Opt,

Can you share your wisdom on that mirror query msg 6984. May have got lost in the clutter of all those specs!!

TP

TP

There are two main ways of combining 2 discs.

One is to split the databetween both discs. This will speed up access to larger files, but doubles the risk. If you lose one disk, you lose the lot.

The other is to mirror the data accross 2 drives, which should enable recovery in the event of one disk failing. The problem is that in the event of a fault, the rebuild has to be done while the system is at least partially active and I've heard reports of it taking days on some systems. That is not to say that all systems are as slow (the theoretical time to copy 500GB is under 4 hours) but it needs looking into in advance.

You are correct in assuming that no RAID setup will protect against software or virus induced problems - the only way to do that is by usig a seperate backup and good practises.

I doubt that the performance hit would be significant with a mirrored disk (except for rebuild time) but bear in mind that a decent RAID card will cost hundreds and the motherboard manufacturers add it on almost for free.

Opt,

"but bear in mind that a decent RAID card will cost hundreds "

Thereby hangs the catch. Just putting two 500 gig drives into one of scussy's Mesh jobbies will not work. It would need an extra card as my guess is that none of the motherboards Mesh are using will supply free RAID.

EDIT. Here is one.

TP

TP

....as my guess is that none of the motherboards Mesh are using will supply free RAID

No that may not be the case. Mesh appear to be using reasonable motherboards although possibly not the latest. They will most likely support mirrored RAID (although I haven't checked). My point is that the way the motherboard manufacturers implement it, is essentially in software and costs them nothing therefor they offer the feature but it will not compare with a decent addon card.

TP

The Mesh example you give demonstrates my point.

I looked into the NVidia RAID solution when I was setting up my RAID 5 machine it appears to be a partial hardware implementation, I found too many refferences to people having problems especially rebuilding a failed disk. It is probably OK for a mirrored RAID but check the rebuild time.

I settled for a Promise card as I couldn't afford an Adaptec. The time that a disk failed, it rebuilt 300GB in four hours and I would not have noticed the difference if it had not sent me an email.

Opt,

"The time that a disk failed, it rebuilt 300GB in four hours and I would not have noticed the difference "

When you say failed what do you think the failure was? Was it the sort of thing that normally would mean you have lost your boot disk for good. I'd been assuming that when one drive failed the RAID system ran on the other until you replaced the dead one with a fresh drive.

I did not realise that RAID actually repaired disks. That makes the mirror concept much more appealing to a non-techie like me.

TP

TP

To be honest, I don't know why it failed but the controller said it had and rebuilt on the spare. The point is that it worked seamlessly.

The system that I've gone for is a RAID 5. It requires a minimum of 3 disks, and the data is split between all three so that the speed and capacity is approx double that of a single disc. When any one disk fails, the system will still work at reduced speed and the disk set can be rebuilt when the faulty one is replaced or in my case on the fourth disk which is installed as a hot spare.

It's more expensive to set up, but so long as I don't have more than two disks go down or more than one within four hours then the machine will keep working. It doesn't need switching off to replace a disk either.

Opt,

So RAID 5 is an external bit of kit unlike the suggested pair of 500 gig internals.

And naturally much more expensive.

Are you able to boot your PC from the RAID - thus obviating anything that needs to move in your PC?

TP

TP

So RAID 5 is an external bit of kit unlike the suggested pair of 500 gig internals.

In my case yes. I have a headless Win2K machine in the loft that is my main storeage device. The same type of system would run on the motherboard that you mentioned in P6991 but you would need 4 hard disks and I would not recommend it. You really need a good RAID card. Adaptec are the best Promise are not bad but avoid Silicon Image.

The machine does boot from the RAID disk. It has no other disks.

Opt,

RAID is clearly overkill for me.

And yesterday evening some pretty 'iffy' views about Mesh reliability emerged so I am now looking at Dell. I'vd pm'd scussy so we don't start killing this thread with specs!

