RAID storage solution

[Arnie Schlissel]

I happen to have that same Areca RAID card that comes with the SansDigital. You cannot compare it to the Firmtek eSATA card. The Areca does much more, and does it quite well.

If you’re looking for the best, most flexible SATA RAID solution for PCI-X, the Areca card is it.

Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/

[Peter Berg]

Thanks Arnie for the info. I did get a feeling that the SansDigital setup would be more robust and reliable. I was not familiar with the infiniband interface. Would you say that is better than eSATA but not as good at fibre? Would you say that a rating of 300MB/sec is sufficient for HD 10bit Uncompressed work (4:2:2 mostly).

thanks,
Peter

[Arnie Schlissel]

300 MB/sec should be fine for uncompressed HD. Infiniband is a very fast connection, much faster than eSATA with port multiplication.

Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/

[Jordan Woods]

It is late 2009 right now. Your machine was purchased in mid 2005. What you buy to work with your machine will be outdated. The fact that you are buying a PCIX based card will be a waste of money if your computer takes a dive.

I would invest in a newer computer and look to any of the sponsors of the Cow for storage. There are hundreds of options for direct attached storage that can do HD uncompressed, and cheaply. To the left and right of this screen you should see at least a couple people with solutions for you.

-jordan

[Bob Zelin]

As always, Jordan is correct. The infiniband connection that you see on the Areca 1120ML card is an OLD PCI-X card, and it outdated. Port multiplication is also outdated (but plenty of people, including my clients are still hanging on). Today, people use SAS/SATA (serial attached SCSI using SATA drives) or Fibre. The connector for SAS/SATA is called “mini SAS”. This is what you see on all the cool products from Cal Digit, Sonnet, Maxx Digital, G-Tech (the good stuff, not the eS series), JMR, and others.

If you say “but I dont’ want to spend that kind of money” – then just get 3 internal SATA drives, stripe them RAID 0, and for 300 bucks you will have an internal RAID that is fast enough to do uncompressed HD. You will have 3 Terabytes. The G-Tech G-Speed eS uses the horrible Highpoint card. You will be very disappointed. Areca is a fantastic manufacturer, but the new cards are called the Areca 1221x (which replaced the 1120ML that you have specified), and the newer Areca 1680x (which is the expandable card). This competes with the ATTO R380 card. So who sells these products – as Jordan just said – look at this very web forum – look at the ad’s right here. “But these companies charge SO MUCH MONEY, and I did a web search, and these products are so much cheaper”. If you have no money, take my advice – save your money, and put 3 internal drives in your MAC, and start to make money. Save, and buy a GOOD DRIVE ARRAY when you can afford to do so.

Bob zelin

[Peter Berg]

Thanks for the feedback Bob. Are you saying that I won’t be able to get the 300MB/sec that the product manger is quoting me, or that the newer cards/systems will get even higher data rates? I plan on spending what I have to spend to edit uncompressed HD (whatever that amount is), but I don’t see why I should spend more than is necessary. Really… 3 SATA’s striped together will work with uncompressed HD?

-Peter

[Bob Zelin]

the product manager is not lying to you – you are going to use an Areca 1120ML – this means PCI-X. Why on earth would you invest in additional products for a DEAD PLATFORM. The G5 is DEAD – you can’t upgrade to FCP 7 or OS-X 10.6. Why buy anything for a computer that can no longer be upgraded. You are about to spend a lot of money, and can’t use ANY of it with a new computer.

bob Zelin

[Jason Myres]

“Ideally 10bit. Probably just 4:2:2.”

yeah, just 4:2:2…lol

JM

[Peter Berg]

I get the fact that the G5 is EOL. I am trying to learn FCP and color but not make a huge investment right now (work is hard to come by for me lately). It’s like $1400 vs $3500-4000? Some of the stuff I am buying can be re-used… the hard drive array (and drives), the HD monitor. Plus I could re-sell some of the stuff when I do upgrade to a Mac Pro…. the computer still works nicely as a computer.. and people are still using PCI-X (it does do like 800-1000MB/sec. doesn’t it?). Hell, I’m still using my PC every day (as a Media Composer system, digital picture workstation, DVD/blu-ray authoring, etc) which only has AGP and PCI (I’m talking pre PCI-X).

But yeah as I read of the limitations of the G5 (is there anyway to convert RED files to uncompressed HD on an intel PC?) I wish I had a mac-pro. But it was either the G5 route.. or nothing at all (for now). I wanted to experience what everybody has been talking about on the Final Cut Pro/Color side.

-Peter

[Bob Zelin]

If you are trying to LEARN FCP and Color – you do not need to buy anything. All you need to do is learn, and you can learn with DV footage. Keep what you have, pop in an internal SATA drive (a 1TB drive will cost you 90 bucks), and LEARN away ! Don’t waste your money. Then, with your knowlege, get some freelance work (or a job), earn money, and then buy what you need.

Don’t throw good money into the toilet. Owning a fast RAID array will not impress any chicks (or any clients). Your knowlege of FCP and color will.

Bob Zelin