Howdy!
So, I'm doing some processor and drive intensive stuff on the iMac G5 in my sig. I'm hitting walls, and looking for ways to boost performance...but hopefully in such a way that I will still be able to make use of this stuff when I move to a MacPro sometime in late 2007 or early 2008.
What I'm looking at doing right now is putting together a RAID with some external discs that I'm currently using. I've got three firewire drives (80GB, 160GB, and 200GB) that I have acquired over the last couple of years.
Question 1: Is it possible to create a RAID 0 with these drives of differing capacities?
Question 2: If partitioned, with one section of this partition being used as a scratch disk for Photoshop and Final Cut, will I notice a boost in the performance of those apps? How big should that partition be?
Currently, the 80GB is just laying around. The 200GB and the 160GB are used primarily for backups of data from my iMac and my iBook. My wife and I have started a business and we are in need of some significant storage, so I was considering buying a 500GB or 750GB drive anyway (or two 320GB drives...as I've found a good deal).
Question 3: If I purchased a 500GB drive, what would be the best way to arrange my four drives (not counting the startup drive) to ensure best performance with the peace of mind that comes with a fully bootable backup?
Currently, I use SuperDuper! to create bootable backups of both machines (though, this may change with Leopard). Would it be best to arrange the drives I currently have into a RAID 0, and then use the 500+GB drive to mirror that? Or would it be better just to do nightly backups?
OK, I'm looking for thoughts and opinions. Thanks a bunch for your advice...MacRumors has always been good at giving me ideas, and setting me straight when I have misconceptions.
So, I'm doing some processor and drive intensive stuff on the iMac G5 in my sig. I'm hitting walls, and looking for ways to boost performance...but hopefully in such a way that I will still be able to make use of this stuff when I move to a MacPro sometime in late 2007 or early 2008.
What I'm looking at doing right now is putting together a RAID with some external discs that I'm currently using. I've got three firewire drives (80GB, 160GB, and 200GB) that I have acquired over the last couple of years.
Question 1: Is it possible to create a RAID 0 with these drives of differing capacities?
Question 2: If partitioned, with one section of this partition being used as a scratch disk for Photoshop and Final Cut, will I notice a boost in the performance of those apps? How big should that partition be?
Currently, the 80GB is just laying around. The 200GB and the 160GB are used primarily for backups of data from my iMac and my iBook. My wife and I have started a business and we are in need of some significant storage, so I was considering buying a 500GB or 750GB drive anyway (or two 320GB drives...as I've found a good deal).
Question 3: If I purchased a 500GB drive, what would be the best way to arrange my four drives (not counting the startup drive) to ensure best performance with the peace of mind that comes with a fully bootable backup?
Currently, I use SuperDuper! to create bootable backups of both machines (though, this may change with Leopard). Would it be best to arrange the drives I currently have into a RAID 0, and then use the 500+GB drive to mirror that? Or would it be better just to do nightly backups?
OK, I'm looking for thoughts and opinions. Thanks a bunch for your advice...MacRumors has always been good at giving me ideas, and setting me straight when I have misconceptions.