My head is going to explode (a little HD help, please)

[techound1]

I recently purchased a used "Early 2008" Pro. It has a stock 320gb HD. I know MBPs inside and out and nada about MPs.

I'm starting to get back into work with video and I could use some learned suggestions. I'm thinking I want a faster HD for faster access and read/writes, and another for storage of footage/raw files/finished stuff (but I read in another thread that's not really necessary any more...).

What would you do?

(1) is it really a good idea to plunk everything on one big drive (assuming proper backups are made via raid or TM)? If so, what's a speedy large drive to upgrade with?

(2) If not, what's the best way to go for a fast boot HD? 80gb Intel x25s seem to be $370-ish. That's a 2.5" drive - do I need a special mount (or duct tape)? I'm totally confused on which velociraptor drive may or may not work in my machine (and why? that confounds me horribly ) - and they seem to be around $230 for a 320gb.

Thanks for any insight you can provide!

 

[pprior]

Well like anything else it depends on how much you have to spend and what your "needs" are.

If you're just editing consumer video then your read/write rates are not very high and you can do everything with just one drive.

HOWEVER going to a 2 drive system will definitely improve speed.

If you're happy with overall performance on boot and app loads now then quite frankly I would just pick up a 1TB drive (check slick deals, just had them well under $100) and plop it in bay 2. Capture all your video to there and you'll be good to go.

I have a velociraptor and like it, I've used SSD, and RAID and all that. But until you've outgrown your machine, don't go spending more money than you need. For less than $100, adding a terrabyte drive (and I'd add another one for time machine BTW) will be a nice upgrade.

 

[kellen]

Could go raid 0 with 2 WD 640 for cheap speed at less than half the price of a 300gb raptor. Then get a 1tb drive for backups and you can use the stock 320 as a essential external back up disk.

From what I have read here and other places, the 640 is nearly the speed of a raptor.

So for the price of a raptor you could get a nice boot drive and a tb of storage, with an external.

If you go with a raptor, the backplane has to be the right one to fit the mac pro so the ports line up.

If you go with a ssd 2.5 they make sleds for them to fit the mac pro.

 

[techound1]

Ah, the physical form is the problem! That just stopped one of the veins from popping out of my forehead.

I've been seeing that about the 640s too. Somebody even felt like it was 90% of the speed of the VR.

So many combinations... I like the idea of a mirrored raid - one poos the bed and you just swap it out - no spending forever trying to restore from the TM...

Every three weeks I have to crank out a 2 1/2 minute video on a very short time table and it would be dreamy to cut the processing time by a big chunk, but 2 days/21 days of need isn't yet to the point of plunking down serious cash.

Thanks for the help clarifying!

 

[bearcatrp]

When working with video, its always faster to use a second drive as a scratch disk instead of reading and writing to the same disk. Would suggest having 3 disks. Main for your OS and apps, 2nd for scratch disk, then a 3rd for backups.

 

[VirtualRain]

Get an X25-M on Monday... it should be close to $300 after the price drop. Mount it using an ICY DOCK MB882SP from Newegg for $20. Read some of the other threads around here for more info on the benefits of this approach.

 

[techound1]

Get an X25-M on Monday... it should be close to $300 after the price drop. Mount it using an ICY DOCK MB882SP from Newegg for $20. Read some of the other threads around here for more info on the benefits of this approach.

I like price drops. What price drop on Monday?