By using multiple HDD's, one is spreading the I/O (Input/Output) load over various HDD's. The controller is faster than a single HDD, being tasked to read/write from/to multiple places. One of the first laws of physics is that an object cannot be in more than one place, at the same time. The heads on a HDD are no different. If requests for multiple reads are made, the heads will position themselves over on place on the platters, read, and then move to the next requested location, and so on. However, with multiple HDD's, and a good, fast controller, the heads of each HDD will be placed, where necessary, so reads are done at once, from multiple locations.

For ultimate performance, a good setup would be as follows:

C:\ system OS and programs (more reading being done here, than writing)

D:\ Project files (PREL's in this case)

E:\ RAID 0 Scratch Disks for Media Cache, but not Render files (both reading and writing)

F:\ RAID 0 Media files (more reading, but also writing)

G:\ RAID 0 Export/Share and Render files

Some go so far as to separate out Audio Assets from Video Assets, and use a separate RAID 0 for each

The downside of that "ultimate performance" setup, is that when a Project is completed, to clean up, one has to go to many HDD's, and locations. There can also be issues when Archiving a Project, because things are scattered about.

I get "good performance" by having my Project, Copies of my Assets and all Scratch Disks on one HDD. What I give up in performance, I make up for with housekeeping chores, when the Project is done. I still spread my OS/programs from my Projects, with separate physical HDD's.

Good luck, and hope that this helps,

Hunt

PS - Above, I mention RAID 0, but even greater speed can be achieved via many HDD's in the Array, and perhaps a RAID 50. RAID 0 is just two physical HDD's. Also, for RAID, I recommend a dedicated RAID controller card, and NOT software, or the MoBo's RAID capability.

This is how my Projects are most often setup. First, that allows me to clean things up efficiently, and second, I often migrate my Projects between computers, so I want everything on one of my FW-800 externals. As mentioned above, I do give up some performance, in that scheme, but I have never experienced any lags, even with FW-800 externals. For me, eSATA externals would be faster, and when one is talking SATA internals, the performance hit will be minimal, in my limted benchmarking. I doubt that a user would even be aware of the performance gain, unless they had two, otherwise identical computer, side by side.

Now, one thing that will very likely be noticed, would be to Export/Share to an equally fast HDD, that is not doing any other duty on the Project. Still, with my externals, I Export to a set of folders in the Project's hierarchy, because I am most likely to then take things into Encore, and might also be using that external between computers. A bonus to me, with that layout, is that when the DVD's are finsished and delivered, I can easily Archive the Project (everything necessary is in one location), and then with one Delete, clean it all up.

This ARTICLE gives an outline of my Projects' folder structure. Remember, I acknowledge a slight performance hit, with this scheme.

For an overview on the PREL files, and what they contain, plus some tips on Saving, this ARTICLE might be useful.

Good luck,

Hunt

Ted,

For certain operatons, RAID is still a great setup, such as HD media files, Export/Share, Render files, etc..

There are also three types of RAID. This is for the 0 Levels:

• Software managed - not much real difference in speed vs two single discs.
• MoBo hardware managed - usually faster, but as the MoBo is involved, can have I/O bottlenecks.
• Dedicated hardware managed - this is where the real speed increase comes, and especially if one adds a few GB of RAM to the controller card.

The performance of any RAID will depend on how it's managed. The performance increase can be minimal, to dramatic.

As you observed, 3x separate, physical HDD's will usually show an increase in performance over a single RAID Array, even if it's managed by a controller, when editing video.

Hunt