iMac 2.8 configuration

[CP450]

I want to replace my desktop (PC) with an iMac. I have a few thousand photos and several hours of unedited RAW DV that needs some work. I am neither a photographer or videographer, however, I would like to expand my limited exposure to these hobbies.
I don't think I need a Mac Pro at present. Would it be best for me to order the iMac with a 1TB internal HDD and purchase a 1TB external for backup or go with a 500GB with a 1TB external? Do you utilize 'scratch' disks? Any thoughts on the best way to format a large internal or external drive? I will definitely purchase 4gb RAM from a source other than Apple. Thanks for the help

 

[SaSaSushi]

I want to replace my desktop (PC) with an iMac. I have a few thousand photos and several hours of unedited RAW DV that needs some work. I am neither a photographer or videographer, however, I would like to expand my limited exposure to these hobbies.
I don't think I need a Mac Pro at present. Would it be best for me to order the iMac with a 1TB internal HDD and purchase a 1TB external for backup or go with a 500GB with a 1TB external? Do you utilize 'scratch' disks? Any thoughts on the best way to format a large internal or external drive? I will definitely purchase 4gb RAM from a source other than Apple. Thanks for the help

I am wanting to get one of these to use with my iMac:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198006

Firewire 800 and VERY cool that you can swap out HDDs on the fly. Perhaps something like this might be an option for you as well if you intend to need such heavy storage.

 

[CP450]

Thanks for link...any other suggestions?

My thoughts were that the 1TB external HDD would simply be a back-up for the primary storage on the internal 1TB drive. However, I wonder if this is necessary. Perhaps a 500gb drive internally and external drives for back-up? Any formatting suggestions for the drives or suggestions for the use of a scratch drive for editing?

 

[czachorski]

My thoughts were that the 1TB external HDD would simply be a back-up for the primary storage on the internal 1TB drive. However, I wonder if this is necessary. Perhaps a 500gb drive internally and external drives for back-up? Any formatting suggestions for the drives or suggestions for the use of a scratch drive for editing?

You are asking the right questions.

The 1TB internal upgrade on the iMac falls way up the curve in terms of cost per GB. For me, the 750 GB with the iMac made the most sense, although the best bang for the buck is to go with 500 GB internal, and then do everything else external. My thinking on the 750 was it was worth it to get a little more internal, even if the price is a little higher per GB, because it will be hard to upgrade that drive later. The 1 TB internal just went to far on extra cost for that same logic to hold.

I am also struggling with a good back-up scheme, now that I am doing HD work and the files are very large. It is concerning if I want an identical back-up of all media, because every GB I import means I need 2 GB with the back-up.

To avoid that mess, what I am doing is I have a back-up of all my DV footage on data DVDs at my neighbors house in h264 format at about 2-3 GB per hour (still high quality, but smaller than 12 GB / hr for DV stream format that you will get from a DV cam). For high Def, I am importing it into iMovie in Apple "large" format (960 x 540) for viewing and editing at 12 GB per hour. I can not see a difference between that size and full HD on my computer or a HD TV, and it beats the 50 GB per hour of the full HD files (1920x1080). I am not going to back-up my imported HD footage. It would burn through space too fast. (I'm recording about 2-4 hours of footage per month and it could be as much as 500 GB per year and the 2x that for the backups). Rather, I am going to just put the original DV tapes at my neighbors for an off-site backup, and then anything that I edit will get put on data-DVD and stored off-site for back-up, but these files are usually much smaller because they are short edits.

Whhhewww. It gets tricky fast, but with a little pre-planning, you can come up with a nice scheme that works for you. Looking forward to blue-ray burners getting more affordable too.