Recommendations for Optimum Hard drive setup

Question

Hi Guys,I'm using a VERY old editing system ( 6 years old! )Time for update and i figured if i but as well as the last time i will get another long time out of it.Below is my spec, if you see something that is a waste of money ( in terms of performance v something else when using premiere pro ) tell me. I want to future proof for 4K+ video editing .But my main question is about the hard drive setup.Does PCI-E offer any advantage over the other M.2 drives ?Is it still best practice to keep the media cache and export drives separate from the OS and Media drive or could i cut down on the necessary drives?I'm not sure if that was only for the older HDD drives?See my notes is Red Thanks in advance.Ronan Overclocked AMD Threadripper 1950X 16 Core (3.4GHz @ up to 4.0GHz)MotherboardASUS® ROG ZENITH EXTREME (DDR4, 6Gb/s, CrossFireX/SLI) - RGB Ready!Memory (RAM)64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 16GB)Graphics Card11GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE GTX 1080 Ti - DVI, HDMI, DP1st Hard Disk4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE  ( Media Storage - Also backed up x 3 external drives )M.2 SSD Drive512GB SAMSUNG 960 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2100MB/W) ( Export Files to this drive )2nd M.2 SSD Drive1TB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3000MB/R, 1700MB/W) ( Work in progress: Footage to be edited off this drive )3rd M.2 SSD Drive512GB SAMSUNG 960 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2100MB/W) ( System Drive )1st PCI-E SSD Drive280GB INTEL® OPTANE 900P PCIe SSD (up to 2400MB/sR | 2000MB/sW) ( Media Cache on this drive )DVD/BLU-RAY Drive24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAMPower SupplyCORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIETPower Cable1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)Processor CoolingCorsair H80i V2 Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Liquid Series Ultra Quiet FansThermal PasteEK-TIM ECTOTHERM THERMAL COMPOUNDSound CardASUS STRIX Soar 7.1 PCIe sound cardSystem SummaryCaseCORSAIR GRAPHITE SERIES™ 780T FULL TOWER CASEOverclocked CPUOverclocked AMD Threadripper 1950X 16 Core (3.4GHz @ up to 4.0GHz)MotherboardASUS® ROG ZENITH EXTREME (DDR4, 6Gb/s, CrossFireX/SLI) - RGB Ready!Memory (RAM)64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 16GB)Graphics Card11GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE GTX 1080 Ti - DVI, HDMI, DP1st Hard Disk4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHEM.2 SSD Drive512GB SAMSUNG 960 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2100MB/W)2nd M.2 SSD Drive1TB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3000MB/R, 1700MB/W)3rd M.2 SSD Drive512GB SAMSUNG 960 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2100MB/W)1st PCI-E SSD Drive280GB INTEL® OPTANE 900P PCIe SSD (up to 2400MB/sR | 2000MB/sW)DVD/BLU-RAY Drive24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAMPower SupplyCORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIETPower Cable1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)Processor CoolingCorsair H80i V2 Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Liquid Series Ultra Quiet FansThermal PasteEK-TIM ECTOTHERM THERMAL COMPOUNDSound CardASUS STRIX Soar 7.1 PCIe sound cardWireless/Wired Networking10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)USB Options2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTSOperating SystemGenuine Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Single LicenceOperating System LanguageUnited Kingdom - English LanguageOffice SoftwareNO OFFICE SOFTWAREAnti-VirusNO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWAREBrowserGoogle Chrome™WebcamLogitech® HD Webcam C930e - 1080p recording, supports H.264Warranty3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)Delivery2 - 3 DAY DELIVERY TO REPUBLIC OF IRELANDBuild TimeStandard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working daysQTY1€4,813.01ex VAT€5,920.00inc VAT and DeliveryCurrent estimated lead times: 6 to 8 working days

Ronan Quinn · Accepted Answer

Thanks Bill,
My only thinking with the 280GB Intel Optane was that it could be well suited to a cache drive with such good speeds.
Plus it was allowing me 1 extra super fast drive .
( Thanks for pointing out the fact i can actually only fit 2 M2 drives, that was an error on my part, I'm not sure why the system wasn't flagged for error with that in mind. I just checked on https://pcpartpicker.com/list/gMbjjc too, so they must allow for the adapter automatically )

I like the idea of using the adapter to make use of the PCI-E slot.

So would this be a better approach for the drives , or what would drives would you cut down / set up differently?

1^st Hard Disk

250GB Samsung 850 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW) ( System Drive )

2^nd Hard Disk

4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE ( Media Storage - Also backed up x 3 external drives )

A. M.2 SSD Drive

512GB SAMSUNG 960 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2100MB/W) ( Export Files to this drive )

2^nd M.2 SSD Drive

1TB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3000MB/R, 1700MB/W) ( Work in progress: Footage to be edited off this drive )

3^rd M.2 SSD Drive

512GB SAMSUNG 960 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2100MB/W) ( Media Cache on this drive ) * { 3rd M2 drive to use an adapter so it can plug into the PCI-E slot )

Thanks for your input, I want to make sure i measure twice and only cut once with this investment .
Ronan

Bill Gehrke · Answer

You show 3 each M.2 drives, my literature shows only two motherboard M.2 connectors.

You ask the difference between m.2 and PCie basically none, but when you expand that to an Intel Optane there isa difference. The Intel SSD is design for high I/O operation like databases. Samsung has competition now days to compete a new SZ 985 Why did you want the 280 GB Intel Optane? It is not cost effective for that price you can get a Samsung 960 Pro 512 GB m.2 with its much better sequential performance all you have to do is buy a $30 adapter to plug it into directly into the PCIe bus.See my X99 motherboard running 4 of those superspeed M.2 SSD's.

You can easiy cut the SSD drives. While I ran the 4 M.2 system for testing it is not really necessary and as a matter of fact using a M.2 PCIE for OS/Applications is wasting it value. For that I have found a SATA III SSD a good choice.

Export to H.264	Use an SSD for the projects drive (platter is ~7% slower) Faster or separate project and export drive do not improve performance
Export to DnXHD HQ & DnXHR HQ	Use an SSD for the Projects drive (platter is 13-24% slower) Faster or separate project and export drive do not improve performance

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