The
last components of the system are the hard disks. There are two
main uses of hard disks in the system. The system disk will contain
all the operating programs that run the computer itself, including
editing, graphic, and audio software. The Audio/Visual (AV) disk
or disks are to store the actual media that you will be working
with during a project. Remember, high quality video and graphic
media consist of a great deal of information. This requires a
sizable amount of storage space and the speed with which to move
the information through your system.The size
(capacity) and speed of the hard disks determine how much video
and audio you can work with and at what level of quality. With
DV, the disks must be capable of at least 3.6 MB per second of
sustained throughput. Most systems that produce video above VHS
quality require hard disks that can transfer data at rates between
4 MB per second and 15 MB per second. This requires a SCSI disk
with a speed of at least 7,200 RPM. However, faster is not always
better. You may get more reliable performance with 7,200 RPM drives
instead of 10,000 RPM drives, depending on your system. DV systems
produce excellent video quality at 3.6 MB per second and may be
able to use Ultra DMA 66 EIDE, 7,200 RPM disks, which can be slightly
less expensive per MB.
The next
disk consideration is size. A reasonable amount of disk space
for simple work and relatively small projects is 18 Gigabytes
(GB). This can be accomplished by two 9-GB drives connected to
the system by a SCSI controller card, or by one 18 GB drive. If
you are using a DV system you may be able to use the less expensive
Ultra DMA 66 EIDE disks. Check with your AV DATA consultant to
see if your system requires separate drives for audio and video.
Remember,
the more GB's of space you have in your system, the more audio
and video you can store to work with. That means you will be able
to work with larger projects and with multiple projects without
having to erase the media to make room for new video and audio.
Discuss your needs with your AV DATA consultant. AV DATA recommends
the use of Barracudas 7,200 RPM drives from SEAGATE. This type
of hard drive has given excellent performance in all our systems.
As a second choice, we can also recommend hard dives made by IBM.