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H
Holtravis
Participant
March 13, 2017
Question

External SSD for video editing.

  • March 13, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 22784 views

Right now I'm editing video on my 2015 13 inch macbook pro. It has 512 gbs of storage, so I imported about 200 gb the other day and got to editing. The computer handles it pretty well, but recently I've heard that importing all the footage to the drive on the computer is not that efficient. Can you edit video straight from an external ssd or hdd, and if you can, how does the speed compare to using the native drive on the macbook? Thanks

[Moderator note: moved to best forum]

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4 replies

T
tonyk16244512
Participating Frequently
July 25, 2018

I am using Samsung T3 SSD Drive from last 8 month. It has a storage capacity of 2TB has read and write speed is just amazing. And after using it for more than 6 months I can say that is one of the best external SSD drive for Mac or any other users.

RuralAccent
RuralAccent
Participant
May 2, 2018

That's really interesting, Bill. I have a M.2 NVMe ~500GB drive in my laptop. It runs the OS, PrPr, media, scratch and export. It does so very well. I have a spare 500gb crucial mx500 SSD that I was originally going to use to shift the OS and apps onto, but honestly, I'm not sure that that will give me much of a speed advantage given I'm only a hobbiest. What do folk think? Is it worth the hassle of cloning the OS across to see or am I just as well sticking with everything on the NVMe? Or would using the SSD somewhere in the mix still be a good idea? Thank you ☺️

FG001
FG001
Known Participant
March 21, 2017

Using the T3 for almost a year now without a hitch (knock on wood). Its USB3 so I can do my AE/Premiere stuff on my MBP while travelling and then just plug it into my PC workstation (with Paragon mac drive reading software installed) and continue working on a big screen.

C
CMILD561
Participant
April 11, 2018

Sorry to rehash and old thread but this seems to apply perfectly to me.  Would I benefit by buying a new external SSD and using it solely for all my footage as compared to the write speeds I get from my internal SSD reflected below which also has the rest of the operating system on it?

E
exile1972
Inspiring
April 11, 2018

You should never put your media files on your OS drive. All media should be located on a secondary drive - either internal or external.

R Neil Haugen
R Neil Haugen
Legend
March 14, 2017

Bill Gehrke​ ... The Expert on real-time testing & hardware issues for the Adobe DVA's, recommends the Samsung T3 drives via USB3 as the biggest help for laptops to get a decently fast second drive. Real-time sustained read/write speeds while PrPro is running is crucial, and other drives simply don't come near.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
Bill Gehrke
Bill Gehrke
Inspiring
March 15, 2017

Yes I have even edited simple XAVC-S Sony 4K 100 Mbit/s footage on my USB 3.0 port on my PC laptop that is slightly older than your Macbook Pro with the Samsung T3 USB 3.1 portable SSD.  I assume you have a Thunderbolt port on your Mac so that might also be usable but the T3 is the only solution that s well tested.  I put all Project and Media on the T3 but do leave the Media Cache folders on the default OS/Applications SSD.  If you have another computer some place you can plug the T3 in and edit away.

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