Mac Pro RAID 5 disk goes offline frequently in a random way. What can be causing this odd behavior?

Hi dudes,
I installed recently two Mac Pro RAID cards inside their corresponding Mac Pro systems. Four 2 TB Hitachi SATA disks are contained inside each system, and configured as RAID 5. Yes, the operating system is installed on this RAID 5 volume in order to get the highest performance of the array, taking advantage of the RAID 5 protection (Autodesk Smoke runs in each system; this application works only with uncompressed video in real time). I already had tested both systems keeping separated the boot disk just for the operating system, and making the RAID 5 volume just with three 2 TB disks, but the performance was slow on both systems.
The performance is now very good, but unfortunately, in both systems happens that sometimes one of the disks goes offline with no apparent reason. The RAID Utility immediately reports the failure and it is mandatory to declare as spare the disk that went offline. Then the rebuild process begins, but in the meantime, the performance goes down in a noticeable way. Sometimes it is even worse, because the disk disappears completely. Then, it is mandatory to turn off the system, and boot it up again, in order to see in the RAID Utility the missing disk, which needs to be declared as spare in order to be reintegrated into the RAID 5 volume in a slow rebuilding process.
Some important remarks: this very new Mac Pro systems do not have the iPass cable (at least apparently; I already disassembled completely one of these systems). This cable is mentioned in one Mac RAID card manual that I found over the internet. The diagrams do not match exactly with the Mac Pro nor the Mac Pro RAID board. I did not find a proper iPass connector in any of the Mac Pro RAID cards (?!). So, my guess is that currently the communication between the system and its Mac Pro RAID card is just by means of the internal bus. I think that if the iPass connection were mandatory, the RAID Utility would report it with a noticeable error message. Please advise.
I think that these Mac Pro RAID cards need a firmware upgrade, in order to be able to work fine with big SATA drives. Again, please advise.
Thanks in advance from Mexico.
Sincerely,
Martin Ponce de Leon

Hi Grant,
Thank you for your prompt response. The manual is a PDF document issued by Apple and it seems OK, but no updated to the latest Mac Pro system and Mac Pro RAID. I do not find the link where I found this manual. The systems belong to one of our customers. As far as I remember, in the printed manual included with the boards, it is not mentioned anything about the iPass cable, just about the battery cable. Do you know where can I get a PDF manual of the latest Mac Pro RAID card and the latest Mac Pro system? This client is far from our offices. So, I would prefer a PDF copy of this manual.
The drives that have gone offline, once they are back, are reported in a good status in the RAID Utility. Besides that, I have tested them in another system in our facilites, and all of them work fine. So, my guess is that the high capacity drives are not yet supported by the Mac Pro RAID card, or it requires a firmware update.
They do need to have in the same volume OS and video storage because three disks do no provide a good performance (they need also RAID 5), but four disks work fine... excepting when one disk is missing. Please advise. Thank you.
Best Regards,
Martin

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