Ideal scratchdisk setup

Hi,
I bought two 750GB external harddisks (with FW400 and eSata) today (because they were dirt cheap) for use with FCE3.5 on my MacBook Pro (Early 2008). Before I was using my internal disk as a scratch disk.
What would be the ideal scratchdisk setup performance wise?
Should I use all items "Video Capture", "Video Render" and "Audio Render" on the external disk?
Or would spreading these items across my internal and external disk improve performance?
I have one of the disks connected trough FW400, the cheap eSata/expresscard34 card I bought doesn't work with OS X. I will be returning the card, but I'm not sure if go out to buy a more expensive card, it would however allow me to create a RAID 0 setup. But I'm not sure I really need the performance over the hassle of using striped disk set.
I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Thanks,
Lech

As Tom said, the ideal setup would be to use your external for storing your media. This includes pretty much everything included in the Final Cut Express Documents folder. This way you can run the application from your computer (internal hard drive), while having all of the capture scratch files, render files, etc. on the external. This should help increase performance by minimizing the use of each drive while running FCE.

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Ideal hardware setup for Aperture

Is there an ideal hardware setup for working with 18megapixel raw files in aperture? Of the three...graphics card, cpu and ram...which are the most important to processing the raw image.
I am running 10.6.3 on a macbookpro 2.2GHz core 2 duo, 4G ram and an Nvidia card with 128Mb of vram.
Overall it feels somewhat slow, about 10 seconds to load the full raw image on screen. Is that just to be expected? Any form of image adjustment usually switches to low res while adjustment is being made.
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A fast hard drive seems to be the most important thing now. The more I use Aperture, the more I appreciate the need for fast, fast hard drives! Open the activity monitor and monitor your disk activity. Monitor the IO - if you are constantly in the hundreds for the disk IO counters, you are IO bound (and more than likely it's your library database and preview thumbnails database).
For a laptop, the Seagate 500GB with the 4 GB of flash built in that it manages might be a good way to go. I just got one and haven't had a time to put it in my Mac Book Pro for testing. If it manages to put most of your library database in the 4 GB flash cache, you won't see near the performance issues as with a regular hard drive.
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What is the Ideal Production Setup For One Admin and 4 Managed Servers

Dear Experts
I will be starting with production setup including one Admin server and 4 managed servers in one single domain.
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Edited by: Abhinav Mittal on Apr 23, 2013 8:03 PM

Heap size must be calculated according to the applications that are been deployed on each JVM.
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The ideal hardware setup / arrangement for After Effects?

Hello there,
Looking to buy some new hardware and am hoping to find some advice on the ideal hardware config for making After Effects scream. I find this questions is sorely lacking answers on the Internet beyond the basics of 'boot from an SSD' and the like... So I am hoping someone can answer these questions once and for all.
Two things I am after:
1. Fast working performance in AE. So when I move a layer about I am able to see it move smoothly in real-time as I drag it about with my mouse. Right now I get either stuttered movement when moving larger layers about, or the image begins to pixelate/drop res to such a horrible extent that I can not see what I am doing. The problem extends to when I am working with a large project file, with many layers, I get nasty lag when attempting to move about in the timeline, opening comps, etc. Everything starts to move quite slowly once I go past a certain number of layers. What upgrades will speed this element, the day to day working rather than rendering, up the most?
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I am guessing this performance will he helped by a beefier graphics card and more/faster RAM? I currently have a GTX 660ti 2GB and am upgrading to a GTX980 4GB, so hoping that will improve this.
I also have 64 GB of 1600 speed ram that AE happily consumes so think that base is covered. My CPU is a 3930k that is slightly overclocked. It gets maxed out when multicore rendering is happening but not otherwise. I've heard turning hyperthreading off in the BIOS can actually help AE performance?
I am booting/running AE from an SSD (Samsung 840 Pro), and have set my media cache to another dedicated SSD (Samsung 840 Pro). I run/keep my project files on yet another SSD and have other drives holing media.
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Thank you!

