Thermaltake Muse R-Duo: External RAID

Conclusion

Thermaltake's Muse RAID R-Duo is an interesting product, with a very fuzzy target market. RAID, in itself, is a hotly disputed topic, with many people (including most members of the AnandTech staff) asking if it deserves a place in the desktop market at all, given the questionable benefits available. There's absolutely no question that RAID is an integral part of any business server. Beyond that, the picture becomes far less clear.

In the case of an enterprise-class RAID application, two things are required: Data security and performance. The Muse R-Duo provides the former without complaint, as the RAID 1 array continues to function when running in degraded mode. The array appears to have rebuilt without issue, though this wasn't always clear: There's no companion application available for the Muse to indicate that the rebuild was successful. The only way to verify that the array rebuild is complete is to watch the activity light, then once the activity ceases pull the other drive from the enclosure to confirm that the array still functions. This is a problem, to say the least - IT administrators with little time on their hands aren't going to be happy about sitting there waiting for an activity light to change color.

Performance-wise, the Muse R-Duo is below average. The RAID controller onboard the Muse R-Duo keeps CPU usage down on the host machine, which is excellent, but actual I/O performance is lacking. In any I/O intensive application, certainly, the Muse will likely be quickly overwhelmed. For desktop users, RAID 1 functions as advertised, though the user "wins" a lower performing hard drive if they choose to employ this function.

Things aren't all bad for the Muse. Setup is extremely easy, with only a couple of button presses required to configure an array. Portability is flawless - we were able to move the drive between machines, and new systems recognize the enclosure as an "external hard drive" without issue. The enclosure itself, while not dazzling, isn't unattractive by any means, and the noise emanating from the case is very low even under high levels of activity. It also dissipates heat efficiently with the tiny fan and aluminum construction.

In our next storage article, we'll take a closer look at one of the more popular onboard RAID solutions so that you can judge for yourself which solution makes the most sense in the performance user/entry-level business space. Perhaps the Muse R-Duo is indeed the RAID solution for you, despite its shortcomings. However, it's best to measure these shortcomings compared to the "entry-level" solutions which most of us already have on our motherboards, so stay tuned for our follow-up article.