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Bill Kinkle · Jan 25, 2003, 12:55 PM

I have heard some talk about a limit to the size of hard drives used for video editing. I was thinking about buying 2 200gb drives and installing them in my dual 450 G4. Will I have any problems with this? I am using FCP 2, OS 9.2, 1.5 gig Ram and a Matrox RTMac card. Thanks.

dtriska · Jan 25, 2003, 10:38 PM

First, you will need an ATA/133 card like this in order to use the 200 GB drives. ATA/100 allows only 137 GB (decimal) or 128 GB (binary), depending on how you count.

Second, as long as you're using OS 9, you don't need to worry about file size limits. OS 8 could go only to 2 GB with HFS+, but OS 9 can go to 2 TB. See this.

Third, although not necessary, you could look into an ATA/133 RAID. It all depends on how you want to use those hard drives.

Bill Kinkle · Jan 26, 2003, 04:19 PM

What would be the advantage of the RAID card over the ATA133? I am going to use it for video storage for Final Cut Pro. Thanks.

tr · Jan 26, 2003, 05:38 PM

if you are using it for storage only, you don't really need the RAID feature. while, it would increase read/write speed dramatically if you were capturing to it, or using it as a scratch, if you just want a big drive to store stuff, then just stick with a non-RAID card.

tr

Bill Kinkle · Jan 27, 2003, 04:07 PM

Thanks. I will be capturing to it and using it as a scratch disk. So, I guess the the RAID would be more beneficial to me. Is this correct?

tr · Jan 27, 2003, 05:52 PM

Originally posted by Bill Kinkle:
Thanks. I will be capturing to it and using it as a scratch disk. So, I guess the the RAID would be more beneficial to me. Is this correct?

yeah, i suppose. but then again, it's all up to you. sure, i have a 160gb (2 80's) striped RAID using a Siig ATA 133 hardware RAID card, and i use it for video. do i really NEED that for video? hell no. i mean, even a firewire hd is fine for capturing and working, DV data rates aren't all that. is it fast? hell yeah! but really, the RAID isn't necessary. if you want to spend the extra cash, then get it. if you want to do a RAID 1 (mirrored) of your captures, then do it. but if you just want big ass storage (which still has good read/write speeds and disk access), then save the cash and stick with the non-RAID PCI ATA cards.

tr

Bill Kinkle · Jan 29, 2003, 10:21 AM

Thanks, that is good advice. One more question. I have a dual 450 G4. Will I have any problems using an ATA 133 card even though my bus speed is only 100?

dtriska · Jan 30, 2003, 09:22 PM

Originally posted by Bill Kinkle:
Thanks, that is good advice. One more question. I have a dual 450 G4. Will I have any problems using an ATA 133 card even though my bus speed is only 100?

The ATA/133 card connects to the PCI bus and provides a second ATA bus for devices such as hard drives. So, no, there will be no problems as the card doesn't connect to the existing ATA bus.