Multiple Drives, No Compromise
Digital content creation and editing requires more speed and space than standard desktop drives are capable—why limit yourself to a single drive? Sonnet’s award-winning Fusion™ D400Q desktop and R400Q rackmount storage systems provide 2, 3, or 4TB(1) of storage in four swappable drive modules, and four ways to connect them to a computer. They offer speed, versatility, and reliability—they’re great solutions for anyone looking for an affordable storage system that will fit into a variety of workflows.
Maximum Performance,
Maximum Convenience
Connected to a Sonnet Tempo SATA E4P PCIe or X4P PCI-X adapter installed in a Mac or Windows computer, a Fusion D400Q or R400Q system’s drives can be accessed through its port multiplier(2) at maximum speed, whether configured as RAID 0, 1, 10, or JBOD set. A single Fusion D400Q or R400Q system with its drives configured as a RAID 0 striped set achieves 220MB/sec, fast enough to support multiple streams of DV, HDV, DVCPRO, ProRes 422, or a single stream of uncompressed 10-bit NTSC video. Do you want even more performance? Up to four Fusion D400Q or R400Q systems can be ganged on a single Tempo SATA E4P or X4P adapter to for double, triple, or even quadruple the available streams (as well as increasing the number of supported video formats).
One Cable, Four Drives
Fusion D400Q and R400Q enclosures employ a high performance SATA II port multiplier to manage the enclosed drives—just a single locking cable connects the enclosure to a SATA host controller card. This efficient interface simplifies setup and cuts cable clutter without compromising performance. No SATA? No problem—connected via a single FireWire 800, FireWire 400, or USB cable, all four drives can be accessed at the full speed of the respective interface. There is no need to reformat when changing from one interface to another, regardless the configuration.
Driving Force
Fusion storage systems employ Enterprise/RAID Edition hard drives(3). These drives are subjected to hours of additional, stringent testing to check for soft errors, vibration, and other reliability predictors—just the sturdiest drives pass these tests and are prepared with special RAID-optimized firmware. Enterprise/RAID drives offer higher MTBF (mean time between failure) specs, carry longer warranties than “desktop” drives, and are the building blocks of a super-reliable Fusion storage system. Need even more storage space? For added convenience, the swappable drive modules are compatible across the Fusion line, and additional modules may be purchased separately.
Versatile Performance
These systems are ideal for use in mixed environments—various operating systems, editing applications and output demands requiring the flexibility and interoperability that Fusion D400Q and R400Q storage systems provide. Fusion storage systems support Mac OS® X, Windows® XP, Windows Vista, and Linux. They are compatible with capture cards from AJA, Blackmagic Design, Matrox, and Bluefish444, and work with all mainstream video editing applications including Apple® Final Cut Pro®, and Adobe® Premiere® Pro CS3.
Desktop or Rackmount
To keep things cool, the Fusion D400Q uses a swappable fan module. The fan is 80% quieter than a standard case fan, making this system perfectly suited for use in noise-sensitive environments. The 1U rackmount Fusion R400Q system enclosure, at just 1.75" tall, is simple to deploy in most server racks. Both systems feature drive presence and drive activity LED indicators on their front panels, so drive status can be determined at a glance.
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Fusion R400Q storage systems are easy to configure, and are well suited for use in managing daily backups |
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To see a side-by-side performance comparison chart of all the Fusion family members, click here. About stream count testing: |
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Technical Notes:
(1) Although most hard drive manufacturers define 1 gigabyte as 1,000,000,000 byte, the computer operating systems usually calculate a gigabyte by dividing the bytes (whether it is disk capacity, file size, or system RAM) by 1,073,741,824 ( (2) When connected to a computer via its eSATA interface, Fusion D400Q and R400Q storage systems require a SATA host controller that supports port multipliers, such as Sonnet's Tempo SATA E4P for computers with PCI Express slots, Tempo SATA X4P for computers with PCI-X slots, or Tempo SATA Express 34 for portable computers with an ExpressCard slot. |
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(3) Sonnet Technologies has qualified and specifies Enterprise/RAID edition hard drives for use in Fusion storage systems. These drives were chosen for their superior performance, error handling, and reliability characteristics, especially when used in RAID groups. Only use Enterprise/RAID edition hard drives in your Fusion storage system to ensure system reliability and performance. STANDARD DRIVES MAY NOT BE SUPPORTED AND MAY DEGRADE SYSTEM RELIABILITY AND PERFORMANCE. Sonnet has qualified and recommends the following hard drives for use with Fusion D400Q and R400Q:
• 500GB Hitachi Deskstar E7K500, model #HDS725050KLA360 • 500GB Hitachi Ultrastar A7K1000, model #HUA721050KLA330 • 500GB Seagate Barracuda ES, model #ST3500630NS • 500GB Maxtor MaXLine Pro 500, model #7H500F0 • 750GB Hitachi Ultrastar A7K1000, model #HUA721075KLA330 • 750GB Seagate Barracuda ES, model #ST3750640NS • 1TB Hitachi Ultrastar A7K1000, model #HUA721010KLA330 |
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(4) Creating RAID volumes under Windows requires dynamic disk storage, a formatting option available with Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows XP Professional (32- and 64-bit versions), or Windows Vista Enterprise or Ultimate (32- and 64-bit versions). In order to create RAID volumes larger than 2TB, you must do one of the following: Concatenate (link together in a virtual chain) the volumes, and then format them as NTFS. -OR- Use GPT formatting. Note that drives and volumes with GPT formatting are not visible to any version of Windows XP Professional, nor to the 32-bit version of Windows Server 2003 SP1. |
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eSATA, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB 2.0 interfaces Single cable to host connectivity through an integrated port multiplier for all interfaces 2TB, 3TB, or 4TB configurations; Enterprise/RAID Edition drives(1) Up to 220 MB/sec transfer rate through eSATA interface (configured as RAID 0) Drive Activity, Drive Presence, and Power LED indicators Quiet fans eSATA, FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB cables included Compatible with Sonnet Tempo™ SATA II PCI-X, PCIe, and ExpressCard/34 Host Bus Adapters RoHS compliant |
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| OS Compatibility | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Platform independent—Mac, Windows(4), and Linux |
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| Capture Card Compatibility | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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AJA, Blackmagic Design, Matrox, and Bluefish444 |
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| Video Editing Application Compatibility | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro |
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| Technical Specifications | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Specifications subject to change without notice. |
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