FW800 RAID for FCP X Workflow Advice

[Bob Zelin]

you write –
Once making the switch to Final Cut PROX I assume ProRes422 or ProRes422 LT should be sufficient for my needs?

REPLY – if you are doing YouTube only, ProRes422LT is plenty.

Was thinking RAID5 or should I be looking at RAID10 instead?
REPLY – I get the impression that you don’t have any money. You don’t need a RAID. A single drive will do fine for your ProRes422LT workflow, and it will cost very little.

IS FW800 fast enough for my workflow? Right now its a single camera,
may add one or two more angles to the show in the near future.
REPLY – for ProResLT, sure it is.

Lastly, should I be waiting for Thunderbolt enclosures even though they seem such a distance away?

REPLY – you keep asking questions about FCP-X, Thunderbolt, etc.
No one knows the real answers to these questions, as no one has real info on FCP-X – only speculation. I can assure of one thing – no matter what you buy, you CANNOT future proof your purchase.
You have only one goal now – MAKE MONEY, invest in what you can afford, prepare for all your gear to be obsolete, and then buy new stuff. Do this every 3 years for the rest of your career.

If this is a hobby, I would not spend a penny on any of it. This is not a fun hobby. It’s expensive, and your stuff becomes obsolete.
FC Express is no indication of what iMoviePro (FCP-X) is going to be like.

Bob Zelin

[Ingo Weigold]

Thanks for the responses Bob, it’s really not about money, just want to make sure I have the right set-up for what I am doing currently. No I am not a professional but I am really enjoying what I am doing and wanted to upgrade my set-up from a single drive system to something a little more robust thats all.

I have 2TB hard drives already for the 4-bay RAID enclosure, just trying to get a feel on if that is the way to go as far as FW800 stands even if i add another camera or two. And I assume using that FW800 enclosure would allow me to run my scratch and storage disk easily on the same array?

I understand your disdain for FCPX, was just posing the question since there are some out there that may have hands on knowledge of the product by now.

[Walter Soyka]

[Ingo Weigold] “Was thinking RAID5 or should I be looking at RAID10 instead?”

I’d use RAID5. Any performance difference won’t affect your workflow. RAID5 will offer you some redundancy and more capacity than RAID10. RAID5 will tolerate the loss of a single drive; if you lose 2 drives, all your data is gone. RAID10 (a stripe of mirrors) will tolerate the loss of a single drive within each set of mirrors. You can lose 2 drives, if and only if they are the right 2 drives — one in each mirrored set. If you lose 2 drives in the same mirrored set, all your data is gone.

No matter what RAID level you choose, remember that RAID is not backup.

[Ingo Weigold] “I understand your disdain for FCPX, was just posing the question since there are some out there that may have hands on knowledge of the product by now.”

Anyone who knows anything would not be not permitted to discuss it yet.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Bob Zelin]

Walter Soyka writes –
“No matter what RAID level you choose, remember that RAID is not backup.”

This should be the disclaimer of every storage company on Creative Cow. Walter – it could not have been stated better than this !

Bob Zelin