Hi, I'm new to this forum.
I'm an OS X user since years and am currently using a Mac Mini with a Promise Pegasus R4 via Thunderbolt 1 as development environment.
The main usage is for intensive database operations (PostgreSQL) on healthcare data (billion of records). My system is at least 12.5% faster than a basic Dell PowerEdge R720 T420 in terms of time spent on any kind of DB operation, even if the RAM on the Mac Mini is just 8GB (128GB on the Dell). The RAID configuration I use is RAID 5 with 4 HDDs at 7.2kRPM and 1TB of space, 32MB of cache (Hitachi).
I'm currently looking for a hardware upgrade for my development environment and was attracted by this Lacie unit: http://www.storagereview.com/lacie_8big_rack_thunderbolt_2_review
This means buying a new MacMini with Thunderbolt 2 (and a maximum of only 16GB of RAM ) and that's ok, but I'm not quite intented to buy a Mac Pro for about 5.000 € (Mac Mini at his top configuration is about 1.400 €).
I was wondering if there's a more performing solution other than LaCie (OS X or other Unix OSs) at the same price. This world is full of alternatives and I've looked in all directions but am a little confused. Should I wait a few months for a new Mac Mini model and (probably) new Thunderbolt 2 solutions?
Thank you in advance
PS: I have no FC/SAS interface
