Firewire vs Internal hd

Beez_ · Post by **Beez_** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 17:36

My question is about the fastest filetransfer between hd and computer. Is firewire/usb2 as fast/faster/or slower then a fast internal hd? and has anyone tested the SATA drives. Thanx

SuperficiaL_ · Post by **SuperficiaL_** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 10:21

hi beez,

it kinda depends on what system u are running...
ive got a second S-ATA disk running next to an IDE system disk and im very pleased with the speed...
indeo 5.1 video 3 layers with effects without problems delays or glitches all night long even with a live video feed...
but i think u are having problems with your video?
most of the times the processor is the bottleneck and not the HD it depends on what compression u use...

but to answer your question, a internal HD is faster than an external one and some S-ATA drives are noticably faster than IDE...
check http://www.tomshardware.com for benchmarktest and stuff like that.
on the homepage click on MASS STORAGE on the leftside of the screen...

can u post a list of what u have inside your computer and what type of compression u use?
and if you ar experiencing problems what the problems are?

Greetz,
SuperficiaL...

mista beam_ · Post by **mista beam_** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 20:39

hi superficial!

i envy you! how can you playback all three layers without problems?

are the clipspeeds staying really staying the same?

could you post details about the encoding settinngs of your clips?
what resolution? what bitrate? etc.

thx.

levon_ · Post by **levon_** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 06:36

i think virtualdub has a write/read benchmarking tool to test the speed of any hd in your comp

m. Taylan baysefer_ · Post by **m. Taylan baysefer_** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:42

hi there...
we are using (hardware) raided (0+1) sata disks. performance is awesome...

we striped 2 sata disks (means they are working like one hdd) which gives us stability, safety and performance.

btw, small notice, if u r using an usb 2.0 external hdd on a box, I strongly suggest that do not directly capture/record any video to that disk. data rate seems that is it suitable but the result will be differ than a firewire or internal hdd.

best wishes.

MtB

SuperficiaL_ · Post by **SuperficiaL_** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 15:13

hi Mista Beam,

u use a shuttle mini pc sb75G2, 1 ide hd for system and 1 S-ata hd (Raptor 72Gb 10.000 rpm drive) for clips, P4 3,0 HT, Parhelia 256...
i mostly run 1 layer video-in via capturecard and 2 layers indeo 5.1 clips at 320-240.this works good.only lags when i use a very processor UNfriendly generator like wave or such...

hope this helps...

and btw... scan your pc frequently for spyware, defrag and virusscan... those are the best advices i can give when it comes to hd-speed...

greetz SuperficiaL...

lotech_ · Post by **lotech_** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 04:05

Just to clear up some confusion -

Striped RAID arrays are fast but infact very risky, if one drive fails then you loose all info on both drives. Running RAID on a gigging computer would be madness.

USB is a parrallel system meaning if you use multiple USB devices there is a total possible bandwidth of 480mbps - more devices = less bandwidth for all.
Firewire works more intelligently allowing 400mbps PER device and should offer less overhead per device.

No matter how you connect your harddrive to your computer it will only be capable of the MBPS it supports (generally 100, 133 or 150mbps). No enclosure or standard will change that (1394b ie Apples Firewire2 is a good example of marketing over actual Nerd science).

As resolume doesn't natively support RAM drives or RAM caching the ideal way of getting clips from you drive is to have a drive specifically for each clip - not very practical. Or to get the fastest drive possible - As superficial mentions the Western Digital 10,000RPM Raptors are currently the fastest prosumer drives available, out performing even most SCSI drives. Running on our Shuttle w/ a P4 2.8G and a 36gb Raptor we can easily play 2 layers of 640x480 uncompressed or DV. 3 layers pushes it though. Also the raptors come with a ridiculous 5yr Warranty so you can have no fear of rinsing them out.

In the ideal dream world a Raptor in an external SATA enclosure would be the perfect drive configuration. Unfortunatly SATA enclosures are still overpriced and hard to come across.

SuperficiaL-> you could surely be running 640x480 on those specs. We run the a similar config (although with an ATI instead of a Matrox) and I think the 640x480 step up made all the difference to the quality of our sets.

m. Taylan baysefer_ · Post by **m. Taylan baysefer_** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 13:34

if u r not using hardware raid controler which gives you 0 and 1 in the same time, i agree with you that it is quite risky. but not on hardware controlled raid array dude

if using raid is risky on mission critical applications, then no where, including major video companies like discreet, avid etc. never uses raid arrays to get stable and redundant data rate i guess

lotech_ · Post by **lotech_** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 01:55

To have 0 + 1 RAID requires 4 hard drives tho. 2 drives for the RAID0 and 2 drives to actively backup in RAID1. I fully support RAID in studio/server situations just not going to clubs and parties. I've seen people cry @ 3am in the morning as error messages start appearing and the whole PC falls over.