SSD Array

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Simon Dinnigan] “Question is: anybody had a chance to put one of these through their paces? Pros and Cons?”

Apricorn specifically – no; SSDs – yes.

There is a definite “wow” factor in boot times, still image editing, launching applications – but this is more of a “wow” thing than any measurable productivity.

The benefit is pretty insignificant for video editing applications with the exception of short sequences of ultra-hi-res (4K, 5K) uncompressed files.

Three internal spinning drives in RAID0 will have data rates of 200-400MB/s on a Mac Pro with a 6TB capacity for less than $600. So it 10 times the capacity at half the price with half the speed – or 20 times the money for only twice the speed.

Granted, to get that kind of a speed from spinning drives, it will cost quite a bit more than $1400: the controller and the 8-bay box will run about $1.6K before you add drives. So if you have to have that speed (but not the capacity or redundancy) – SSDs (and Apricorn) make sense.

Alex (DV411)

[Simon Dinnigan]

Hi Alex

You basically just confirmed it’s the right way to go. Doing multiclips in FCP with 10 cameras in ProRess 422HQ. Essentially the workflow would be: edit one song at a time (copying the footage over to SSD Array for that particular track) and then rendering out edit as .mov. The theory seems to be sound, as the Array can read at 700MB’s plus – so have the bandwidth to do it. I was just at bit concerned about the reports of SSD’s degrading due to the Mac OSX not having the TRIM facility. Any thoughts?

Thanks

SD

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Simon Dinnigan] “I was just at bit concerned about the reports of SSD’s degrading due to the Mac OSX not having the TRIM facility. Any thoughts?”

Ask Apricorn: the array is managed by their own BIOS, not Max OSX directly. They may have implemented TRIM at the controller or driver level. I haven’t found anything in their specs though.

Alex (DV411)

[Simon Dinnigan]

Thanks Alex

Sounds logical to add it at the controller or driver level.