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FCP Computer Configuration
I am setting up a FCP system for the first time and have a few questions on the configuration.
I am going to use 2GHz PowerPC G5 with 3Gb Ram.
I am planning on buying a G-Tech Raid to store the footage. My question is should I use the G-Raid2 which has Firewire 800, 400 and USB2. OR should I buy the G-SATA. https://www.videoguys.com/gtech.html
If I connect the G-Raid2 via the FireWire 800, can I connect my camcorder to the G5 via the firewire 400 to capture footage?
Thanks in advance for all your help!
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7 Replies
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what type of footage do you plan on editing, that will help determine what type of drives you need. USB2.0 is not good for any video editing though.
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Editing both SD and HDV…. no HD at this time
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firewire drives should be fine then
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Thanks…..
Is it possible to use the FireWire 800 for the drives and capture using the FireWire 400?
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You should buy a firewire 800 PCI card and plug the hard drive into that. Plug the deck into the computer’s built-in firewire port. The firewire ports on the computer all come into the system the same way…by splitting the hard drive off onto the PCI bus you’ll be giving it the maximum amount of speed possible.
Read your Powermac manual to determine exactly which kind of PCI slots you have…they changed from model to model so I’m not sure what yours is.
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[zrb123] “firewire drives should be fine then”
Firewire drives are antiquated — they are slow and unreliable by comparison to SATA drives/arrays. In addition, an investment in an SATA array will pay off handsomely in the future as you will be able to hot swap very inexpensive drives when changing jobs, or clients, etc. Investing in firewire is truly limiting and backward looking.
So, yes firewire should be fine, but why go that way when the alternative is so much better.
DRW
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Forget FW. Because the Mac only has one firewire bus, you’ll need an additional firewire card to get the drive on it’s own bus. SInce you will be getting a card already, you might as well go eSATA. Much faster, much more reliable, and just about the same cost.
http://www.caldigit.com Check out the S2VR Duo. 500GB for $550 and that INCLUDES the card. you can also get them in 1TB and 1.5TB configurations. I have two of these units (a 500GB and 1.5TB unit) right now and they are great. The card can connect to up to 4 units so you have plenty of room to expand. PLUS, the drives in the units are removable, so if you have multiple projects you can swap out drives and really only need the one case.
If you need portability, then they also sell a PCIexpress card for the MacBook Pro.
Firewire is so 1990s.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net
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