Specifications

11
DAVINCI RESOLVE FOR MAC - CERTIFIED CONFIGURATION GUIDE
DaVinci Resolve for Mac supports a number of
internal and external storage systems however
almost any storage, designed for Mac OS X and
high bandwidth media, will be suitable for use.
A current model MacBook Pro or iMac can be
connected directly to a Thunderbolt disk array
for SD and HD video. Thunderbolt disk arrays
provides fast, high capacity disk storage and are
easily expandable as your media storage needs
grow. Alternatively, replacing the internal hard
drive, with the biggest SSD you can afford, will
make a substantial improvement to Resolve’s
performance. Please read the "Important note
about Solid State Disk (SSD) speeds" on the
following page.
If you have a 2012 Mac Pro, while external disk
arrays can provide much higher performance by
using more disks, the four internal disk bays in the
Mac Pro can provide adequate performance for
SD and compressed HD video.
An external disk array and a RAID or HBA card
could be used for additional disk performance
and storage, especially with 2K, UHD and 4K
media. The RAID or HBA card will usually occupy
PCIe slot three or four.
Facilities with SAN based shared storage can
work concurrently with projects that are being
graded in other Mac, Windows or Linux suites.
The most common connection method for the
SAN storage is via dual 8Gbit Fiber Channel. This
can be direct or via a FC switch. The 2012 MacPro
can use an intenal FC HBA and the MacBook Pro
or iMac can use a Thunderbolt to Fibre channel
adapter to connect to a SAN.
Resolve supports the Quantum StorNext file
system so you can connect the DaVinci Resolve
system to a Storage Area Network (SAN). We have
certified the standard StorNext system version
4.3 and legacy 3.5.2. Please seek guidance from
your local Quantum support office.
If you plan on using a SAN please do so in
conjunction with your local distributor and/or
your storage subsystem vendor.
The Preferences option under the Resolve menu
is where you can add or remove internal and
external disk storage for use with Resolve. The
first volume in the list will be used to store gallery
stills and cache files so this should be a drive that
is always on your Resolve system.
File System and Media Storage