64 bit operating system on storage server
 

I just purchased a Dell 690 Precision Workstation for use with a Matrox RTX2 card and Adobe Premiere CS3. I also have a separate storage server (NF100) which basically acts as a NAS device.

I specified XP Pro (32 bit) for the system (per recommendations on the Matrox site) and the 690 came with it installed correctly. But the storage server (Raid 5)came in with a 64 bit system. Does anyone know if the 64 bit system on the storage server is going to present problems? I do plan on using it to do all of my capturing, editing, and storage.

I spoke with Dell and they did not think so. I have not installed the Adobe software or the card yet, and wanted to be sure the system was right before proceeding.

(This is after several years of frustration dealing with a Pinnacle DC1000 which I never got to work properly!)

Thanks for any thoughts.

Regards, AL

It shouldn't matter for most intents and purposes. It could be a Macintosh for all your edit system could care, as long as it provides the necessary bandwidth. Any particular reason you opted for NAS with a single workstation? Even Gigabit is very slow for video editing. A direct attached array will always be much faster, and usually cheaper.

NAS device
 

Mike,

Thanks for your reply.

I actually have three workstations and use them for different purposes, as I primarily am a still photographer. I hadn't thought about being limited by the network access speed.

The 690 has two 300 gb Sata drives striped together in a Raid 0 configuration. I suppose I could partition that and use one partition for editing. Or I could add another drive to the 690 and use exclusively for editing.

Any of those scenarios sound better?

Thanks, AL

Check this out:

http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Prem...8DDE57377.html

Scratch drives
 

Thanks Adam,

Good article.

I have always partitioned my hard drives and used an empty scratch disk in Photoshop. I guess I will need to set up something similar in Premiere.

I have a 120 GB Medea Video Raid (SCSI) which I have had for 5 - 6 years and used as a capture device. I was instructed to format the drive before capturing a large project. If I have an extra slot in the 690 for a SCSI card, I probably could use it to capture footage.

The majority of my video editing really only involves capturing and storing 8 - 12 second tennis clips which I use at a later time for instructional articles on a web site. I am planning on using the NAS for storing clips but will do the editing on the 690 as suggested.

Regards, Al

The article is pretty insistent that partitioning disks does not help at all and that NAS for clips is a very bad idea.

Adam,

Thanks for your comments. I guess I missed the point. Quotes from the article state...

"For best performance, it is recommended that you dedicate a hard drive or drives strictly to your media assets. Specify these dedicated disks as your scratch disks." and..."In terms of performance, it’s usually best to dedicate a different disk to each asset type, but you can also specify folders on the same disk."

I understand that the effectiveness of any media that has to be accessed across the network is go be limited by the speed of the connection. I assume that I will need to install an additional drive(s) on the 690 and just use the NAS for backup.

I was hoping that with a library of very short clips, I would be able to keep them on the NAS.

Regards, AL

I was actually thinking of the following quotes:

"Although you can divide a single disk into partitions and set up partitions as scratch disks, this doesn’t improve performance because the single drive mechanism becomes a bottleneck. For best results, set up scratch disk volumes that are physically separate drives."

and

"Specify only disks attached to your computer. A hard disk located on a network is usually too slow."

You could probably get away with eSATA, but my understanding is that Ethernet, FW and USB are too slow. And if Mike says even Gigabit is too slow, I believe him.

Thanks Adam,

I missed the additional part of that article completely.

AL

Gigabit will work for DV and HDV, it just will not work WELL. Using the current internal Raid would be better. Partitioning that will have little effect on performance, but may make it easier to reinstall your OS without wiping your data.

System Specs
 

I had to return the 690 Precision to Dell because of an issue with the video card.

As a result, I was able to go ahead and restructure my system to have 4 independent drives, instead of using partitions on the 690 and the NAS device as I had planned. One drive will be dedicated for a system drive and the others for photo and video editing.

Thanks to everyone for the great ideas and input. I'll let everyone know how it works out once I get the Matrox card installed.

Regards, AL