Dedicated drive at DVinfo.net

Arthur Franck · April 13th, 2006, 03:10 AM

Hi,
I'm putting together my new PC for dv and hdv editing. Premier Pro specs say conserning hard drives: "Dedicated 7,200RPM hard drive for DV and HDV editing".

What exactly is meant by dedicated? Should the program files for premier be on it and the video files? Or just the program files or just the video files? And what if I want to use external drives?

Thanks for any kind of answer,

ART

Chris M. Watson · April 13th, 2006, 04:49 AM

Yeah you really want a totally seperate drive for video files especially if you are editing HD. I've never had a problem having project files and videos files living on the same drive but it should be seperate from your C drive that has your operating system on it. Hope that helps.

Chris Watson
Watson Videography
www.dynamovideo.com

Boyd Ostroff · April 13th, 2006, 05:21 AM

The general idea is that your main drive will have thousands of little files on it which can lead to fragmentation and reduced performance. The operating system and applications are also constantly reading and writing to this drive.

Video files tend to be very large and there aren't usually a whole lot of them (compared to the number of files on the C drive). So keeping them separate on a fast disk will reduce the chances of dropped frames.

Arthur Franck · April 15th, 2006, 07:37 AM

So an external drive, say for instance LaCie 7200 rpm for my video files is a good solution?

And furthermore: How big a difference is there between a Pentium D 820, 830 and 930?

cheers,
ART

David Andrews · April 15th, 2006, 09:00 AM

If you are building a new pc you will get better, ie faster, read/write if your dedicated video drive is, say, your d drive inside your pc. An external drive will be slower - tho it may be able to cope. I only use external drives for archiving completed project avis and dvd folders.

For example, my sata video d drive produces 35MB/s read write but my usb archive drive (now c74% full) only achieves c14MB/s.

Alex Thames · April 15th, 2006, 11:21 AM

When you say external drives are slower than internal drives, why is this, or what are you referring to? The rpm? I have a Seagate 7200 rpm, 16mb cache 300gb external harddrive that I run using Firewire-400. My computer's internal harddrive only spins at 5400 rpm, not sure about the cache. Which one is faster? I seem to have no problems editing directly from my external harddrive though.

David Andrews · April 16th, 2006, 10:50 AM

Chances are that an internal, dedicated sata video drive will give you faster read/write performance. I am not saying that an external drive will not work - obviously it will and it does for you and many others. I believe you will get faster bus speeds with an internal drive; and there is not the temptation to share that exists with external firewire/usb drives.

April 13th, 2006, 03:10 AM	#1
Arthur Franck New Boot Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 8	Dedicated drive Hi, I'm putting together my new PC for dv and hdv editing. Premier Pro specs say conserning hard drives: "Dedicated 7,200RPM hard drive for DV and HDV editing". What exactly is meant by dedicated? Should the program files for premier be on it and the video files? Or just the program files or just the video files? And what if I want to use external drives? Thanks for any kind of answer, ART

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April 13th, 2006, 04:49 AM	#2
Chris M. Watson Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Fort Worth, TX Posts: 104	Yeah you really want a totally seperate drive for video files especially if you are editing HD. I've never had a problem having project files and videos files living on the same drive but it should be seperate from your C drive that has your operating system on it. Hope that helps. Chris Watson Watson Videography www.dynamovideo.com

April 13th, 2006, 05:21 AM	#3
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,794	The general idea is that your main drive will have thousands of little files on it which can lead to fragmentation and reduced performance. The operating system and applications are also constantly reading and writing to this drive. Video files tend to be very large and there aren't usually a whole lot of them (compared to the number of files on the C drive). So keeping them separate on a fast disk will reduce the chances of dropped frames.

April 15th, 2006, 07:37 AM	#4
Arthur Franck New Boot Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 8	So an external drive, say for instance LaCie 7200 rpm for my video files is a good solution? And furthermore: How big a difference is there between a Pentium D 820, 830 and 930? cheers, ART

April 15th, 2006, 09:00 AM	#5
David Andrews Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 131	If you are building a new pc you will get better, ie faster, read/write if your dedicated video drive is, say, your d drive inside your pc. An external drive will be slower - tho it may be able to cope. I only use external drives for archiving completed project avis and dvd folders. For example, my sata video d drive produces 35MB/s read write but my usb archive drive (now c74% full) only achieves c14MB/s.

April 15th, 2006, 11:21 AM	#6
Alex Thames Major Player Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: New York Posts: 508	When you say external drives are slower than internal drives, why is this, or what are you referring to? The rpm? I have a Seagate 7200 rpm, 16mb cache 300gb external harddrive that I run using Firewire-400. My computer's internal harddrive only spins at 5400 rpm, not sure about the cache. Which one is faster? I seem to have no problems editing directly from my external harddrive though.

April 16th, 2006, 10:50 AM	#7
David Andrews Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 131	Chances are that an internal, dedicated sata video drive will give you faster read/write performance. I am not saying that an external drive will not work - obviously it will and it does for you and many others. I believe you will get faster bus speeds with an internal drive; and there is not the temptation to share that exists with external firewire/usb drives.