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Promise DS4600
I’ve searched all over the forums and web and I’m finding only one person that is using this product. That’s kinda hard to believe but it is relatively new. But I’m wondering if there is another reason like subpar performance. I tried to contact that one person on this forum but have not heard back.
So, does anyone use this hard drive solution and cut off of it? I would be cutting DV, DVCProHD, and maybe some ProRes (not HQ). Seems like an inexpensive solution. I would some good Hitachi drives in it and use eSata in a Raid5 setup.
Thanks in advance.
Paul
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4 Replies
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I’m currently using one (a client’s array) connected to my Mac Pro via an eSATA card. It’s populated to 8TB as RAID5, so about 5.5TB net. Performance is fine, but not a whole lot faster than a fast FW800 drive. I’m doing ProRes, ProResHQ, DVCPROHD, DV and 8-bit uncompressed on this system for this project.
The only issue seems to be that it’s very sensitive to other external drives being connected. For example, it’s a 2-port eSATA card and I have a BlacX drive dock on the other port. I also have some FW800 drives connected. Sometimes drives don’t mount at start-up and hot swapping drives occasionally causes issues. I always make sure to completely power everything down (kill the power, not just turn it off) before making any drive changes on the eSATA chain.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Oliver,
Thanks for the info. That’s helpful. The reason I’m interested is that 1) I’ve got a backup system in place with the Raid and 2) I’ve got a lot of storage in one place. I’m used to using FW800 drives so something faster than that is good.
If you don’t mind, can I ask you:
1) What kind of drives are you using?
2) What esata card are you using?
3) Are you running Snow Leopard? I know there are some cards that don’t work with SL.Thanks for your help.
Paul
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Hi,
The drives are either WD Black Caviar or Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM 3.5″ SATA drive (2TB drives). Not sure because I’m not in front of the system right now. Card is LaCie SATA II 3Gb/s PCIe card (2 port); however the Promise comes with its own PCIe bridge card. This can be used to connect the unit directly to the motherboard. Yes, I’m on Snow Leopard.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Thanks for the follow up. I’m going to contact Promise tomorrow and hopefully pull the trigger on one of these soon.
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