SSD drive for onlining uncompreessed HD?

Hi.

Does anyone have experience using SSD for onlining/editing/playback of uncompressed HD?

With datarates of up to 250MBps it should be enough for uncompressed 1080p 24p/25p, right? This to me seems like a simple solution for short projecs, but cheaper and easier than large multi-disk RAID arrays.

Am I missing something here? Are there any hidden limitations (appart from storage space)?

From online tests I've seen (and no, I dont have links), the SSD drives are PERFECT for this - if money is no object. You say "cheaper" than HDD Raids - in what way? You say the only drawback is "storage space" - that's exactly what is going to cost you a fortune. With a 250G SSD card running over $700, and a 1T+ raid running maybe $500, there are TWO drawbacks - SPACE and MONEY.

If you just use one SSD, it will be expensive. But if you use one to read from and one to write to, it's now VERY expensive.

AWESOME, but expensive.

How would these compare to Firewire 800 drives? Those are down to less than $200 for 1 TB at the locally owned Mac store.

-- Paul

	Gage wrote:
	With a 250G SSD card running over $700, and a 1T+ raid running maybe $500, there are TWO drawbacks - SPACE and MONEY.

I was under the impression that you need a 5 disk array for for realtime uncompressed HD. You say I can get something like that for $500? What are my options, building my own? If so what do I need?

When I said cheap, I didn't mean on a $ per GB basis. I meant to get the performance to deal with uncompressed HD in realtime.
I just thought a tiny 2,5" SSD SATA drive seems so easy, just plug&play that little fella, no ekstra pwer supplies, fan noise or bulky enclosures.

	Clinco wrote:
	How would these compare to Firewire 800 drives? Those are down to less than $200 for 1 TB at the locally owned Mac store.

A firewire800 drive have a maximal theoretical transfer speed of 100MB/sec and for uncompressed HD you need about 200MB/sec. To reach the 100MB/sec upoper limit of FW800 you would need a three-drive RAID0 enclosure, most external FW800 drives are only single drive, and a few are two-drive.

If I were putting together a RAID for uncompressed HD, I would start at MacGurus' Burly RAID. 12TB of storage at 400MB/s when 80% full, this would give you plenty of room and speed for uncompressed HD for under US$4000. (Smaller versions are cheaper, of course.)

Using Gage's 250gig for $700 price for SSD, a comparably sized SSD setup would cost you... um... $33,600, or nearly 10 times as much. And you'll definitely want plenty of space to do uncompressed HD, for footage, renders, etc.

_________________
Jamie
www.crashandannie.com

	Quote:
	I was under the impression that you need a 5 disk array for for realtime uncompressed HD. You say I can get something like that for $500? What are my options, building my own? If so what do I need?

I mentioned nothing of a 5 disk array and wasnt aware that is what was needed. But you can get four 1T HDDs for $100ea and the extra $100 goes to connection. Even if my number is off by $100, that's still $100 cheaper than a single SSD.

	Quote:
	When I said cheap, I didn't mean on a $ per GB basis. I meant to get the performance to deal with uncompressed HD in realtime.

While HDDs are obviously cheaper per GB, I want strictly speaking of the cost in terms of GB. With 250G HDDs going for $70, a five drive raid - with the same storage space - should still run you about $500-600, still cheaper with an extra drive.

	Quote:
	I just thought a tiny 2,5" SSD SATA drive seems so easy, just plug&play that little fella, no ekstra pwer supplies, fan noise or bulky enclosures.

Aha. EASIER, yes. Cheaper? Certainly not. Crash's numbers are certainly enlightening. While you do need the SPEED, you must certainly also have the STORAGE to hold the files.

Here is what you need. Again, super-awesome, not cheap.

thanks guys. the way I'll probably want to use an SSD is for grading and compositing small projects. I'll always have larger disks for storage and backup, but my intent is to use an SSD for storing for instance DPX sequences of my readycut timelines. Would also come in handy for partial renders and proxies.

Extremely awesome, and to me, even with the charts at the end, pure Greek. I don't have a clue how he did it. But I love the whole mad-scientist flavor of the thing.

-- Paul

SSD using MLC chips have a shorter lifespan than traditional hard drives or SSD using SLC chips. Notebook SSD using MLC chips are designed for low duty cycle applications wheras video editing may require constant read/write. MLC chips are three times more likely to have read/write errors than more expensive SLC chips due to power line fluctuations.

Some video editors have been using SD cards like this: Acard SATA-to-SDHC Flash Disk, SSD using 6 SDHC cards. Price is around $70 US without SD cards.

r/w speed around 90-128 mbps, almost same speed as SSD MLC 's like the Gskill FM-25S2S SSD @ 119-134 mbps

http://www.acard.com/english/newstabpop.jsp?idno=78

Download manual here:

http://www.acard.com/english/fb01-product.jsp?prod_no=ANS-9012&type1_title=%20Solid%20State%20Drive&type1_idno=13&idno_no=267#6

Last edited by jleo on Sun Jun 14, 2009 8:59 pm; edited 3 times in total

Thanks for that, Jleo, I had never heard of that. Will have to read more about it and about the failure rate.