Needed: Setting Up RAID For iMac 5K For Video Editing

[Rainer Wirth]

Hi Ray,

I would go with Raid5 never use Raid0.
The better solution would be a R6 with 3TB Hdds and raid level 6.

cheers

Rainer

factstory
Rainer Wirth
phone_0049-177-2156086
Mac pro 8core
Adobe,FCP,Avid
several raid systems

[David Roth weiss]

Don’t sweat it, ALL Promise T-bolt RAID enclosures come preconfigured as RAID 5.

FYI, you still need to backup EVERYTHING, as no kind of RAID protection will keep you covered completely.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions

David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.

[Ray Sherman]

[Ray Sherman] “Internal Hard Drive 1: Raw un-edited pre-rendered video, pictures and music (2x750GB Raid 0) Samsung HD753LJ 750GB SATA2 7200rpm 32MB

Internal Hard Drive 2: Rendered events for final output. (2x750GB Raid 0) Samsung HD753LJ 750GB SATA2 7200rpm 32MB”

Thanks for the help….. Running in RAID 0 has it’s good and bad points. The good… It suppose to be the fastest with the bad being if you crash you’re definately burned. I have always backed up to other external drives because of this. On the other hand, I’m learning from folks like you that RAID 5 may be a better way to go. It may be a little slower, but it’s definately safer. Would you go with the same setup I was using on my PC, but in RAID 5? As I stated in my post, I have always did my editing on my OS drive. Is this how it’s suppose to be done? I have always believed that it had to be done on the OS drive simply due to that’s where the NLE software is located. I can’t thank you enough for all your help, I sincerely appreciate it. THANK YOU!…Ray

[Rainer Wirth]

Hi Ray,

you are with a thunderbolt connection, so you Raid is your fastest option. I would edit on the Raid.
And believe me, Raid 5 is the minimum redundancy you need. You won’t realize the little bit of slower speed when you’re working. Raid 5 slows the Raid just a tiny bit. We all tend to go for Raid 6, because of experience! The more safety you can afford, the better it is. Raid 0 is no option!
A Raid is just there working working working, you don’t have to think about it, it’s just there. (a Quote from Walter Biscardi)
To my knowledge a 4bay Raid can’t be operated on Raid6, therefore I recommend the pegasus 6.

Cheers

Rainer

factstory
Rainer Wirth
phone_0049-177-2156086
Mac pro 8core
Adobe,FCP,Avid
several raid systems

[Ray Sherman]

Thanks for the info. and advice…… I know the pegasus2 R4 is sent with RAID 5, but I will look deeper into the Pegasus2 R6 as well. These Pegasus2 drives are a little pricy, but are suppose to be one of the best. I want my iMac to run as smooth as possible. Thanks again, Ray

[David Roth weiss]

So long as you backup everything RAID 5 will be just fine – while RAID 6 is more secure, it comes at the cost, i.e. two drives worth of storage space lost to the protection scheme – that would be half your 4-drive array and 1/3 if a 6-drive array.

FYI, neither RAID 5 nor 6 has a performance hit on reads, both do writes, with RAID 6 substantially slower on writes.

Also, though RAID 6 is substantially more secure, since no form of RAID protection provides enough security to avoid backups, RAID 5 is the industry standard for most until you get into 16-drive arrays and beyond.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions

David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.

[Ray Sherman]

Thanks for all your help….
I do want a smooth 1080 and 4K editing experience without any lagging and/or time consuming issues. My editing events are anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour on the timeline. I do like using some effects, transitions, chroma keying, pictures and music therefore I do use multiple timelines. Rendering times are not important to me, I usually do so overnight.
Planned software to be used;
Apple FCP X
Apple Motion 5
Apple Comperssor
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5

I’m not shooting in Raw and/or RED. My following equipment only consists of;
Sony XDCAM PXW-X70 w/ XAVC L(GOP), AVCHD with 4K update on the way.
Canon EOS 7D
GoPro Hero 2

With that being said, I have a few more questions if I may;
It appears that RAID 5 would suit my needs. In your opinion, what would be the best configuration with either the Pegasus R4 8TB (4x2TB) or Pegasus R6 12TB (6x2TB)?
I do feel that it’s important not to place un-edited and/or rendered media on the OS drive. Would you partition off the drives as I did with my former PC workstation as follows?
OS 1TB: software, etc.
Hard Drive 1 (2x750GB Raid 0): Un-edited pre-rendered video, pictures and music
Hard Drive 2 (2x750GB Raid 0): Rendered events for final output to DVD, etc.

