We are settling on getting a SATA Raid for this first show. As much as we’d love to get the Huge Systems (Ciprico Systems) Media Vault 4205 4GB Fibrechannel RAID…it is just too expensive for us at this time. I spent all my budget on building my system from scratch. The next show I will invest in the drive array and possibly a new computer, if the Intel comes out by then.

The SATA Raid I wanted won’t be available until mid-June…the Sonnet 500P. This is due to the amount of back orders they need to fill first. I was about to look at the Weibetech when I saw the G5 Jam…internal drive array on the G5. But three drives…four if you use the built in secondary slot. But I can’t, as that is occupied by a media drive with footage and renders for my current project. That reminded me of my buddy Pat Sheffield. He built an internal SATA RAID with 4 drives…six internal drives total…but only the 4 he added were striped. He calls this his “Popsicle Raid.”

Why? Well, because instead of the G5 jam metal cage spacer…he used popsicle sticks and rubber bands. Very low tech, but it works. At first he tried to have all four on the lower level by the RAM and in front of the FAN, but that didn’t allow for enough airflow. So he put one on the shelf below the Optical drive. It really is a good setup.

So I ordered four 500Gb Hitachi SATA drives ($265 each, $1071 total), the Sonnet 4×4 eSata card ($199) and a handful of power and SATA cables ($34)..for a SATA RAID for under $1300. When this all arrives and I assemble it, I will take pics. And I will run speed tests.

I am doing this because while I might not be doing the color correction this time around, we still need to uprez the show and play it back to ensure that it looks good and plays back fine. Then we will transfer the render or Final Cut Pro Movie output to a couple G-Raids to take to the post facility for color correction.

I am really hoping that I get no dropped frames. We’ll see. I’ll post results.