Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Eggie1313

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 13, 2007
8
0
External Hard Drive Setup Macbook Pro
Hi
I own a Macbookpro computer with 2GB of ram running FCE. I need an external hardrive to edit/store all my video on. This is just standard definition video not HD. I have looked around a lot and have come up with this setup. Click the links.
http://firmtek.stores.yahoo.net/sata2ensm2e.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148140

This would be two hardrives setup using my Expresscard on my computer. Now I would like to set these up in Raid 0. Can i do this just using mac OSX or do i need anything special?

Thanks for the help
 
after i get a MBP thsi month i was going buy the Firmtech one i saw it at macworld and its fast and by the way the second link does not work
 
if you are just working with DV (which i would assume since you're running FCE) then I don't know why you would need a RAID setup... a 7200RPM FW400 drive is plenty fast for DV.
 
yeah but my computer does not have a fw 800 port and only one fw 400 because its the first gen macbook pro. i would also do the raid 0 if i can just easily set it up using mac OSX software
 
Why do you feel you need RAID 0?
It ups the risk of loss considerably.

An eSATA card and enclosure is a decent idea because it gets the Data stream and the DV stream separated, so they are not contending for the same Firewire controller. I don't feel RAID0 is worth it however.
 
then get an express card that has a FW port on it... RAID 0 is not worth the trouble unless you desperately need the bandwith.

RAID != SATA
You can do RAID with FW drives or eSATA drives. You can run FW or eSATA singly. The advantage with eSATA is that the bandwidth is higher than FW, if the OP has to buy a expresscard anyway, they can choose between FW and eSATA independent of the decision about RAID. FW enclosures may be less money, but 2 bay removeable tray enclosures are more common with SATA.
 
oh yeah i forgot to add the RAID is just optional in how i format the two drives. i will be able to do this using disk manager on mac osx. but in my link above to the barefeats the raid o doubles performance
 
yes, RAID0 is faster... but when working with DV, you won't see ANY benefit from that.

unless you absolutely need two drives, then there isn't much of a reason to get a 2-bay enclosure. just get a FW400 enclosure, a 500gig drive and you'll have plenty of space to edit.
 
i just went out and got everything i have listed i figure that if i plan on upgrading to HD within the new few years then i will need faster stuff and more hard drive thank you for all your guys advice
 
yes, RAID0 is faster... but when working with DV, you won't see ANY benefit from that.

unless you absolutely need two drives, then there isn't much of a reason to get a 2-bay enclosure. just get a FW400 enclosure, a 500gig drive and you'll have plenty of space to edit.

Hell, if you need two drives just daisy-chain them together.

I regularly work with 3 FW400 drives daisy-chained together w/o any problems at all.


Lethal
 
most FW enclosures have 2 FW ports... so you plug one drive into the computer and another drive in the the first drive... and a third drive into the second drive... etc.

it isn't recommended if you are using a lot of streams, but it works.
 
I run a RAID5 system which may or may not give me bragging rights/ nerd points.

Listen to the people here, they are right, you don't need RAID0.

Do you even have a HDV camera? If not, thats another $2000 you need to spend before getting one.

If you do not plan to be editing on HDV within the next 9-12 months, then I would wait. Enclosure prices & HD prices will be almost half as cheap by this time next year.
 
Some colleagues of mine at work made an astounding discovery about ordinary 720rpm firewire drives.

There where some graphic sequences and packages for a magazine programme made for a very large broadcaster that needed archiving.
It was cut on Avid Media Composer in normal SD quality and consolidated on to a 350Gig cheepy Western digital firewire drive (and we ARE talking cheep).

The graphics where stored at 601 the VT inserts at 3:1 compression.

Some time later the archive material was needed again.
Thankfully the operator given the task of retrieving the Avid media forgot to drop that media in to the Avid's disk array. The project was booted and play was hit on the time line.
Much to our astonishment the project played…. Perfectly, even the parts of the project that had only been "expert" rendered.

We now don’t bother consolidating to firewire drives anymore. We edit whole projects on them. Even the 45 minute doco I cut, that is currently on air, was cut using these drives. :D

So a 7200rpm drive with a 16MB cache will handle real SD in 4:2:2 not fake SD in DV 4:2:0/4:1:1 quite happily. :p

NB. The 601 Graphics didn’t play in real time, but the drive had a bloody attempt at it!
 
I think I have a good solution for you.

I configured a cart at OWC and put this in it:

1) A 500GB external SATA/FW800/FW400/USB2 drive. $260. This way you can use it on just about any computer on earth and on your MBP with or without the ExpressCard (see below). [OWCMEAQ7500GB16]

2) A SIIG 2-Port ExpressCard/34 Adapter. $80. I chose this card over a cheaper card that was only $45 (wow!) because SIIG is a well-known brand.
[SIISCSAEE12S1]

So for a total of $349.43, including 2-day shipping, you have a complete setup.

You don't need a RAID, don't waste your money or bother increasing your risk for data loss.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.