mac pro dual core fcp 5.2 G RAID dropping frames

I have a new dual core mac pro 3 ghz (it is not up to speed) with 2 gb RAM, FCP 5.1.2 and a G RAID and using AJA kona 3 card at uncompressed 10 bit and FCP keeps beachballing and giving me the dropped frame box. This should not be happenning really..I'm not convinced with this particular model of mac. Is there anything I can do to improve this situation? Thank you Phil UK

Are you capturing to the boot drive?

Phil Wrote:
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> I have a new dual core mac pro 3 ghz (it is not up
> to speed) with 2 gb RAM, FCP 5.1.2 and a G RAID
> and using AJA kona 3 card at uncompressed 10 bit

10 bit What? SD , certainly not HD. One Firewire drive will not handle that data stream effectively. Is it 400 or 800 Mbps?

You need at least a two stripe SATA RAID to work with Standard Def 10 bit uncompressed.

Two drives at RAID 0 will give you better than 75 MB/sec of bandwidth.

It isn't your machine that is the issue here. You'd be hard pressed to capture uncompressed 10-bit to that G-Raid. Your best option would be to get 3 bare SATA drives and install them in the remaining drive bays, then RAID STRIPE them as a RAID 0 configuration, and capturing to that.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

It is uncompressed 10 bit SD..the G RAID is 1 tb...it works fine until you use more than one video layer..can you elaborate on the instalation of a two stripa SATA RAID...I like the G RAID, I have a lacie doing the same thing..Cheers Phil

Phil - your Mac Pro has room for Three more internal drives other than your system drive. What is being suggested is that you put three internal drives into the slots and Stripe them together. Its very very simple to do in the MacPros - you can have a RAID installed and setup in under two minutes and im sure there's an guide somewhere here.

Its exactly what you have in your G-RAID except the data is being written over three drives rather than two and thus each drive has to do 'less work'.

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Phil - your Mac Pro has room for Three more internal drives other than your system drive. What is being suggested is that you put three internal drives into the slots and Stripe them together. Its very very simple to do in the MacPros - you can have a RAID installed and setup in under two minutes and im sure there's an guide somewhere here.
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Josh,
Does this still require a fibre channel card to keep up with the data stream? I'd actually like to do this with my own system. Then I could use my GRAID as a dumping ground/back-up....Can you set it up as a RAID 3 or 5?

Tim, No the mac Pro has everything you need - just fix the drive to the carrier and slot it in. No fiber or anything its all SATA. You can software RAID the drives in whatever config you like via Disk Utilities or an app of your choice. I've just installed a Mac Pro machine with a 1.5TB RAID inside - three 500GB HD's cost so little and its perfect as a fast Capture Drive for those moments when your G-RAID can't keep up!

Thanks guys, I will do this..I have in the past had an internal 1 tb hard drive and it cause the machine the die...this is according to an incompetant supplier whom I no longer trust.

Hi guys. Can this configuration (multiple internal drives in a raid) sustain data rates for longform work? ie, a 60min project @ 10 bit uncompressed?

And is there any external option available besides the expensive scsi raids?

Thanks in advance...

Uncompressed 10-bit...what?

SD? 101GB/hour at 29.97
1080i HD? 600GB/hour at 29.97....477GB/hour at 23.98
720p HD? 215GB/hour at 23.98

I don't know anyone who edits uncompressed 10-bit when they are just editing. The offline/online workflow is still recommended for that.

The internal RAID of 3 drives will be fine for uncompressed 10-bit SD work, but not for uncompressed 10-bit HD work. You need a 5-drive RAID or better for that. CalDigit.com has a great solution for that. S2VR HD.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Gav actually rang me re this and I sent him here. He has inherited an edit done entirely in 10 bit (SD, PAL digibeta) and wanted to know if there was a good external solution for storage. I can just barely recall that there is some problem with the G drives when more than one is used. Like, the throughput drops dramatically or something? Is that right?