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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

ssd choice

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noah newtown

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so the epic times begin....:)
whats the best choice of ssd media

2x 256gb ssd
or
3-4x 128bg ssd

are there any downsides on using the 2x256gbs ssds ?!
 
I agree with Sean; unless you need relatively long record times without changing media, smaller and more of them is better. Less eggs in one basket, less of an issue if one fails.

If you need *long* record times, consider an external solution - running tethered, or an external RAID (both of which possibilities will soon be available, I hope).

Mike
 
thx so far .....man, this question (2x256gb or 3-4x128gb) is really killing me :)
 
I'd go with 3-4 128s. I find the 64s to be too small for my taste and the 256s to be too large unless there are certain requirements you have for single-take length. The 128s are a nice balance.
 
Paul Nordin said:
With the external boxes you are no longer recording raw. I'm not wanting to give that up for longer runtimes. I opted to get 4-128s and 1 256.
Click to expand...

No, I'm talking about an external raw solution, similar to RED RAM. But much bigger and probably RAID 5 for data security.

Mike
 
Brook Willard said:
I'd go with 3-4 128s. I find the 64s to be too small for my taste and the 256s to be too large unless there are certain requirements you have for single-take length. The 128s are a nice balance.
Click to expand...

+1.
 
Depending on shooting style, I prefer 64GB. The 128s are a little too big and on the shows I am doing are getting reloaded at 25-50%, so perfect for a 64GB card. I have said it before, but I recommend 64GB for regular shooting and 256GB for special situations. I do mostly features and some TV. Your shooting style might dictate something different. Cameras shot for years with 11min mags and that is what 64GB gives you at 5:1. 20min at RC42 (9:1) on a Red One. I have done a lot of Alexa shows and the 14min you get on an SxS card is perfect. That would be 6:1 on a 64GB SSD on Epic.

You really have to think about those download times. SSDs are fast, but to make multiple copies and multiple checksums to fast drives still takes time with 128GB.


Dusty
 
I think 3 (or more) SSDs are almost required to maintain smooth offload workflow. Like Brook said, 3+ 128's is a good start. Personally I like the 256's. I don't shoot longer takes normally, but I don't have to rotate media as often, or I can shoot without reformatting, keeping all the clips on the source media for redundancy. Much like shooting with RED Drives...
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
I think 3 (or more) SSDs are almost required to maintain smooth offload workflow. Like Brook said, 3+ 128's is a good start. Personally I like the 256's. I don't shoot longer takes normally, but I don't have to rotate media as often, or I can shoot without reformatting, keeping all the clips on the source media for redundancy. Much like shooting with RED Drives...
Click to expand...

I agree with Jeff and opted to go for the 256's...similar shooting style to the Red drives/rams
 
with the 256 ssd's you get a trade in of 400 bucks on your red drives too. Still expensive but it helps. I will have 2 128's and 2 256, shooting HDRX is twice the data
remember.
 
Brook Willard said:
I'd go with 3-4 128s. I find the 64s to be too small for my taste and the 256s to be too large unless there are certain requirements you have for single-take length. The 128s are a nice balance.
Click to expand...

Hey Brook - is this assuming the 5-1 RC for most shoots? What if you have a VFX heavy shoot and are shooting RC2.51 Lossless ... AND HDRX... would 128 still be enough for those shoots?

I think Deanan had a chart published somewhere - with recordt times per media for each SSD depending on Redcode selected.

The 64GB SSD are almost PERFECT size for the RED ONE MX btw, at 44 Min of record time at RC42, at least in our experience - we get about 45 minutes per card and they offload so much faster!
 
I think I'll go with 64GB, as many as I can afford, because - don't put all your eggs in one basket. And one 256GB for interviews, and other special situations.
 
With this much data..ssd talk and all, do you guys still do the encoding offline on set ?
 
Whoa. Gonna cost a lot to shoot on SSD

Whoa. Gonna cost a lot to shoot on SSD

Just looked at an unconfirmed data rate sheet posted by one of the members.
It appears that if you're shooting at 5K at a compression level around "6:1" or say
4 .5 Megs/second, my rough calculations would give you around 11.5 minutes per 64 SSD
if you only shoot to 80% capacity, like a hard drive for safety reasons. Of course, you don't
have to shoot at this sort of compression and 8:1 would give you around 15.5 minutes at 80%.

Also, maybe someone can chime in on whether you need to play it safe with "80%" record capacities on SSD.
I heard the fail rates aren't as rosy as you might think, although I'd like to believe they're a lot safer
than CF red cards.
 
Last edited:
SSDs are cheaper per GB than CF... 64GB is too small for EPIC, IMO. 256GB are the best deal.
 
ok maybe 2x256gb SSDs are the best deal....and later one or two more when the price comes down?!
 
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