What is the point of SCSI in a Mac Pro

[peppe]

The ultimate way should be to have layer 1 to read from disc 1, layer 2 from disc2, layer 3 also from another disc etc.etc

The when you hit layer 5 you access disc number 1, layer 6 from disc 2, etc
The you will have max 2 files going on one disc.

The discs are getting bigger and bigger, but (as always, Richard is right)
they are to slow to handle multiply files on a disc , and thats often the setup with a Catalyst system.In this case I get good results (as I don´t want to use DV codec) with multiply FW800 discs and a extra FW card....

But it is tricky to place all the files to be handled correct since everyone wants to "create on the fly", but that´s how I use to handle a system that I know need to NOT play any files under 25fps whatever.....

[RedLightning]

Kind of along the same lines...

Has anyone seen the new hardware RAID card available with new MacPro's?

-s

[samsc]

Kind of along the same lines...

Has anyone seen the new hardware RAID card available with new MacPro's?

-s

you can only buy this as a built to order option with a new machine - you cannot buy it separately - and apparently - i have been told - you cannot use non-apple hard drives either-
so its not an upgrade option.

[RedLightning]

you can only buy this as a built to order option with a new machine - you cannot buy it separately - and apparently - i have been told - you cannot use non-apple hard drives either-
so its not an upgrade option.

Interesting...I didn't notice that as a requirement...

Hardware RAID cards are available from other vendors, I was a little more curious as to whether it would improve speed.

-s

[samsc]

Interesting...I didn't notice that as a requirement...

Hardware RAID cards are available from other vendors, I was a little more curious as to whether it would improve speed.

-s

at the bottom of this obscure article

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306231

Question: What drives does Apple support with the Mac Pro RAID Card and the Xserve RAID Card?

Answer: Only Apple drives are supported with the Mac Pro RAID Card and the Xserve RAID Card.

other drives might work. apple uses the word 'support'...


This one is likely to work much better - as it has a lot of RAM for buffering - i havent seen another raid card which does this- the others dont bother.
without this buffering the other raid cards are pointless - RAID is not faster than a single disc for catalyst.
And the performance of single SATA discs is not good enough.
Unless you are doing uncompressed video- or need only 3 layers to playback.
I test these systems day in day out for the last 4 years.

Gareth posted something yesterday about a RAID he had made - but he really only shows how poorly they work most of the time.

I can get at least 8 layers of DV out of my XServe RAID - for a 2 disc set.
No unbuffered internal raid is ever going to come close to this.

[efxmaster]

The ultimate way should be to have layer 1 to read from disc 1, layer 2 from disc2, layer 3 also from another disc etc.etc

The when you hit layer 5 you access disc number 1, layer 6 from disc 2, etc
The you will have max 2 files going on one disc.

The discs are getting bigger and bigger, but (as always, Richard is right)
they are to slow to handle multiply files on a disc , and thats often the setup with a Catalyst system.In this case I get good results (as I don´t want to use DV codec) with multiply FW800 discs and a extra FW card....

But it is tricky to place all the files to be handled correct since everyone wants to "create on the fly", but that´s how I use to handle a system that I know need to NOT play any files under 25fps whatever.....

So, would this really work? I just need to use 8 layers or so, and have a MacPro with 4 drives in it.

[samsc]

The ultimate way should be to have layer 1 to read from disc 1, layer 2 from disc2, layer 3 also from another disc etc.etc
.

So, would this really work? I just need to use 8 layers or so, and have a MacPro with 4 drives in it

unfortunately at the moment - the operating system and quicktime dont work like this - this technique doesnt work - i do keep checking - i first tested this over 5 years ago-

the time for movie playback is single threaded and accumulative - so its as slow as the worst performing drive.