Generic Guideline for Disk Setup

[Harm_Millaard]

There have been many questions about how to set up your disks.

Where do I put my media cache files, where the page file, and what about my preview files?

All these allocations can be set in PR, so I made this overview to help you find some settings that may be beneficial. It is not a law to do it like this, it is a generic approach that would suit many users, but depending on source material, workflow and backup possibilities, it is not unthinkable you need to deviate from this approach in your individual case.

The reasoning behind this overview is that you want to distibute disk access across as many disks as possible and get the best performance.

Look for yourself:

I hope this helps to remove doubts you may have had about your setup or to find a setup that improves performance.

[mrbreu]

Thank you, I will go for 6x2 RAID 30. One more question: is a stripe size of 128 KB significant in performance improvement?

[Another_Photographer-qoO2PF]

My OS hard drive died (possibly due to heat and overcrowding in a Dell Flex Bay), so now I am reconfiguring my system.

I will split the duties between two internal drives and two drives in an external eSATA box.

Are there any easy recommendations for external boxes?

I am familiar with the Macguru Burly.  One of those is nearly as expensive as my computer.  Are there any similar boxes out there that I can compare?

[wonderdude]

May I ask for a recommendation? I've lurked quite a bit in the forum, learning as much as I can about building my own system.

I've got everything pretty much figured out and built, except the optimal disk configuation. I have an unusual mix of different drives to work with, and I'm stumped on the ideal setup. I could use some of these drives elsewhere if they're not needed, but this system has first priority for whatever use/configuration might make it most effective.

Here's what I have:

Crucial C300 128GB SATA III SSD - OS, programs

4x1TB Spinpoint F3 HDDs - recently purchased, and I plan to do onboard RAID 0 (wish I could afford a controller card)

1TB Caviar Black SATA III HDD

Kingston V100 128GB SSD

OCZ Revodrive 120GB PCIe SSD

4x1TB Deskstar HDD RAID 5 external box - backups

I'm thinking I might change the C drive to the OCZ since it's the fastest. Additionally, I have a 1500VA UPS.

Please let me know if you need any other information. Thank you!

[Harm_Millaard]

Pagefile (fixed size) on one SSD, media cache and previews on another SSD, the single Caviar Black for exports, and media and projects on the raid0, provided you are diligent with your backups to the external raid.

[wonderdude]

Dank u wel, Harm!

May I ask for your definition of "diligent" backups? Once a day, every few hours of editing, or...?

On a side note, the über-geek in me wants to understand which drive would optimal for each task. I know this thread is only for general guidelines, though -- is there another thread which discusses relative advantages of individual disc performance characteristics, specific performance interpretation, and optimal editing task assignment...<snip>

Thanks again!!

EDIT: I'll create a separate thread regarding drive performance questions/guidelines

[Guest]

wonderdude wrote:

Dank u wel, Harm!

May I ask for your definition of "diligent" backups? Once a day, every few hours of editing, or...?

On a side note, the über-geek in me wants to understand which drive would optimal for each task. I know this thread is only for general guidelines, though -- is there another thread which discusses relative advantages of individual disc performance characteristics, specific performance interpretation, and optimal editing task assignment...<snip>

Thanks again!!

EDIT: I'll create a separate thread regarding drive performance questions/guidelines

Depending on how important your work is to you, once a day may be enough. Personally, I would setup something automated that protects against forms of data degradation and corruption. With a little knowledge or cash (and either can be substituted for the other), one can setup a NAS device to perform hourly snapshots. Something like Solaris 11, OpenIndiana or Nexenta operating systems would be a good place to start.

[Rishaar]

At this point i have a funny question:

I'm upgrading my system to a simple 3 disks style: 1 F4 for OS/Apps and 2 sets of Raid0 (so 4 disks) for the rest

(All my common assets (music, graphic) are on a NAS, my daily  backups on a External Raid1 and everything else i use with my other  PC...)

Since i won't use any raid controller on this system , i have only 6 SATA ports, the last being used by the Bluray/DVD drive.

But I never (i mean never ever!) use the Bluray/DVD drive on my editing machine, beside the first Win7/CS5 setup of course.

Could i just get rid of it (using external DVD druve if needed) and use the extra port ? for example put a fast & small SSD dedicated for pagefile?

Is it stupid?

Please don't hesitate to burn me in your answers, i have the feeling it's not such a great idea anyway

[TKlopp1]

Hi Harm,

One quick question based on the 'Guidelines for Disk Usage' please...

Is Pagefile the same as Scratch Disks?

Thanks!

Ted

[Harm_Millaard]

No, pagefile is a Windows OS wide 'virtual' memory which is set from the control panel. Scratch disks are used by Adobe to locate the preview files. They can be in different locations, depending on your disk setup.

