iMac FireWire 800

F

Fidelio

Active member
Hi all,

Given my budget I have decided to choose an iMac as my entry point into Final Cut Studio.

I have one question, however; I have been told that it is better to have data and OS + applications on separate drives, and so I must ask: can a 7200RPM hard drive sufficiently run as a scratch disk on its FireWire 800 connection?

If not, can I boot Mac OS X externally using the same connection and use the internal SATA hard drive as scratch instead? Can FireWire 800 handle the stream of information coming from the operating system and its programs? I am not particularly familiar with Macs, so pardon me if I have any misconceptions about their abilities.

Much thanks,

F.
 
You should be okay with a 7200rpm/FW800 drive as your media drive. Of course, this really does depend on which codec you'll be working with. DV will be an absolute breeze. HD codecs, certain flavors, will be fine though with limited streams. High-end HD codecs may be pushing the limits.
 
Thanks, C2V. What about the other way around? Is that a viable option as well? I've heard someone say that it isn't a good idea, but I don't see how myself...
 
OS and Applications need to be on the SAME drive. And the need to reside on the drive that is inside the iMac. THen use the FW800 drive for media. THAT is the way to go...do not put the OS on the external drive, then media on the internal. That's crazy talk.
 
Hi Shane,

I came to consider that setup because by some accounts, FireWire 800 is not fast enough to sustain that volume of information and since the iMac does not offer an eSATA port, I figured that the internal SATA will be just as good speed-wise, if the operating system and applications can run fine via FireWire 800. My external hard drive has two 800 ports and I assume that I can daisy chain the spare as the de facto port for other devices. My consideration also came out of the fact that I don't think I'll have nearly as many applications as to fill up a terabyte of space, and so this solution seems somewhat more economical. Thoughts?
 
Fidelio said:
I came to consider that setup because by some accounts, FireWire 800 is not fast enough to sustain that volume of information and since the iMac does not offer an eSATA port, I figured that the internal SATA will be just as good speed-wise, if the operating system and applications can run fine via FireWire 800. My external hard drive has two 800 ports and I assume that I can daisy chain the spare as the de facto port for other devices. My consideration also came out of the fact that I don't think I'll have nearly as many applications as to fill up a terabyte of space, and so this solution seems somewhat more economical. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

You are greatly tempting fate. Not even sure if you could run OS on an external FW drive... but then, there's no good reason I can think of to do this (including your situation). And applications need to be on the OS drive, with media separated.

You also, very likely, have a 5200rpm drive as your internal. This is just as important as data transfer rates when editing video, and you really need to have a 7200rpm drive for your media.
 
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