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
Final Words
It is clear that the Pegasus2 M4 is a niche product. Any user that does not require portability will be better served by the R4, which is a similar 4-bay Thunderbolt 2 device but with 3.5" hard drives instead of 2.5" drives. As a result it is physically larger but should provide better performance since 3.5" hard drives tend to be faster than their 2.5" siblings. We have not tested the new R4, but we did test the original R6 when it was released and the performance was better than what the M4 offers. The R4 is also more cost efficient and it retails for $1,499 at the Apple Online Store, but that includes 8TB of data so that works out to be $187.50 per terabyte whereas the M4 costs $250 per terabyte.
Furthermore, a single 3.5" external hard drive can beat the M4 in capacity while costing a fraction of the M4's price, and it provides the same or even higher level of portability. That leaves redundancy and performance as the M4's advantages. Since the M4 supports RAID 5 and RAID 6, it can withstand one or two hard drive failures without losing any user data. The performance is also much better than what you can get from single 3.5" drives, which usually max out at around 200MB/s, whereas the M4 manages over 350MB/s in RAID 5 configuration.
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, but WebPAM PRO showed the fan speed to be 2,400rpm, which certainly sounds high. I would not say the noise is too loud to distract me while working, but it is clearly distinguishable over the noise that the three desktops in my office create.
Another thing I have a slight problem with is the lack of additional capacity points. 4TB is not much for a video professional, especially if 4K video is being stored, and 1.5TB and 2TB 2.5" 9.5mm hard drives are not that expensive anymore. A 2TB 2.5" 9.5mm hard drive costs $127 online while a similar 1TB drive costs $65, so the price is exactly double. It is understandable that Promise must have high margins because these are not mainstream products that sell in high volumes and thus I can see the cost sensitivity issue with higher capacities, but a 4x2TB configuration at $1,499 would still leave Promise with a ~50% margin on the hard drives.
All in all, the M4 targets a fairly small niche. I can only think of video professionals (maybe photo and audio to some extent) that would see the value in the M4 because if you do not need portability, redundancy, and high performance, there are better options in the market. However, if you need all three (e.g. for on-set video editing), the M4 does the job.
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Kristian Vättö - Sunday, September 14, 2014 - link
I hope you understand that there is no central AnandTech office with every possible gadget and tool at our disposal. I don't have any other Thunderbolt enclosures since this was my first TB review, so I wouldn't have anything to compare the M4 to. Anand used to run our Thunderbolt coverage since he had the best tools for that, and it will take some time before we get everything migrated.melgross - Sunday, September 14, 2014 - link
You couldn't get the site to cough up $40? Or use your smartphone. There are plenty of apps that measure sound levels. I can't speak to the accuracy of Android apps because there are so many phone models out there that they may not all be calibrated. But the ones for the iPhone, such as Audio Tools, also available for Android, is. Mine measures within 1db of my lab meter.melgross - Sunday, September 14, 2014 - link
I forgot to mention that using an app such as Audio Tools is better because you can also use the very accurate spectrum analyse tool. This is important for useful noise testing because all noise is not equal. Low frequency noise doesn't sound as loud to us as mid frequencies and higher frequencies do. This shows a live reading chart. Also great for detecting hum, and other spikey noises. You can also save the chart and put into the review.bigboxes - Monday, September 15, 2014 - link
I don't comment on everything. However, Anand is gone. You've got to stop using him as an excuse as to why you don't do someting. Move on. It's almost painful reading your comments. Yes, Anand is gone. Now, it's time for you to move on.melgross - Sunday, September 14, 2014 - link
Is like them to spend $40 and buy a meter which is accurate to within a couple of dbx such as the Radio Shack model. At least we would get some idea of how loud it is. It doesn't need to be exact.Kristian Vättö - Sunday, September 14, 2014 - link
I definitely want to test with a Mac because obviously that is the target market of Thunderbolt products. Unfortunately I don't have one at my disposal and since I have to spend my own money on it, I want to make sure that what I buy is worth it in my opinion (I currently have a 2010 MBA, but it's still serving me fine so I haven't seen a need to upgrade yet).colinstu - Saturday, September 13, 2014 - link
I'd love to see four WD1000CHTZ thrown in this puppy and see how it compares. (10k RPM, SATA 1TB drives). They're 9.5mm too just like the ones used here. Or take a WD1000DHTZ and take the 2.5->3.5 "icepack" off.jseliger2 - Sunday, September 14, 2014 - link
<i>While there are arguably cheaper and larger external 3.5" hard drives around</i>There was just a thread about this issue over at Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&am... , and I"m curious about what those other external drive bays might be. Arsians list an OWC option, a Western Digital version, and a Drobo version. They're all costly. Are there other alternatives?
Kristian Vättö - Sunday, September 14, 2014 - link
I meant external HDDs in general, including USB 3.0 ones. If you are just looking for a single drive, then USB 3.0 is fine because a 3.5" HDD cannot saturate the USB 3.0 interface anyway. It's only when you start doing RAID (or SSDs) that Thunderbolt becomes beneficial.jseliger2 - Sunday, September 14, 2014 - link
I meant external HDDs in generalOh—I see.
I'm still curious about the multi-bay enclosure space, since those multi-bay enclosures still seem to be shockingly expensive. Perhaps that will remain true: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8529/idf-2014-where-... , but I'd like it not to be. As they say in that Ars thread, the four-bay Thunderbolt Drobos are about twice the price of the equivalent USB 3 model.