Ok... Now Graphics Cards & Storage - 1900XT card with 1 TB Century Array $690?

[markyf]

Macdoc, a local mac guy here in Toronto, is offering this for Mac Pro 2.66s:

MacPro 2.66 speed bumps. 1900XT card with 1 TB Century array ( 200 megs per second ) $690

I know there's not alot the 7300GT can't do for my set up, since like I said I will mainly be doing offline, but one thing that appeals to me about the 1900xt is the S Video port on the card that will (I believe) allow me to avoid spending money on a DA Converter like a Canopus. I want to hook up my analogue broadcast monitor to my Mac Pro.

I don't know what a "century array" is but I know arrays are good for safety and 1TB means I won't be needing anymore storage for awhile for my DVX100B.

Any opinions? Seems worth it to me.

 

[bigbossbmb]

Apple's 1900XT does not have an S-Video port. An array of drives does not mean safety, actually the opposite in some cases. You would have to know what kind of array (RAID0, RAID1, etc) in order to figure out the benefits/problems with it. DVX footage doesn't require a RAID (so I wouldn't jump on this, just buy some internal disks).

the 1900XT can be purchased directly from Apple, which is probably a better way to go if you want the card.

 

[Capt Quirk]

BigBoss is right about the raid. I found out the hard way that a raid 0,1 isn't secure at all. When you lose a drive, you lose it all in most cases. After I had that happen, I ponied up and set up a raid 5. If a single drive goes, you just replace it and rebuild. So far it has saved my bacon a couple times.

 

[adkimery]

If you don't need the ability to get back up and running immediately that a RAID 5 provides then I would build a RAID 0 (assuming you need the speed) and use external FW400/800 drives to use as back-ups and kept unplugged and ideally in a different physical location. RAID 5 is still putting all your eggs in one basket if you get hit w/an equipment damaging power surge or the roof springs a leak right over your gear.

-A