Skip navigation
Jay Saan
Jay Saan Calculating status...
Currently Being Moderated

Optimal Configuration for a non-RAID 5 HDD System

Jul 31, 2012 7:31 PM

I don't care for a RAID configuration (also don't have a controller) and am wondering what would provide the most efficiency for a computer with 5 hard drives.

Using the "Generic Guidelines for Disk Usage," I've narrowed it down to these divisions, but I'm not sure which one, if any, would take priority in taking up a drive by itself. Media files are always huge so I was thinking maybe I could just use it as a second media drive or as a generic storage/backup drive?

 

C OS, Programs

D: Media, Projects

E: Pagefile, Media Cache,

F: Previews, Exports

G: ???

633 Views   6 Replies   Latest reply: Jim Simon, Aug 6, 2012 9:03 AM
 
Replies
  • Harm Millaard
    Currently Being Moderated
    1. Harm Millaard,
    Aug 1, 2012 12:33 AM   in reply to Jay Saan
    Report

    If you have a separate backup disk, then you may consider using D for media from camera 1 and G for media from camera 2, or you could put the projects on G if you have only 1 camera. As always, it is all about spreading the load, hence my suggestion the spread camera 1 and 2 across different disks.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Jim Simon
    Currently Being Moderated
    2. Jim Simon,
    Aug 1, 2012 11:51 AM   in reply to Jay Saan
    Report

    Here's what I'd do.

     

    C: System

    D: Projects

    E: Scratch, Cache

    F: Media

    G: Exports, Images (from Encore)

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Jay Saan
    Currently Being Moderated
    3. Jay Saan,
    Aug 1, 2012 2:31 PM   in reply to Jim Simon
    Report

    Thanks to both of you.

     

    Jim~ Do you put your pagefile in C: or F:?

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Jim Simon
    Currently Being Moderated
    4. Jim Simon,
    Aug 2, 2012 6:57 AM   in reply to Jay Saan
    Report

    I leave it alone.  With sufficient memory, the times Windows will need to use it are rare.  And even when it does need to swap, having it on C: actually spreads out the disk load more efficiently than putting it elsewhere. You have to remember that once PP is loaded, Windows is not realy using the C: drive for much.  Putting the Pagefile onto a different working drive only increases the likelyhood of that disk being accessed both by Windows doing the swap and PP reading the media (or whatever else is on that drive).

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Jay Saan
    Currently Being Moderated
    5. Jay Saan,
    Aug 5, 2012 11:43 PM   in reply to Jim Simon
    Report

    Just to be thorough, I have some more questions:

     

    1) Is it okay for After Effects and Premiere to share the same drive for Cache files? I wonder about performance issues with Dynamic Link.

     

    2) When you say "Projects," do you specifically mean the .prproj and .aep files? So, each time I create a new project, I will have to make sure to save in the "Project" drive, since project settings are not preset.

     

    3) By "Scratch," I'm assuming both capture and preview files that should not be in the same folder as the project file (above)?

     

    4) Based on this setup, it seems that the scratch/cache and media drives would become disproportionately saturated compared to the other drives. Would it make sense to put projects and exports on one drive and separate scratch and cache into two different drives or would this negatively disrupt read-access? However, it appears you recommend scratch and cache in the same drive since they are interrelated files that Premiere uses to render previews.

     

    Always learning. Thanks again.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Jim Simon
    Currently Being Moderated
    6. Jim Simon,
    Aug 6, 2012 9:03 AM   in reply to Jay Saan
    Report

    1.  Well, if you don't have any more drives to split them up, then it will have to be.

     

    2.  Yes, the project files.  (Along with any still images and audio files needed for the project.)

     

    3.  If you have the extra hard drive to put them on (and you do), it helps spread out the load.

     

    4.  The problem with Projects and Exports on the same drive is that you'd be reading and writing to the drive at the same time.  That's the kind of thing that slows you down.  The idea is to separate the load as much as you can so that a disk is only being accessed by one process at a time.  With more drives, you can separate things even further.  But for the drives you have, my suggested setup should give you pretty good performance.

     
    |
    Mark as:
Actions

More Like This

  • Retrieving data ...

Bookmarked By (0)

Answers + Points = Status

  • 10 points awarded for Correct Answers
  • 5 points awarded for Helpful Answers
  • 10,000+ points
  • 1,001-10,000 points
  • 501-1,000 points
  • 5-500 points