Actually, I would not save anything at all on any (R)aid0 (although the use of a (R)aid0 array is OK for those files that are to be kept for only a short period of time, such as media cache and pagefile as well as those media files that are to be transferred to something else immediately following your editing and/or encoding session). They have a risk of having everything on all of the drives in the array permanently lost if even one drive fails. Back up everything on a separate disk or a parity RAID (3/5/6) array if you must use (R)aid0.

Good call, I'll try that.

Should RAID volumes be basic or dynamic disks?

Only an infrequent Premiere user and although I will do some film work I will be using it mainly to make AV shows from my still photographs.  I am still a bit confused with terminology and set up questions.  Thanks to earlier advice in another post about external network drives and USB2 drives not being fast enough I have now bought a new 3TB internal SATA drive and am about to physically put it into the machine.

I understand the bit about what goes onto C: (Windows, the Adobe Suite, Pagefile and Media cache) with the source images on a 2nd drive but I am still not sure if I should partition the new drive or not.  Although that creates a 3 drive system as far as the software is concerned it is still physically one piece of hardware so might have read/write conflicts.

So for real newbies could the issue of what is what in the names, the scratch disk locations etc., be spelt out as getting this programme set up seems to be harder to do than making the creative input into the finished shows.

Note - I do know from earler research that archiving my stills and finished shows on external drives is OK but for a new project the media will need copying onto the inernal SATA drives first so that Premeire works with those copies to get the necessary speed.

Thanks wonderspark.  In a two disk set-up the scratch disk setting therefore also needs pointing to the 2nd disk (non-OS) too? 

I was wondering if some might guide me a bit I have alot of questions:

For my situation I will list my build, I wont be spending and more on the hardware.. for a while so..

This is at the house about to be put together:

Intel I7 core 3930k c2 SR0KY

ASUS p9x79 Deluxe Mother Board, BIOS 0906, x79 Socket 2011

32 GB DDR3 1600mHz Corsair Vengeance

EVGA Geforce GTX 580 3GB

Cooler Master Storm Trooper Case

Corsair H 80 Liquid CPU cooler

MS wireless touch mouse

MS 2000 Wireless

MS Windows 7 Pro 64bit Service pack 1

Adobe Production Premium CS 5.5

Lite-On iHBS212 12x Internal Blu-ray Disc Drive with Cyberlink Software - Retail

Cooler Master Silent Pro M850 Series Modular 850W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified Active PFC Power Supply RS850-AMBAJ3-US

Corsair Force GT 180 GB SATA III/6G SATA 6.0 Gb-s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive - CSSD-F180GBGT-BK

drives:

2 of Corsair Flash Voyager GT USB 3.0 16 GB USB Drive (CMFVYGT3-16GB) (for raid drivers??, maybe windows 7 install?? )

2 of Barracuda 7200RPM 1 TB SATA 6 GB/s NCQ 64 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive -ST1000DM003

2 of Barracuda 7200RPM 2 TB SATA 6 GB/s NCQ 64 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive -ST2000DM001

to be purchased: (Not now Cause I'm da** BROKE) Audio Interface( for my music- currently on MAC with Pro Tools Mix Cube), and External Storage Solution, new dual 27inch monitors.. because I want them!!

ok.. I am not a techie nor do I have any formal computer science degree so go easy!

I will not be buying a raid card in the forseeable (don't know how to spell that) future.

I want to Put my OS/ APPs  on the force gt ssd...

I want 2 of the hdd to be a raid 0 ... don't worry about be backing it up because I will.I will make copies of things on different drives until I can get an external back up, I will also be backing up source to bluray and archiving in a fireproof safe so future generations of space invaders can study and learn from one of the true great masters

I want the last two hdd's to be seperate.

I have been reading for weeks so please no more links I just wanna to play guitar really.

Here's my shizzle:

AVCHD from EL Cheapo Canon Vixia HF M 31, Stop Motion From Nikon D300, Smart Phone Footage, and in very soon but at least a few months for DSLR footage... I was thinking Nikon D7000 because I have Nikon Lenses (not that many but a few and a friend with about 15)

I seen Dave H. from adobe talking about the container nikon uses.. but I am betting CS6 will be solving that and by the time I have the money there will be a new camera I will be after..) I will be doing smaller projects and a very low budget feature later...

Here are my questions:

Which controller for which drives?

NCQ on or off for which drives?

Sector setting for raid??

Drivers and firmware updates to drives before windows install?

Should I leave off all drives except the ssd and the odd till windows is installed?

Setting  in BIOS before WIndows install?

Install from a ODD or make usb drive windows install?

All my disks are sata 3 , 6gbps, since I have only 4 sata 3 ports should I make one of these drives an esata external on the external powered esata 6 gbps port?

WHat about my bluray burner, what port/controller does it go on..  sata 2 or 3.. is it only bootable on the intel chipset?

Should I use the 2TB or the 1TB for the raid 0, I have several thousands of pics I'll be Migrating from the mac, plus many more I'll be taking, plus at about 500gb of personal files...many audio???

If I use the 2x1TB it I can have the two other for a long term build up of personal junk..and later I can add more to the raid and maybe turn it redundant so I am not always copying files here and there.. I always save projects and source in a few different places before/ and during projects?? 

Does the raid have to be on intel chips? Or can I use them on the marvell? and or does the ssd have to be on one or the other? I have heard that not having the raid on one and the boot on the other chipset can cause problems?

Its a UEFI BIOS can I set up after windows as long as before I install I select RAID in BIOS for that ??

