Ellory Yu wrote:Patrick Abde wrote:Ellory Yu wrote:My setup is OP’s #3 but with a Raid 0 SSD for cache and Raid for my HDD.
Okay. Having one of the SATA ssd's dedicated for project files would leave me with just one free sata slot for cache. I'm not too familiar with raids and the different raid types yet, but I would need more SATA slots to run any of those, right?
Or do you mean that I should go with option #3 anyway? Even without the raid thing?
For me, I did option 3 and it does well for my workflow and projects. You have to decide if that’s what will work for you. I strongly suggest the RAID but surely you can do without.
I will assume when you are talking about project files, you mean the Resolve local database and exported DRPs. If that is the case, I would up the NVMe to a 1 or 2TB M.2 drive and leave the database local on that drive. Da Vinci Project files are small but frequently accessed so good to put it on a fast drive like NVMe. I am assuming also you are not doing Posgres DB. That would be a different set up. Then you can use both SATA to have 2 x 2TB ssd drives set as RAID 0. You can use that for you cache, about 4TB - which will be plenty to optimize media’s for better playbacks. For working projects, I keep them on my RAID 10 HDD, and render them out there.
I keep a project structure where each project has a Folder, and each folder has sub folders for the project assets:CLIP\VIDEO, CLIP\AUDIO, EDIT (contains versions of exported DRP files), RENDER, FX, MISC…
I have also removable drive bays because some clients bring SSD and HDD but this is another topic and configuration. BMD sells a multi dock but I use just a 4 bay removable enclosure and it is a lot cheaper and works for me. I also used an M-disc drive to archive DRAs which for 90% of the project I do, I can compress the DRA and write it onto a 100gb M-disc. Others have their methods like using LROs but they are pretty expensive for my use.
Just remember that when you are setting up to have a performant system, how the drives are setup can be your weakest link too.
Oh, I realize now that I may have been a bit unclear. What I meant by "Project Files" was: All the source media for the ongoing project/projects. Those would only live on that SSD untill I finished the project and then be moved over to a much larger disk (possibly externally, and I guess in some sort of raid config).
At least that's how I interpered the hardware recommendations from reading
https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-DaVinci-Resolve-187/Hardware-Recommendations#storageThey use the wording "Project Files", which I assumed was all the media files(raw footage/audio etc..), but now I'm unsure, is that not what they mean?
Anyway, with that in mind, my idea was to;
start a new project by creating a new folder inside the "Project Files"-drive and naming it for example: "Ben & Jerry's wedding", and then neatly fill it up with all media needed.
Option #3 for example, would look something like this:
- Screenshot_20210802-163555__01.jpg (131.52 KiB) Viewed 2656 times
Whenever I'm done with all my deliveries and everything, I'd export a .drp file and place it inside the "Ben & Jerry's wedding"-folder.
I'll then copy that whole folder over to my Storage drive (external in this case), to sit together with all the other old projects. All of that storage would also be backed up somewhere.
When all is done, I'd delete the whole Ben & Jerry folder from the "Project Files"-drive. And also, i guess, everything that's been generated to the "Cache/Scratch"-drive, to free up space for the next project/projects in line.
Btw, one other thing I'm unsure of is, where do I render my finished video files to? Should i render them directly into the Ben & Jerry folder like I illustrated, or to the scratch disk and then move it over when its done? Or something else? Is one way faster than the other?
I don't know, perhaps I'm completely off with everything??
Btw, if you're still here, thanks for reading! I'm very sorry for the massive post