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Should I buy matching hard drives?

A

Antoneo

Diamond Member
I currently have a Seagate Cuda IV 80 GB in my system right now and I am pleased with it. I plan to get another hard drive for photoshop scrath disk, digital video editing, extra storage, and possibly RAID since my EPoX 4g4a+ came with an Highpoint IDE raid controller.

I can either buy a Seagate Cuda IV 80 GB for $93, Seagate Cuda V 80 GB for 103, or Western Digital 80 GB SE for 105. All of these prices are without shipping costs.

Should I try to get matching hard drives? Would different drives cause a problem in RAID? Of the three choices, which would have the most value? I love the low level of noise my current makes but have not done anything really disk intensive yet so I guess I am satisfied with its speeds. Would having a 8 meg cache noticably speed things up ie. in digital video editing?

TIA guys!
 
If I remember correctly, some Seagate Barracuda's had issues in RAID arrays.

I'd look at some reviews at Storage Review.

I think it is typically best to match hard drives in a RAID array, but in your case I'm not sure if you will even want to RAID. It may be better to just get a second drive and not put them in an array.
 
My vote is that unless you really need RAID, its not worth the effort. RAID arrays always have issues, and I personally wouldn't think of having two drives RAIDed as my only storage as it inherently increases the risk of failure, and I've had quite a few drives die on me.
 
Get the WD, but don't RAID them. And use it for the editing because you'll prolly notice the tiny noises that HDs emit especially after using a Cuda
 
RAID does increase the transfer rate for video editing, but as was stated earlier you do increase your risk of a drive failure (one drive fails and you lose the data for both). There is a good article in Storagereview.com that has some figures for improvement.

I run RAID, but I also run Smart Backup that automatically backs up my data onto another computer on my home network everyday. If my computer dies, I can be back up and running quickly.

If you need the speed, my suggestion is to buy two new drives for your RAID (you did not say how old your other drive was). If you are not good at doing backups, then dont get a RAID set up. If you cannot afford two new drives right now, then I would stay away from a RAID set up.

But it all depends on how much Video editing you do. If you make money on it, then deffinately look into a RAID array. They are very easy to set up, and they are fast for Photoshop and Premier.
 
Originally posted by: magomago
Get the WD, but don't RAID them. And use it for the editing because you'll prolly notice the tiny noises that HDs emit especially after using a Cuda
Click to expand...

I've been using Cudas for years....what noise are you referring too?

-VTrider
 
Originally posted by: VTrider
Originally posted by: magomago
Get the WD, but don't RAID them. And use it for the editing because you'll prolly notice the tiny noises that HDs emit especially after using a Cuda
Click to expand...

I've been using Cudas for years....what noise are you referring too?

-VTrider
Click to expand...

Reread the post as it's reffering to the WD noise compared to the Cuda's...which I wouldn't suggest RAIDing the IV's cause of the performance hit which has now been fixed on the newer Model's...note all Cuda's will demise and a new Model will come out soon as in all HD's

 
Hey guys,
If you need the speed, my suggestion is to buy two new drives for your RAID (you did not say how old your other drive was).
Click to expand...
I only have a single drive as of now, the cuda IV 80 gigger, which i bought in August of 2002. I don't make any money off of photoshop/DV editing since its will be just home stuff of the family and such. I don't think I can justify buying two brand new hard drives though.

Yes, I remember hearing issues of the Cuda IV with RAID a long time ago when I bought it. Thanks for reminding me about that. I guess I won't do an IDE RAID since it doesn't seem to be worth the risk of data loss.

However, running two hard drives (one as scratch) does offer increased performance over having all of the caching/accessing happening on one alone correct? I already have 512 megs of DDR 2700 ram (running at 2100 I think, never had a chance to o/c...yet 😉), do you think money is better invested in more ram with these applications (arg, I also remember hearing stories of peopl with the same EPoX board having trouble with dual sticks of ram)?
 
I would suggest buying matching drives as well. I would also suggest buying 3 drives, instead of just one, and doing striping/mirroring. Have two sets of striped drives, one set mirroring the other set. I've got a striped array in my computer right now, and I'm just hoping and praying that I don't lose a disk before I get a chance to build another machine...

Ryan
 
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