Raid 5 vs Raid 10

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kanauru

Member
I've been researching quite a bit on what RAID solution I should be using for my editing needs. I primarily edit Cineform files.

Originally I was going to go with Raid 0 setup being backed up by an external hard drive. But as I researched more I was considering Raid 5 or Raid 10 ( also with a external hard drive backup ).

I've heard from many people that Raid 5 isn't as fast as Raid 10 and isn't very good for editing. But after searching for a OWC raid kit, I saw benchmarks in a review

http://www.barefeats.com/hard126.html

They claim Raid 5 is just as fast as Raid 0 with the OWC and even better especially according to the "Full Volume - 4G Sequential Read Test". Though that may or may not affect video editing performance. So I wasn't sure if this was true and wanted to see if anyone had opinions on this. Thanks!
 
What codecs are you editing with? And how many layers of video do you edit at the same time?

A standard 7200rpm drive is typically sufficient for your more basic edits, particularly with a compressed codec like AVCHD and H.264.
 
TigerFX said:
What codecs are you editing with? And how many layers of video do you edit at the same time?

A standard 7200rpm drive is typically sufficient for your more basic edits, particularly with a compressed codec like AVCHD and H.264.
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I edit Cineform files at the High Quality setting.

I work with several layers since I primarily edit music videos so typically at least 5.
 
I use the caldigit HDelement in Raid 5 - Ive never used a raid 10 set up. But I assure you its plenty fast enough.

Interestingly on the performance shown on the website for raid 5, they have been conservative, as my speed tests are better than what they are showing.

http://www.caldigit.com/HDElement/hdelement_performance.html

Im not endorsing Caldigit either, just telling you my experience.
 
Noel Evans said:
I use the caldigit HDelement in Raid 5 - Ive never used a raid 10 set up. But I assure you its plenty fast enough.

Interestingly on the performance shown on the website for raid 5, they have been conservative, as my speed tests are better than what they are showing.

http://www.caldigit.com/HDElement/hdelement_performance.html

Im not endorsing Caldigit either, just telling you my experience.
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Wow that's pretty fast.
Those high speeds might be due to the Raid Card that comes with the HDelement. The Raid Card itself retails at $659
The HDelement is tempting but over my budget at the moment. I'll keep looking.

Note :
Caldigit has a summer deal.

"You’ll get a free CalDigit VR 2TB ($699) with the purchase of a 4TB HDElement "
http://caldigit.com/HDElement promotion/
 
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I'm using the same OWC Elite RAID5 box with four WD 1.5 TB Green drives ( which are slower 5400 RPM ), and I am getting the same speed using an eSATA connection.

180 MB/sec write speed

200 MB/sec read speed

It's a great, quiet, low-temp RAID box that does not require any special RAID card to use.
 
TheDingo said:
I'm using the same OWC Elite RAID5 box with four WD 1.5 TB Green drives ( which are slower 5400 RPM ), and I am getting the same speed using an eSATA connection.

180 MB/sec write speed

200 MB/sec read speed

It's a great, quiet, low-temp RAID box that does not require any special RAID card to use.
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I was also considering the OWC Elite, though RAID 10.

But I think I'll save up to get a RAID 10 using the RocketRAID 4322, it's almost 3x as expensive but you can get to at least 400 mb/sec read and write or even up to 600mb depending on the rest of your setup.

Not sure if that's over kill for High Quality Cineform files. Do you edit using Cineform? Otherwise I might just go for the OWC Elite instead.
 
kanauru said:
I was also considering the OWC Elite, though RAID 10. But I think I'll save up to get a RAID 10 using the RocketRAID 4322, it's almost 3x as expensive but you can get to at least 400 mb/sec read and write or even up to 600mb depending on the rest of your setup.
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The speed bottleneck with the OWC Elite RAID box is the connection type. The fastest being eSATA 2.0 right now.

To get higher throughput you need a dedicated RAID card, this means that you have to be able to install the RAID card and drivers, so laptops and multiple computers are out of the picture. ( using an eSATA connection you can connect your RAID box to almost any computer with an eSATA port )

kanauru said:
Not sure if that's over kill for High Quality Cineform files. Do you edit using Cineform? Otherwise I might just go for the OWC Elite instead.
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I use Cineform's NEO SCENE software with no problems. ( fine for high quality 1080P format )
 
TheDingo said:
The speed bottleneck with the OWC Elite RAID box is the connection type. The fastest being eSATA 2.0 right now.

To get higher throughput you need a dedicated RAID card, this means that you have to be able to install the RAID card and drivers, so laptops and multiple computers are out of the picture. ( using an eSATA connection you can connect your RAID box to almost any computer with an eSATA port )



I use Cineform's NEO SCENE software with no problems. ( fine for high quality 1080P format )
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Indeed. I guess I wasn't specific. When I mentioned the RocketRAID 4322 card ( at least $400 ) I meant the dedicated route. I would also need to get an enclosure for the drives ( $100-200 ). And the 4 hard drives would be about 250-300 which totals to about $800-900 for a dedicated setup.
Still cheaper than a calDIGIT though.

What setup do you use for your hard drives? Otherwise I might just go with the OWC route instead of the expensive dedicated route.
 
kanauru said:
What setup do you use for your hard drives? Otherwise I might just go with the OWC route instead of the expensive dedicated route.
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I have four 1.5 TB WD Green drives in the OWC Elite box, they are configured as one 4.5 TB RAID 5 GUID partition, and I edit with Vegas Pro 9.0e running on Windows 7.

I bought WD Green drives as I knew that the eSATA connection would be the bottleneck, so getting faster WD Black drives would be of no use. The Elite box is pretty much silent, with virtually no heat coming out of it.
 
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