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Raid question for uncompressed SD/SDI in FCP on Mac Pro.
Raid question for uncompressed SD/SDI in FCP on Mac Pro.
I’m about to buy a new Mac Pro, the Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processor model.
I shoot on JVC GY-HD111 and I intend buying a HD-Connect LE box so I can inport 720p/25p HDV progressive footage from JVC, via HD-Connect box and out of its SDI/SD output and into FCP via Decklink HD Extreme Blackmagic card.
I was going to buy a 500 GB G-Raid Firewire external HD as this has two internal 250 GB drives raided and I’ve been told that this will handle uncompressed SDI/SD footage (but not SDI/HD, which I don’t mind for now).
But, the new Mac Pros have 4 hard drive bays, so can I install two more 250GB hard drives interlally and stripe them together using Utilities application in Mac? and will this stiping give me the same speed as an external Firewire G-Raid drive, or am I barking up the wrong tree here?
I’d prefer all internal hard drives as opposed to external ones and I’m sure the 4 bays in the new Mac Pro will allow some sort of raid to get speed?
If so, what about HDCAM uncompressed footage for the future?
Oh and finally, how much RAM would you recommend I get and which of the Graphics Card choices. For Final Cut Studio suite and Logic 7 and Motion.
Thanks guys.
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13 Replies
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Go with the internal SATA drives. Much faster performance, and the most inexpensive
solution. You can even put 3 more drives in, and put a 5th drive in the optical bay, or
attach it to the extra SATA connections (2 of them) and have a sceaming 4 drive array.
EdBarefeats already has results for internal performance:
https://www.barefeats.com/quad07.html
https://www.barefeats.com/quad08.html -
Thanks for tip. What brand of Hard Drives would you recommend, 7200rpm too I assume.
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Tough one right now. There are apparently some problems with Seagate’s big 750g drives.
The enw perpendicular drives are the wave of the future, but have some growing pains.
I think the price/performance sweet spot right now are the 500g drives. Seagate has always been
good, but if you check out barefeats tests of drive performance, you’ll get a better picture.
The Seagates, Hitachis, Maxtors, and Western Digitals are usually tested side-by-side. I’m a
fairly recent convert to Maxtor’s MaxLine III drives. Maxtor didn’t have a good reputation for years
(like Western Digital), but their newer drives often are the best performing, and they have the best
warranty for their high-end drives.
Here’s another barefeats test (of hard drives):
https://www.barefeats.com/hard78.html
Ed -
Hitachi Deskstar 7200 SATA 2 drives, 3Gb/s drives. I have 4 500GB drives and can do Uncompressed HD just fine.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
Shane, are they all in a new Mac Pro?
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I have an external 500gb OWC eSATA drive hooked up to a two port e-sata PCI-X card in my Dual 2.3. If I get another 500 gb drive can I create a RAID 0 array.?
Thanks
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For my money right now, I’d go with Hitachi or Seagate 500GB drives. Seagate bought Maxtor last year. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with them in the long run. In addition to barefeats.com, you can look on tomshardware.com for tests. barefeats tends to test with an eye towards video, audio or photoshop, tomshardware tends to test with an eye towards server use, but they test a wider variety of drives, & they have a nice chart of all the current models from all the current makers that they keep up to date.
Arnie
Now in preproduction: Peristroika (Cosmological Congress), a film by Slava Tsukerman
https://www.arniepix.com -
I am not sure what drive manufacturers drives you get when you order the Mac Pro with them. It doesn’t say on the site.
Always best to order them yourself, and Hitachis or Seagates are the way to go. And you can find them for MUCH CHEAPER than Apple offers.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
[iMan] “I’d prefer all internal hard drives as opposed to external ones and I’m sure the 4 bays in the new Mac Pro will allow some sort of raid to get speed?
If so, what about HDCAM uncompressed footage for the future?”
For uncompressed HDCAM in the future, Fibre Channel array is the way to go. We just took delivery of a Ciprico 5TB array and we’ve been running a Med
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Thanks guys.
Shane, I meant, are your 4 x 500GB drives in a Mac Pro for your uncompressed HD?
Walter, thanks for advice there. When you say you don’t know what uncompressed SD is going to get me from HDV format. Well I figured on going in via HD-Connect LE via SDI/SD as I can’t see the point of mastering a HD DVD for duplication as knowbody can watch them yet, not for a few years so I figured shooting in 720p/25p and converting to SDI/SD would give me decent quality and I will lose the dreaded GOPs by doing this as the HD-Connect imports into FCP in native uncompressed SD on the fly so editing is easier.
Any other suggestions on my workflow will be greatly appreciated of course.
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