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SSD or RAID0
Hello there. I’ve been planning to buy a new workstation for HD editing in Adobe Premiere (and occasionally After Effects). My configuration will probably look like that: Intel Core i7-3770K + ASRock Z77 EXTREME4 + Crucial 16GB (2x8GB) + GeForce GTX670 + Bequiet pure power l8 630w + Asus Xonar DX/XD/A.
The only problem I have is discs setup. Considering my budget, I can afford to buy either 1xSSD 128GB + 4xHDD OR2xSSD 128GB + 2xHDD. After skimming through dozens of discussion, I’ve prepared 2 setups:
1)
– 1 x Samsung 128GB SSD840 Pro for OS and appz
– 1 x Samsung 128GB SSD840 Pro for cache and projects
– 1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB for raw media
– 1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB for exportingOR
2)
– 1 x Samsung 128GB SSD840 Pro for OS and appz
– 2 x Western Digital Caviar Black 0,5 TB in RAID0 for raw media
– 1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB for cache and projects
– 1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB for exportingAnd now I wonder which one would give a better performance. People on Adobe Community have recommended a second one. But still, some claim that there is no point in creating RAID unless you have 5+ HDDs to connect and unless you do a lot of backups (which I won’t be doing). So maybe I shoud give it up and just have 4 separately working HDDs with OS on SSD? I would appreciate any suggestions…
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6 Replies
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I vote for 2 drives in RAID 0 for Media, plus your SSD system drive. If you can afford additional drive(s) for scratch and export, it can’t hurt, but RAID 0 for editing is a good choice.
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
Thank you Jeff. But do you think it’s fairly safe solution? In this article – https://forums.adobe.com/thread/525263, which I suppose was written by a professional, it says that it’s absolutely not recommended for video editors to make a RAID of only two HDDs…
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As with any hard drive, it is a good idea to have backups. I didn’t read the link. There are different kinds of RAIDs. RAID 0 is unprotected – if one of the drives fails, the whole thing is kaput. But that is no different than a single drive – if it fails, your stuff is gone. Doesn’t matter if using 2, 3, 4, 5 drives or more. One goes, they all go. Of course when you tie multiple drives together, the odds of having a drive failure increase, but today’s drives are very reliable. Backup backup backup.
RAID 1 simply mirrors the data between two drives. There is no speed advantage. One drive is a copy of the other.
RAID 5 uses four or more drives and offers performance AND redundancy, meaning if any ONE drive fails, replace it and the data gets rebuilt. The capacity of one drive is lost to the redundancy though, so an 8TB unit would provide 6TB usable in RAID 5 mode for example.
There are other RAID modes, but most common for video is the RAID 0 and RAID 5. RAID 0 is cheap and fast. Just back up your work and no worries then. Very simple to create a RAID 0 in Windows, no extra hardware needed and twice as fast as a single drive.
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
The two options I’d consider:
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• 1x SSD Boot/Apps/Projects
• 4x spinning disc in RAID-5 Media/Cache/Export
• RAID controller may be required for RAID-5, check out your mobo===
• 1x SSD Boot/Apps/Projects
• 2x spinning disc in RAID-0 Media/Cache/Export
• 1x spinning disc to match RAID-0 capacity for backup (also consider using this to back up the SSD?)===
Both of the options you proposed have no redundancy or backup involved. A RAID-5 isn’t a backup solution, but it’s better than nothing. An internal backup drive isn’t a solution either, but again, it’s better than nothing. RAID-0 and no backup is a dangerous game that’s likely to sting you.
Also note that projects on SSD will be a lot of read/write cycles. If you’re concerned about wearing your SSD out you might put them on the RAID. I wouldn’t be. -
Thank you Jeff. Backup requires additional space which I don’t have right now. But I think to myself that cache files is something Premiere can easily recreate in case of loss. So if I place only caches on RAID0 and projects on other HDD, it wouldn’t so risky, am I right?
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1 SSD for OS and Apps
1 SSD for Projects
1 HD for scratch & Cache filesOther drives per project as needed.
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