[TKlopp1]

Ok... cool - but I don't see Scratch Disks listed on the sheet for Guidelines for Disk Usage... so are they a part of one of the categories listed? Where should they go for a 2 or 3 disk setup?

Thanks!

Ted

[Harm_Millaard]

They are set in the project properties and are described as the preview files in the overview.

[Rishaar]

Hi Harm

What do you think about post# 227 ?

Many thanks !

[roctagon]

Are there pagefiles on Mac OS X?   If so, where do you find them and specify their location??

Thanks!

[PaulieDC]

Sure are, roctagon. This should answer all your questions: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20001215021440138

[s h o e]

I am planning the following approach for my drive configuration. - based on your advice

planning a four drive system

600GB velociraptor for OS and programs

two 2 TB WD blacks running as RAID 0 to have Media, Projects, Previews and Exports

and  a fourth drive for Pagefiles and Media Cache - now here's my question  will like a small 60 - 80 GB SSD work for this and do i need a speedy  drive especially when i got 24 gigs of 1600Mhz RAM or a regular 7200RPM  500GB SATA drive do?

and ofcourse a regular external backup for the RAID setup.

thanks

shoe

[roctagon]

General question for all the gurus on the forum.  Been reading and studying at great length to understand how to optimize my setup and am still not getting the performance that my system should produce.  My configuration is:

Mac OSX 10.6.7

3.2Ghz Intel i7

24Gb 1600MHz DDR3 RAM

Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB RAM

Disk Setup:

64GB SSD: OS and Applications

2 Disk TB G-RAID (RAID ) via eSATA: Video Files and Premiere Pro projects

1TB 7200rpm SATA: Previews, Media Cache, Exports

Scrubbing just one layer of 1920x1080 .mov video from my DSLR is choppy and sluggish and forget about multiple layers with effects.  I see my performance then watch all the adobe tutorials of multiple streams of RED footage running and scrubbing smoothly and I get frustrated.  Exports are also slow and crash often.

I cannot do the PP Benchmark because I'm on a Mac but I've used MMBench disk monitoring software will playing video to check transfer speeds and I'm only getting an average of 50mb/s via eSATA when G-RAID's literature guarantees 200mb/s!  Does anybody know what I'm doing wrong or where the bottleneck is??

I'm thinking of adding another 2TB 2 Disk RAID 0 to bring my system to a 4 disk system.  Would this make a big difference?

Also, the G-RAID is currently my main disk with pictures, AI files, documents, etc on it along with the Source Media. (I do back up religiously with Time Machine).  I have 622GB used of the 2TB G-RAID.  Does this G-RAID need to be SOLELY dedicated to Source Media to transfer data fast?

Thanks for all the info on the forum and hopefully someone can enlighten me!

[s h o e]

I hope this shines some light on the issue and helps even if a teeny bit.

my System Configuration is:

*Windows 7 professional 64 bit

Asus P6X58D-E

Intel i7 960

24Gb 1600Mhz Corsair DDR3 RAM

MSI GTX570 Twin Frozr III (Nvidia)*

Disk Setup

*OS and Applications - WD Velociraptor 600GB (10000 RPM)

Media and Projects - WD Black 1 TB (7200 RPM)

Exports and Previews - 2 X WD Black 1 TB (7200 RPM) - RAID 0 = 2TB*

I use a Sony AVCHD camcorder generating 1080i *.m2ts files and i somehow can

playback my timeline very smoothly with a few effects and also am able to

scrub with out glitches - ok a disclaimer - my setup is very new and i

haven't yet edited anything beyond 5 mins with effects and layers. Also i

haven't exported any finished videos. I will do the premier pro bench mark

soon and see what i get. will post the results and/or if really bad commit

harakiri.

Well that's that

[skeeze]

Harm,

I am hoping you can help with a question(I welcome other expert responses as well of course).  I have run the PPDM and read all the recommendations so I have a good sense of what you recommend for configurations.  I have an HP Z800, dual W5590 3.33Ghz, 36GB RAM, Quadro3800 with disks as follows.

c: OS, Programs
D: Media, Projects (Raid 0 2x1TB drives 7200rpm)
E: Pagefile, media Cache (120GB SSD)
F: Previews, Exports

My question is this, I am currently ranked #149 while two other Z800's are ranked #26 and #49 (somewhat similarly configured), and while I don't care so much about rankings I do want my machine to run as quickly as possible.  I have had it for 2 years now and am willing to upgrade it (spent too much to completely replace it at this point), but I am not sure where my money would be best spent.  Listed below are the two machines I am comparing against.  An obvious difference is they have more cores than I do, but they also have more memory and different video cards.  Disks seem to be similarly configured, but neither of them have a big raid system which I had previously thought was my biggest performance bottleneck(still possible I missed some aspect of their disk configuration).

