X-Serve RAID
- Thread starter D_and_G
- Start date
Rosestar
Well-known member
Yeah, I'm shopping for storage solutions for DVC-PRO HD also. If you are going to stay in DVC-PRO HD (100mbs) I think that the X-serve RAID may be a little bit of over kill. I've been impressed with the specs on the ProMax SATA raids.
http://www.promax.com/Storage/#SATA.
I was wondering if anyone has used them and can comment.
As to your post, remember to edit DVC-PRO HD you can use firewire drives. I just think that a fiber channel RAID would be too much money to spend just to do DVC-PRO HD. IMHO.
http://www.promax.com/Storage/#SATA.
I was wondering if anyone has used them and can comment.
As to your post, remember to edit DVC-PRO HD you can use firewire drives. I just think that a fiber channel RAID would be too much money to spend just to do DVC-PRO HD. IMHO.
redcap
Well-known member
I'd just go for an internal solution.
Oh and those promax solutions are horridly overpriced. Geeze. I could string together an excellent SATA raid for half those prices, and it wouldn't require that external box either.
An extra matching drive to the stock internal on a G5 (which already has SATA) would probably be sufficent. I usually get around 130 megs/second and upward read and writes.
Theres this interesting solution I was looking at that allows you to mount up to three drives in the extra space in the G5's case along with extra SATA cards, it claims that the built in fans are ample for cooling. Anyway you could easily set up a 4 drive raid and get even fast speeds of probably 200 meg/second (or so they claim.) Which wouldn't suprise me. If you wanted even more speed you could get the 10k rpm drives, but they're limited to about 72 gig's for $210.
You'd want to go for an xraid if you were sharing the same footage across several editing stations, and you'd ideally have those stations hooked up through a gigabit ethernet switch using cat 6e cable. Ideally, or better yet a fiber channel interface straight into the xraid, but boy can that get expensive.
Oh and those promax solutions are horridly overpriced. Geeze. I could string together an excellent SATA raid for half those prices, and it wouldn't require that external box either.
An extra matching drive to the stock internal on a G5 (which already has SATA) would probably be sufficent. I usually get around 130 megs/second and upward read and writes.
Theres this interesting solution I was looking at that allows you to mount up to three drives in the extra space in the G5's case along with extra SATA cards, it claims that the built in fans are ample for cooling. Anyway you could easily set up a 4 drive raid and get even fast speeds of probably 200 meg/second (or so they claim.) Which wouldn't suprise me. If you wanted even more speed you could get the 10k rpm drives, but they're limited to about 72 gig's for $210.
You'd want to go for an xraid if you were sharing the same footage across several editing stations, and you'd ideally have those stations hooked up through a gigabit ethernet switch using cat 6e cable. Ideally, or better yet a fiber channel interface straight into the xraid, but boy can that get expensive.
Rosestar
Well-known member
redcap said:
Tell us about "this interesting solution" you were looking at. Were can we get more info. It seems to me that the internal solution is cool for speed but I think that I am gonna need more space than is available with internal drives. I would like to have about 3tb (usable) of SATA (or faster) storage. What would you suggest?
Graeme_Nattress
Red Team
Yes, it's overkill, but there's also a lack of worry about your hard drive solution. The Xserve RAID is very well built, sturdy, and works for anything you throw at it. You can also configure it RAID50 so you'd got some redundancy should anything go wrong. The more drives you RAID together with RAID 0, the less reliable they become as a whole. RAID50 keeps the reliability up, speed up, and doesn't loose you much storage space.
SATA is a very decent alternative for cheap storage however. I think, for most people, SCSI is dead.
Basically, the nice thing about the Xraid is it's fit and forget, although it's loud and heavy. If you order one, make sure you've got a friend to help you lift the darn thing! I'm very, very happy with my Xraid, but it's not the drive solution for everyone, but it is very, very nice.
Graeme
SATA is a very decent alternative for cheap storage however. I think, for most people, SCSI is dead.
Basically, the nice thing about the Xraid is it's fit and forget, although it's loud and heavy. If you order one, make sure you've got a friend to help you lift the darn thing! I'm very, very happy with my Xraid, but it's not the drive solution for everyone, but it is very, very nice.
Graeme
Graeme_Nattress
Red Team
I don't know - perhaps Mike at HD for indies might have an idea. I just played it safe on the Xraid.
Graeme
Graeme
FaceTheSpencer
Active member
As far as internal drive-expanding options there are two main options right now:
The wiebetech G5 Jam!
http://wiebetech.com
There is the original G5 Jam - that adds two drives up behind the pci bays.
Then the G5 Jam+ which adds two more down near the memory (in front of the cpu/s).
The way they do this is by replacing the air baffle with one that is sturdy enough to mount drives onto.
The other solution (which can work with the G5 Jam original to get SEVEN drives internally)
is called the swiftdata200:
http://www.transintl.com/macupgrades/index.cfm
And it is a baseplates that allows 3 drives to mount right beside the RAM/removable fan...
I've read a grip of reviews on all these solutions - and most reported little to no heat differences with these drive solutions - which seems insane to me. But so be it...
Once I can get my hands on a G5 - I will start with the swiftdata.
As far as Xserve RAIDs go, yes they are overkill for many situations - their throughputs are amazing for a reason - Xsan and multiple computer setups - but by all means if it fits in your budget, it will give you incredibly manageable, reliable, apple-integrated storage that can continually grow as your business/hobby does - which is by no means a bad thing.
Have you guys ever checked ou the management tools for the Xserve RAIDS? They're incredible - you can see status of each piece of the RAID setup remotely - including temperatures of each side and status of the fans/backupbattery(if installed), etc...and of course they are stunningly gorgeous...
The wiebetech G5 Jam!
http://wiebetech.com
There is the original G5 Jam - that adds two drives up behind the pci bays.
Then the G5 Jam+ which adds two more down near the memory (in front of the cpu/s).
The way they do this is by replacing the air baffle with one that is sturdy enough to mount drives onto.
The other solution (which can work with the G5 Jam original to get SEVEN drives internally)
is called the swiftdata200:
http://www.transintl.com/macupgrades/index.cfm
And it is a baseplates that allows 3 drives to mount right beside the RAM/removable fan...
I've read a grip of reviews on all these solutions - and most reported little to no heat differences with these drive solutions - which seems insane to me. But so be it...
Once I can get my hands on a G5 - I will start with the swiftdata.
As far as Xserve RAIDs go, yes they are overkill for many situations - their throughputs are amazing for a reason - Xsan and multiple computer setups - but by all means if it fits in your budget, it will give you incredibly manageable, reliable, apple-integrated storage that can continually grow as your business/hobby does - which is by no means a bad thing.
Have you guys ever checked ou the management tools for the Xserve RAIDS? They're incredible - you can see status of each piece of the RAID setup remotely - including temperatures of each side and status of the fans/backupbattery(if installed), etc...and of course they are stunningly gorgeous...
RandyRosenthal
Active member
Kai & Graeme,
I'm glad to hear you are using xserve raid and love it. We just purchased a 4tb xserve raid (10 x 400Gb) We want to get 4 more drives to fully populate the raid & it seems 400GB drive modules are unavailable from the usual suspects. Any ideas where to pick up more?
I'm glad to hear you are using xserve raid and love it. We just purchased a 4tb xserve raid (10 x 400Gb) We want to get 4 more drives to fully populate the raid & it seems 400GB drive modules are unavailable from the usual suspects. Any ideas where to pick up more?