dedicated capture system

[lingyi]

Unless you start using RAID. Then you might achieve faster speeds.

Scott

You're just playing around right?

Unless you're using Striped RAID setups on both the read and write ends, the bottleneck is still the speed of the single drive sending or receiving the data.

[Cornucopia]

Not playing around, and yes, striped RAID (0), or striped and mirrored (10). It can be a 2x, 3x, 4x boost depending on how you stripe it (minus some overhead). Not cheap, but it does work.

Scott

[lingyi]

Not playing around, and yes, striped RAID (0), or striped and mirrored (10). It can be a 2x, 3x, 4x boost depending on how you stripe it (minus some overhead). Not cheap, but it does work.

Scott

Fair enough. I seriously thought you were playing around because the OP seems to be looking for low cost workaround for what he wants, which RAID definitely isn't as you've stated.

I know people have done / do it, but it seems that running a RAID through USB or Thunderbolt is a waste of the speed gain (which of course is still quicker than a single drive).

[Cornucopia]

USB2 no way. USB3.0 maybe, USB3.1/USB-C or Thunderbolt (2 or better 3), should be OK. On Mac side, there are high speed data (esp. video) solutions specifically designed around externals using Tb3, some of them RAIDed. LaCie is usually one of these, though I haven't checked them out recently.

If the OP is looking for HIGH PERFORMANCE and HIGH QUALITY & RELIABILITY and HIGH PORTABILITY and LOW COST, they won't find it. Something's gotta give - which one(s) depends on one's priorities.

Scott