HVX 200 and FCP 4.5 - workflow RAIDS?

Hello,
I am about to embark on a show editing footage captured on the Panasonic HVX 200, shot in 1080i/24p. This will be my first time working with the P2 cards and setting up a raid array catering to the specifics of this project. The show was captured on those P2 cards. The shots are totaled at 1.5TB of MXF files. I have many questions. First off
1. What happens to the MXF files when FCP unwraps them, do they get bigger or smaller
2. What is the most efficient raid set up to edit on, in terms of speed and transfer rate
3. What is the most efficient back up system?
4. Will an offline edit be troublesome, due to the time code on the P2 cards
5. Will I need to edit at full resolution? What is the data transfer rate at full res? Will 400fw drives be able to handle this, or do I need 800, or even an esata raid solution.
Please suggest any gear, or certain models of drives. I am looking for the cheapest solution w/out compromising performance
I will be editing the show on a power Mac G5 1.8 GHZ, 3.5 GB of ram, do you think I need more ram? Is my computer fast enough to edit this sort of a project?
Thanks for the input, you guys and gals always come through
Take Care
Anon
Post Response

First and foremost, watch this tutorial:
P2 Workflow Tutorial
1. They stay the same size. All that happens is that a quicktime wrapper is wrapped around them, and audio and video are combined. No loss is quality occurs.
2. A SATA RAID will do you fine, but honestly I have been editing this and Varicam footage using 2 G-Raid firewire 800 drives. You need at least a firewire 800 drive, but I'd recommend a SATA Raid. Sonnet, Weibetech, Firmtek and Burly boxes...all work well.
3. Copy the P2 cards to field drives. Bring them in and transfer to firewire drives. These drives are your TAPE MASTERS. Do not erase these, do not lose these. Store these as your would field masters. I myself use internal SATA drives in a single firewire case that I swap out the drives. Cheaper than multiple enclosed drives. From there you import to your Media drives...your SATA Raid.
4. No need to offline. DVCPRO HD really doesn't take up that much space...roughly twice what DV takes. Oh...you are going 1080 24p. That takes 42.12 GB/hour DV takes about 13GB/hour.
5. Editing at full resolution is fine and easy. But you will not be able to get away with firewire 400 drives. As I said, FW800 or greater. 1080i might require more, thus the need for the SATA Raid.
I believe that you need at least a Dua 1Ghz machine for DVCPRO HD, and you have that...and you have enough RAM...so you are good. The only choking point you will have is render times. Especially when compressing for DVD. 90 min show took me 14 hours...oof.
And read my Blog about working with the HVX...click on Underdog to get there.
Shane

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    I've been reading all your really helpful posts on apple.com; I hope you don't mind me emailing you like this but I have a couple specific questions...
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