Which Hard Drive setup is better?

[jimbojimbo]

Hey,

As always, forever trying to optimise our systems...this is my current dilema:

I record lots of audio, via Pro Tools (and sometimes Logic), and use two HD's. The system drive is the original one, 160Gb with a 3Gb/s transfer rate.
The second, or Audio drive is a nippy (10,000rpm) 150Gb drive.

I'm contemplating whether to change my system drive to another drive which I have which is 300Gb with a 1.5Gb/s transfer rate.

Should I?

I'm not too sure if the slower transfer rate is going to make a difference, but I'm pretty sure having a bigger drive in general would, so the data takes up a smaller portion of it.

I've also been speaking to someone and they suggested to get a PCIe SATA controller card, use the 10k one for OSX then the other two for audio/storage...

Any ideas?

[BRH]

Which computer do you have? If the orginal was a 160GB, I don't think it's 3gbs transfer rate. Even if the drive will do that, i don't think the mac will do it, unless you would have a mac pro, but I haven't looked at the specs for it. You are better of leaving the 1.5gbs jumper/restrictor on the drive when using it for system.

Read this

http://www.barefeats.com/hard63.html

If you read some of the other Barefeats tests, you will find if your controller only does 1.5gbs, and you put a 3.0gbs drive in without the restrictor jumper, the drive will slow down and be worse.

I'm using a Sonnet internal PCIe card with for ports and 4 extra seagate 7200.10 drives inside a 2.3 dual core. In a little Sonnet box mounts 3 drives, the forth is in the extra drive slot under my system drive. 5 total including system drive. So far no cooling problems.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonne...logy/ENCG53HD/

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonne...gy/TSATAIIE4I/

Best for system would be 10,000rpm, but this might just be overkill.

[jimbojimbo]

Yeah, you're right about the 3Gb/s drive. I've just found out that though it does that, the computer cant, so it doesnt!
Mines a PowerMac G5 (late 2005)

So, what about this as an idea:


Get that controller card you suggested (the cheaper/smaller one) and put my two standard HD's in it, then use the 10k one as system drive?

that way I could make full use of the 3Gb/s drive for audio and have a nippy system drive?

[jimbojimbo]

oh, just noticed that you need to buy a PCIe card with the mounting pack as well....but I'd only need one with two ports right? any suggestions?
sorry, I'm completely new to this!

[The Dougfather]

I think if you update your system drive to an e-sata drive i really don't think its gonna make a whole lot of difference in terms of a nippier system. Although the drives have that higher transfer rate can the rest of the system actually deliver ie. the G5's, ram etc. Can the drives write that fast?

I can understand updating the audio drive to e-sata for better bandwidth, hows your system running now, are you getting any bandwidth errors? Many of us LE users are only using firewire 400/800mbps due to the limitations of iMac/Notebooksdrives and achieving good results.

Just some food for thought

[jimbojimbo]

ah I see.
Well, to be honest, my system runs quite well, the main thing at the moment is maybe the need for more processor power - I've already posted on this forum asking about DSP cards - although I was pretty sure they dont work on Pro Tools?

Anyway, back to the HD issue...the reason I was mainly asking, is because the 300Gb drive is currently sitting on my desk as a spare part, and just wanted to know whether to try and utilise it or to get rid of it and put that money somewhere else.

From all the comments so far - yours being a possible final straw - I'm thinking to maybe get rid of it, as I do have another external drive just for storage and backup.

Anymore thoughts?

[BRH]

I don't know if they make just a 2 port PCIe card, looks like they are all 4 port. I'd put that big 300GB drive in your second slot and put the smaller 10,000 RPM as your system drive. 300GB goes a long way with audio.

[jimbojimbo]

Cheers BRH,

but wouldnt it be benificial to have the 10k drive for audio? I know its smaller, but surely if its transferring the data quickly thats better?

Although, it would be handy to make use of the massive 300Gb drive again....
I'm confused!

[JFreak]

but wouldnt it be benificial to have the 10k drive for audio? I know its smaller, but surely if its transferring the data quickly thats better?

You're right. System drive does not have to be lightning fast, because it is not supported as audio drive anyway. Better to have fast drive dedicated for audio work and perhaps a slower and bigger one as a system/storage drive. That way the performance is optimised for Protools.

If your system drive is huge, you'd better partition it 50-50 and use that second partition for storage. That way your storage data does not interfere with system files, which would then be on the outer edge of the system disk thus making it seek faster (and perhaps just as fast as the "faster" drive in real world).

[jimbojimbo]

ah nice idea.

Although, will I have to reinstall OSX then on my big drive, if I was to do that?
Dont wanna lose lots of things I've got on that drive because I don have setup files etc :-/