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SATA/SAS
I would REALLY like to get out of the business of configuring a new hi-def system for my studio, which is taking all my time right now, and get back into the business of production. But I want to make the right decisions, especially given all the money I’m spending.
My little question: In considering arrays, how much should I care whether the disk interface is SAS versus SATA? I’m looking at the Dulce Pro DQ and it is SATA. I guess SAS is the latest and greatest but is it worth another $1,000 on the pricetag?
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23 Replies
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[Lee McEachern] “I guess SAS is the latest and greatest but is it worth another $1,000 on the pricetag?”
No. Not in the slightest bit. The bottleneck is the hard drive, not the bus. A SATA II bus is still twice as fast as the fastest hard drive ever made.
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[Lee McEachern] “My little question: In considering arrays, how much should I care whether the disk interface is SAS versus SATA? I’m looking at the Dulce Pro DQ and it is SATA. I guess SAS is the latest and greatest but is it worth another $1,000 on the pricetag?”
SAS is definitely faster than any of our SATA arrays and all the high end arrays we tested all use the SAS connections. It’s still SATA, but instead of a little plug that can sometimes be ornery to plug in or remove, it’s a much larger connection to both the system and the array that screws in tight. I much prefer the SAS connections on our MaxxDigital / Atto R380 card to the small SATA connection on all our other SATA arrays. They’re solid and not really prone to being damaged by any bumps to the cables.
I know the R380 card is much much faster than the LaCie or CalDigit SATA cards we’ve used in the past.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow! -
OK, Lee, just when you thought you might find some clarity, I hope I’m not going to muddy up the waters for you.
SAS drives are available with spindle speeds of 10k RPM and even 15k RPM. All the 3gb/second SATA II drives are 7200 RPM. The only 10k RPM SATA drives are the WD Raptors, which are SATA I, 1.5 gb/s.
SAS drives top out in the 300-350 GB range. the WD Raptor tops out at 150GB. SATA II drives are currently available up to 1 TB. Expect 2TB SATA II drives in maybe 18 months.
It’s not just that the SAS drives cost more, you can also get 3X as much storage on a single SATA drive. IOW, you can put more footage on fewer drives for less money.
And if you need more speed from the array, it’s less expensive to add more drive spindles to it (storing still more footage!) to make up for the speed difference of the SAS drives.
From that point of view, the trade off of drive speed vs cost can easily be made to work in your favor.
If it were my money, I’d be buying 1TB Seagate or Hitachi SATA II drives, and putting them in an enclosure with SAS connectors tied to the ATTO or maybe an Areca SAS controller.
Arnie
Now in post: Peristroika, a film by Slava Tsukerman
https://www.arniepix.com/blog -
Correct me if I’m wrong here, but doesn’t the internal RAID card for the MP do SAS?
It might be expensive but everything would be in one box.Peter
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{Arnie Schlissel}: “OK, Lee, just when you thought you might find some clarity, I hope I’m not going to muddy up the waters for you.”
Ha! In my current state of many browser tabs open to mutiple vendors, and printouts surrounding my keyboard, I got a kick out of that comment.
No, I don’t expect a group of experienced professionals always to agree. All of your input is valuable — and valued by me.
I have three days to make a decision — to get everything purchased in the 2007 tax year. I’m almost there! Thanks for all your help.
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I built a 8 drive, RAID 5 box w/3.4TB for $1700, using everything that guy at amug.org used. It uses SAS connections.
It’s been about 6 weeks, no problems so far.
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Hi Nate,
That sounds like a success. Good on ya’ (as the Aussies say).
Would you mind posting here again to list the components you used? And if you have any specs on the performance you’re getting I’d be really interested in that.
Thanks.
Lee
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I built exactly what the author here built:
https://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/enhance/e8/
Enhance Technologies E8-ML enclosure
Highpoint RocketRAID 2322 SAS card
SAS to Infiniband cablesI got the enclosure at dvwarehouse.com (It’s a little hard to find), the card, cables and drives from newegg.com
I get about 480MB/sec read/write when empty, right now it’s about 2/3rds full and I’m getting 380 write and 430 read. I’m sure that could be a bit better if I would have chosen my drives based on benchmarked speeds rather than price!
I think Walter has a bunch of these setups at his place as well.
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[Nate Weaver] ”
I think Walter has a bunch of these setups at his place as well.”Nope, all our stuff was purchased via MaxxDigital. We don’t ever build our own arrays as I’m not going to take on my own tech support. I much prefer having Atto and Maxx taking care of any issues so I don’t have to deal with it.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow! -
What a very informative and concise answer. Thanks for the information.
Lee
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