Configure: AVID Media Composer 8K Workstation

The Render-Spare Drive is not required for your Media Composer workstation, but it's a good idea to have.

Using a separate storage for exports will decrease your render times. We point all the Media Composer cache files to this export drive if you select it.

In this section, you can choose your Internal Media Volume drive array. Please note that configurations that have 8 drives require the 8 bay case.

The Media Volume (volume) is where you will store your video, audio, stills, and other media for online editing. Although the Media RAID shows up as one drive letter, it is actually made up of two or more spinning hard drives or Solid State Drives.

We offer 2 types of RAID configurations. We use a multi drive RAID configuration for your media storage because one single hard drive is not fast enough to edit the formats used today in most cases. We use a proprietary 'caching' algorithm combined with our RAID configurations to enhance the multi stream performance. The end result is that you don't have to wait for your storage system to catch up to your creativity.

Media RAID-0: for Performance

In a RAID-0, we use 2 (or more) hard drives and combine them together so they appear as one drive letter (volume) in Windows. This is required for SD/HD/4K editing because a single hard drive is not fast enough. If you take the steps to make sure your important video and audio assets are backed up, then the standard (2) drive RAID-0 is perfectly fine. Hard drives are mechanical, and they can fail. Our systems have numerous external ports for easy connection to USB 3.0, optional Thunderbolt drive arrays. There are many options to keep your media online and available.

Media RAID-10: for Performance and Content Protection

In a RAID-10, we essentially mirror a RAID-0. This is all done in the background with no intervention from you. The UPSIDE to this solution is fast speed with data redundancy. If a hard drive fails in the RAID, all of your projects and media are safe. With our RAID-10 configuration, if a drive fails the system continues to operate without a hiccup, and there is no need to rebuild a RAID-10 array to access your projects and media stored on it. Once you replace the failed drive, the array will be protected again. The DOWNSIDE to this solution is that it is more expensive, and doubles the number of hard drives required to implement it.

A good monitor is often overlooked for a video editing computer. Our monitor selections are handpicked by us for their quality and accurate color reproduction. We offer Full HD monitors from Samsung that offer wide angle viewing and uniformly accurate color. Our Samsung 4K models offer 1 Billion colors for even better accuracy.

For the absolute best monitors for accurate color, we now offer the ASUS ProArt series of monitors. The new displays offer 1 billion colors, are factory calibrated to meet 95% sRGB and 100% Rec.709