for After Effects advice, Eric on the forum here can give you the best info. However, I have seen him say many times that AE is MEMORY INTENSIVE,....the more, the better. You HAVE 64GB...that seems very adequate for most workflows.
The OTHER thing he says is that other than Ray-Tracing, the GPU is HARDLY used at all.....CPU speed and number of cores are a BIG factor in AE performance.....your 3930k overclocked should be adequate....the MORE OC, the BETTER.
Next is the drive system....you have NOT described EXACTLY what you are doing NOW....you mentioned what your PLAN is,but for , right NOW you said : " I run/keep my project files on yet another SSD and have other drives holing media. "
HERE is where you MAY be doing something that may....or may NOT.....be causing slowdowns.   With AE it is RECOMMENDED to use a dedicated drive for the "Global Performance Cache"...the HIGHER the speed of this drive, the BETTER, as AE STORES already "rendered" frames, ( for "previews", of course), on it so it DOESN"T have to RE-RENDER ALL the frames all over again every time you make a change to your work !!! So, in YOUR case : your OS drive is great...Samsung Pro models are the BEST...you have the 840 Pro ,which is only SLIGHTLY behind the 850 Pro in performance. ANOTHER 840,or, 850 Pro would be GREAT as the " Global performance cache drive" AND would also be the place to put ALL previews,Cache files, media cache files for Premier Pro,too. The overall speed and less latency of the SATAIII SSD will surpass the performance of a 2 disk RAID 0....even a 3 disk RAID 0.
Next....the speed at which you SERVE UP the video files can be important in preventing a slowdown.....ESPECIALLY if using large, uncompressed files. Here, you have options.....it is NOT necessary to put your project files on a SEPARATE drive from your media...you just want to make sure that the drive with your media and project files is as fast as the OTHERS in your system ! SO, you COULD use a THIRD SSD as a "working drive" for ACTIVE projects only.....a 1TB SSD perhaps...Crucial M550 is CHEAPER than the Samsung and as good as the 840 pros. As the CAPACITY of SSDs are small...you would MOVE all media and completed project files to HDDs for archiving and storage....the use of RAID with your existing HDDs would NOT be needed for this function.
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Make sure you have Windows fully updated and the newest drivers for your video card. Then , make sure your Windows POWER SETTINGS are set to MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE when"plugged in"....the DEFAULT Windows settings...even under "high performance" has setttings that will THROTTLE your GPU and CPU if you don't change them.....I found THAT out the hard way!
Finally, make sure , in AE settings, you have set the"memory allocation" correctly...there is a formula regarding how much to assign on a "per CPU core basis". There ALSO is a selection to make for "allowing multiple frames" to be processed...make sure THAT is set correctly.
Good luck !!     I hope this helps!

Mac Pro ideal HD setup for Logic?

Hey guys - just want to ask suggestions for the ideal hard drive set up for using logic.
I have a dual quad 2.8 mac pro with 10gb of ram. External sound card is usally a line 6 ux1, but when im recording vocals or anything miked up it's
my focusrite saffire pro 40.
I have 4 internal drives:
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3. "loops" drive,
4. personal data drive - pics, docs, movies, music, etc....
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I've done that but im not sure how to get logic to work like that. Even though my projects are all stored on the tracking drive,
the loops end up there too...
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thanks in advance
Mal

I have a Mac Pro 2*2.26 system. I use Logic and iPhoto extensively with a 200 GB iTunes collection and a 80 GB iPhoto collection.
I use the default 640GB drive as my boot drive with applications. I use a second 1 Terrabyte drive as my "Home Directory" for documents (iPhoto library, iTunes library, Logic files, etc...). I use a third Terrabyte drive for my Time Machine backups. All are internal drives.
Given you have over a terrabyte of data files, it would seem logical to keep the boot drive for system files and applications. For your documents or "Home Directory" it would seem a 1.5 or 2 terrrabyte drive is in order, with a third 2 terrabyte drive for your Time Machine backups.
I don't think a RAID configuration would be of benefit to you if you are not finding performance issues with Final Cut Express.
Barr

Ideal System Setup (PAGEFILE Recommendations!!)

Hello:
I've got a Core Duo 1.86Ghz and just installed 2gigs of RAM. Any suggestions on my WinXP virtual memory settings?

Darren,
Sorry if this sounds like a brush off, but there are many posts around here about configurations in various price classes, that a quick look at some of the posts here will give you all the info you may need.
If I take your 'ideal system' literally at this moment:
i7-3960X
Asus Rampage Extreme X79 mobo
8 x 8 GB DDR3 1866+
4 x Crucial M4 SSD in raid10 for OS & programs
Areca ARC-1880iX-24 / 4 GB
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nVidia GTX 580 / 3 GB
Lian Li A77 case
2 x BR burners
etc.
More realistically, without knowing his budget, i7-2700K, Z68, F4 320 G boot disk, 16 GB, GTX 560+, 2 x 2 aid0 plus a good backup plan.

