LTO setup - Where to buy

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Good suggestions by warwick.

I would recommend the ATTO controller combined with the HP 1760 as well. Or if you go with the Quantum LTO-4HH (I have this one myself) I recommend the LSI SAS-3442E HBA, which is also available in a bundled kit from Quantum. Thus far, the Quantum drive does not always play nice with other HBA's, like the ATTO 380.

The desktop Quantum kit with SAS HBA, blank tape, cleaning tape and 1.5M SAS cable can be had for under $2300 USD. If you're within the USA, Provantage.com has some of the best prices on various tape systems. I believe they have the HP units too. I helped someone buy and install the HP 1760 about 2 months ago. We bought direct from HP's online store -- they had special discounts at the time that were better than any other vendor we could find, even better than TechServe, etc..

DELL also has some really nice tape systems too, but I don't know of anyone who has tried them on a Mac. Tandberg's tape systems also work well with Mac. They recommend ATempo software and Tandberg has some of the best offerings for low cost multi-tape systems.

[ckarcher]

We just ordered from Provantage. They have been great, and the best prices too.

we ordered the atto SAS card and a HP LTO 4 8 tape autoloader- this allows us to store 6.4 TB uncompressed. We got the loader for a incredible deal: Provantage.

[warwickt]

Great info Warwick, but I think you have a bit of confusion about Infiniband

SFF-8470 Infiniband cables are used for muti-lane SATA/SAS in the same way as Mini-SAS SFC-80800 cables, but have a completely different connector as you discovered:

http://www.computercablesource.com/N.../sas-ll_xl.jpg

There are also 2 different variants with securing latches or thumbscrews which are not interoperable. These type of cables are also used for 10Gb CX4 and Infiniband networking.

SFF-8470 Infiniband connectors are used on some Highpoint and ProAvio multi-lane SATA storage products amongst others, but Mini-SAS SFC-80800 has become more common recently.

snip snip
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All The Best

Dave Barnard
cinedigital
London, UK

HI Dave ah yes!.. I stand corrected thanks. I'll bow to your comment. I DO have the SFF-8470 min-sas interface cable (with thumbscrews) for my LSI LOGIC SAS3443E-R. It was shipped with my quantum LTO4 SAS ultrium tape drive with a SFF-8088 connector on the leading end. I have seen these referred to by colleagues and info as Infiniband cables...

SFF-8088: quite true. I have SFF-8088 female connectors on my PROAVIO EB8MS JBOD enclosure. this was somewhat recent so yes these are commingthe common place now.

no worries :)
sorry for confusion.

thanks for the info. :)
B.R.!
w