Advice needed on drives, scratch, data, OS, etc.

[olindacat]

Okay, I'm going to get killed for asking this again, but here goes....

I have an iMac (2011) i7 3.4 with 16GB of RAM and two (2) internal Vertex 240GB SSDs in RAID 0. I also have an internal eSATA cable running out of the bottom connected to an OWC QX2 12TB RAID set to 5.

I have the RAID 0 SSDs being backed up to the QX2 via TM.

All my working and archived data is stored on the QX2, however I keep active project files on the desktop as well as in the documents folder and it's getting sloppy.

I use CS5 PP for me NLE and have the OS and all programs running on the Vertex RAID 0.

What should I do to improve this? In other words:

1. Should I use the Vertex RAID 0 for scratch, OS, apps, etc. as I am doing it, or should I allocate on the eSATA RAID 5?

2. My OS: should that remain or be moved?

3. Same with APPs?

4. What about current projects, and archives? Should ALL data be removed from SSD or is my sloppy file system acceptable?

Many thanks for any tips or suggestions!

 

[Erendiox]

Ideally, you want to keep your media and OS separate. By keeping them together, you're forcing a single drive system to manage both running your OS, applications, and streaming your media in realtime. That's both random and sustained data access at the same time. Your raided boot SSD will likely keep up with this, but you'll probably see better performance by keeping all your media and scratch material on your RAID5. Have you tested the read/write performance of both your drive systems? Unless your SSD RAID is way way faster than your RAID5, I would recommend keeping only your system and applications on the SSD.

Archiving can stay on the RAID5 until you start running out of space... in which case you're looking at either another RAID5 or a RAID1 box where you can throw the bare drives in a closet somewhere.

 

[olindacat]

Ideally, you want to keep your media and OS separate. By keeping them together, you're forcing a single drive system to manage both running your OS, applications, and streaming your media in realtime. That's both random and sustained data access at the same time. Your raided boot SSD will likely keep up with this, but you'll probably see better performance by keeping all your media and scratch material on your RAID5. Have you tested the read/write performance of both your drive systems? Unless your SSD RAID is way way faster than your RAID5, I would recommend keeping only your system and applications on the SSD.

Archiving can stay on the RAID5 until you start running out of space... in which case you're looking at either another RAID5 or a RAID1 box where you can throw the bare drives in a closet somewhere.

Yes, when then system was first put together. SSDs are 2X faster. I know OS/APPs on one drive is conventional wisdom, but it just seems like a terrible waste of $2000 and 540GB of ultra-high speed bandwidth. What about OS/APPs on a TB device?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

What kind of footage do you edit and is it using a proper editing codec?
Maybe it is not the speed of the storage device, that is the problem.

 

[Erendiox]

Yes, when then system was first put together. SSDs are 2X faster. I know OS/APPs on one drive is conventional wisdom, but it just seems like a terrible waste of $2000 and 540GB of ultra-high speed bandwidth. What about OS/APPs on a TB device?

If your SSD RAID is that much faster, you can certainly keep your media and OS on the boot drive. You will get better throughput. Just make sure, for organization sake, you have a designated place for active projects so you can easily move them to your RAID5 once you're done editing.

If your active project ever grows so far that you cannot keep it on your SSD, I'm sure the RAID5 is plenty fast for running your media.

You can keep your OS/Apps on a Thunderbolt drive, but the options on that are really limited. Only ones I know of are a lacie portable raid and the promise pegasus. Promise is expensive and the lacie I wouldn't really recommend.