BEST RAID PRACTICES

I'm a bit lost on my first tour through these wonderful forums, so please redirect me as necessary.

I would like to know what real-world RAID configurations are working best for editors using RAIDS with more than two drives and less than twelve. That's assuming the RAID array is being used for actual editing, not as backup or as a media storage resource for pulling reusable graphics, opens/closes, etc., from.

I have purchased a Promise, Pegasus 2, R4 unit, and am curious how to get some redundancy without taking the performance hit of RAID 5. It will be used mostly for long-form program editing.

Thanks.

With T'bolt 2, you won't experience any performance hit. I've been using one for about a week now, default factory RAID 5, and it is perfectly fine. When using 4 or more drives, RAID 5 is usually best, as it handles large drive numbers better. 4 or less drives, I'd say use RAID 1. I'd never use RAID 0, even though "on paper" it is faster, no one can realistically tell the speed differences on screen. The speed differences are so small, not humanly perceptible in most cases. If they do get perceptible, then you're overloading the RAID and need to move up to a better quality RAID, or a larger number of drives.

Thanks very much. I thought this would be so, especially with only four drives. If I wanted a striped RAID 5 I'd need get an enclosure that would accommodate more drives. With a bandwidth potential of 20Gb/s I imagine this will radically diminish any performance hits that might normally be associated with RAID5. Now just waiting for the New Mac Pro to get here … It's like watching water boil - but I can't see the water - or something.