Body: <p>I'm helping a friend to assess external storage options. We are <em>hoping</em> that a Lacie 2big will be fast enough to support a 4K final cut work flow. Can two spinning 7200RPM drives configured as RAID 0 even play back 4k ProRes raw?</p>
  <p>I found an <a href="https://images.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">apple white paper</a> which looks extremely informative -- <strong>can someone confirm that &quot;Mbps&quot; in this document refers to megaBITS per second?</strong> If so, we see these data rates for ProRes 4444 (no alpha):</p>
  <pre><code>24p     1697 mbps   212.125 MB/s
  25p     1769 mbps   221.125 MB/s
  30p     2121 mbps   265.125 MB/s
  50p     3539 mbps   442.375 MB/s
  60p     4242 mbps   530.25 MB/s
  </code></pre>
  <p>If I understand that white  paper correctly, those data rates look pretty high for just two drives. <strong>Does anyone have any personal experience working with 4K ProRes RAW off a pair of spinning drives in RAID 0?</strong> Is this feasible? Or should we be looking at 4-drive or 5-drive units?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2021-05-05T20:42:16.443Z
Comments.Text: If you have the hardware already, and you're on a Mac, the [BlackMagic SpeedTest app][1] is a great way to see what video your system is capable of reading and writing.
  
  
    [1]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/blackmagic-disk-speed-test/id425264550
Comments.UserDisplayName: tomh
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2021-05-05T21:05:26.127Z
Comments.Text: @tomh we do not yet have the hardware, and are wanting to avoid buying anything that doesn't do the job. thanks for the comment, though! that looks handy.
Comments.UserDisplayName: S. Imp
Tags: <final-cut-pro><prores><storage><raw>
Title: Can two spinning drives in RAID 0 configuration support 4K ProRes Raw data rates?
UserDisplayName: S. Imp
ThreadText: # Can two spinning drives in RAID 0 configuration support 4K ProRes Raw data rates?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2021-05-05)
  
  I'm helping a friend to assess external storage options. We are *hoping* that a Lacie 2big will be fast enough to support a 4K final cut work flow. Can two spinning 7200RPM drives configured as RAID 0 even play back 4k ProRes raw?
  
  I found an [apple white paper](https://images.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf) which looks extremely informative -- **can someone confirm that "Mbps" in this document refers to megaBITS per second?** If so, we see these data rates for ProRes 4444 (no alpha):
  
  ```
  24p     1697 mbps   212.125 MB/s
  25p     1769 mbps   221.125 MB/s
  30p     2121 mbps   265.125 MB/s
  50p     3539 mbps   442.375 MB/s
  60p     4242 mbps   530.25 MB/s
  
  ```
  
  If I understand that white paper correctly, those data rates look pretty high for just two drives. **Does anyone have any personal experience working with 4K ProRes RAW off a pair of spinning drives in RAID 0?** Is this feasible? Or should we be looking at 4-drive or 5-drive units?
  
  **Tags:** final-cut-pro, prores, storage, raw
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: If you have the hardware already, and you're on a Mac, the [BlackMagic SpeedTest app][1] is a great way to see what video your system is capable of reading and writing.     [1]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/blackmagic-disk-speed-test/id425264550  
  > **username_0**: @username_1 we do not yet have the hardware, and are wanting to avoid buying anything that doesn't do the job. thanks for the comment, though! that looks handy.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 0 answers
  
  