I have read posts  about drives 2TB or larger needing to be gti instead of mbr (master boot record) for raid ..is this done after or before install of win 7. or was this something win 7 has solved... never owned windows 7, and i've never set up raid. barely know dos but I can follow a recipe, so can we keep to any command prompt stuff to a minimum, (making bootable )

If later I need a bigger apps /os drive... whats the best way to plan this... just a clone of my apps/os drive then swap and copy?

Will the raid 0 under perform if the 6gbps drives are on 3 gps port?

I have read that disabling ncq greatly improves raid performance and seen a bench mark suggesting??

I was thinking

2 storage/junk/ on the MARVEL controller which would keep them sata 3 and zippy

ssd on intel sata 3 with the chipset on raid not ahci??

ODD on sata 3 intel

2 raid 0 drives on intel sata2 (even though I paid for sata 3 drives??

which leaves 2 x sata2 ports open for raid change /additional raid drives or additional internal odd

will the raid and ssd on the same controller cause problems??

when I finally get external backup what should I do something ethernet or esata backup .... raid???

and would any techie just come over and do it all for me because they want to put together a x79 system!!.... haha??

and should put together the system, with raid on intel (but not install the raid drives till I get another identical one or 2 drives on my next payday)

to make to drives have some sort of redundancy) I really like the raid 0 with proper back ups.....I am not gonna be doin too much right off the bat...

if I add one more drive of either 1 or 2 tb 7200 seagate identical to whichever one I use for the raid... and then make it have some redundancy and there for no need to back up as rigorously like  3 x 2TB(or 1TB) raid 5

6 drives

that would be :

ssd intel sata 3 ..set to raid but ssd will never be raid

ODD intel sata 2

2 storage sata3 marvell controller (it there special setting on marvell for that ahci or raid or ide)

install windows start messing around

then next payday buy 1 more (that all!!!) identical sata 3 ,7200 seagate barracuda 64mb cache (1 or 2TB)drive even though it will go on intel sata2 just to keep all the raid drives the same.

and install on the 3 remaining intel sata2 ... and setup a raid 5???

for now I have only 5 drives..

the last scenario would be 6 drives me adding one for a 3 disk raid 5 instead of a 2 disk raid 0.

there would still be 1 sata 3 intel left for a future 2nd internal blueray or big ssd when prices drop, or another storage .. or I could throw the odd to the sata 3 and add another to the raid on sata 2

another scenario:

ssd (ssd is sata3) on marvel sata3 if I can boot and setup windows with that ...possible??

1 sata 3 hdd storage on sata 3 marvell

odd on sata 2 intel

2 raid0 2TB's or the 1TB's (remeber they are sata3) on intel sata3

and my last storage sata 3 on the intel sata 2 more sata3!!... I know... I heard you guys say why it doesnt matter.. but I bought sata3 and they should be on a sata ! ..J/K

anyway, I need the best answer. This computer will not be just video!.. I have other stuff to fill the void.. besides hard drives!!.. I need a martin 28 as well! a dslr hd cam... I heli cam with gyros!!..need to start learning how to fly those little cheapos first!

dont forget the ncq on or off.. and sector size...what ever happen to "plug and play"!

I currently have 3 HDDs (7200rpm) set up as suggested at the beginning of this thread.

I would like to add a 128GB SSD.  Should I add it as (1) boot drive, (2) Previews/Exports or (3) Media Cache/Page File?

Thanks!

JEShort01, would adding the SSD have any effect on Premiere Pro performance or only application startup time?

And I would agree with David.

Jim

SSD is not recommended at all for the cache or previews drive due to their very limited number of rewrite cycles. Due to this constant rewriting, the SSD can fail in as little as a few weeks - and such failure due to excessive wear and tear is not covered at all by any company's warranty.

You see, the cache/previews drive gets rewritten to hundreds or even thousands of times a day with heavy video editing use. And many MLC (that's correct: most consumer SSDs are MLC) SSDs are rated for a lifetime of only 10,000 rewrite cycles total.

So Eric,

If you don't care about OS and application start-up times, how would you take advantage of SSD's speed to boost performance?  Put the Media Cache on the boot drive?

PaulieDC wrote:

They also encourage RAID0 and 5 on disks larger than 1TB which is the recipe for write errors galore.

 

Get yourself the 300gb or 450gb Velociraptor which spins at 10,000rpm. That'd make a fine cache drive.

I have to disagree with the first statement, never have seen any write performance problems on any disk arrays AFTER checking out read and write performance of the individual disks before putting them in arrays.

I whole heartedly agree with the second statement.

The Velociraptor is a 2.5" drive.  Doesn't that partially negate its faster spin rate as far as throughput is concerned?  Also, it is a couple of years old at least, so it has lower density than the newest platters.

PaulieDC,

If you are bad-mouthing RAID arrays with WD Greens, then possibly your issue is with the Greens themselves, not the "RAID" technology! Greens, especially the earlier generations from WD, have had a simply horrible track record.

Jim

So what are the pros/cons of internal vs external raid? I was thinking about purchasing a stardom sohoraid sr4 box for an external array but would rather do what's best if internal options are better. Interesting to know that you don't want to go over 1TB with a raid 3 or 5 array, I didn't know that was an issue. Anyhow, internal or external?

I think he meant more than 1TB per drive. Is that still incorrect?

Thanks much Harm! Can you clear up one more thing for me? If I'm purchasing a nice motherboard with a RAID controller on it, is this not as good or the same thing as purchasing a RAID controller card?

I lied, one more thing... So if I have 4 drives for a raid, I've seen you've suggested RAID 3 over RAID 5, is that right? Would all my media and project and export files now go on this raid? That's what it looked like on the initial graphic or chart.