Internal or external HD? Also...

[Filmfanatic]

I just got Vegas 5. I know I need to get an extra hard drive. I will be making some short films ( 3-4, at 15-20min.)then make a 90 min film.
1)Should I go internal or external?
2)How big a HD should I get?
3)Are there HD brands that are the best?
4)Who has the bets prices? (I guess onlin)

Thanks, thanks, thanks and thanks!

[Barry_S]

I've had good experiences with Western Digital hard drives. I like 250 gig drives--WD SATA drives run about $160 at Newegg.com. Newegg is cheap, reliable, and fast. I'd go internal unless you specifically need to transport the drive. you can always buy an external kit for an internal drive if you need it.

[David Jimerson]

I agree with Barry, though I would also try zipzoomfly.com.

Look at the Maxtor drives as well. I've had tremendous success with them, and they're a little faster than WDs.

[Barry_S]

I'll have to check out zipzoomfly.com. Newegg always come through for me, but it's alway good to have a backup source for hardware. How are they on speed of delivery because Newegg is extremely fast.

[Filmfanatic]

Thanks to you both. I thought someone once told me external was good for some reasons that I've forgot but it sounds like internal is every bit as good.

[GenJerDan]

I also like to set up a RAID 0 array for my video drives. LOTS faster throughput.

Dan

[David Jimerson]

I'll have to check out zipzoomfly.com. *Newegg always come through for me, but it's alway good to have a backup source for hardware. *How are they on speed of delivery because Newegg is extremely fast.

They have free two-day delivery on most items.

[Barry_S]

Thanks David--free is a word I love.

GenJerDan--RAID 0 worries me a bit because wouldn't you loose all your data if one of the drives goes belly up? Seems like you have double the chance for problems with RAID 0. I should bite the bullet and go RAID 1.

[GenJerDan]

Thanks David--free is a word I love.

GenJerDan--RAID 0 worries me a bit because wouldn't you loose all your data if one of the drives goes belly up? *Seems like you have double the chance for problems with RAID 0. *I should bite the bullet and go RAID 1.

Nah....do RAID 0 and back up everything regularly.

Or use 4 drives and do RAID 0+1 (if your controller supports it).

I've yet to have a drive crap out on me. (Two systems using Maxtor SATA)

On the other hand, the RAID 5 scsi drives (HP, mostly) here at work crap out regularly. ;D

Dan

[Barry_S]

Oh yeah--I'm *so* good at backing things up. :) RAID 0+1 sounds great, but laying out the dosh for 4 drives at once--ouch. Well, maybe after I upgrade my mobo+processor.

[David Jimerson]

Personally, I think that unless you're doing HD, a RAID 0 (for speed) isn’t necessary. Current drive and throughput speeds are more than adequate for DV editing, even from external drives. I don’t think you gain much by using a RAID 0 other than an increased risk of failure and data loss.

There’s something to said for redundancy drives, but they’re not crucial, and the budget-minded editor can concentrate on other things.

I think, for a DV editor, the only advantage, and a slight one at that, is with SATA RAID drives, you can further separate the channels between the drives. If you have separate drives but they’re on the same master/slave IDE cable, you’re still sharing bandwidth on that cable.

But you could also get around that by picking up an EIDE PCI slot card.

Editing HDV or HD may be another can o’ worms, though.

[GenJerDan]

Personally, I think that unless you're doing HD, a RAID 0 (for speed) isn’t necessary.

Maybe not. I don't know. I didn't start rendering until after I started using RAID. Speeds up other things, though.

And it sure is nicer when copying those gigabyte files hither and thither. :)

Dan

[David Jimerson]

And it sure is nicer when copying those gigabyte files hither and thither. *:)


Well, that I can buy.