Final Cut Pro and Scratch Disks

Question

Level 1

6 points

Final Cut Pro and Scratch Disks

Hello All,

I have been reading some books and posts on various fourms and I am a little confused about something, maybe someone can provide me some advice.

Lets say you have three drives (all non-raid). The first, a 10k RPM drive holds your MAC OS and all your applications, like Final Cut and After Effects. Your second drive a very fast (15k rpm, 75 gig) but very small drive is your "scratch disk." Your third drive a normal (7.2k RPM) 1TB drive is used to store all your media/graphic/audio files.

Tell me, would there be much performance improvement with such a configuration vs. having the scratch disk be the same drive as the one the actual application is on, with the stored file on the 1TB drive?

Thanks your time, attention and responses people.

Posted on Jun 25, 2007 1:50 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Studio X

Level 7

27,229 points

Jun 25, 2007 1:56 PM in response to NGW1234

Your first configuration would be best.

x

Reply

Answer 2

Jun 25, 2007 1:57 PM in response to NGW1234

Your 1T drive should be your 'scratch drive'. You mention the 15k/75Gb drive as your scratch drive, but then post that your 1T drive has media/graphics/audio files...what is your 'media'?

It's advisable to not capture media to your system drive.

What kind of computer and how are these drives configured?...internal, external, FW, USB2...ect?

Give us a little more detail please.

K

Reply

Answer 3

Shane Ross

Level 8

43,110 points

Jun 25, 2007 2:08 PM in response to NGW1234

10k RPM drive for your OS and apps? Man...that is WAY overkill. You realy won't see any booth in peformance with that. That is one expensive OS drive.

And as Kevan said...your SCRATCH drive IS the place you store all your media, graphics, stills...etc.

Dunno why you have three different drive types here. What did you think the SCRATCH drive was?

Shane

Reply

Answer 4

NGW1234 Author

Level 1

6 points

Jun 25, 2007 2:37 PM in response to NGW1234

Ok. Sorry people, clearly I am confused.

First, all drives are internal.

Second, my "media" files are all types from .mov to .avi to .tiff to .jpg to .wav to .mpg etc.

Third, I was under the impression from what I've read that the scratch disk (which I understand is a drive the computer will use when it runs out of RAM to process filters etc like in Photoshop) could be a seperate drive from where you store your apps and "media" files that could be a faster smaller drive so as to allow you a boost in computational performance when in use (when systemn is low on RAM). Again, this would not be used for storage or anything so it can be very small (and very fast).

Fourth, I also heard it was good to put your MAC OS (which would be my bootdrive as well) and Vista OS with their respective applications on seperate, fast drives. This would increase performance. Again, as Kevan points out, these two drives would keep my system apps and OSs away from my media files. (Although I think this will not allow me to run Bootcamp, I have to check into that.)

Again, thanks for all your assistance, I savor every kernel of knowledge.

Reply

Answer 5

Jun 25, 2007 6:39 PM in response to NGW1234

"I was under the impression from what I've read that the scratch disk (which I understand is a drive the computer will use when it runs out of RAM to process filters etc like in Photoshop)"<<<</div>

In FCP, the scratch drive or 'capture scratch' drive should be any drive other than your system drive (with OS, apps, etc.) It has no relationship to RAM, while other apps may.

I've not worked with Vista or Bootcamp, so can't really advise on drive speed/performance. I do remember getting our first G5 with a 10K rpm/60Gb system drive and regretted not going for the 7.2K rpm/250Gb system drive for more internal storage, when I found that FCP ran fine on the 7.2rpm drives.

I keep a variety of 'media' types on my scratch disk, but try to limit it to my captured video files for organizational purposes. This makes it quicker to locate and trash the video clips when I'm done with them....NOTE: I will only trash video that has been captured with valid original source timecode....all other 'media' gets archived for future use, if needed.

K

Reply

Answer 6

NGW1234 Author

Level 1

6 points

Jun 25, 2007 7:15 PM in response to Kevan D. Holdsworth

Thanks Kevan.

I got my initial configuration idea from this post from Studio X( http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4645114?) to an extreme novice like me it seemed to make a lot of sense, spreading the work over a few drives while not needing a RAID 0.

I also appreciate your input on drive speed and what Shane said above, I am thinking I will stay with 7200 RPM drives and keep them about 65% full, that would still offer me considerable space given that they can get as big as 1 TB!

Reply