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RAID Array options

nateo200

nateo200

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Feb 4, 2009
2,918
51
Upstate NY
I do video editing and Final Cut Pro X transcodes slower than anything I've ever seen.....I was thinking of doing a stripped RAID array and after reading up a bit it seams like that can nearly double my performance...I have to exact drives...160GB 7200 2.5inch laptop drives...If I were to make a RAID array using these with the built in RAID system on Mac OS X what would be the best configuration? I understand that using the USB bus would cut the bus speed in half no matter what, but what if I had one on firewire and one on USB? I also have a 1TB drive and some flash drives so I'm open to suggestions! Thanks!
 
You're going to want to get 2 enclosures with firewire 800 and set it up to do RAID 0. Firewire 800, unlike USB, lets you chain-connect devices. Basically, each hard drive enclosure has 2 firewire ports. One goes into the computer, and the other connects to the next hard drive enclosure. That would give you the best performance based on the hardware you have available.

However, it might be cheaper or easier to just get an external hard drive with firewire 800 from western digital or seagate, etc. Some actually let you RAID 0 in the hardware, as the enclosure has room for 2 drives.
 
Last edited:
Freyqq said:
You're going to want to get 2 enclosures with firewire 800 and set it up to do RAID 0. Firewire 800, unlike USB, lets you chain-connect devices. Basically, each hard drive enclosure has 2 firewire ports. One goes into the computer, and the other connects to the next hard drive enclosure. That would give you the best performance based on the hardware you have available.

However, it might be cheaper or easier to just get an external hard drive with firewire 800 from western digital or seagate, etc. Some actually let you RAID 0 in the hardware, as the enclosure has room for 2 drives.
Click to expand...

Ok so let me get this straight...USB's 480Mbps gets cut in half if you have 2 devices sucking up one bus...but Firewire's one port does not get its 800mbps cut in half? If so that is sweet! I use a Canon 550D which doesn't have direct Firewire connection like HDV cameras do so If I could just dump my SD cards onto 3 chain connected drives (2 for RAID0 stripped and 1 for failsafe back up) that would be sweet! The 2 160GB drives are enclosure less right now and I can only connect one at a time via a special SATA to USB adapter, but I would be interested in getting Firewire Enclosures for both the 160's and using the 1TB or even my MacBooks internal drive as the fail safe back up whether its part of the RAID array or not...from what I've read and heard from some IT guys anything under RAID 5 (? might be 2 or 4 idk) is at double the risk of hard drive failure for obvious reasons..


EDIT: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6076821&Sku=W10-9030 I use this guy (one of them) currently. Its empty now since I had an error with it (backed up everything important on dual layer DVD's). Could I get a second one and somehow rig it to firewire or what?
 
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