ProAvio EditBOX 4 PM
TMS SKU# #PREB4PM
Product Overview
Professional 4-disk, desktop storage solution designed for today's high resolution multi-track audio & video production workstations. Featuring ProAvio's industry-proven 3Gb Port-Multiplier technology, EditBox 4 PM consolidates your storage (up to 4.0TB) and eliminates the need to daisy-chain multiple FireWire disks to achieve higher track counts. Four removable disk drives allow users to quickly increase capacity as needs change. A flexible JBOD design supports virtually every PM-enabled host bus adapter available, making the EditBox 4 PM a very flexible Port-Multiplier storage array for digital media. EditBox 4 PM supports the latest 1 TB SATA hard disks, making EditBox 4 PM the most affordable multi-terrabyte array on the market.
Offering tremendous flexibility and speed, the EditBox 84 PM can be used in a video editing, photography, music, publishing, or data back-up environment. When in a JBOD scenario, it allows 4 SATA drives to be housed in a single enclosure. With the ability to remove and insert drives on the trays, and buy more trays to add more hard drives, it is a convenient way to store and access a lot of data. Using your OS built-in RAID formatting, you can also format the 4 drives as a RAID 0 or 1. RAID 0 on a desktop will allow video editors to do Standard Def 8 or 10 bit Uncompressed with no problems, and handle compressed HiDef including HDV, DVCProHD, and ProRes. (It is not capable of doing Uncompressed HD). RAID 5 is also possible if the eSATA card supports it. It connects to the computer via a single eSATA cable to a Port Multiplier eSATA card, and if it is a 4 port PM card, it will allow you to add another three 4 bay enclosures to a single card, allowing 16 drives to be attached to a single eSATA 4 port card.
Benchmarks
Benchmarks will of course vary depending on the system, the eSATA card, motherboard, hard drives used, but these will give you a guide on what to expect.
Single Drive (JBOD Scenario)
Apple MacPro Tower - Read 73 MB/s - Write 83 MB/s
Apple G5 Tower - Read 73 MB/s - Write 83 MB/s
Apple MacBook Pro laptop - Read 83 MB/s - Write 79 MB/s
RAID 0 (2 Drives)
Apple MacPro Tower - Read 92 MB/s - Write 126 MB/s
Apple G5 Tower - Read 92 MB/s - Write 126 MB/s
Apple MacBook Pro laptop - Read 100 MB/s - Write 83 MB/s
RAID 0 (4 Drives)
Apple MacPro Tower - Read 209 MB/s - Write 211 MB/s
Apple G5 Tower - Read 202 MB/s - Write 211 MB/s
Apple MacBook Pro laptop - Read 121 MB/s - Write 86 MB/s
NOTES:
- Drives used in these tests were Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 750 GB drives,
and benchmark results were from AJA System Test, with frame size set to 1920x1080
10 bit, File Size 2 GB. eSATA cards were Sonnet.
- Best speeds were recorded on a MacPro Tower, with the highest numbers listed
above being from that computer
- Due to bandwidth limitations of the Express34 bus on the MacBook Pro, speeds
will be lower on the RAID settings than on a Tower.
The Box
The EditBox 4 PM system comes in a silver aluminum enclosure. It uses a backplane design to connect the drives, which means no internal cabling. Just slide the drive in, and the drive connects with the backplane for both power and data. One eSATA port on the back connects to the eSATA ports on the eSATA card. Fan is fairly quiet and hot-swap in the event of failure. Power supply is built into the box, so there is no external power brick to worry about.
Dimensions
6” W x 11 ” D x 7.5 ” T
What's In The Box: Enclosure, 4 hard drive trays, 3' eSATA cable, power cable, hard drive screws, and keys to lock drive trays.
Qualified Hard Drives
TMS Photo Video recommends Hitachi or Seagate SATA drives. The EB 4 PM supports 1 TB drives.
Qualified eSATA Cards
This enclosure connects to the computer with a single cable to a port-multiplier
eSATA card. While in theory any eSATA card that supports Port Multiplication
will work, these are the cards that ProAvio and TMS Photo Video have tested.
As we test various cards, we will update this list.
Mac Computers
- Sonnet Tempo SATA E4P PCIe
- Sonnet Tempo SATA X4P PCIx
- Sonnet Tempo SATA Express 34 (for notebooks)
Windows Computers
- list coming soon!
Optional Accessories
Spare Hard Drive trays - TMS Sku#PRTRAY - Spare hard drive tray that allows you to add more hot-swap drives to your ProAvio enclosure. This tray fits numerous ProAvio enclosures, allowing you to swap drives with numerous enclosures. Fits the ProAvio X4, EditBox 4PM, 8PM, 10PM, 4ML, 8ML, & 8MS. Also fits the Sonnet Fusion 400 and 500 enclosures.
3' eSATA Cable - TMS Sku#PRSATA3 - Replacement eSATA cable that comes with the enclosure, in case the original gets lost or damaged.
5' eSATA Cable - TMS Sku#PRSATA5 - Need longer cable length than what comes with the enclosure? This cable is an extra 2 feet longer than the one that's in the box.