Reviving this thread because I'm back in the same old situation. Since the last go 'round I've added some space. This is what my connected drive profile looks like today. Fun to compare with 14 months ago when I started this thread:
Since the Time Machine drive is just backup, I'm basically out of space. Yeah, I have a decent amount left on my video raid, but I've been shuffling things around just to keep my computer running semi-smoothly. So I decided to really throw the kitchen sink at this problem. I ordered a new computer to start off. For the Mac loving geeks out there, this is what I have on the way:
27" iMac
3.5Ghz i7
32GB RAM
3TB Fusion Drive (SSD/HDD combo)
4GB VRAM
I'm pretty stoked on that setup - it's about as loaded as loaded gets for an iMac. But sadly, that drive space still ain't gonna cut it, especially since I went self-employed and have to store all my not-so-fun work locally now. My two existing RAID drives are Western Digital 2TB drives but I have them setup for redundancy, not speed so I only get 1TB storage per drive. Oh, and I hate them - they 'spin up' frequently and lock up my whole system for a few seconds. Really annoying. Switching the main drive to a 3TB should buy my a 6-12 months without totally running out but then I'm going to be in the same boat. So the question is now, what to replace the external with. I looked hard at a
Drobo 5D with thunderbolt but I'm scared of their proprietary crap and mixed reviews. Also looked at
Synology NAS and
Promise Pegasus RAID. Decided I need DAS not NAS and Promise Pegasus is way too much loot for me. So now I'm thinking I'll pickup an
8TB G-Technology G-Raid with Thunderbolt and run it in RAID 0 for pure speed with regular USB drive(s) backing it up. The only problem is that 8TB RAID with a cable is like $750. Painful....
So, I realize the chances of someone here on BCP having input on this specific setup is slim, but I thought I'd post anyway since I started this last year. The new computer is a done deal, but I'm having a really hard time convincing myself to drop the coin on the RAID. Thoughts?
Important points not mentioned in my long-winded post:
- I really want to maintain plenty of open drive space for maximum speed. 50% full would be nice.
- I do a lot of video editing for work so speed of access is important.