Just picked up a M2 Studio Max.
I use FCP to edit 1080/4K
Plan is to edit small projects within my expensive 2 TB internal SSD
But also some FCP projects and storage on my new external raid.
Id like to go Raid 0 on two 16TB drives I put into my OWC external enclosure.
Can you advise what Format? APFS? or Mac OS Extended (Journaled)?
Chunk size? My projects and files are not that large.
Thx in advance!
Mac Studio, macOS 13.5
As Tom says, spinners get formatted HFS+, aka Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Sorry, it's been a while and I don't remember recommended chunk sizes. OWC has great tech support and should be able to give you guidance.
I personally wouldn't do a RAID-0 with drives that large unless they were reliably backed up. If all your media that's on these drives is backed up and your library is stored on the internal drive (also backed up with Time Machine), then losing the RAID wouldn't be terrible. A time suck to rebuild but not horrible.
RAID-0 is fast but there's no redundancy. If one drive fails, you lose everything since the data is striped across both. RAID-1 mirrors the data on each drive. I don't know how much of a performance hit there is when the mirroring is happening. I had a mirrored setup for an email server but that's not very disk intensive. Also, sorry if I caused any confusion -- I didn't advise you to use RAID-1, just to be aware of RAID-0 downsides.
RAID-5 and RAID-6 are what I use but these require a minimum of 3 and 4 drives.
HFS+ for the spinners.
Are you sure you want RAID-0 with disks that large? There's no redundancy, parity info or fault tolerance in RAID-0. 32TB is a *lot* of data to lose if one of the drives craps out.
Are you sure you need a RAID? Have you tested running a typical project project off of one of the 16TB drives in a fast enclosure? You could also work with proxies or render difficult sections if needed.
Yes, the two drives Id like to zero raid for performance are spinning.
Plan is to edit small projects within my expensive 2 TB internal SSD
But also some FCP projects and storage on my new external raid.
Yes, I decided against raid zero two SSD (in external enclosure) because i need storage space and the price.
I acknowledge two SSD's would have been faster.
Secondary question. As soon as im finished formatting this raid, i will begin transferring gobs of files from my Cheese grader to my Studio via network/ethernet cat 6 cable.
I have read that the studio ethernet port is 10GBp/s however my MacPro Mid 2010 ethernet port says 10/100/1000Base T port.
Do you have any idea how many GBp/s i might be getting with this huge transfer? I also might use this cheesgrader as a server if ethernet is fast enough.
Sorry i left out the spinning detail
The MacPro ethernet port is 1Gb. So to transfer 100GB over 1Gb ethernet (big 'B' for bytes, small 'b' for bits) will take at least 13 min 20 sec. This is optimal so plan on it taking longer. Lots of online calculators out there. https://calculators.io/bandwidth/
How much data do you need to transfer from the MacPro? If it's a ton, it might be quicker to copy to an intermediate drive that you shuttle between the MacPro and Mac Studio.
Id like to set up a raid for 2 spinning drives in an external enclosure.
Performance as priority--- Raid 0?
Format APFS for spinners?
1080/4K small projects. Chunk size 128K sound ok?
Thank you
OK- HFS+ was recommended for spinner format.
I believe that means I select Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Chunk size 128K sound ok?
Im doing 1080/4K small projects small files.
Thank you! Im looking forward to getting this going.
I hear you Terry. I know it's weird. But yes, id like to raid-0 these two 16TB spinners.
I just need a little help to figure out format and chuck size.
Im almost there and can begin working.
You think Mac OS Extended (Journaled)? 128K chunk?
If I later today I decide to go with your advice and do a Raid 1 that would give me 16TB (Cut in half) but be a reliable back up. Formatting should still be "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)? 128K chunk?"
Do you think performance would suffer that much compared to a Raid 0? It's my understanding that Raid 0 would be faster than just writing to one drive and Raid 1 would be about the same performance speed as writing to just one.
Any thoughts would be much apreciated!
I cant wait to start this.
I appreciate the responses. No one really seems to know about chunking for someone doing small FCP projects. Might not be a big deal. I like your idea of calling OWC for final decisions. You also make good point about Raid 1. I think im on a good track. Thank you again.
Good question. This week my Studio Max arrived that is replacing my Mid 2010 optimized Intel Mac Pro chese grader. The OS I was using was Sierra . Silicone Studio Max jumped me 3 generations into Ventura and FCP graduated a few jumps as well. Needless to say, everything in FCP is snappier.
Migration wasn't easy and Im just trying to give this new set up the best chance to perform into the future. I needed the space and the 16TB was the pricing sweet spot.
I plan on working on one FCP project (1080/4K) at a time from the internal 2TB SSD. I already have a set of 6TB spinners Raid 0 in my OWC enclosure in case i need to work on additional FCP projects at same time.
Your thought of a raid 2 for the other two 16TB drive in that enclosure is what I am planning to do just for storage. I think im on the right track and will give OWC a call to double check my investment/workflow. Thank you!
SSD or Spinning drives?
Al
In addition to Al’s question, what type of media do you expect to be working with, format and resolution? 16 TB is a lot, perhaps smaller SSDs might work better for smaller productions.
👍 for sneakernet
Ha! I didn't think anyone remembered that these days! I used that term with a younger colleague to describe an offsite backup process and he was completely confused. Sneaker what?
Best Raid set up for FCP?
