Hard drive configuration
 

Hi all, I have searched this and I can not get a definite answer, I am building an HDV editing workstaion, I realize that I need 3 drives, 1 for OS, 1 for media and 1 for renders (correct me if I'm wrong). My dilemma is if I need a Raid0 or Raid3 controler( 5 disks total, 2 drives per raid), or can I get just a solid state for the OS and two fast (10,000 +) drives, thanks.

Depends on your storage needs. If you can get by with 200 to 250 G max on one of the Velociraptor disks for media, there is no need to create a raid system. It may even be better to use 7200 RPM disks with 32 MB+ cache with size of 1 TB or larger.

Remember that the performance of mechanical disks - in contrast to SSD's - rapidly deteriorates when the fill rate goes over 70%.

Raid 3 or 5 requires at least three physical disks in an array and - depending on the raid controller used - may result in only 150-170% performance gain in comparison to a single disk.

Dave: you NEED two drives - one for OS, one for media and renders. PERSONALLY, I like having media and renders on different drives. You DON'T need a RAID for throughput on an HDV system. You WOULD need a RAID for data redundancy if you deemed that to be important. HDV is SO processor heavy that you would probably run out of realtime processing power BEFORE you ran out of multi stream throughput. Of course, as processor speeds increase, the previous statement will be rendered inaccurate.

I pull 1GB/minute (4 times HDV data rate) off of FW400 external drives right now no problem.