Optimal HDD solution for Macbook PRO + HVX200

Z

ZzBog

Active member
Hello,

I'm getting an updated Macbook Pro as an editing station for HVX200 (I'm borrowing the camera & P2 cards). Can anybody recommend an affordable HDD solution for storage?

1) I don't really know how much space will I need (this is my forst serious digital cinematography experience). I'm going to shoot several short feature films (20 minute ones)... So how much space will I need? Will 1 TB be enough for 2-3 films?

Or do I need 2 TB? (ohhhh....)

2) Also, can anybody recommend which HDD to get? Is it better to get just Lacie (say, LACIE Big Disk Extreme 1TB 3.5" USB 2.0 / IEEE 1394a / 1394b External Hard Drive) and connect it via FW800? Or is it better to get a big 3.5 hard drive and enclosure for it?

3) Is it Ok to use the above mentioned 3.5 Lacie with MBP (which is obviously a laptop, so it uses 2.5 drives). No conflicts will come?

4) Also... is FW400 speed is enough for FCP editing?

Thank you for reading and forgive my lack of knowledge...
 
required space is completely variable and will depend on how you shoot. if you shoot efficiently and get what you need in a few takes you'll need less than if you just shoot 11 different versions of everything. 500gig? 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 765,321TB????? could be anything.

id stay away from LaCie, some folks have zero problems with their products - others (like myself) have had all kinds of problems with them. i had two identical LaCie products corrupt 2 years worth of client files...

im using OWC fw800 non raided drives lately and they work great!

you could probably get away with fw400 for dvcproHD, but i wouldnt suggest it.
go with firewire800, raid configuration helps but isnt required.

if you want to get really sexy and arent concerned about easy portability you might look into an express card esata situation (not even sure those exist for macs yet?) that would be the highest performance option.
 
For a MacBook Pro, forget firewire. As far as I am concerned, forget firewire for any editing scenario.

Get a SATA Express34 card and an external SATA mechanism.

I like the enclosures from Wiebetech but there are certainly others. Add the mechanism of your choice (I buy drives from newegg or zipzoomfly). A good mechanism to consider is the new Hitachi 1 tb. I am using a Seagate 750 in a Wiebetech enclosure.

Buy LaCie drives if you like paying extra money for the national marketing costs, Ingram Micro markup, packaging and unknown mechanisms.

Just for your learning purposes, I'll let you do the research to calculate file sizes of DVCPRO HD material.

Ned Soltz
 
Thanks for the advices!

Now...

nsoltz said:
Get a SATA Express34 card and an external SATA mechanism.

I like the enclosures from Wiebetech but there are certainly others. Add the mechanism of your choice (I buy drives from newegg or zipzoomfly). A good mechanism to consider is the new Hitachi 1 tb. I am using a Seagate 750 in a Wiebetech enclosure.
Click to expand...

I get the SATA express34 card like this...

http://www.usb-ware.com/esata-expresscard-tempo-express-34.htm

An eSATA cable and an enclosure (here's the more difficult part for me) with external eSATA interface and internal SATA interface... Correct?
 
Why no firewire? SATA is faster.

Yes, the eSata card you found is great. I paid a bit less for mine from Wiebetech.

Internal SATA interface means that it interfaces to the SATA drive which you install in the case. So, you buy a case. You buy a drive. You put them together. Then--

1) Install any necessary drivers for your SATA card. Then insert the card and make certain it is visible in your Apple System Profiler.

2) Plug in the drive and in Disk Utilities initialize the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). There was some debate about whether a media drive should be journaled or not but some chatter on the trainer's site seemed to favor journaling.

3) In FCP, set this as your scratch disk.

Here is the one caveat to these Express34 cards-- they are spring loaded and if you accidentally press on it or even if the cable somehow exerts force, the card will pop out. That will crash everything, potentially lose data and I've even had a kernel panic from it. It is a design flaw with the Express card system. The old PC Cardbus slots were locking.

It is an old debate about firewire. Apple has never really certified firewire drives for editing and while many people do have success, I would rather spend virtually the same money and have a very fast solution with SATA. The enclosure always has firewire if needed.

Ned
 
In my experience with 720p DVCPRO HD off the HVX, I have had 0 problems editing off of a single desktop 7200rpm hard drive in an external enclosure connected via Firewire--at least in Avid on a PC. As long as you're not running multiple streams you should be fine.
 
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