Listed below are what appeared to me to be the biggest differences between their systems and mine.

So, my questions is, what do you think would be the smartest thing to upgrade, CPU, Video, memory, disk or a combination of these?

Thanks in advance!

26 Z800 MT Desktop HP Z800 Intel Xeon X5660
More CPU cores (12 cores with X5660's vs 8 with my W5590's), More memory(96GB vs my 36GB), different video (GTX 570 vs. my Quadro 3800), similar disk configuration

49 Civilization HT NM Desktop HP Z800 Intel Xeon X5680 3.33
More CPU cores (12 cores with X5660's vs 8 with my W5590's), More memory(48GB vs my 36GB), different video (Quadro 4000 vs. my Quadro 3800), similar disk configuration

149 BZ800 Desktop HP HPZ800 Intel Xeon W5590 3.33

Note: My current disk configuration above is slightly different than when I ran the test that is posted, but it returned essentially the same #'s.

[Harm_Millaard]

There are two limiting factors in your setup, one is the W5590, which is an older generartion CPU and of course, as you already stated, with fewer cores. The second one is the FX 3800 versus the GTX 570. The latter may be of minor impact, but the older generation CPU is the most obvious one. It is somewhat comparable to an i7-920 versus an i7-2600K. The latter, being of a newer generation is plainly faster than the older 920. Same with your CPU's.

Whatever way you turn it, you will get better performance from the 56xx series of CPU's than from the 55xx series, but that raises the question: Is it worth the investment? I rather doubt it.

If you contact us via the PPBM5 contact link or create a new thread with details of your setup, either Bill or I will get back to you.

[RFDPiper]

Hey Harm,

I'm going to set up fast input (media) and output (exports/renders) drives, but is there any need for the C drive (OS and programs) to be particularly fast?  I'm planning on using a 1TB WD Caviar Black for the C drive.  (I know that's excessively large, but I have an extra one and I like free stuff).

[Harm_Millaard]

The WD Black will do fine.

[Volanttantes]

Hi all!

Wow, what a great resource! I just recently started using Adobe Premiere Pro again after a few years of being absent. My new machine seems slow since I started using HD files, which is weird as the machine is a year old, but when I read all this the answer is simple. I haven't set it up properly.

I have a 8-core Mac Pro 2.4Ghz (2010) with 48GB (1066Mhz DDR3 Kingston) RAM.

I have the standard ATI RADEON 5770 videocard.

But when I use Premiere or After Effects for my Canon 5D Mark II footage, it takes a long time to preview, especially when using Dynamic Link to link my AE footage in Premiere.

I haven't touched the settings, so that's where I failed.

Current setup has 5 disks.

1 - 240GB SSD - Mac OSX & Apps (including Adobe Production Premium CS5.5)

2 - 1TB WD "standard factory" disk - Junk

3 - 2TB WD Black Caviar (non RE model) - Projects (all my AE, PR and mediafiles) - Encrypted

4 - 2TB WD Black Caviar (non RE model) - Other Files

5 - 2TB WD Green Caviar - Media files (tv shows, movies, music)

I also have a Drobo (Firewire800) with 4 1TB disk for a total of 2,8TB backup space (They call it "beyond RAID") for Time Machine backups.

I now know I need to separate my files, so I want to keep my SSD as is, use one 1 Black Caviar for project files and assets, the other Black Caviar for render and export.

Is this smart? And what about scratch disk? Do I need one with 48GB RAM? Can I make a 150GB partition on the standard factory disk which I can use for scratch disk?

The Drobo is not nearly fast enough to work straight off it, but I can use it as a backup box. Or are there better options?

Thanx in advance! These kind of forums are a Godsend! And I kinda noticed that Harm is the God in charge

[Harm_Millaard]

Occasionally we try to be somewhat helpful and in the course of a long time I have written a couple of articles that can all be found under the Overview tab, Hardware FAQ list, amongst other articles of interest.

One in particular may be of interest: Adobe Forums: Storage rules for an editing rig. Some...

I admit I'm not familiar with MAC's, but on PC's partitioning is not done. It is all explained in the article linked to here. The Drobo is great for backups. Why have you used encryption on the 3-rd drive? It adds overhead and CPU cycles, thus reducing performance.

[Volanttantes]

Hi!

Yeah, I know partitioning is not done,.. but I don't want to sacrifice a 1TB disk for a scratchdisk I will hardly use thanx to the 48GB of RAM.

And the disk is encrypted for security reasons,... if someone nicks my Mac Pro, they don't need to see my entire photo collection,...

[Harm_Millaard]

Do you mean photo or porn?

You could get a smallish but fast and affordable Samsung F4 320 G for around $ 40 for that purpose.