Ideal disk setup for MDFs, LDFs, TempDB, and cube files?

I'm about to build an enterprise SQL Server that will run both OLTP and our data warehouse (OLAP). What is the proper disk setup for data files, please? Is it something like:
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Please take a look at these URLs:
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SQL Server Storage Best Practices
T-SQL Articles
T-SQL e-book by TechNet Wiki Community
T-SQL blog

Ideal Production setup for around 5000 application users

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We are in the process of upgrading our hardware to cater about 5000 application users. Please share information on these -
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What about the eBusiness requirements and recommandations ? You could probably get better advices from eBusiness guys over dedicated forums :
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Ideal Oracle setup for education

Hi All,
I am new to Oracle and would like to know if anyone has set up an evironment at home to learn Oracle database basics on. I am interested in learning how to set up and administer a database and eventually develop on it.
I have a couple computers that I can use for this and a copy of Windows 2000 Server and Windows XP Pro. I can also install Red Hat Linux 9 if it is recommended.
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Doug

Any of the operating systems should be sufficient-- I would tend to suggest that you use whatever you're most comfortable with. If you're a Windows guy, use Windows, if you're a Linux guy, use Linux.
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http://www.ddbcinc.com/askDDBC

Need help with Cloud/External HD iTunes Setup

Hello everyone! For a while now I've had an ideal iTunes setup in mind, but haven't put together all the pieces to make it work......
Here's my situation: I'm an avid Classical music listener and have a large colection of music on an External HD (about 100GB or so). Some of these files were ripped from CDs, or were originally bought on iTunes on a previous computer, some time ago.
With my new Macbook Pro, I want to save as much internal HD space as possible. I would like these files on my iTunes, just not copied to a folder on my computer. I also want to access this large collection and listen to them on my iPhone (only 16GB). I've heard of iTunes Match, but still don't know if the music is indeed streamed (like Google Play Music) or has to be downloaded to be played. I simply do not want any files to be stored on my Mac or Iphone - a complete Cloud-based system.
How should I do this?
Thanks,
Devin B

I hadnt tried looking there! Found a serial number on the device and the original box. It is 10 characters, but the input field is 20. Tried it with trailing and leading zeros - no luck. Will have to wait to see if Freecom responds - or maybe forget it and try if I can use the disk in any case.
Thanks for response.

How to set up TimeCapsule (4th) to create own private (wired) network behind Airport Express (5th) that is set up to join existing wifi-network of fritz adsl modem/router?

I work in an office building with free Wifi to connect to the Internet. I want to be able to use this internetconnection, but at the same time I want to shield of my own wired network.
I've made the following configuration:
- fritz adsl modem / router
- Airport Extreme (5th gen) set up to join existing wireless network (green light, works)
- Lan-cable from lan-port AE to wan-port TC (4th gen)
- Lan-cable from TC to Mac
- Lan-cable from TC to Printer
When I set my TC (network-settings) in bridge-mode everything works fine, but my Mac and Printer get an IP-address from the fritz modem / router and are visible to others.
I tried to set TC in NAT/DHCP-mode, but then I get the error message that I should set a static IP-adress for TC. When I set TC in DHCP-mode, it looses connection to the AE. I'm not sure what to do now. Does anyone know how to set up my TC and create my own private network and still be able to get on the internet?

