# RAID vs. no RAID



## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

In the most simplest terms, what would RAID give me?

I'm thinking of getting the new Mac Pro when it's released in August, and the info on the Apple page goes right over my head 

http://www.apple.com/macpro/features/storage.html

If I was to get a Mac Pro with 4 drives (HHD or SSD), what are the advantages and disadvantages of having 4 drives with RAID vs. having 4 drives without RAID?

This would be my first Mac Pro, I've only owned iMacs and MacBook Pros before this.


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## Nick Tompson (Jul 12, 2008)

RAID is very broad.
What is the RAID mode offered?


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

On the webpage I linked to it says


> RAID levels 0, 1, 5, and 0+1.


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## Nick Tompson (Jul 12, 2008)

RAID 0 is just striping - no parity/redundancy - but it can boost performance.
RAID 1 is mirroring, no performance gain.
RAID 5 is explained here http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/raid/levels/singleLevel5-c.html
RAID 01 is mirroring of striped sets - storage efficiency isn't very good here, but has performance benefits.

Using RAID 0, or RAID 5 have the potential to boost performance.
RAID 5 also has data redundancy, so perhaps a good choice with 4 drives.


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

What are you planning to use this Mac Pro for?
Do you already have a backup solution you use?

P.S. namenotfound, how did things work out for the flash converting?


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

I heard of a storage device called Drobo that lets you swap out drives on the fly when they get full/damaged. Would RAID 5 in a Mac Pro allow the same thing? Also, do the drives have to be all of the same capacity? (they can be mixed on Drobo, or so I heard)

Right now, after I finish a video, I move all the files (scratch, renders, etc.) to an external 1TB hard drive. G-Drive by G-Technology. I've been told by various people in my media circles that these are the most trusted external drives for long-term video storage/backup.

I'm going to use the Mac Pro mostly with Compressor (and the rest of Final Cut Studio, but I want the core power for Compressor). Right now I'm using my Core 2 Duo iMac, and although I'm connecting to my Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro for the clusters (making 4 cores) it's still slow as heck to compress my huge HD video files to make the filesize as small as possible while maintaining the HD quality for my broadcasters, since they can't handle huge files. (as we speak, I'm trying to compress a 3GB video down to 1GB, and it's taking WAY too long).

12 cores (even 8 cores) would help an awful lot!


About the Flash converting. I'm bummed that I couldn't find anything decent for Mac, but I found a free program for Windows which I've used to make great quality Flash videos! It's called WinFX. So I use VMware Fusion and Windows XP when I need to convert my videos to Flash.


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

namenotfound said:


> I heard of a storage device called Drobo that lets you swap out drives on the fly when they get full/damaged. Would RAID 5 in a Mac Pro allow the same thing? Also, do the drives have to be all of the same capacity? (they can be mixed on Drobo, or so I heard)


Unless I'm mistaken, I didn't think the Mac Pro supports hot swapping.
Drives can be different but the maximum RAID size will be the smaller sized one.
Using the same drive is normally the best most optimal arrangement.



namenotfound said:


> I've been told by various people in my media circles that these are the most trusted external drives for long-term video storage/backup.


Pretty sure G_Technology uses Hitachi drives. Whether they are better or not I can't say but if so any enclosure should work as well since they just use the Oxford 394 chipset.



namenotfound said:


> About the Flash converting. I'm bummed that I couldn't find anything decent for Mac, but I found a free program for Windows which I've used to make great quality Flash videos! It's called WinFX. So I use VMware Fusion and Windows XP when I need to convert my videos to Flash.


So ffmpeg didn't work? Always has to me.


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

Headrush said:


> So ffmpeg didn't work? Always has to me.


I was having issues with getting the Apple Developer's Tools to install, and apparently those are needed to get ffmpeg to work on a Mac.


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

namenotfound said:


> I was having issues with getting the Apple Developer's Tools to install, and apparently those are needed to get ffmpeg to work on a Mac.


I have mine and other great linux tools installed via MacPorts. Simple as

```
port install ffmpeg
```
 but you do need developer tools.

If you want a precompiled ffmpeg you can get it here: http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/autobuilds/

P.S. If you want anymore info on it, we probably should use your other thread and keep this one for RAID info.


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