Dear forum:
This is my first use of this forum. I'm impressed by Xbit and by the detail of the review of the latest Raptor. I'm not a knowledgeable computer person, but am in the process of purchasing a turn-key WIN-XP system for use in professional audio. The system is built/optimized/tested by:
Vision Digital Audio Workstations
http://www.visiondaw.com/systems.asp.
The set-up I will be ordering is as follows:
Standard Features
Cases: 4U Rackmount Chassis 18.5"(W) x 19"(D) x 7"(H)
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz Extreme Edition
Memory: 2,048MB PC3500 Xtreme Speed Memory (512x4)
Hard Drive 1: Seagate 120GB Ultra ATA100 7200rpm 8MB Hard Drive
Hard Drive 2: 2x36GB WDC Raptor SATA, 10K RPM, 8MB - RAID 0
Optical Drive 1: Lite On 16X DVD-ROM
Floppy Drive: 1.44MB Floppy Drive
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9600 256MB Dual Head Video Card
FireWire (IEEE 1394) Interface: 3 Port FireWire (1394) Interface Card
Keyboard/Mouse Combo: Logitech® Internet Keyboard & Optical Mouse Combo
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
The "second drive" (there are two of them) is used for the audio applications, samples, etc. These are my questions:
1. Since this company will install, configure, add or change the base set-up, I want to know whether a RAID type 0 (which is what is installed) is the best choice.
2. All of the comments that were made in the review of both the Raptor 1 and 2 HDDs mentioned controllers such as Promise/Silicon, etc and also the RAID controllers: Silicon 3112/Intel ICH5R. In my base unit, the two Raptor HDDs are used in pro audio in the following manner:
Most of the audio programs will use "Disk Streaming," which in audio terms refers to a part of the audio sample being loaded into RAM first, then cross- faded from the hard drives as a live stream. It is very demanding on the computer system. I noticed that the Raptors under this site's test were shown to be behind the SCSI drives when under heavy load (as opposed to linear loads), whatever that means. So in your professional opinion, what are the best drives for this demanding work?
A quick read of the various sites describing RAID types show type 0 to be the fastest, but least secure.
I thank everyone here, in advance, for any help with these matters.
Sincerely,
Phil
[
Posted by: philmagnotta

|
Date: 04/07/04 07:17:32 PM]