Re: Editing and Storage options

Hi.
I am using a Mac Pro "cylinder" with a SSD hard drive. I don't have a enough storage, and I have looked at upgrading the storage in the actual unit itself, which I can do. But I am also looking at external storage options. It looks like I can get SSD external drives and this option might be better in terms of using multiple drives. However, the first thing we learned in editing school was to not use external hard drives to edit. I was wondering if this applies to SSD external drives or not? I assume it does, but I am wondering if anyone has used external SSD's to edit, and if this is still seen as one of the big "Don'ts" in video editing?

Thanks

HI Caleb,

I don't know what editing school you went to but I have never heard of such a thing before. I have been editing for 14 years and have used external Hard Drives for media and Projects all along. While some of my Macs have had had additional internal hard drives which I have used for media, I have also used dozens of Firewire hard drives (first 400's and then 800's) for media and Projects. I've even sent media and projects on external hard drives to other editors around the country who have then continued to edit from the external drives.

For the past number of years I have been using a Promise Pegasus RAID 5 for both media and projects and of course, the Pegasus is an external drive.

I see no issues with editing with external SSD drives.

My 2 cents.

--ken

Totaly agree with Ken. Even though computers and drive systems are much faster today than 10 years ago, the media we work with and the projects we work on today are also more demanding on our systems. So the golden rule of keeping your media off the boot drive is more relevant today than it was ever before.

SSD is perfect for lightning fast access to large amounts of tiny files (application handling, cache files etc...). That's why using SSD as your boot drive will enhance your overall editing and computing experience.

But while SSD drives offer faster read access than HDDs, they also have more latency when used in a RAID configuration. This means they are less suited for handling small packets of huge files with high bandwidth requirements, such as video. SSD is also much more expensive per Gigabyte. This means that in the end you can get better performance with a big HDD RAID at a lower price, than with a small SSD setup. That's why you will see many people using SSD as their boot drive, while media is stored on external HDD RAID systems.

Big professional shared storage systems use a combination of SSD and HDD. Typically you will have a top layer of a few SSDs handling the file caching and server management, and a bottom layer of ultra-fast big storage with 20 to 60 striped HDDs.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Caleb,

It would be interesting to know why your instructor told you not to use external drives to edit. You said it was the first thing
you learned in editing school and perhaps it was a misunderstanding of what was taught that day. Could you find out what
the instructor meant by that statement? The instructor might be interested in this site.

Tom

Hi Tom,

We were, in fact, always taught to never put media on the boot drive. Maybe this is what the instructor was referring to. But, in any case, his instruction was wrong.

--ken

There is indeed a big chance that the next MacPro will be USB-C only, but it will be backwards compatible with Thunderbolt 2. So you won't lose any connectivity with your TB drives.

Best wishes,

Ronny

I have the same Mac Pro but I call it a trash can. Anyway as of right now I have 7 different external drives hooked to via USB3 and Thunderbolt. A couple of them are older drives that are Firewire 800 and have a USB 2 adapter from Microcenter. Even those old Firewire 800 drives are fast enough to edit off of in 1080p, so long as you don't have multicam going on. I am always on the lookout for another external drive. Dunno if I should buy any more Thunderbolt stuff though as USB-C is coming along. The next Mac Pro will probably be USB-C only. Just a guess.