-
SATA + Kona2 Hard Drive Update — Bob Zelin
Hello Bob and all
I am anxiously awaiting (until after NAB as Bob’s promise 😉 to find out about your findings with the SATA hard drive RAID. Please let us know as I am just waiting on your findings to get my own.
Also I know that others have asked this, but is there any other SATA enclosure cases avail. in the market for 2 or 4 drive solution?Thanks and looking forward to hear from the Post NAB news and views about the Kona2 and HD Storage.
Jas
-
5 Replies
-
I’m not sure what you’re waiting to hear exactly, but I have been doing uncompressed 10 bit through SDI for over a year using an Io and a 4 drive SATA raid. Do do serious HD will require at least 6 drives and you’ll probably want 8.
As for cases, SeriTek makes some nice two drive hot swappable cases. The four drive models aren’t out yet.
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.com
http://www.insightproductions.com -
Hi Mitch –
Several SATA controllers have issues. Some work, some don’t, some are not reliable. Some take up too much space.The bottom line here, is that the new Sonnet Tempo X eSATA 8 port card is just not reliable enough yet to recommend yet. I saw this card working at the ProMax booth, but in my own tests, and from what I heard from others, the reliablity is not there yet. Sometimes the drives mount, sometimes they don’t.
YES, you can use 2 SATA drives to do 10 bit SDI uncompressed, and now G Raid and Lacie are selling these (about $800 for 800 gigs including the controller card from Initio, but this is a 2 port card). I have not tried this yet, but I absolutely will try this.
Reliability is everything. I have a customer using a Sonnet Tempo X 4+4
with excellent results, but not in an 8 way stripe configuration. All the 8 way stripe configurations that I have tried with sonnet cards have not been reliable yet, although when they do work, they outperform anything on the market.So I will certainly persue the new Lacie and G Raid SATA soltions (you can use anything). I cannot deal with the Highpoint 1820A rocket raid, as it still only has internal connectors, and the pass thru card takes up an entire slot, filling up the G5. For SD SDI, the new SATA solutions should be tried, as they are CHEAP, and more than enough for uncompressed SDI, or
DVCProHD. But for uncompressed HD solutions, at this time, I must still
recommend using the HUGE U320RX, as the only reliable solution (sorry to you
Apple XServe RAID owners).Bob Zelin
-
[Bob Zelin] “Several SATA controllers have issues. Some work, some don’t, some are not reliable. Some take up too much space.
The bottom line here, is that the new Sonnet Tempo X eSATA 8 port card is just not reliable enough yet to recommend yet. I saw this card working at the ProMax booth, but in my own tests, and from what I heard from others, the reliablity is not there yet. Sometimes the drives mount, sometimes they don’t.”
Precisely what I’ve said in other posts. I don’t recommend the Sonnet either, particularly if they have Maxtor drives.
[Bob Zelin] “YES, you can use 2 SATA drives to do 10 bit SDI uncompressed, and now G Raid and Lacie are selling these (about $800 for 800 gigs including the controller card from Initio, but this is a 2 port card). I have not tried this yet, but I absolutely will try this.”
I don’t think you’ll be impressed. I’ve been on systems that have those and they can’t do enough tracks and have render simple stuff way too often. Tiger may improve things though…
[Bob Zelin] “For SD SDI, the new SATA solutions should be tried, as they are CHEAP, and more than enough for uncompressed SDI, or DVCProHD. But for uncompressed HD solutions, at this time, I must still recommend using the HUGE U320RX, as the only reliable solution (sorry to you
Apple XServe RAID owners). “Actually, Bob I no longer recommend anything SCSI. Fibrechannel sure, but not SCSI. I’m really surprised you’re against the Xserve RAID… I sure know a lot of people doing HD with it. FWIW, I think you’ll find the combination of two of the new SeriTek cards with four external ports each and and eight drive external stripe may make it to your favorites list for HD. Those that have tried it seem pretty impressed. I haven’t myself yet, though.
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.com
http://www.insightproductions.com -
Mitch,
I can’t recommend the Xserve RAID either based on my experience with it. I’m sorry to hear the Sonnett is so unreliable. I could use a good inexpensive solution.Jeff
-
Jeff,
I’d try two of those Seritek cards. They each have four external ports. Barefeats has a comparison on them I believe…
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.com
http://www.insightproductions.com
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up