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Ok I need help with storage

R.Perez

R.Perez

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 16, 2010
400
2,472
Seattle, WA
Here is my current storage setup...

Internal iMac drive 1tb

Time Machine backup 1.5tb Western Digital USB 2.0 External

Media Storage 1tb WD Green attached Via USB with Thermaltake BlacX Dock


Here is what I would like to do....

I plan on buying this enclosure ( I am open to other suggestions)

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/575649-REG/PROAVIO_DVB_PRO_dvBOX_Professional_Hard_Drive.html

I will be using this as my main media storage (photos, music, movies etc.)

I need this to be as fast as possible. I will connect via firewire 800

My main question on this: Should I buy another WD green and use both of those in a Raid 0 config?

Or spring for two 1tb Caviar Black drives to use in a raid 0 config?

What would the performance difference between two WD Green in Raid 0 vs. Two Caviar Black Drives in Raid 0???

And would the difference be worth having to buy 2 new drives instead of 1?

Next...

I plan on using my existing 1.5tb drive as external storage for my apple tv

and buying this as my time machine backup drive... (again open to suggestions) This one does not need to be fast, just reliable.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/625843-REG/Western_Digital_WDH2Q40000N_4TB_My_Book_Studio.html

Ok guys thoughts???
 
Dual bay enclosures = 2 big fans.

WD green drives are already "slower" by design, so moving to WD blacks would be faster, but thats a pretty big spend. A RAID with WD Blacks might saturate the FW800 bus.

that case looks kinda crappy, stand looks flimsy. If I was going dual bay I would go OWC.

You could go with something like this: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEPT934AL2CK/

But if you want a true reliable RAID 1, you would want this instead:http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/GM8QKIT0GB/

Im not a fan of RAIDs, RAID 1 = 2X the drives = 2X the failure rate -- which is what worries me about the WD drive. Two 2TB drives configured as a 4TB RAID 1. Again with the RAID 1.

Id probably keep it simpler myself, maybe a single 2TB FW800 drive. Maybe build my own with a WD black.

for just storage a single FW800 drive should be more than enough. Honestly, even USB 2 would work fine for photo, music and movie storage.

I use a set of 4 single FW800 drives, they are fast (at least they were fast in their day) 400 and 500 gig IDE drives in OWC cases. I keep my iPhoto library on one (about 12,000 photos, and 60 gigs) and access is instant.
 
No need for two Caviar Blacks as FW800 will likely limit the speed of dual Caviar Greens in RAID 0...

Enclosures with multiple bays are as Badger^2 said, quite noisy. I have 4 external HDs, even though it's a hassle sometimes, they are quiet.

@Badger^2: RAID 1 is the most secure way to store data because it mirrors everything to the another drive so it' like 24/7 backup. I think you're getting confused by RAID 1 and 0.

RAID 1 = security, no speed boost (if one HD fails, everything is stored into the other drive as well)
RAID 0= speed, less secure than a single HD (everything is lost if one HD fails)
 
Hellhammer said:
No need for two Caviar Blacks as FW800 will likely limit the speed of dual Caviar Greens in RAID 0...

Enclosures with multiple bays are as Badger^2 said, quite noisy. I have 4 external HDs, even though it's a hassle sometimes, they are quiet.

@Badger^2: RAID 1 is the most secure way to store data because it mirrors everything to the another drive so it' like 24/7 backup. I think you're getting confused by RAID 1 and 0.

RAID 1 = security, no speed boost (if one HD fails, everything is stored into the other drive as well)
RAID 0= speed, less secure than a single HD (everything is lost if one HD fails)
Click to expand...


I am not confused.

As I explained I am going to be using this as my main media storage drive.

I am not worried about security, if you read the whole post I plan on buying a 4tb external to as a backup drive for everything.
 
R.Perez said:
I am not confused.

As I explained I am going to be using this as my main media storage drive.

I am not worried about security, if you read the whole post I plan on buying a 4tb external to as a backup drive for everything.
Click to expand...

Mmm, I did notice that. Some of my post was response to Badger's post, that's why all the RAID things.

As I said, no need for Caviar Blacks and the products you linked looks good
 
I feel like I need to explain this a bit more...

I am not using the raid enclosure as a backup drive.

I have an iMac with a 1tb internal, as space on that drive is

limited, I am going to keep things like photo's, movies, tv shows etc

off of that drive. I want the fast external as my main drive for almost

everything except for programs (which I will keep on the internal drive) will be on the external.

I will then get a large 3-4tb USB external to use as my time machine backup.

That is why I plan on using RAID 0 on the FW external, because I will have

a large and slow backup USB drive as well.
 
R.Perez said:
Here is what I would like to do....

I plan on buying this enclosure ( I am open to other suggestions)

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/575649-REG/PROAVIO_DVB_PRO_dvBOX_Professional_Hard_Drive.html
Click to expand...

As far as I've read the specifications of that enclosure, it does only support RAID0, which would double the capacity of a single drive.
If you're good with that, I don't see any reason not to buy that enclosure.

R.Perez said:
I need this to be as fast as possible. I will connect via firewire 800

My main question on this: Should I buy another WD green and use both of those in a Raid 0 config?

Or spring for two 1tb Caviar Black drives to use in a raid 0 config?

What would the performance difference between two WD Green in Raid 0 vs. Two Caviar Black Drives in Raid 0???
Click to expand...

FW800 has a maximum real life throughput of approximately 80MB/s.
A single 1TB WD Black makes 110MB/s +. A 1TB Green makes about 80MB/s. If you stripe these drives that would make 220MB/s for the Blacks and 160MB/s for the Greens.
Of course one has to consider that these are the transfer rates on the outer areas of the drives. If your drive gets full, these rates drop.
Still, the Greens are more than fast enough for a FW800 connection in a RAID0.
The Blacks would be a waste of money.

R.Perez said:
And would the difference be worth having to buy 2 new drives instead of 1?
Click to expand...

Instead of a RAID0 enclosure, I'd rather buy a single bay enclosure with a 2TB WD drive. A RAID0 out of two drives has twice the failure rate of a single drive.
But which ever way you choose (single or dual drive setup), make sure that you backup your data frequently.
The WD drive you suggested should be fine.
 
As to your question when comparing a 2TB Caviar Black with a 2TB Caviar Green through Tom's Hard Drive Charts. You will likely see a 30% to 40% boost with the Caviar Blacks when reading/writing numerous smaller files. Such as your music, photos, icons (assuming they are not huge Photoshop files but just pictures taken).

However you would not see any advantage with large files such as movies, TV shows, large Photoshop jobs, &c. As with these files a single caviar green would saturate the FW800 bus let alone two in RAID 0.

Given your uses in this situation I would go with the Caviar Greens due to the lesser energy usage. After the initial major transfer (which would be limited by your internal anyways) the speed difference would not be noticeable. Unless of course you do a lot of big edits on your photo library with Aperture.

I recently offloaded my music and video libraries to my server I just built which provides a much slower connection than dedicated hard drives. Though the initial iTunes and Windows Media Center setup took much longer. I notice no difference in daily use.

If you want maximum speed with your small files then the Caviar Blacks are the way to go.
 
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