Internal Hard Drive Recommendations at DVinfo.net

Ryan McBride · November 23rd, 2009, 10:14 PM

Im looking for a cost effective 500 gb internal to add to my Intel Mac Pro (2 x 3 GHz quad core xeon). I found the Apple drive through B&H. Any recommendations on comparable reliable units that don't sacrifice speed. I tried to use my system profiler to get the current drive specs but didn't see them there.

Nigel Barker · November 24th, 2009, 07:23 AM

The 'sweet spot' for best value for hard disks is now with the 1TB drives. People generally have prejudices on what brand to buy depending on their own experience of having a drive die at some time but in truth they are all pretty much the same. You need a 7200rpm drive but whether it's a Samsung, Hitachi, Western Digital or whatever makes no difference.

You will find your current disks enumerated in System Profiler under Serial-ATA unless you have a RAID card in which case they will be listed under Hardware RAID.

Lance Librandi · November 24th, 2009, 07:36 AM

Hello Ryan,
Here's my MacPro config, I have five Segate Barracuda 1.5TB 7200 drives one is for the system drive and the other four are striped into two pairs raid 0 which gives you 6 TB for capture. This combination work very well.

Dean Sensui · November 28th, 2009, 01:33 AM

I use Hitachi/IBM SATA drives from Other World Computing. Very reliable drives at good prices with great service.

Keep this in mind when building an edit system: Always assume that the RAID you're working on is going to crash that day. And if it did, where's your backup?

I always have a full backup of my current project on a mirrored RAID, as well as archives of original camera footage.

I heard a story about a producer who lost an entire season of HD work when a RAID went down. No backups except what was exported earlier onto standard-definition tapes.

So whatever the max capacity of your edit system, make sure you have enough capacity to make a backup of all the projects and media.

November 23rd, 2009, 10:14 PM	#1
Ryan McBride Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Seattle WA Posts: 28	Internal Hard Drive Recommendations Im looking for a cost effective 500 gb internal to add to my Intel Mac Pro (2 x 3 GHz quad core xeon). I found the Apple drive through B&H. Any recommendations on comparable reliable units that don't sacrifice speed. I tried to use my system profiler to get the current drive specs but didn't see them there.

November 28th, 2009, 01:33 AM	#4
Dean Sensui Inner Circle Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 2,054	I use Hitachi/IBM SATA drives from Other World Computing. Very reliable drives at good prices with great service. Keep this in mind when building an edit system: Always assume that the RAID you're working on is going to crash that day. And if it did, where's your backup? I always have a full backup of my current project on a mirrored RAID, as well as archives of original camera footage. I heard a story about a producer who lost an entire season of HD work when a RAID went down. No backups except what was exported earlier onto standard-definition tapes. So whatever the max capacity of your edit system, make sure you have enough capacity to make a backup of all the projects and media. __________________ Dean Sensui Exec Producer, Hawaii Goes Fishing

November 24th, 2009, 07:23 AM	#2
Nigel Barker Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Norwich, Norfolk, UK Posts: 3,531	The 'sweet spot' for best value for hard disks is now with the 1TB drives. People generally have prejudices on what brand to buy depending on their own experience of having a drive die at some time but in truth they are all pretty much the same. You need a 7200rpm drive but whether it's a Samsung, Hitachi, Western Digital or whatever makes no difference. You will find your current disks enumerated in System Profiler under Serial-ATA unless you have a RAID card in which case they will be listed under Hardware RAID.

November 24th, 2009, 07:36 AM	#3
Lance Librandi Major Player Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: South Australia Posts: 374	Hello Ryan, Here's my MacPro config, I have five Segate Barracuda 1.5TB 7200 drives one is for the system drive and the other four are striped into two pairs raid 0 which gives you 6 TB for capture. This combination work very well.