best option hard-drive speed for video files

[JP9x9]

Hi, my first actual post on macRumours so I'd better explain fully, so here goes;

I work in video and need a fast hard-drive setup. I am currently working off a unibody Macbook Pro (I plan on getting a mac pro when I can afford it). The MBP is fine but I need more space for files and when backing up.

I would like to know which is my best & fastest option;

A) esata card and external drive (pref raid 0) with 2 or more drives. Though not sure of which esata express-card 2 port version to get, and can I get 3Gbits/s with port multiplier etc?

B) basic mac os server over gigabit network with 2 or more software raided hd in.

C) NAS attached to switch over gigabit network for direct connection

Also I have 7200 500GB seagate drive in MBP, but would one of these options work faster as bootable drive with video on it too?

Any advice greatly appreciated. I don't have lots to spend either! Thanks J

 

[belvdr]

The eSATA will be the fastest. Anything going over the network has to traverse the network stack. Even if you could saturate a gig link with one computer copying files, you'll be limited to a theoretical 125MB/sec. Keep the traffic local.

 

[foidulus]

Hi, my first actual post on macRumours so I'd better explain fully, so here goes;

I work in video and need a fast hard-drive setup. I am currently working off a unibody Macbook Pro (I plan on getting a mac pro when I can afford it). The MBP is fine but I need more space for files and when backing up.

I would like to know which is my best & fastest option;

A) esata card and external drive (pref raid 0) with 2 or more drives. Though not sure of which esata express-card 2 port version to get, and can I get 3Gbits/s with port multiplier etc?

B) basic mac os server over gigabit network with 2 or more software raided hd in.

C) NAS attached to switch over gigabit network for direct connection

Also I have 7200 500GB seagate drive in MBP, but would one of these options work faster as bootable drive with video on it too?

Any advice greatly appreciated. I don't have lots to spend either! Thanks J

Is your video editor of choice 64-bit? If so, I would recommend you compromise your hard drive choice a little bit to invest in more RAM, as Snow Leopard will be able to deliver a lot of memory to the process. However, if its still 32 bit, investing in more than 4 gigs of ram might not really offer a whole lot and you would be better off with a faster hd.

 

[JP9x9]

Is your video editor of choice 64-bit? If so, I would recommend you compromise your hard drive choice a little bit to invest in more RAM, as Snow Leopard will be able to deliver a lot of memory to the process. However, if its still 32 bit, investing in more than 4 gigs of ram might not really offer a whole lot and you would be better off with a faster hd.

I totally agree with you. I will be upgrading to Snow Leopard on Friday but I think we'll have to wait for the Software updates to Final Cut Pro and After Effects etc to make use of true 64 bit processing. I'm not sure if it's worth the RAM upgrade for a laptop as it only has 2 slots and 1x 4GB module is over £200! Shame bigger modules of RAM aren't cheaper as I'd love to load it up with 2x8GB with Snow Leopard.

 

[teeck2000]

Esata is the fastest option so I would suggest that. Port multipliers work to some extent but in my testing I have found they aren't very good at high data rates and have some weird sustained read/write performance issue where they idle at random times. You can get a pretty cheap esata 2port silicon 3132
card for the expresscard 34 slot but if you need to do serious video work I would suggest an expresscard 34 hardware raid thats not a port multiplier. The express card 34 slot's max data rate is 220MB/sec, so keep that in mind if you are gonna work in anything that needs faster than that.