15″mac book pro + esata media drive?

[Shane Ross]

You will bet enough throughput from a Firewire 800 drive to edit DVCPRO HD. I used two G-Raids to edit my first History Channel show shot with DVCRO HD. Plenty fast.

But, eSATA is the way to go IMHO. I like the CalDigit drives…the S2VR Duo. Two drive Raid that you can raid as 0, 1 or JBOD. That is what I am using on my current HD show. And they sell an express card for the MacBook Pro. Plenty fast. And they also happen to sell a firewire RAID as well, the FIREWIRE VR. That works for DVCPRO HD as well. And both boxes feature hot swappable drives.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Jason Lelchuk]

Thanks for the info!

The 15″ doesn’t come with firewire 800, only 400 – so I figure if I am going to get a card, might as well get the express card and go esata.

In terms of RT effects – will the bottlenecks occur because of constraints of media drive throughput, or the processing speed of the Mac Book Pro.

I’m leaning towards starting with a single drive and seeing if that meets my needs before investing in a RAID. I’m thinking of going with a 750GB drive in a wiebetech ToughTech XE enclosure. Price, unfortunately is a concern. This is for a trial of using a transportable offline system. Original material will be on an xserve raid at the office so I feel I can be less cautious about having a backup of the laptop media.

Anyone have experience using the ToughTech enclosure for a media drive – especially related to heat? I know it deosn’t have a fan, but it is made of all aluminum.

Thanks,
Jason

[David Smith]

[jasonlel] “The 15″ doesn’t come with firewire 800, only 400 – so I figure if I am going to get a card, might as well get the express card and go esata. ……….

I’m leaning towards starting with a single drive and seeing if that meets my needs before investing in a RAID. I’m thinking of going with a 750GB drive in a wiebetech ToughTech XE enclosure.”

The newer models do include Firewire 800. I was wondering why Apple returned to it, until AJA announced their new ioHD box. I think that ‘splains it. Of course that won’t help you, so I think you’re idea to go eSATA is a good one. The only caveat is the SATA cables I’ve bought aren’t nearly as flexible as Firewire.

You might want to take a look at the Firmtek enclosures. Direct to backplate design and a fan with three speed settings. Mine’s been working great.

Regards,
David

[Jason Lelchuk]

[David Smith] “The newer models do include Firewire 800. I was wondering why Apple returned to it, until AJA announced their new ioHD box. I think that ‘splains it.

Yes that makes sense – unfortunately I have the first generation.

You might want to take a look at the Firmtek enclosures. Direct to backplate design and a fan with three speed settings. Mine’s been working great.”

Thanks for the recommendation. For me – the value of the tough tech is that it also has firewire 800 in addition to esata. This makes the transfer of the media from our G5 that we use for digitizing cheap and easy as it already supports firewire 800. I think I would need to get either a controller or card for the G5 if the external drive only has an esata connection. But I will keep the Firmtek and Caldigit enclosures in mind as we move forward. Thanks

best,
Jason

[David Smith]

[jasonlel] ” For me – the value of the tough tech is that it also has firewire 800 in addition to esata. This makes the transfer of the media from our G5 that we use for digitizing cheap and easy as it already supports firewire 800.”

Excellent point! I have a four bay, hot swappable Firmtek box attached to my tower, so I can just slide disks in/out between systems and don’t need the firewire connection. But the dual interface makes perfect sense with your hardware.