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Network storage for 5 workstations?
Hello,
I’ve been given the task of setting up a small 5 person cluster of editing workstations for a high-school video editing class. We will be using 5 Dell computers running Premiere (Pro or Elements, not sure which yet), the video will be bog-standard DV from consumer-grade Canon camcorders.
We foresee the students hopping from one computer to the next depending on the day, as well as different students working on common projects. Because of this, I believe that networked storage would be the best way for everyone to have access to everything, regardless of the computer they happen to be working on.
I’m looking for advice from anyone here who might have some experience in this field. I know we can look at the numbers that different storage providers use when describing their speeds and througput, but my experience is that these are nothing more than marketing schemes; the only good way to see if a product works correctly or not is to actually try it in your environment.
Up to now I had been thinking that a NAS with some SATA drives (no, I haven’t considered RAID yet), connected to a gigabit ethernet network hub/switch, would be enough for the students to read and write files; we’re not looking for blazing fast ‘pro’ speeds, but enough to get a good idea of what’s going on. Some choppiness here and there would be an acceptable price to pay for having networked storage…
If such a solution would unusable in a 5-person environment, what other options would we have for networked storage?
Thanks in advance,
Nick
Nicholas White
AV Specialist
Dobson High School -
1 Reply
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How about something like “X Dock”, an external SATA dock for each computer…$25 for each PC. Then each students gets a 500 GB drive assigned to him or her…$95 each at PC Club.
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