New Avid system HD thoughts

FatDaddy

FatDaddy

Veteran
New system getting up and running with Avid 6 Symphony and 17" MBP. Project is a mix of HD and SD, with 6 final segments at 45 minutes each. I would like to get into a Raid 5, 12tb four drive esata system as it seems TB options are still limited. There is the G-Tech G-Speed Q and Sonnet Fusion D400QR5. There is also OWC and similar companies, but not sure I want to go that route with a bigger, more expensive drive set-up. I could also go with Thunderbolt and Promise Tech's 4 bay 8 TB system (leaving me 6tb in Raid 5, project is about 4 tb in media now).


Any thoughts or recommendations?
 
So you're talking about a RAID 5 system for a laptop?

My home Media Composer system has is an iMac with four OWC Qx2 systems attached - all the 12TB modules, with 7200 rpm Hitachi Deskstar drives, running in RAID 5 mode. One is attached via eSATA and the other via FW800 and USB. The iMac has had that eSATA mod done to it from OWC.

The eSATA drive is the one I use for all of my work. Then I have another one for my library of stuff, another one for my old projects - and the fourth one is for backing up the other 3 - I have a bunch of extra sleds and swap those in and out (store one backup set onsite, another offsite).

It takes a while for them to spin up out of sleep but otherwise, everything works OK. It's really a stopgap measure - I have a proper 8-drive SATA RAID setup but it's in between computers at the moment. I thought that there would be lots of Thunderbolt adapters for me to plug in the RAID card by now but nooo...

For a stopgap system, it works amazingly well - but I've been so busy doing stuff at work for Avengers etc that I haven't had time to edit much at home so can't report on editing performance much at specific DNxHD resolutions, etc. It worked pretty well for a feature grading project a while back but wasn't using Avid for that.

That's the problem with Avid-using folks - usually employed and have no time :P

Dunno... what resolution are you finishing? DNxHD175 shouldn't be too hard for something like a G-Speed or Qx2 drive to handle, especially via eSATA. I would guess it depended partially on the quality of the ExpressCard eSATA adapter you use?

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
 
Thanks Bruce for the reply. The OWC Qx2 seems about the best cost effect solution. Did you get the model from them with drives installed? (meaning, are those the drives that come in the standard version you buy from them). I have a couple of other OWC drives and they seem fine. Starting this big project, I just keep thinking two drives will go down and screw me even with a raid 5 set-up if I buy something cheap.

I really wanted to get into Thunderbolt, but was disappointed with the lack of raid set-up's coming from NAB this year. I could swing for a promise six drive 12TB TB unit, but it seems like if I don't need the speed, esata will work fine and save some money.

The project will not be intensive at all, DNX145 with a mix of SD and HD, but it is six 45 minute shows. I do think my esata card needs an update. Any thoughts on a good esata card? 3gb vs 6gb?

Thanks again for the help!
John
 
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