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?