Firewire Question
 

OK - an old diehard SCSI guy here. I know this has been covered ad naseum, but I've been off the board for a while and I've got to ask.

I've been using Cheetah's on my Mix systems for the last several years with excellent success. I often have up to 64 tracks with moderate to heavy density edits.

I'm going to upgrade the systems to the new G52.0 duals with HD3accell PT. The problem is - there's no place for a SCSI card with the HD3 taking up all 3 slots. I have a very substantial outlay in Storcase enclosures, trays and HD's and the thought of tossing them makes me kind of ill....

I like having my session all on one drive for housekeeping reasons. Will I be dissapointed with FW? What kind of track count can I expect at 24bit/48k? Also, I'm considering either the Glyph GT103 or the Storcase 321 FW removable enclosures. Any thoughts on those? Any ideas would be helpful for me.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and experience.

Bill

Re: Firewire Question
 

*bump*

Surely someone here started out on SCSI and switched to FW drives. I'm just looking for some insight on track counts, etc. Thanks.

Bill

Re: Firewire Question
 

Well, I used SCSI Cheetas for years on a Mix+ system and made the switch about 9 months ago. I have to say that I have no regrets. I work at 48/24 as well and to be honest I haven't noticed a difference preformance wise at all. I do Ads so my material is typically lots of tracks, & lots small files with heavy edits and plugs. I'm using "Other World Computing" 's Mercury Elites 120 gig....w/ the 8mgb cache. They are very cheap and durable. I did some research here on the forum and like what I read about them and after putting them through the wringer I'd have to recommend them. There is no fan on the drive so they are totally quite which is a nice change from the Cheetas.

Re: Firewire Question
 

I had the same concerns you have, drBill--lot's of cheetahs and storecase trays. Went to HD3 accel with G5 dual 2gig and love it. The trick is to get an internal 10,000rpm SATA drive for the heavy stuff (I use a 76gig Raptor). I saved my G4 with the scsi setup just to do transfers from the cheetahs to Firewire.

Re: Firewire Question
 

Thanks guys. I appreciate the feedback. Looks like I may be OK with the firewire drives, although I will definately go with a SATA internal second drive. I was planning on a second drive anyway, but now I'll make it a SATA drive. Thanks again - and any more thoughts / experiences with Firewire vs. SCSI are welcome. Bill