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Very small configuration question
I’m about to order a MacPro Octocore and a small question has me wondering how many more of my hard-earned dollars I want to send to Apple, on top of the $4,553 my configuration already costs.
There are four hard drive bays in the MacPro machine and I can’t see any reason to use more than one of them. I intend to have my media on a RAID array, with backup to external firewire drives that I can buy more cheaply from sources other than Apple. Can anyone here think of any reason I might want to fill one or more of those three empty bays with an Apple-supplied drive? Except perhaps to have two operating systems on two different drives.
Like I said….a very small question.
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5 Replies
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Well, having a spare system drive for backup is a very good thing. You can also use it for testing, installing upgrades to one drive while keeping the other unchanged until you’ve decided it’s safe.
And, don’t forget that you don’t have to buy the 2nd drive from Apple.
Arnie
Now in post: Peristroika, a film by Slava Tsukerman
https://www.arniepix.com/blog -
You can buy great 500gb SATA drives for under $100 anywhere. Like Arnie said, no reason to get ’em from Apple. Learn how to put them in and take them out and you’ll enjoy speed and flexibility. You can raid three drives in that space very inexpensively, so why not???
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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Thanks. Yes, I was wondering about RAIDing drives internally. My concern about that is heat. Have others done that successfully, without heat issues?
One other question: I’m fine with installing components; I just hadn’t checked yet on whether I could buy drives from other vendors that fit properly in that space. But I guess the dimensions specs for such internal drives pretty standard, right?
Thats for taking the time with my “very small configuration question.”
Lee
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[leemce] “My concern about that is heat. Have others done that successfully, without heat issues?”
Lee,
Peter Wiggans wrote about this shortly after the MacPros came to market, and he says there are no heat problems.
Also, any SATA drive will fit, they all conform to a SATA standard, but get yourself Hitachis, they consume less power than comparible drives from the other manufucaturers, but have as good or better specs. They are the drive being used in many of the Raid-5 enclosures by CalDigit and others. Newegg has excellent prices on them…
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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Thanks David.
Cheers,
Lee
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