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phototocanvaspdx
phototocanvaspdx
Known Participant
February 13, 2017
Question

Will an ssd help?

  • February 13, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 5190 views

I have a 5k iMac and am just starting to dabble in 4K editing. It's really choppy. Unfortunately I only have the 2gb graphics card. I'm thinking about updating the fusion drive with an ssd to increase performance. Finances are pushing me for a smaller ssd and will be storing th media on an external usb 3 drive. If the media will be in a non ssd external drive is there any point to the upgrade? With a 500gb I do have the option of doing everything on the internal drive and then transferring it for storage but that seems like a pain.

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2 replies

Peru Bob
Community Expert
Peru BobCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 13, 2017

If the media will be in a non ssd external drive is there any point to the upgrade?

No.

Warren Heaton
Community Expert
Warren HeatonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 13, 2017

Hi J:

If you opt to work from an external USB3 drive, you definitely want to review the link that Meg The Dog pasted into her response.  With that workflow, you can edit directly from your USB3 drive and export High Resolution edited masters to your internal Fusion drive (of course, “Fusion Drive” is just Apple’s marketing department’s name for “hybrid drive”).

If your budget allows for it, purchase an external Thunderbolt RAID0.  Depending on the bandwidth requirements of your 4K footage, you might be able to use a non-RAID external Thunderbolt drive instead.

For your model iMac, Thunderbolt2 is a match; however, you should be fine with a Thunderbolt3 device as long as you have the adapter (without the Thunderbolt3 to 2 adapter, you won't be able to connect the device).

Promise, LaCie and G-Tech are each popular drive makers, but definitely shop around for the best capacity, speed, warranty and price.

-Warren

phototocanvaspdx
phototocanvaspdxAuthor
Known Participant
February 13, 2017

Thanks everyone. I was planning on using Thunderbolt. But what it comes down to is what Peru Bob touched on. If I put a standard hard drive in the enclosure for my projects to be on, and an SSD for the system, will it actually be any faster or is it essentially the same as my current fusion drive?

M
Meg The Dog
Inspiring
February 13, 2017

You should take a look at using a Proxy workflow:

Adobe Premiere Pro Help | Ingest and Proxy Workflow in Premiere Pro CC 2015.3

MtD

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