MacPro RAID card from apple have had some issues as far as battery charge and it halts its operation from time to time.
What I am trying to build is a full hardware RAID that is 100% independent of an OS and other hardware.
I successfully built a RAID solution for PowerMac G5 in 2005:
http://www.rawhack.com/your.opinion/hardware/raid
and trying to gather as much info as possible regarding MacPro SATA cables and how they're routed in a case.

My plan is to install two ARAID M70 into spare CD ROM bay:
http://www.accordancesystems.com/cart/proddetail.asp?prod=886-0001-MB
and hook-up four internal bay hard drives to the ARAID.

The question remains (until my MacPro arrives) is how I could route SATA cables for two drives into ARAID and then use existing SATA sockets for the drives?
If anyone has any experience with that - I'd be glad to hear. Otherwise I'll just post my updates when the time comes.There's no place like ~

Hey,
You could use "MaxConnect SAS/SATA Link for Mac Pro [2006-2008] Systems" from:
http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=332
This cable should hook-up your drives VIA existing Drive cabling from each ARAID.
Another cable like that will hook-up your ARAID to the system board.

other Mac Pro connectors are here:
http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=334

I like your idea. It's not gonna win any races as far as fast I/O but it will be redundant as hell!

Got the ARAID M70 controller.



It's a nifty little controller I am planning to put in a second CD ROM bay in my Mac Pro.
New Mac Pro (Mid 2010) changed the Mini-SAS/SATA logic board configuration and I had to go with new setup to connect M70.
Mini-SAS to SATA and SATA to Mini-SAS cables I bought can no longer be used to connect the controller and Hard Drives.
I'll keep updating on the progress.There's no place like ~

Here is how M70 looks in a second CD ROM bay:

and this is from behind:
There's no place like ~

Attached ARAID M70 today - Mac Pro would not recognize the HD.
After checking everything - I understand Mac does not wait long enough for M70 to initialize the drives.
Wrote an email to accordanse support. Unfortunately, I'd probably have to wait for an answer till Monday. Until then my Mac Pro will be sitting collecting dust.There's no place like ~

Bad reply so far from Accordance. They do not know how to manage EFI boot timing to let EFI learn about ARAID.
There is no enough time for ARAID to do the HDD check-ups and report to EFI.
It looks like the whole thing gonna be abandoned unless Accordance will come-up with workable solution in a very short time.There's no place like ~

Turned-out that ARAID M70 is incompatible with Mac Pro EFI and Accordance rep was unable to provide any procedure to delay Mac Pro boot just enough for ARAID to pick-up the pace and report HDs to the OS.
All project is scrapped.There's no place like ~