Best config for video editing

[Memphis Raines]

I have been putting together a system for HD editing with a Matrox RTX2 HD card

ASUS P5B DLX/WIFI-AP Pentium 4/Celeron/Pentium D/PentiumEE/65nm dual-core/Core2Duo/Core2EE
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4GHz 1066MHz) Socket 775 L2 8MB Cache (2x4MB (4MB per core pair)) Retail Boxed Processor
OCZ 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 CL 4-4-4-15 PLATINUM XTC with LIFETIME WARRANTY
Enermax EIN720AWT 720w Infinity PSU silent and Cool 13.5cm Fan
GECUBE X1950Pro 512MB GDDR3 DVI PCI-E

DATA 3x Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM
SCRATCH / SWAP ( RAID0?) 2x WD Raptor WD360ADFD 36GB SATA 10KRPM 16MB Cache - OEM
OS 1x WD Raptor WD740DFD 74GB SATA 10KRPM 16MB Cache - OEM

I have a fairly strict set of parts for the main system for compability but i want to get the most out of the hard drives that i can


I have initally laid out a plan in the above arrangement, but i am curious for peoples ideas on best possible performance

 

[Bomag]

With those disks that is probably the best option. For preference I would swap the pair of 36GB Raptors and go for another pair of 500GB drives.

 

[Memphis Raines]

With those disks that is probably the best option. For preference I would swap the pair of 36GB Raptors and go for another pair of 500GB drives.

i did want to have dedicated OS and scratch disks ... i know the 500s are quick and will give extra space if needed, but the temptation to fill them up would be high and then that would get rid of any speed boost

there is nothing stopping me adding more 500s? with 7 sata ports having 4 500GB and 2 36GB and a 74GB is an option

the system will be running several large projects at once, and will change around every few weeks, current in DV PAL each project uses arouynd the 60GB mark and there is about 600gb of space.


the main area of thought is,

1, will the raptors be noticably faster than an ordinary 500gb drive,
2, will a raid0 pair for scratch discs be worth the £130?
[edit] 3, what about RAID 10 or RAID5 with the 4 500GB drives? whats best for write speed?

money is a factor, but speed and efficiancy is also just as important, the quicker the rig is, for longer, the better.

 

[Bomag]

The main benefit of raptors is the reduced access times and greater I/O. For raw speed 7200rpm drives are now much closer. For the best access times it is best to have a non raid raptor.

Unless you have a proper hardware RAID card I would avoid RAID5 as the CPU has to do all the XOR calcs. The last time I tried a non-hardware RAID5 adaptor it had blinding read speeds 100mb/s + but write speeds of 20mb/s and CPU loads of 50% +.

Since a pair of 500gb drives should be fast enough for editing you could have three pairs of 500gb drives and a Raptor as the system drive. One pair for temp/scratch files , one for footage and a third pair to encode too.

An alternative would be to have two raptors OS+scratch plus a couple of 500GB and look to invest in a good NAS (e.g Thecus N5200) for backup - I have one with 5*750GB in RAID5. As the hardware does the RAID5 XOR calcs it will run at 40mb/s both ways over a gigabit network supporting jumbo frames.

 

[Memphis Raines]

Since a pair of 500gb drives should be fast enough for editing you could have three pairs of 500gb drives and a Raptor as the system drive. One pair for temp/scratch files , one for footage and a third pair to encode too.

pairs in RAID0 your on about? just worried about the high risk factor there, I can understand the speed would be amazing, as good as raptor speed.

as for backup, 5*750GB! what do you get from that? 2.6TB? bet thats expensive! probably more than the cost of the hole system build!


unfortunately the client doesnt value backup as highly as i would like! and now gonig from 600GB total space, to 3TB! and a backup for that will mean another 7 500GB drives in RAID5 which is £450 - £500 for drives alone

Might have to start off with 3 single drives and then move up to pairs later, it will make a big difference in the drive costs

 

[easyrider]

150 GIG raptor as OS.

two 500 GIG's in RIAD 0 as scratch disk.

Move your page file to this array.

You dont need raid 5 as the DV files for editing are just for temporary files.

As you will probably author the final edit to DVD -r

 

[Bomag]

You dont need raid 5 as the DV files for editing are just for temporary files.

RAID5 isn't needed for DV files while editing but unless the end user is really confident that his DVD-R are fault free he will want to safely store ISOs, particularly if he is providing them to third parties who will expect a replacement disk if it is faulty or incompatible.

Memphis

The NAS I quoted would be a bit OTT, however a RAID0 NAS or eSata box with a couple of 500GB shouldn't be that more costly than your original spec.

 

[Memphis Raines]

As for the RAID5, when each project can take 2 or 3 weeks to edit then there is the time for client changes, and cost of £1000 to £5000 per project! I think a redundancy is important! if only in the form of an overnight backup, as most drive failures occour at spin up/down

remember this is HDV using the matrox RTX2, i dont know the exact datarate atm but as it still uses firewire it wont be that high, but i reccon 80GB to 160GB per project so 1TB for projects should be fine initally.


eSata... hmm the mainboard has an eSata port, i will look into options

I am sure i wont need 150GB for my OS! properly set up the OS uses around 30GB, so 74GB drive should be fine i think

thanks for peoples replies, please keep them coming

 

[easyrider]

As for the RAID5, when each project can take 2 or 3 weeks to edit then there is the time for client changes, and cost of £1000 to £5000 per project! I think a redundancy is important! if only in the form of an overnight backup, as most drive failures occour at spin up/down

remember this is HDV using the matrox RTX2, i dont know the exact datarate atm but as it still uses firewire it wont be that high, but i reccon 80GB to 160GB per project so 1TB for projects should be fine initally.


eSata... hmm the mainboard has an eSata port, i will look into options

I am sure i wont need 150GB for my OS! properly set up the OS uses around 30GB, so 74GB drive should be fine i think

thanks for peoples replies, please keep them coming

There is 35 quid difference between the 74 gig and 150 gig.

ADOBE production studio alone takes up enough space.

The 150 will give you more room to breathe