I do realize that I would need to backup my media on another external drive that is separate from my workstation for safe storage. Maybe, I could partition my storage if I went with the R6….. The aforementioned are things I have in question, simply due to being oblivious for the best workflow (LOL…..). I sincerely appreciate everyones help here at CreativeCow. Thanks again, Ray

[David Roth weiss]

[Ray Sherman] “I do feel that it’s important not to place un-edited and/or rendered media on the OS drive. Would you partition off the drives as I did with my former PC workstation as follows?
OS 1TB: software, etc.
Hard Drive 1 (2x750GB Raid 0): Un-edited pre-rendered video, pictures and music
Hard Drive 2 (2x750GB Raid 0): Rendered events for final output to DVD, etc. “

You are overthinking Ray. As I previously mentioned, the Pegasus hard drive arrays come preconfigured as RAID 5, so just plug it in and edit, and DO NOT PARTITION as you did your previous setup, that would defeat much the purpose of purchasing a large multi-drive array. Remember, every time you double the number of disks in a RAID array you virtually double the throughput of that array – and, that’s the primary advantage of what you’re paying for. Accordingly, if you want to play 4K seamlessly, you should be purchasing an 8-drive Pegasus, not a 4 or 6-drive model.

Also, in the overthinking category, just consider your RAID to be your “media drive,” – stop all thoughts about this file type her and that file type there, the RAID is fast enough to deal with everything, video, renders, audio, etc. You can use an SSD cache drive for increased performance, but my understanding is that cache drives really only improve performance of AE, not so much in Premiere.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions

David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.

[Ray Sherman]

Hi David,
First, I thank you for all your help. Overthinking…. You couldn’t be more right. I believe I have a much better understanding how a RAID configuration works.
Let’s see if I do (LOL)….
RAID 5 requires a minimum of three drives, therefore with the Pegasus R4 8TB (4x2TB) the Read/Write speeds would be slightly faster than the minimum three drives.
Please correct me if I’m wrong…. With the Pegasus R6 12TB (6x2TB) it would be double the minimum needed for RAID 5 therefore, I think this may be all I need. Plus, I believe I would gain much more speed as well. With that being said, I do realize that it would be smart to backup my media on another external drive that is separate from my workstation for safe storage. If I’m correct… Hooray!! If not, please straighten me out, I can take it….. Thanks for taking the time in helping me out. I can’t tell you enough how much I appreciate it. Ray

[David Roth weiss]

[Ray Sherman] “RAID 5 requires a minimum of three drives”

True, but it makes little sense in a config under 4 drives, especially if you backup everything.

[Ray Sherman] “With the Pegasus R6 12TB (6x2TB) it would be double the minimum needed for RAID 5 therefore, I think this may be all I need.”

If seamless playback of 4K and larger files is important to you, you should not be as concerned with overall capacity as you should about the overall throughput of the hard drive subsystem – if you are going to skimp anywhere, do so on drive size, not the number of drives. Trust me, buying an 8-drive array now will be a much better investment for you – a four or six drive enclosure will not have the overhead you’ll need longterm for 4K and beyond, and you’ll have to buy a new enclosure all too soon. Never buy what’s just good enough for today, if spending a little bit more gets you three to five more years of useful life, and bit chin performance now, you will be much happier both short and long term.

[Ray Sherman] ” do realize that it would be smart to backup my media on another external drive that is separate from my workstation for safe storage.”

Not just smart, but imperative.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions

David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.