Budget Raid setup for Kona Lh? at DVinfo.net

Sergio Perez · January 16th, 2006, 02:58 AM

I'm thinking of buying the Kona LH capture card but it seems it requires a fast raid setup in order to work correctly. Can anyone suggest me a solid and low cost (the card is expensive!) solution in order to get the most from the camera? I'm targetting smooth DVCPROHD editting or uncompressed 4:2:2 (if there's such a thing).

The upgrade route to smooth HD sure is expensive! :)

Tim Dashwood · January 16th, 2006, 08:40 AM

How much storage space do you want/need?

I would buy an ATA or SATA control card with two buses, a couple of large internal drives, and then use Apple's own Disk Utility to stripe them in a RAID.

Nick Jushchyshyn · January 16th, 2006, 09:42 AM

What's your definition of "low cost"?
How much storage are you going to need?

A PixelCorps, a Huge Systems MediaVault 4105 has worked very well for us on CineAlta F900 and F950 shoots. Not sure if these qualify as "low cost" though.

Sergio Perez · January 18th, 2006, 02:40 AM

Thanks for the suggestions. my budget is about 1500 USD for the raid system. I believe I can only go for a Sata setup like Tim suggested. I really would like to have the possibility of using such system like you suggested, Nick, but it sounds just too expensive...

Tim, any idea how much storage/performance I can get from a 1500 dollar setup?

Jason Varner · January 20th, 2006, 11:15 PM

We just got a seritek kit from firmtek. It comes with a 4 port card, an external housing for four drives, 4 SATA cables and an internal power supply with 2 fans $649.The unit is SATA 2 compliant. We also got 4 hitachi 250gb SATA 2 drives $100 each. With tax the whole setup cost a little over 1100. When it was fresh and the drives were relatively empty I tested it with Decklink's Disk Speed Tester and got anywhere from 240mBps-260mBps. That's fast enough to do something silly like 160fps of uncompressed/4:2:2 SD. It's even fast enough for some HD resolutions.

Keith Wakeham · January 21st, 2006, 11:50 AM

Since you said LH and not LHe I'm assuming your system is a PCI-X one.

Mike Curtis over at HDforindies.com have posted lots of PCI-X sata cards that should do the trick. Their are several from highpoint that are realitively cost effective.

Sonnet tempo-x 8 and 4+4 could be a good choice. I think the 8 is 299 and the 4+4 is 199 (find youself a interal sata to esata bracket and its just like the 8) which should also do the trick. They also sell the Fusion 4 drive e-sata enclosures for 399 I think, but I would suspect that their would be cheaper drive boxes with a power supply around.

Greg Bellotte · January 21st, 2006, 07:57 PM

I'm using a rocket raid pci-x card with 4 maxtor sata 250's mounted internally. 1TB and SCREAMING fast. only editing HDV, but loving it so far. total cost around $1000.

Chris Gorman · May 17th, 2006, 12:40 PM

check out the new stuff from Sonnet. I'm probably going to get the eSATA 5 bay enclosure with port multiplier (new) and the pci-x card (others available depending on your computer). SATA II compliant. Total about $800 before adding drives. Can be used as jbod or RAID. The best feature I think is the port multiplier which allow for tons of expansion.

I'm getting close to buying but haven't heard feedback yet from anyone using this.

January 16th, 2006, 02:58 AM	#1
Sergio Perez Major Player Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Macau Posts: 331	Budget Raid setup for Kona Lh? I'm thinking of buying the Kona LH capture card but it seems it requires a fast raid setup in order to work correctly. Can anyone suggest me a solid and low cost (the card is expensive!) solution in order to get the most from the camera? I'm targetting smooth DVCPROHD editting or uncompressed 4:2:2 (if there's such a thing). The upgrade route to smooth HD sure is expensive! :) __________________ If you don't believe in your film, no one else will.

January 16th, 2006, 08:40 AM	#2
Tim Dashwood Wrangler Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Toronto, ON, Canada Posts: 3,637	How much storage space do you want/need? I would buy an ATA or SATA control card with two buses, a couple of large internal drives, and then use Apple's own Disk Utility to stripe them in a RAID. __________________ Tim Dashwood

January 16th, 2006, 09:42 AM	#3
Nick Jushchyshyn Major Player Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA Posts: 548	What's your definition of "low cost"? How much storage are you going to need? A PixelCorps, a Huge Systems MediaVault 4105 has worked very well for us on CineAlta F900 and F950 shoots. Not sure if these qualify as "low cost" though. __________________ Nick Jushchyshyn Matchmoving, Compositing, TD imdb

January 18th, 2006, 02:40 AM	#4
Sergio Perez Major Player Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Macau Posts: 331	Thanks for the suggestions. my budget is about 1500 USD for the raid system. I believe I can only go for a Sata setup like Tim suggested. I really would like to have the possibility of using such system like you suggested, Nick, but it sounds just too expensive... Tim, any idea how much storage/performance I can get from a 1500 dollar setup? __________________ If you don't believe in your film, no one else will.

January 21st, 2006, 11:50 AM	#6
Keith Wakeham Major Player Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: St. John's, NL, Canada Posts: 416	Since you said LH and not LHe I'm assuming your system is a PCI-X one. Mike Curtis over at HDforindies.com have posted lots of PCI-X sata cards that should do the trick. Their are several from highpoint that are realitively cost effective. Sonnet tempo-x 8 and 4+4 could be a good choice. I think the 8 is 299 and the 4+4 is 199 (find youself a interal sata to esata bracket and its just like the 8) which should also do the trick. They also sell the Fusion 4 drive e-sata enclosures for 399 I think, but I would suspect that their would be cheaper drive boxes with a power supply around. __________________ www.engr.mun.ca/~wakeham/index.htm

January 20th, 2006, 11:15 PM	#5
Jason Varner Major Player Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 119	We just got a seritek kit from firmtek. It comes with a 4 port card, an external housing for four drives, 4 SATA cables and an internal power supply with 2 fans $649.The unit is SATA 2 compliant. We also got 4 hitachi 250gb SATA 2 drives $100 each. With tax the whole setup cost a little over 1100. When it was fresh and the drives were relatively empty I tested it with Decklink's Disk Speed Tester and got anywhere from 240mBps-260mBps. That's fast enough to do something silly like 160fps of uncompressed/4:2:2 SD. It's even fast enough for some HD resolutions.

January 21st, 2006, 07:57 PM	#7
Greg Bellotte Major Player Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: SLC, UT Posts: 291	I'm using a rocket raid pci-x card with 4 maxtor sata 250's mounted internally. 1TB and SCREAMING fast. only editing HDV, but loving it so far. total cost around $1000.

May 17th, 2006, 12:40 PM	#8
Chris Gorman Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: oceanside, california, u.s.a. Posts: 115	budget raid check out the new stuff from Sonnet. I'm probably going to get the eSATA 5 bay enclosure with port multiplier (new) and the pci-x card (others available depending on your computer). SATA II compliant. Total about $800 before adding drives. Can be used as jbod or RAID. The best feature I think is the port multiplier which allow for tons of expansion. I'm getting close to buying but haven't heard feedback yet from anyone using this.