Hajenius wrote:
Is there a better alternative? I'd rather not want to reset my TC every day.
You are using free internet.. so there is a price to pay.. that is convenience and non-ideal network setup.
The better alternative is to pay for your own connection. Then you are completely free of the possibility of others in the bullding seeing your connection. (as long as you secure the wireless).
But I think you are probably over worrying about public wifi.. if it is setup right.. ask the building admins.. it should be setup so each user cannot see another users connection. This is typical for most wifi setup and simply means you can see internet connection but nobody else on the connection. ie other wireless users.
Having a router with NAT makes it then more secure again and allows clients on your own network to interact with each other. But you can setup wireless to the free wifi for every client.. (depending on how many IP you are allowed).. and run a secondary network without internet access. This is easy for desktop etc where you have a wireless and a wired connection but less convenient for mobile devices.. unless you use a cloud connection and each client can link and share via that.
Have I made the explanation worse??
Think of it this way.. if you had 3 laptops.. all 3 could connect to the internet from the building wifi.. but they cannot talk to each other or share resources in local office. You can put resources out in the cloud, that can be shared.. but that adds traffic and most free services are not fast.
Now you can also plug all three into Time Capsule by ethernet.. and share local resources. Files, printers backup etc. This network is not connected to the internet at all. Each laptop has internet via free wifi and local connection.
For devices like iphones that have no ethernet or other method.. you could use local wireless and public wireless.. but in turns.. still the only advantage is less issues with double NAT.. if that causes problems.. then this is an alternative.

Setting up a home network: AirPort Extreme & AiPort Express

I'd like to setup my home network with both my new Aiport Extreme and my existing AirPort Express.
Ideally, the setup would be as follows:
Ethernet Network Connection + External HD via USB --> AirPort Extreme
Home Speakers --> AirPort Express
I know that I want my Extreme to act at the main, then the Express to operate on the same network as a relay or remote. I've tried to follow all of the online support documentation to manually configure a WPA. No matter what configuration I use, I run into trouble.
Any advice?
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From your post, I assume you have the new square 802.11n Extreme. Download the Airport Utility (it is not the same as the Airport Admin Utility) from the disk that was provided with the Extreme. It is a little round icon with a blue Airport Symbol in the center and is below Airport Admin Utility in your Utilities Folder. You may have to do a factory reset on the Extreme and I know you're going to have to do one on the Express.
Set your system up on the Extreme first after factory reset. Choose the type of security you wish to use. Call the system something different than your original system like putting use "New" before the system name. You can't carry forward either system names or passwords to the new system. Then when you set the password for security I'd use something different than the original password.
Once your system is built, do a factory reset on the Express by using a paper clip or ballpoint pen. Unplug the Express, push in on the reset button with the paper clip or pen point. The while still depressing the reset button, plug the Express back into the outlet. You'll get a few quick green light flashes, then several rapid blinking amber lights. Wait until the amber light stops blinking then you can stop depressing the reset button. It takes a few minutes for the Express to come on line.
Go to the Airport Utility and you should see your Extreme as the base station and then the Express will come up with the factory ID.
Configure from there.

Can i migrate from a corrupt OS

I'm trying to prepare my current Macbook (late 2008) to migrate to a new Macbook I just purchased. Both macs will have Yosemite 10.10.2.
My current macbook seems to have a corrupt OS somewhere in that it won't boot under normal conditions. It hangs during the book process. The only way I can get a successful boot is booting in Verbose mode. I've tried numerous ways to fix this, including reinstalled the OS on my current Mac, reseting the PRAM, and a couple other attempts. Nothing worked. With the mac booted under verbose mode, I turned off FileVault and backed up onto an external drive using Time Machine.
While I'm not necessarily interested in trying to fix my current macbook, I just want to know if I'll be safe to use Migration Assistant on my new macbook when it arrives, restoring from either my Time Machine backup, or directly from my old macbook through ethernet? I'd prefer to not have to manually copy everything over, I'd like to pretty much like to keep everything "as-is" and just pick up as if I'm on the same computer (hence, wanting to use Migration Assistant). This is my first mac migration, and I've been upgrading my old macbook for the past 7 years in terms of OS.
What kind of items will migrating from Migration Assistant NOT copy over? What will copy over? What will happen to apps downloaded from app store? Will all the settings within my apps copy over? Will Time Machine continue to backup from where it left off as if it was the same computer? Any issues or extra work I should expect?
Any helps/tips would be greatly appreciated, I travel a lot and only get 2 days at home each week, and I'd like to be prepared to get as much "migrating" done as I can during those two days before I leave with a computer that isn't restored yet.
Thanks in advance!

