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Video Media Storage – Internal vs. External?
I will be purchasing a new Dual 2.3 GHz Powermac and other components for a video editing system. I will primarily be editing DV and HDV, however on occasion may encounter SD or HD.
Given the capacity for 1TB of internal storage in the new G5, I question if I can use the internal drive as my media drive instead of purchasing external storage.
1. Is the new internal drive fast enough for DV, HDV, SD, and HD?
2. Is making a software RAID configuration between the 2 500GB internal drives beneficial? Will it enhance the video performance? Is it possible, given the application and media files will then be on the same drive?
3. What benefits would external drives (price comparable) serve over this – if any? Is SATA connection necessary or can Firewire 800 cut it?
Thank you for your insight.
Michael Helenek.Michael Helenek
Video Editor -
3 Replies
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1. Is the new internal drive fast enough for DV, HDV, SD, and HD?
yes.yes. no.no.
2. Is making a software RAID configuration between the 2 500GB internal drives beneficial?
No, you should never run the software and the media onteh same drive.
Will it enhance the video performance?
no.see aboveIs it possible, given the application and media files will then be on the same drive?
You should never do this. ever
3. What benefits would external drives (price comparable) serve over this – if any? Is SATA connection necessary or can Firewire 800 cut it?
You are best to go wth a SATA raid. With that you will get SD but not HD speeds. and expandable cheap fast storage. (it is not protected though. For DV, SD you can also go with a firewire 800 raid.
David
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For my money, external SATA SCSI seems a good compromise between cost and performance if you’re doing uncompressed SD. FW800 can have performance issues (ie dropped frames) when your drive starts filling.
Obviously this will blitz DV!
HD capable drives are a huge price jump…
:o)
e.
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I’ve never been a fan of internal storage, I just find that speed and performance are simply greater with external storage.
For all the way up to 8bit uncompressed SD you can’t go wrong with the G-RAID’s and LaCie Big Disk series of FW 800 units. If you stripe two units together you can even do 10bit reliably. The G-RAID’s hold their speed the longest of any FW800 drives I’ve run due to the Medea technology they share. I can run the G-RAID’s to about 90% full before they start showing performance issues.
For the ultimate in external storage, Fibre Channel is the way to go. I run the Medea FCR2X (2 TB) with speeds up to 375MB/sec. The newer 4gig units are going to be even faster. For real-time, there’s nothing better than the fastest units you can purchase.
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