I increased CPU utilization from 45-55% to 70-80% during renders

[Michael Buie]

Again, thank you so much for your advice:

This was my first time RAIDing a box, but I took the plunge.

I bought another WD Cavier Black (my third one), removed the Caching folders from my 2nd Cavier Black, and RAIDed those two RAID0.

4TB hard drive space and HD Tach gave me these performance comparisons between the single Cavier Black and the two I RAIDed:

——————
Size: 2.0 TB
Random Access: 11.7
Avg. Read: 119.6
Hi Read MB/s: 160
Low Read MB/s: 72
Burst MB/s: 241.8
——————-

Size: 4.0 TB RAID 0
Random Access: 9.5
Avg. Read: 192.5
Hi Read MB/s: 221
Low Read MB/s: 140
Burst MB/s: 390.6
——————-

WOW!

Then, I tested render times and the RAID0 storage was quick enough that I could retain the same performance with Media Cache and Preview files pointed to the same drive as the Project Files. The Static Swap File is there, too.

I tried keeping them separate as in my first optimization that, as I reported, allowed full CPU Utilization and found no real performance gain in doing so. So I am keeping them all on the RAIDed drive and thinking how I may use my single 2.0 TB Cavier Black. I may use it as a backup for currently running projects; I don’t know. Or, I may buy another 1 TB drive and RAID 0 it with C drive to increase performance there. OR … I might make C more safe and RAID 1 it.

When I double-checked the actual drives as I RAIDed, I notice got a couple drive types wrong in my first post: I had already upgraded my C: to a 1TB Cavier Black, and my E: drive is a 1.5 TB 7200 RPM Seagate Barracuda.

Opening a project with many video files is NOTICEBLY quicker. One thing about having the drives the way they are currently set up, I can duplicate projects and directly compare performance.