Best Hard Drive Configuration

[woxof]

I've tried searching this out but the search system returns results for each term so the results are too generic to get a result.
I have 6 core HP/AMD, one gig video card and 8GB of mem., 1TB SATA hard drive.
I can't afford double RAID arrays or all that.
I want to install a USB 3.0 card (already bought it) and add a 1TB 3.0 USB drive. I really don't want to try adding the drive inside the computer case as that has been it's own separate horror story in the past.
I have read various opinions about multiple drives speeding up the process. With 1080P HD video (from a Contour helmet cam) even rendering a 24 min video into Smart Proxy is time consuming.
SO: 1. Would this arrangement improve any portion of the rendering process? Either The Smart Proxy portion or the encoding from MOV (native format of Contour) through the DVD creation process?
2. What parts of the program should be where? The program is on C drive. Would the working folder or video or what portions should be on the external drive.
3. Smart Proxy is set at the default: MPEG files, 24 bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps, Lower Field First (DVD-NTSC), 16:9,Video data rate: Variable (Max. 8000 kbps) LPCM Audio, 48000 Hz, Stereo. I want the end result to look best on DVD/NTSC.
I know I can (I think) change this in the final rendering but my CONCERN is what would the best Smart Proxy settings be? I think MOV is a full frame not first/second frame so is some other available format on VS better suited to
S.P. rendering?
4. NOT A QUESTION - EXPLANATION> I have multiple resolution and video types available in the Contour by software and a 2 position switch to change setting on the trial, so I can go with lo res 720p (Cool - The software shows how much
time/battery usage a GB of video will take up on the SD card for each setting). I like the 1080 HD because the field of view is 118 deg. vs 135 deg. on other resolutions for more realistic speed of the dirt bike.
Thanks for your help/time
Sean

[UncleBoo]

questions 1 and 2: Without going into over-complicated explanations, given your configuration I suggest leaving everything on your C: drive, and use your external drive for making a backup copy of your work. (Three rules to remember: 1. Backup your work. 2. Backup your work. 3. Backup your work.) Alternately you could certainly put your working directory on the external drive (and make a backup copy of your work to your C: drive), but it's not going to speed anything up. (In some configurations there is an advantage to having OS & VS on one drive, and your working directory on another, but yours is not one of those configurations.)
I leave the answer to question 3 to the VS experts.

BTW, don't worry about using an external drive vs. a faster internal drive. A big advantage of the config you're creating is that over time you can buy additional external drives to hold backup and archived projects, and connect them as needed.

[woxof]

Thanks I'LL put my wallet back in my Pocket

[lilu_hotty]

i have several hard drives... could someone plz explain to me what is the optimal way to use them, how to speed up the process a little?

lets say i have drive C: of course and a few more...... programs all are installed on C.
what hard drive should i use for : "raw" unedited video files, Working Folder, Proxy folder, Create Video Files ?

is it faster to use different drives for all these operations? or i can combine some of them on 1 drive with out speed loss?

i think that i have a kind of fast hard ware, but avchd is killing it, if i use clips on time line longer then 15mins VS4 works real slower...... and its very hard to run with mouse over the time line, especially if i go not forward but backward..

also does it worth at all to use proxy for avchd, ad i d like to know if there will be any quality loss? and the last thing - what proxy settings are best to use with avchd footage?

regards

[UncleBoo]

Well, perhaps needless to say, you have plenty of CPU horsepower and hard drive capacity. Short answer is that there is nothing obvious to me you can do to speed up your process.

I suggest you take a look at how much your system resources are being consumed. Press the key combination Ctrl-Alt-Delete and select Task Manager. In Task Manager, select the Performance tab. Bring up VS, start rendering your video and then bring task manager back to the top. This will show you your CPU activity while the rendering is going on. If all CPU's are maxed out, then that's the issue. If CPU isn't maxed out, then press the Resource Monitor button at the bottom center of the Task Manager window and check out disk resource consumption. If drive C: is maxed out (but I doubt it will be) then try moving your working directory to a different drive. If CPU isn't maxed out, and disk isn't maxed out then for some reason VS is failing to take full advantage of your system's resources; perhaps Abiel or other VS expert can suggest some VS tweaks.