User guide

9
1. Plan your storage configuration and install your drives
Dedicated Audio/Video (A/V) and export drives
To use Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme, you must store your audio, video, and graphics
files on an A/V drive reserved solely for this purpose. If you want to perform
realtime exports to disk, you’ll also need an additional drive dedicated to perform
exports. Windows frequently needs to access your system drive for various
reasons, so attempting to store your audio/video files on your system drive will
provide unacceptable performance.
Your system’s virtual memory paging (swap) file must be stored on your system
drive and not on your A/V drive. By default, Windows stores this file on your
system drive. For information on how to configure your system’s virtual memory,
see your Windows documentation.
¦NoteDo not create multiple partitions on your A/V drives. Doing so can
reduce performance leading to dropped frames in your projects. Make sure you
have only one partition per A/V drive.
Planning your connections
In addition to most SCSI devices, almost all recent EIDE storage devices are able
to meet the data throughput requirements of your Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme
system. You can have only two EIDE devices on each of the two controller
connections found in most PCs. When you connect your EIDE devices, you must
connect your A/V drive and your dedicated export drive to separate controllers.
The following diagram provides a typical EIDE device configuration for your
system:
Optimal system with separate system, A/V, and export drives