What kind of Hard Drives should I get to complete my editing setup?

[ercdill]

Hello all, I'm looking to upgrade my current editing setup. I'm very close to pulling the trigger but I just want to make sure I have everything correct. What I really need help is deciding what HDD's I should get. I have a 74GB, 15,000 RPM Seagate Cheetah that I plan to use for my boot drive, but I don't know if I should get two 300GB raptors or two 500 GB Barracudas. I know the raptors are faster but I'm kind of on a budget. Will Barracudas get the job done? The rest of my future setup:

Vista 64-bit sp1
Intel Core i7 920 (Nehalem)
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-DS4 Intel X58 ATX Mobo
G.Skill 6GB DDR3 1600 (Triple Channel)

[redwudz]

The Barracudas may be a microsecond slower than the (Veloci)Raptors in actual operation, and a whole lot cheaper. Your SATA controller may have far more bearing on the transfer speed than the drives themselves. Both of those drives seem to have a 5 year warranty, which is also good.

[Soopafresh]

Barracudas - lower price, more disk space.

[edDV]

What formats are you editing?

Only uncompressed broadcast formats require a fast disk system. Real time uncompressed even more. Usually a multi-drive RAID. Otherwise a single Barracuda for capture is more than enough.

[ercdill]

Well I will be capturing from a BlackMagic Intensity card so uncompressed HD. Will Barracudas be fast enough for uncompressed HD?

[jagabo]

You will need RAID striping for uncompressed HD. But the BlackMagic Intensity normally compresses with MJPEG. So any HD will do.

[ercdill]

Oh okay. Thanks for the help guys.

[edDV]

For direct uncompressed capture you will need a RAID that can handle 120MB/s for 1080i (2 to 3 drives) or 107MB/s for 720p (2 Barracudas are enough). Live MJPEG software compression will work to a single drive.

From Intensity Manual


Note that a 1080i uncompressed capture consumes 422GB per hour. A movie would fill a TB RAID.