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Scratch Disk, how much faster is Raid 0

D

DetroitRockCity

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 23, 2009
71
0
Detroit, Michigan
So I am buying two 1TB internal drives for my new mac pro. I want to run RAID, but I am debating on how to do this. I am using these drives as scratch disks for AVCHD editing in Final Cut Pro 7.

The debate: Should I do RAID 1 or 0.
I like the idea of backing up my scratch disk in RAID 1.
How much faster will RAID 0 be? I have never used it for video editing.

Also, (and this may be a question for the MacPro area but I will leave it here)
if I do run two 1TB drives in RAID 0 mode.... would I be able to create a time machine out of them?
That way I am running at the speed of RAID 0, and I can back up my media with time machine (basically eliminating the need of RAID 1)
 
DetroitRockCity said:
So I am buying two 1TB internal drives for my new mac pro. I want to run RAID, but I am debating on how to do this. I am using these drives as scratch disks for AVCHD editing in Final Cut Pro 7.

The debate: Should I do RAID 1 or 0.
I like the idea of backing up my scratch disk in RAID 1.
How much faster will RAID 0 be? I have never used it for video editing.

Also, (and this may be a question for the MacPro area but I will leave it here)
if I do run two 1TB drives in RAID 0 mode.... would I be able to create a time machine out of them?
That way I am running at the speed of RAID 0, and I can back up my media with time machine (basically eliminating the need of RAID 1)
Click to expand...

If you use it as a time machine disk you'll negate the purpose of using it as a scratch disk. ( meaning it won't end up being any faster )

Are you going to do Software raid0 or hardware based? I think you're going to be underhelmed. It isn't something magical.
 
DetroitRockCity said:
How much faster will RAID 0 be?
Click to expand...

Twice as fast. But if the media doesn't need that speed you won't see the benefit.

I wouldn't recommend Time Machining them. You only need to back up your scratch when you add new media from your camera, so just manually back up (to another drive) when needs be.
 
I will be editing 1080p AVCHD footage in Final Cut Pro.
Does RAID 0 help me achieve faster rendering and exporting?
That is all I really care about when it comes to speed.
When I play back video and edit it, the footage is fast enough for me.

This will be through software RAID on my Mac Pro.
 
any advice on my last post?
Would RAID 0 be able to achieve faster rendering/exporting with Pro Res Footage?

If not, I am probably going to go with RAID 1 for my backup.
 
DetroitRockCity said:
..If not, I am probably going to go with RAID 1 for my backup.
Click to expand...

RAID is NOT backup. It merely provides protection from the loss of a single hard drive. It does not backup anything. If you delete/corrupt/overwrite any of your files, so does the mirror.
 
huntercr said:
Are you going to do Software raid0 or hardware based? I think you're going to be underhelmed. It isn't something magical.
Click to expand...
This is frankly nonsense. I have one Raid 0 set up for my boot-disk and another for my FCP scratch disk. They're both software based and come very close to twice the speed of a single HD.
 
I think I am going to go with RAID 1.
I know it is not backup, rather something for redundancy. If I delete the file, then it is my own fault. I want something to protect me if one of the 1TB drives decides to crap out on me.

Thank you for the help :)
 
DetroitRockCity said:
I think I am going to go with RAID 1.
I know it is not backup, rather something for redundancy. If I delete the file, then it is my own fault. I want something to protect me if one of the 1TB drives decides to crap out on me.

Thank you for the help :)
Click to expand...
Few things:
AVCHD 1080P is the raw footage, what is the codec when you capture it and what is the final product?
How many layers?
 
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