Promise Pegasus2 M4 (4x1TB) Thunderbolt 2 DAS Review
by Kristian Vättö on September 12, 2014 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
- Thunderbolt
- m4
- Promise
- DAS
- Thunderbolt 2
- Pegasus2
The Pegasus2 M4: Software
Since my only Thunderbolt-enabled system is Windows based, our look at the software is limited to the Windows version, but our original Pegasus R6 review has screenshots from the OS X software.
For managing the M4 and other products, Promise offers WebPAM PRO software. It is web-based software that runs in the browser and upon launching it will ask for your Windows user's credentials before you are granted access to WebPAM PRO. The dashboard view just gives a quick overview of the device and its status.
The device tab offers a real-time graphical view of the device and its components. Clicking either the device graphic or the list on the upper right corner will give more details about the enclosure, controller, and physical drives. Below is a gallery with additional screenshots that shows what exactly the WebPAM PRO allows you to monitor.
Creating the array can be done under the storage tab and once again you are presented with a real-time graphical view of the device. To select the drives you want in the array, simply click the drive bay and it will turn blue. Once you have selected the bays you want, the submit button will lead you to the next screen.
The final step is to set the RAID level and other specific aspects. RAID 5 is the default RAID level in the M4 as it comes with a hardware RAID controller, but RAID 0 and RAID 10 are supported as well.
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repoman27 - Monday, September 15, 2014 - link
Well, you clearly missed the point then. Promise already makes a whole line of 3.5-inch DAS offerings.The Pegasus2 M4 is very nearly the same in both size and weight to a stack of 4 bare 3.5-inch drives, yet it comes with 4 hot-swap drive bays, an internal 110 W PSU, a custom hardware RAID controller, and a 4-channel Thunderbolt 2 interface so you can daisy-chain up to 6 of them. The RoC is an 8-Port, 6Gb/s SAS / SATA chip with a PCIe 2.0 x8 back end, paired with 512 MB of DDR2-800 ECC SDRAM, 8 MB of external NAND, and a Lattice MachX02 PLD, all of which is arguably overkill for the intended application.
The bottom line is that this "POS" extracts 100% of the potential of the drives it ships with, delivers peak performance beyond what is possible via USB 3.0, and does so as a single device that costs a grand. There are a *lot* of highly questionable Thunderbolt storage devices out there, but this really isn't one of them.
PeterBr - Sunday, May 3, 2015 - link
Im new to this and have to build a drive for 4k video editing. Do you have a raid controller card in mind that you could point me to? I just bought this M4 last night and now Im considering returning for something more affordable.CalaverasGrande - Friday, September 12, 2014 - link
Not to be snarky, but really, what is the point of testing it at all if you can not beg borrow or steal a Mac? There may not be significant differences from your perspective. However the target audience for this product is Mac owners.twotwotwo - Saturday, September 13, 2014 - link
They do have Thunderbolt and aren't saturating the interface; I don't see the problem unless you would choose to buy or not based on the software.WylyQuimby - Saturday, September 13, 2014 - link
CalverasGrande has a point. Thunderbolt doesn't exactly have the best support on Windows. I have two TB drives. One is not recognized at all by Win8.1 and the other has to be plugged in before booting. For a good scientific test one should try to eliminate all systematic errors. TB devices are primarily purchased by Mac users, one should at least also test them on a Mac.Osamede - Saturday, September 13, 2014 - link
I must agree. It is great to see a Windows based analysis of this. Very useful. But........at the same time, the primary user base is on Mac OSX and it is a major omission to see a review that completely ignores that side the equation.Furthermore, there are other omissions, which are material to the type of user who would consider the product:
- No discussion of drive height limits e.g. can I stick a 12 or 15mm height 2.5" drive in here
- No discussion of noise/fan
And the conclusion should have touched upon other similar products which use 2.5" drives and said something even brief about how this one here stacks up in performance, functionality and value compared to those.
Overall this "review" was a bit on the shallow side and just not good enough IMO.
Death666Angel - Saturday, September 13, 2014 - link
"- No discussion of drive height limits e.g. can I stick a 12 or 15mm height 2.5" drive in here- No discussion of noise/fan"
First page specifically calls out 9.5mm drives. It does not mention 12.5mm or 15mm height in any way. I derive from that, that they aren't supported.
Furthermore, in the conclusion, the article mentions the loud noise the fan makes.
Osamede - Saturday, September 13, 2014 - link
Ok let me rephrase that. This is Anandtech - I expect more substance than this:"I did notice one irritating thing in the M4, however. The fan in the M4 makes a fairly loud noise even when the device is idling. Unfortunately I do not have a proper decibel meter to provide an objective measure of the noise."
I mean just put out some numbers please. No numbers and there is no way one can compare this with the next product you review in two weeks. The objective and comparable approach is one major reason why people come here.
Fair enough?
Gigaplex - Saturday, September 13, 2014 - link
It stated fairly explicitly that they didn't have a meter to record numbers. Would you like them to make up some numbers?Osamede - Sunday, September 14, 2014 - link
Maybe your comprehension not very good - my point is they should have one and do document the numbers. Like I said, just not good enough.Worse yet is apologists for half-done "review".