[Trister1]

I have a G4 DP 450 with one Ultra 160 SCSI 36 GB from Quantum, and plan to set this up for DV editing (it is great for Photoshop as it is now). Besides more RAM (I have 256), I want to add more HDs for a RAID. So...
1. Can I add a new HD one at a time (for $ reasons)? Build a RAID with two HDs, and add another later when I can afford to?
2. Will I need to reformat the drives before setting it up--I would guess the software would require that.
3. Is SoftRaid the recommended software for Mac OS?
4. Do the additional HDs need to be the same size as the first? I assume they need to be identical otherwise--rpm, interface--although I wouldn't think the brand would need to be the same.

Thanks. I have started already, but these files are HUGE, 1 GB for about 2 minutes.

[TECEN]

I would like to point out that a RAID setup is not necessary for digital video. DV has a fixed bandwidth of around 3.6MB/s so IDE drives actually work acceptably. I have an 80GB Maxtor Firewire drive that is working quite well to capture and edit DV footage. It is hooked up to a Dual Processor 450Mhz G4, BTW.

[Trister1]

Well, I have the Ultra SCSI already, and again, space will quickly become an issue. It takes quite a bit of time and cartridges just to back up the video clips onto DVD-RAM, for later use.

[Trister1]

Another question-the firewire HD--will this work as fast as a RAID?

I would agree that a RAID setup is not required for dv, just get another big internal HD, it works out at about 4.5 mins per GB.

[Trister1]

I could get another HD, a large one just for DV editing, but I understand the editing, especially conversion amongst formats, will read/write faster with a RAID setup (with a nod, of course, to one's CPU and RAM). For a one hour movie, this is a lot of reading and writing.