliable than ssd when it comes to longevity. Most if not all enterprise data storage system uses hdd

     Heck even linus uses seagate hdd on his storinator servers

   • @Yan Mar Trading That’s not even true. HDDs are much more vulnerable to shock and vibrations ($400 wheels will introduce that) than solid stage, for instance. And generally mechanical failure is simply not a factor on SSDs. There is a huge variety of different enterprise storage solutions that depend on the individual use case.

     Seagate in particular is trying its very hardest to work against a reputation of having unreliable disks, so that aint the best example. LTT got sponsored for that IIRC, and he uses those because they have a capacity advantage, 8/12/16TB SSDs are not available or not financially viable rn whereas HDDs are. And still they have set up several massive SSD solutions in the past years.

   • @Yan Mar Trading I just said that because it was mentioned in the video. “It’s getting heavy, the wheels are starting to make sense”. And it takes less than a bumpy road, however still it shouldn’t take experienced IT personnel to work with an Apple product.

   • Le LJ that is exactly the point, most if not all company uses an enterprise grade storage system and most if not all uses hdd to store massive data, hdd has a lower failure rate thru years of read and write and it is cost effective storage size to price. They don’t need a fast access time like a ssd to access their data since it is only access when needed, it is not access all the time

8. Was really expecting someone to review this unit since there is very little info, but this video brings more questions than answers.

   @4:05 In the video you’ve installed the module ONE SLOT BELOW the MPX connector. Did you fix it of-camera or is PCIe on it’s own enough to make it work?
   @5:40 Nostalgia sound! Is it possible to eject R4i from Finder while not in use and then mount it back in with Disk Utility?
   @6:22 Cutting away before the results of “Will it work” for read speed are done …
   @6:26 Write results showed it’s NOT FAST ENOUGH for UHD at 50 & 60fps 10bit YUV 4:2:2 video. Reads are even slower, so it’s not fast enough for high bitrate 4K.
   @6:49 Both of your timelines (4K and 8K) are PRE-RENDERED and that data is nothing compared to source video. It might also be stored in your Movies folder on system SSD, not the R4i module.
   @6:56 Same video quadrupled still reads one single time from the R4i, all of the multiplication is done by CPU and/or GPU. But it is still PRE-RENDERED in your case. Also duplicated 4 times over is 1*2*2*2*2=16 mate (=

   • Hi Stanly. Fair points all around. The most glaring issue, the incorrect module placement, was my stupidity during B-Roll shooting. I’m glad you called this out, because it was a big oversight that I should have caught, and I apologize. During actual testing/benchmarks/etc., it was in the correct slot. It was a matter of me removing and inserting it over and over during B-roll shooting.

     The drive is fast enough for most compressed 4K workflows. I understand that this is a professional machine used on sets, etc. So your mileage may vary when working with high bitrate 4K/RAW.

     As far as pre-rendered vs source, you’re right, non-rendered is harder on the machine, but this has just as much to do with outside factors (CPU). You will still experience slowdowns and delays when moving about the timeline either way (pre-rendered or not) if the storage speed is not adequate. Both 4K timelines (pre/rendered) play back smoothly and instantly for what it’s worth.

     None of my data or cache is stored on the SSD, which is too small to store it anyway. I have the base 256GB model. Everything is playing back directly from the Promise Pegasus.

     Thanks for your feedback, I’ll do better next time with more attention to detail.

   • @9to5Mac thanks for the thorough reply, I appreciate! The thing with pre-rendered is that it uses ProRes 422, which is only 63 MB/s for 4K video. This is well under 80-160 MB/s of an ordinary 7200rpm HDD, so pre-rendered is not a benchmark of anything.

     As for other factors (CPU) – ProRes and h264 (which you’re probably using) is not a problem for any modern Mac, especially an 8-core one.

     You’ve invested quite a lot into this machine, and in most part that is for creating valuable content about it. Why skip research or collaboration with someone who knows how to put it to good use? This devalues your budget spent on the gear as well as considering your large audience creates misconceptions.

9. I really like the concept of this module and more so the J2i since it doesn’t take up an MPX slot. What puzzles me though is why higher capacity drives are not offered or a bare case so that you can use your own drives. I’d also really like to know what Toshiba drives are being used. I looked up every enterprise or NAS level SATA3 8 GB drive Toshiba lists on their site and all of them are available for under $500.

10. Note: I see that the MPX module was in the wrong slot during B-roll shots. That’s because I’m an idiot. During actual testing, it was in the correct slot, so all benchmarks are correct. I doubt it would even work if it was in the wrong slot? Thanks to Stanly for calling out my ridiculousness.

11. I just want the chassis and populate it with my own drives

12. Get a Vega II Duo GPU, it’s a monster!

13. Man, the hardware is so pretty

14. Many problems with this option, cant run the dull 2x cards takes away one the slots, its over priced for what you get. Makes more sense to run a nas over 10gbe or get a faster network and off line storage.
    Lack of speed/performance for the price. If it was faster storage and didt take up the gpu slots would be better option.

15. RPM for drives in a production machine in 2019? Is there a similar solution that can hold n pieces of Corsair MP600?

16. The way the drive bays come out remind me of the 2006-12 cheese grater Mac Pro.

17. I might have to invest in one when I can afford it!

18. Wish they had a diskless version, I’m already running 4 HDDs inside my old Mac Pro, would rather just buy the module and swap them to my new machine!

19. I’m thinking more and more about buying one of these things with every review.