raid array

[Michael Maga]

Looking to add a raid array for video storage.

Trying to avoid thunderbolt stuff because of the price,

so I need usb 3.0

I was going to buy a case and add 2 WD Red drives.. but having

trouble finding a good quality case..

any recommendations?

[Victor Lazaro]

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ns=p_PRICE_2%7c0&ci=14075&N=4289302695+4251149709&srtclk=sort

Otherwise Drobo 5D is a great storage solution, but pricey.

[Eric Fletcher S.O.C.]

http://www.bhphotovi...709&srtclk=sort

Otherwise Drobo 5D is a great storage solution, but pricey.

 

THe Drobo is nice but it's not fast enough

[William Demeritt]

I haven't bought a RAID enclosure in a while, but quickly going through Newegg, if I was shopping for one I'd probably go with this:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111149

 

4 bays, USB 3.0 and eSATA connection, and you can set it up as RAID 0 which I assume you'd want for video editing. Of course, if you buy 4 drives and set up as RAID 5 (probably ideal), you get considerable speed with a single backup drive (striped across 3 drives with parity on 1). Or, if you're afraid of volatility of data (I hope you make backups elsewhere), just go with the standard issue RAID 0+1: keep the stripe speed and get mirrors of both drives in case of failure.

 

You can further beef it up if you use the WD Red drives in the enclosure and a SSD drive for your NLE's scratch drive.

[Michael Maga]

Thanks for the reply... I like that enclosure

there was one other I looked at that is pretty close in price http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816856039

but it doesnt look like it has the Clone (N-way Mirror) with Hot Spare and JBOD options... no big deal though

So.. I think the one you posted is a better deal.

 

My laptop has a 512 ssd.. and I use the 480 ssd in my hyperdeck (usb3.0 dock)

I was planning on keeping my backup in raid as well.. so I was thinking

Raid 0+1 with 4 WD red drives.. everything should run on usb 3.0...

Any other suggestions?

thanks!

Mike

[William Demeritt]

I would say that keeping a backup in RAID is unnecessary, but if you do, just copy it to a RAID 1 array and then take it offline immediately. Keeping it online, even in RAID 1, introduces unnecessary fault opportunities for an archival backup. I'd even suggest you even borrow/rent a tape backup unit and just archive it there, but that's probably a better solution after the edit is done. RAID 5 should serve you just fine if you use the scratch disk elsewhere (your notebook's SSD, etc).

 

Anyway, I'd suggest you copy the files to the RAID array, and then copy the files to 2 external HDD's. Check the files to make certain they're identical/flawless, then take them offline and edit the RAID enclosure.

 

Using a single SSD with the operating system in your laptop isn't optimal. What laptop do you have? I'd suggest adding another SSD drive to your laptop and using that as the scratch disk. That way, you've isolated the throughput bottleneck to the USB 3.0 interface. If your laptop support ExpressCard or PCMCIA cards that offer eSATA, I'd suggest that as a way to bypass the USB 3.0. USB is fast, but it's your bottleneck with this setup.

 

EDIT: Also, if you're looking for a good SSD drive recommendation, I'll say that I've bought a couple of ADATA drives and used them a lot. I know they're a no-name company, but they're a great price and great read/write speeds for that price.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211603

 

Read: Up to 550 MB/s

Write: Up to 530 MB/s

includes TRIM support.

[Michael Maga]

Thanks William..

I am running a macbook pro quad core 2.6ghz i7 with 16gb ram, 512gb ssd.

I am by no means a pro at editing, and it is mainly just for clips I have worked on

as well as a cheapie movie I shot. So if it is a little bit slow..thats ok with me..

 

here are 2 options that are both close in price..

Lets assume for both I am removing the optical drive and installing a 2nd hard drive in the laptop as scratch disc.

and also backing up the original file offsite.

Which option do you like better...

 

Option 1 $600

G-Raid 4tb thunderbolt..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822205177

very fast thunderbolt speeds, but only 2 drives for a total of 4tb

 

Option 2 $650

4bay usb 3.0 raid array

4 WD 2TB Red drives

slower usb3.0 speeds, but 4 drive for a total of 8tb

[William Demeritt]

I'd honestly base my recommendation off 1) future editing needs, and 2) total storage needs.

 

I'm impatient, and I feel like editing off USB 3.0 would still annoy me with the bottleneck when compared with Thunderbolt speeds. If 4TB were enough to store the project and edit everything you needed, I'd actually tend to go with that (assuming everything performs as advertised). With Thunderbolt, you're likely to hit the max speed of the stripe (probably reads at 66MB/s x 2 = 132MB/s theoretical) before you hit the max speed of Thunderbolt?

 

Of course, in 2014, they're saying that SS USB 3.0 will hit 10Gbps, which puts it at Thunderbolt speeds.

 

Enough blah blah... if I were getting into the habit of editing, but I knew 4TB would be fine for most of my projects, I'd probably go with the G-RAID with Thunderbolt. If you get more editing jobs, buy another G-RAID Thunderbolt drive and daisy chain them. If USB 3.0 gets to Thunderbolt speeds down the road, maybe re-evaluate.

 

I hate bottlenecks, unless they're attacked to a small reservoir of beer.

 

EDIT: Also, I removed the optic drive from my Macbook Pro and added an SSD drive. Really sweet setup, easy to do and super simple.

[brett.mayfield]

William is right about the G-Raid. Theyre reliable and I've found them to be really good at handling a lot of travel and constant plugging and unplugging. I've been teching for a few years now and do a significant amount of travel and have never had an issue with any G-Technology.

I personally use a lot of Western Digital devices because ive found the price point to be good and the products havent ever failed me, though they do feel a bit cheap (but the drives themselves are great and i just upgraded my tower to all WD drives and built a whole slew of new portable drives out of just WD drives). Dont even consider Lacie. Drobo dies all the time, I would never put money into it.

 

For a laptop, Id remove the hard drive and add an SSD, then remove the DVD drive and replace it with a 1TB (or larger) HDD. Its a very simple, inexpensive process. You can buy a little kit here: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDAMBS0GB/

 

This way you are runing your operating system on a separate (and faster) drive from where all your assets live.

 

USB3, esata, Thunderbolt...you can even edit over fw800 if you have to. I dont rely much on thunderbolt, but you can find plenty of great express cards here: http://sonnettech.com/product/macbookaccessories/index.html

 

anyways, these are different methods and devices ive used on a very regular and frequent basis

 

in terms of your two choices, i think that the GRAID is probably more reliable for travel, though yes you do get less storage. if its just sitting on your desk, id say go for WD. That's what I would do if it were my cash and my workflow. To be honest, I really dont think you can go wrong with either.