But I'm sure I'll be back for some more general advice.

SCUSSY - you have a pm.

TP

Oh dear. I am becoming a real bore with my quest for a PC.

But I felt that I really ought to post this industry link.

It's one think to hear the punters grumbling, but when the trade finds out they are being conned......

But then I see this.

So what is one to believe?

Heck !!

TP

It makes me glad that I build my own PC's

maybe mesh have gone down a bit over the last couple years then,the 3 pc's i got from them for family have been going ok,3 - 4 years now,
if you can get one built with the best parts then great,but the cost comes into it,
people dont want to pay over the top when they see cheaper PC's at pc world,mesh and even dell alot cheaper,
but they do use cheaper components,

example for parts FOR a self build,then add for windows,you can see how the costs rise for the best components,my personal pc's are built this way,HERE

Well, I deal with and can thoroughly recommend

Computer Doctors
Unit 12 Blackthorn Ind. Est.
Blackthorn Road
Northampton
NN3 8PT
01604 411 444

Tell them what you want and ask them for a price for it.

My take on these Mesh problems?

At first glance, it looks like Mesh got rid of all their repair problems completely by dumping all Warranties and any other repair problems onto Repair Line Ltd.

It then looks a bit likely that Mesh might have stitched both their customers and Repair Line up with poor spec' and/or badly made machines, thus creating an unduly high number of repairing requirements. Repair Line then stopped doing what they had previously contracted to do for Mesh as it must have become completely unprofitable. For one thing, fuel and travelling costs must have increased dramatically for them.

Whatever....Anyhow, definitely not 'Win/Win', eh?

Anyhow it was the customer who suffered in the end.

However, it is really going to cost Repair Line and Mesh and both may well end up as business failures.

i thinking of getting a NAS box for storage and back up,
storage of my music, films and photos,

looking at

d-link 323

and

HERE
QNap Turbo Station TS-209 Gigabit Ethernet NAS Enclosure 218 and a 2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 750GB SATA-II 32MB Cache to use with it,
anyone use a nas box,any recomendations would help me choose the right one,
TP maybe this is the sort of backup you might want too,

good reviews on both boxes HERE

Opt,

Your video editing query. Three more responses in overnight. I'll cut and paste for speed.

1. Sony Vegas is a very good Audio/Video recording, mixing and editing programm. I use it as one of my professional Multitrack Audio Recording/Mixing programms. But because of the same techniques implied for Video editing I started to use it for amateur Video editing. The best thing is that it has a very fast learning curve because it's very intuitive and logically layed out.


2. check avs4you.com

You get one software and you are allowed to use all the software available with the same key registration


3. If you are using Windows, have you checked out Windows Movie Maker? Its free as part of the 0/S.

Quicktime Pro can process .mov files, but I don't know (doubt it since its a MS proprietary format) if it can output wmv format. The QT pro upgrade from the free reader is $30, pretty inexpensive for what it can do. It can output to DVD format.


OK?

TP

TP

Thanks for that, the Sony and the avs4you packages both look interesting.

I like Windows Movie Maker, but it does not support .mov files. Quicktime pro makes a reasonable job of converting the files but will not batch process and takes an age to convert - over 10 times video length on my Core2 Duo.

I've also tried Ulead which works but is very prone to crashing.

Why can't camera manufactures make their stuff MS compatible?

Here's a player that will play virtually any type of video file - It's called MIRO and it's Free too:

http://www.getmiro.com/

Here's the documentation on it:

http://www.getmiro.com/documentation/index.php/The_FAQ

Thanks Doc

From what I can see from the link it will only play a video, not save it to another format.

Miro as a player, gives users the benefit that file extensions of videos are now much less important.

I suppose as a user, you now have to look at things a bit differently with it. An awareness of file format types is important for a user. For instance an MP3 file doesn't have any video in it.

Miro also asks how you want to manage particular types of files. File associations can always be chamnged and there is a link to explain how this can be done on Windows XP