Yes you will be able to accomplish what you describe. The fact they are both running Yosemite almost guarantees there will be no surprises.
Migration Assistant (or its equivalent that runs during initial setup - Setup Assistant) will migrate what you specify. In your circumstance I recommend you do not select "Computer and Network Settings" or "Other files and folders". De-select those choices. For some reason when Setup Assistant seems to take forever or stops progressing, it stalls on one of those, both of which are easy to create anew and copy manually, respectively, should you need to.
When you get your new Mac, do yourself a favor and migrate your existing account during setup. In other words don't create any users. Ideally, let Setup Assistant do that for you. Less ideal would be to create a temporary account with a throwaway name that you intend to discard later, and use Migration Assistant - which is identical to Setup Assistant, except that it's performed on a system that has already been configured for a user. The problem you want to avoid is creating an account with a name identical to the existing user account you want to migrate. If you were to do that you'll have to rename it. Migration Assistant would inform you of that need ("this user needs attention") but some people don't understand its ramifications until later.
For the fastest migration use an Ethernet cable directly connected between the two Macs. If it is more convenient for whatever reason, connect both Macs to your wired LAN and turn Wi-FI "off" on one of them to limit the connection exclusively to Ethernet. It may still take a few hours. Wireless could take days.
Respectively,
What kind of items will migrating from Migration Assistant NOT copy over? What will copy over? What will happen to apps downloaded from app store? Will all the settings within my apps copy over? Will Time Machine continue to backup from where it left off as if it was the same computer?
Operating system, and what you exclude from the choices explained above.
Your chosen User accounts. Not printers and scanners; I recommend you create those entries anew, using their most recently available drivers. For some reason printers don't always transfer properly. You're welcome to try it though.
Purchased apps will be migrated, along with their data. You won't have to pay for anything you already purchased.
Yes... although depending on your Time Machine backup device's remaining capacity, you might elect not to do that. If it has sufficient remaining capacity to keep at least one complete copy of your old Mac's contents, plus at least one complete copy of your new Mac's contents, it will be seamless. After you ascertain that your new Mac is configured to your satisfaction, you might consider erasing the backup so that more space will be available for your new Mac's exclusive use.

Is this as fast as it gets?

On the last day of 2012, I bit the bullet and grabbed a big tax write-off by picking up the latest Mac Pro with 32 Gb of RAM.
Can I say...I'm a little disappointed?
I mean, it's way faster than the iMac I had...
...but it seems to me that a machine of this caliber should chew up video processing and spit it out like it's nothing.
But, it takes HOURS for Compressor to render a 60-minute Final Cut Pro X file into a .MOV file.
What's missing?
This is supposed to be the machine that is HOT in the film industry. But apparently I didn't get the gear that I need to be able to render this stuff faster.
What's missing? Is 32Gb not enough? Is it processor speed? Graphics card?
What do you recommend?
Thanks,
Tony

I don't know the answer. Or what you can do different or change settings and use different codec even. Or a different program.
As for how well Compressor handles .mov I think the forum
https://discussions.apple.com/community/professional_applications/compressor_4
Some results from Google:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1111489
Tip for configuring Compressor 3: (do not enable all cores)
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/compressor_multi_cores_stitzer.html
- and yes it does take a long time
http://www.macworld.com/article/1161002/compressor4.html
http://www.mac-dvd.com/mac-guide/how-to-export-mac-imovie-project.html
http://www.dvcreators.net/how-do-i-export-a-high-quality-movie/
You are not asking about photographic and storage but in case it helps
http://macperformanceguide.com/blog/2013/20130119_1-big-files-need-big-speed.htm l
General tips:
http://macperformanceguide.com/index_topics.html
Some applications have never been able to make best use of dual processors with 6-cores each, there is 30% overhead for a 2nd processor. And even with 8 cores, limit it to only using 6 or 7 (it takes longer but your system is still usable and allows the OS and Finder for instance to be used).
did you see what users of Compressor 4 recommend as far as ideal system setup? might surprise or have led to different configuration. What do you see when you look at Activity Monitor?
Some buy 4-core and put in their own W3690 (6-core 3.4GHz) to get the fastest processor speed. And a sweet setup as well (can support 3x16GB RAM also) RAM: I assume 32GB = 8x4GB. Is that right?
I assume you went with stock OEM 5770. Not that the 5870 would help.
As for video, what kind of setup and storage for the boot drive and system, for handling your files, disk array if any?
GTX 670 w/ 3GB VRAM instead for those apps that can use CUDA for rendering really do benefit and GTX today outshines Quadro though there are signs Quadro 5000 might make an entrance. IF Compressor + FCP-X and have you tried MOV Video Compressor?

Ideal scratchdisk setup

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