ATA Raid or Scsi

[dartblazer]

Which is better for which? Ultra160 Scsi vs. IDE Raid

Large File manipulation(over 150MB)
Small file Manipulation(2-30MB)

 

[Pabster]

SCSI is better in either case.

Some people report certain IDE RAID configs work decently for large file manipulation. But IDE RAID is a terrible idea, no matter the drives or the controller. IDE drives are not manufactured to the demands of RAID.

Particularly when working with large amounts of smaller files, SCSI shows its true colors. The low seek times allow it to access files much, much quicker than even the speediest IDE drives.

In short, I'd go with SCSI. It's gonna cost you, but you won't be disappointed.

 

[BreakApart]

<< Which is better for which? Ultra160 Scsi vs. IDE Raid

Large File manipulation(over 150MB)
Small file Manipulation(2-30MB) >>




SCSI wins both of those hands down!

The only advantage IDE has is cost...

 

[rbV5]

<< But IDE RAID is a terrible idea, no matter the drives or the controller. >>



I'm putting together a RAID0 ide array for capturing video only. I have a pair of Maxtor D740X 40GB drives and plan to use one of the variety of PCI RAID cards for the extra channels. What would you suggest as a solution for me that wouldn't be a "terrible idea" I currently use a Maxtor ATA 100 45 GB 7200 drive and a dedicated NTFS partition for capture, and while it can certainly handle the sustained transfer rate for full Resolution Raw AVI capture, it is right on the edge. The 80 GB ARRAY I want to construct, seems to be the most cost effective way to get higher sustained transfer rates so that I have some performance overhead, and enough space to capture even the longest movies, am I incorrect?. I am open to suggestions...Thanks.

 

[BreakApart]

<< I have a pair of Maxtor D740X 40GB drives and plan to use one of the variety of PCI RAID cards for the extra channels. What would you suggest as a solution for me that wouldn't be a "terrible idea" >>




Rather than use RAID i am using this setup in my video capture/edit machine...

(3)drives total:
-Boot drive (it was a 15Gig basic nothing special drive, but now it has an 80Gig boot drive I use for video,mp3, file storage also)
-(2) Maxtor 30Gig 7200 rpm drives, each on its own channel using Ultra ATA/100 PCI card

Capture to (1) of the 30Gig drives, then Edit/process/convert the video across to the 2nd 30Gig drive.

This setup has been the best for me, just didn't like the IDE RAID idea at all, and SCSI is out of my casual video capture budget.

 

[rbV5]

<< Capture to (1) of the 30Gig drives, then Edit/process/convert the video across to the 2nd 30Gig drive >>



Problem,

Uncompressed Raw AVI Capture 720x480 NTSC approx 600MB for 30 seconds or about 144,000 MB for 120 minutes. Not enough room for a 2 hour movie with all 80 GB in my Array, so this is no good.

Huffyuv compressed AVI capture 720x480 NTSC approx 300MB for 30 seconds or about 72,000 MB for 120 minutes. Just enough room for 2 hour movie.

That is my storage requirement for analog capture of a typical VHS movie, and using Huffyuv retains enough of the original bits so that my finished product has acceptable quality (very nice actually) I have to drop the resolution down for broadcast capture in order to capture more than 2 consecutive hours(very rare, but possible) but since the broadcast source is of higher initial quality, I can get away with it and actually have as nice or nicer quality when I'm finished compressing.

I would consider these to be worst case examples, but the only way I can find to get acceptable high quality results. I can reduce my file size dramatically by capturing MPEG-2 highest quality, and use that for simlpy capping/watching, but I find editing MPEG-2 to be more trouble than it's worth when cut accuracy counts, and unbearable when doing any kind of effects or titling. When converting VHS tapes to digital, MPEG-2 just loses too many bits to compress again, I do pretty good mind you, but not nearly as good as Raw Avi capture, faster yes, but not better.

Currently, my method is Huffyuv 720x480 NTSC>Nandub SBC encoding, and while I'm a bit of a Nandub newbie, wow, I can't say enough how impressive the results are. If you have an alternate method that can produce results like I'm getting I'm all ears.