Firewire RAID vs. eSATA non-RAID

[David S.]

Is there a reason you need a RAID to edit DVCProHD footage from a p2 card?

[Russell Lasson]

These numbers are just estimates. Actual numbers vary on drive type and how full they are.

For only one drive, Firewire and eSATA are quite similar, with eSATA being a little faster. Many drives average between 50-80MB/sec. Firewire 800 can sustain up to about 70-80MB/sec and eSATA is somewhere between 250-300MB/sec. So for only one drive, either interface is going allow close to the drive’s maximum throughput, 60-80MB/sec. On the links you provided, there are benchmarks you can look at, but the performance is similar between Firewire 800 and eSATA

For a Firewire RAID, the bottleneck turns into the Firewire 800 interface at 80MB/sec. While two drives in a RAID 0 are capable of 100-140MB/sec, the interface limits it to somewhere around 60-80MB/sec, sometimes even lower.

So either drive is going to preform at close to the same speed.

I would suggest the single drive because it is less likely to have drive failure if you only have one drive than if you have two in the inclosure. Also, if you do have drive failure, it is more likely to recover something from a single drive than a drive that is part of a RAID. Please recognize that drive failure is very real! I know several people that have lost information from external drives because they didn’t think it would happen to them.

As another note, I like the OWC drives a lot. I’ve had very few problems with them, which is a lot more than I can say for Lacie (5 dead Firewire drives out of 8 purchases over two-three years.)

-Russ

[Russell Lasson]

You might also consider the RAID 1 (mirrored):

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/MirrorRAID/

It costs more, but it offers redundant data. (Data is written to both drives. If one drives dies, then you have the other with everything on it.)

Just a thought.

-Russ

[David S.]

I’ve seen RAIDs fail as well.