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advice on raid for new mac?
Got a mac pro, bought 3 500 gig drives to add. Should I raid them? If so, what’s recommended (I’m seeing a number of options to do this). Currently I’m going to be editing a big dvcam project, doing some efx stuff as well. Eventually (early next year) will be doing hdv stuff.
Thanks for any suggestions. I’m a mac newbie feeling my way.
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8 Replies
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Actually, there’s no dire need to stripe them at all if you’re working in DV or HDV… or even DVCPRO100. 8 bit uncompressed works too… once you want better than those formats, stripping comes into play. But at the cost of the possiblity that if you lose a drive you lose all the data on all of the drives, so it’s better to just leave them as they are I’d think.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D
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I’m thinking of getting a MacPro and 3 HDD’s, too. Would it be better to get an external RAID enclosure and use RAID 5? Which interface works better, eSATA or FW800?
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That depends on what format you’re working with, and just how many layers of video you consistently work with. There’s a cost involved with external RAID setups that you wouldn’t have with internals. (no controller cards and enclosures needed for internals).
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D
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Jerry,
Thanks for the reply. This will be my first Mac, so I’m still not sure about a lot of things.
I’ll be mostly using it to edit DVCPRO HD (from HDX200), mostly just 1-2 layers. Some effects, and some color correction.
I’m planning to get 2GB RAM. Is that enough? Would it be worthwhile to upgrade to the X1900XT graphics card? I know Motion uses the graphics engine a lot, and I’d like to use some of those effects.
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– Regarding the RAID: I’d go for a RAID with DVCProHD, one drive is barely enough for runnning two streams safely. You’d be fine with threee to four drives in a RAID5 configuration. Currently Apple is not supporting this, but being an optimist I hope for Leopard, now that they have made it so easy to add drives. Everything else will be considerably more expensive. BTW, eS-ATA is faster than FW 800. You might try this: boot external, make RAID0s from two pairs and then couple those as RAID1s for safety. Might work.
– The RAM: rather go for 4 GB in four 1 GB modules. Some tasks (like encoding and some things in Shake) ar faster with four identical modules. No big thing, though, and since this type of RAM is pretty expensive right now, you might want to start with two modules and add two more later.
– The card: Currently the X1900 doesn’t really hold it’s promise, it’s not much faster than the regular card. But this might be caused by immature drivers, since the card is pretty strong on PCs. Plus there are some reports on conflicts with I/O-cards like DeckLink on the Mac.Regards,
Uli
Author of “DVDs gestalten und produzieren”, a book on professional DVD-authoring in German.
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Yes, upgrade the card! Motion will benefit big time, and ya never know what’s up Apple’s sleeve down the line in this regard with future software and graphic card demands. PLUS games will be wonderful with it! It’s definately worth the money for the upgrade IMHO.
I’d say for now just keep buying the internal SATA’s… no raid needed for DVCRPROHD. Especially if you use the 24pn recordings from the HVX… the data rate is lower with these files because they don’t have 30 fps… they are true 24fps files. I’ve been running 60i DVCPRO files from firewire drives for a long time and can get 2 streams… those interal SATA’s are much faster than single FW drive setups so I’d think you’ll have no problem with them at all.
2 gigs of RAM at least to start, and if you need more you can add more later.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D
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Thanks for the advice guys.
One more thing. Does the MacPro support the 750GB disks? The specs only list 500GB, but I see some vendors listing the 750GB as an option.
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YES, Mac Pro does support 750GB seagate drive. I have 4x 750GB strip together.
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