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me262

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 6, 2007
29
0
CT, USA
Ok alot of you may have remeberd my Mac Pro for Hd editing. Thank you all who informed me to wait however that really gave me more questions than asweres so if its ok with everyone could you answer these questions very straite foward.

So no matte what im going to perchase the 2.66 quad macpro (unless the 8 core version comes and pushes the 3GHz into my price range) and am going to put 5Gb of ram in it, as well as the x1900xt. Im going to perchase 5 server class 500Gb drives from seagate and as monitores im going to do 2 24 inch dells. (sorry price to performance ratio is to good, plus now i work off of sceptre monitores and im very happy with them so the dells must be better than what im working on, plus i need the inputs that they offer for other perifeals)
Ok most of this stuff i am very sure about, allthough if you have more suggestions about the core hardware they are always welcome.

The reall questions that i want to know are:
1.Im edditing HDV 1080i from 2 sony Z1U's, how many hours am i going to fit on about 2,000Gb's. I want to know becaus i have another 150Gb firewire 400 drive but i really want to keep all my drives internal.

2. If you notice up above i wrote 5 500Gb server class drives this isnt a typo. From what i read the macpro has 2 unused sata ports on the motherboard. First of all is this true? and secondly my plan is to run to lines(1 from each port out of the case from a open pcie cover to a exsternal enclosure. Thefore my drive setup would look like 1 1 160Gb bootdrive and 3 internal 500Gb drives, then running off of the two free drive ports on the motherboard 2 more 500Gb drives in an exsternal inclosure. Is this possible?

3.My last poast left me questioning raiding my drives. I have never had a raid before, i have manly worked off of 1 drive with SD material so this is new to me. Is it worth raiding my 500Gb drives(I dont want raid 1) My origenal plan was to raid all 5 in a raid 0 array and use it as a massive scratch disk/capture disk. However after giving it some though and listening to others i was thinking about only raiding the 3 interal 500Gb drives and using the exstra 1Tb to store the capture and the final cut projects and leaving the 3 internal as the scratch disk.

4.Heres a new question. I want to desighn somthing similar to a SAN but cheaper if possible. I need to use Gigabit eathernet because i still use my laptop as a onsite cature computer and as a second editing computer and i want to make sure i have access to my files on it without using firewire over ip. I also want a pooled network storage that i can capture to and work off of(maybe not capture to, but work off of). I know the Macpro supports ( i believe its called eather jumbo frames or mega frames) and i found a great eathernet switch that supports that as well but i have not been able to find a storage solution that does. My budjet is about 3000 dollars for this and it needs to beable to be opened on 2 computers at once. Any suggestions? Building a linux server is always an opion but you will have to point me in the direction of the distrobution that i should use. For the server/NAS i will put 2TB worth of drives into it. Just to clarify the $3000 is just for inclosure and software and if possible the Ram. I got more money for drives.

Thank you for your time in answering the questions, But please answer the written questions.
 

CanadaRAM

macrumors G5
OK, well I would never recommend capturing to Ethernet connected storage or working on it as primary drive location. If you want this then you will need a SAN and spend the big bucks.

Do your work on locally attached drives, and backup / archive to the NAS to make room on the internals.

For shared Ethernet storage, look at LaCie, Buffalo Terastation, and other NAS solutions.

For locally connected, expandable storage look at Sonnet, Firmtek and Wiebetech for SATA docking bays and interfaces.

Hint: Don't you already have a thread going on this? You'll get better answers if you ask concise questions. We don't want to have to read a novel...
 

me262

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 6, 2007
29
0
CT, USA
OK, well I would never recommend capturing to Ethernet connected storage or working on it as primary drive location. If you want this then you will need a SAN and spend the big bucks.

Do your work on locally attached drives, and backup / archive to the NAS to make room on the internals.

For shared Ethernet storage, look at LaCie, Buffalo Terastation, and other NAS solutions.

For locally connected, expandable storage look at Sonnet, Firmtek and Wiebetech for SATA docking bays and interfaces.

Hint: Don't you already have a thread going on this? You'll get better answers if you ask concise questions. We don't want to have to read a novel...

Sorry, i thank you for your sugestion of the network storage, i had a feeling that that was the case oh well. Ill just do as you said and use the NAS to back up on.

As far as the other thread, it was a sligtly different topic and this was my fallow up to that.
Also i know i type alot, so if you or anyone who reads this could consentrate really on questions 2 and 3 it would be the biggest help. Remeber im not using a sata card for the exsternal drives on 3, im using the supposed free sata ports on the mac pro.

Thank you
 

trainguy77

macrumors 68040
Nov 13, 2003
3,567
1
Why don't you buy 750gb drives instead of 500gb drives? Might just give you that extra space you need.
 

me262

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 6, 2007
29
0
CT, USA
Why don't you buy 750gb drives instead of 500gb drives? Might just give you that extra space you need.

Because the cheapest reliable 750Gb drive is 350 a piece and the comparable 500 is only 189 thats half a gig more perdolar if i buy the 500Gb model plus there quieter
 
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