• Avid Media Composer

  Need External Storage and ExpressCard advice (laptop)

  Posted by David Neumann on April 29, 2009 at 5:18 pm

  I’m working on an HP9440 laptop with Avid Xpress Pro 5.7and a Mojo. My primary media storage drive is a 500GB Western Digital My Book Home Edition. Most of the footage on the drive is DV25 but I’ll need to start incorporating 1:1 footage. Although the MyBook has a quad interface I am connected via USB.

  I need a larger drive and am also considering an eSATA connection.

  1)Express Card:
  Which ExpressCards with Sata connections are the best? I’ve considered the Belkin SATAII card. SIIG makes an e-SATA express card module as well. A friend of mine recently tried using an eSATA express card to connect to an existing external hard drive and found out that he needed to empty/reformat the drive first. Does one need to start with a new/empty drive?

  2)External Drive:
  I have limited budget ($250max) and after a lot of research it seems that the Western Digital My Book Studio Edition II WDH2Q10000N Hard Drive Array in either 1TB or 2 TB might be a good bet. I also considered a LaCie TwoBig but have heard that LaCies are unreliable.

  3)Cache:
  I’m trying the arrive at a solution with the most cache. Most off the shelf units have 16mb cache per drive. I found models with 32mb cache but I’m not familiar with them Rocstor’s RocPro 850 has 32mb cache in the bigger capacity models.. Cavalry and Fantom also have 32mb external drives. Any thoughts or advice on the reliability of these manufacturers?

  4)Build my own?
  Is this a viable/economical/reliable solution? I’ve read in other forums that people put external drives together using parts from OWC or other suppliers? I’m not a computer wiz but I think I have the patience to put this together. I’d just need to get the right advice as to best drive, case, etc. Thoughts?

  I also have a MacBookPro w/FCP on it. Given the considerations above do I need to have a separate storage solution? I realize I’d need to get a different Express Card.

  Thanks in advance for your help. I’ve been researching this to the point it all looks the same. Different perspectives on this would be very helpful

  David

  David Neumann replied 17 years ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
• 0 Replies

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up