Intro for non-experts, to upgrading from spinning hard drive, to SSD or M.2 drives

[pdk-midwest]

I checked out a couple of threads on upgrading a system to an SSD and/or M.2 chip, and they all got fairly quickly into discussions of special accelerators, cache placements, and other stuff that went beyond and above what I suspect a lot of basic video users (especially users of Premier Elements) really need. So, I'd like to at least try to create a thread for non-IT experts, on the basics. If any experts want to chip in, and either post some corrections, or additional useful info, please do, but please accept and respect the basic premise, goal, and "target audience" of this thread.

Briefly, computers have reached the following point:

Storage devices currently come in three main flavors:
HDD: A Hard Drive Disc (Slow, cheap, mass storage)
SSD: A Solid State Drive (Fast and a little expensive)
NVMe   [NOTE -- NOW MAINLY CALLED M.2 CHIPS/DRIVES] Non-Volatile Memory Express (Super fast and expensive)

Typical SSD drives can be seen in links like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-500GB-Internal-MZ-76E500B-AM/dp/B0781Z7Y3S/ref=sr_1_3

They are 2.75 inches wide, 4 inches long, and about 1/4 inch thick. They have standard SATA connectors (i.e., a narrow cable for data, and a wider cable for power). They can be put into any computer with a mainboard that can handle SATA transfers (i.e., any mainboard less than about 10 years old, when the faster SATA replaced the old and slower IDE systems). A top-quality 500 Gb unit (not trying to advertise, but the local computer store guys told me the Samsung "EVO" line is currently the best and most reliable brand) costs about $80, and a 1 Tb unit costs about $140.

By contrast, an M.2 chip (which handles "non-volatile memory express" data, NVMe) is about 1 inch wide and about 3 inches long, and it looks like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-970-EVO-Plus-MZ-V7S500B/dp/B07M7Q21N7/ref=sr_1_8

Although certain types of "cards" can be inserted into a desktop mainboard, to handle an M.2 chip, if you want REAL speed, you should never use one of those cards, and will need to buy a mainboard which has an M.2 socket built directly into it. We've reached a point where M.2 chips are only about $20 more than SSD drives of the same size; but, you also need to factor in the cost of a new mainboard, which will also need new and faster RAM chips. I went in to replace a failing system, and the new components (kept the old case, old spinning drives, old graphics card, etc) cost me about $750. But, it turned out to be a SUPER-fast system. Takes roughly half the time to boot up Windows 10, compared to a 7200 rpm spinning drive.

Okay - that's enough for part 1 of this thread.

[pdk-midwest]

Okay, second post -

an SSD drive is clearly called a "drive". But an M.2 unit can be called either a drive, or a chip, because of how it is built.

Regardless, either type can be "partitioned:" into 2 different drives. For Win10 users (can't say, re: Mac or Linux), I would recommend setting aside at least 100 and preferably 130 or 150 Gb, for a "C:" drive to hold the operating system ("C" is the legacy name, from before the era of permanently-installed hard drives; it arose because early PC's needed an A: drive for a floppy disk with software, and a B: drive for whatever files the user wanted to create and keep).

The remaining capacity (assume 350 Gb for a 500 Gb SSD or M.2 with 150 Gb set aside for Windows and all software; about 850 Gb, on a 1 Tb SSD or M.2 drive) will be given a different drive letter, and any files put on that drive (such as any and all video files which are active, during some particular project) will be able to use the same solid-state speed advantages of the SSD or M.2 unit.

The guys at the computer store told me I would get substantially better performance, if I put a "clean" (brand new)  installation of Win10 on the system, when I bought the new unit. Can't say whether they were telling the truth; but, in case you might do the same (i.e., clean install), I would strongly recommend creating both:

(i) a "screen grab" of your desktop, showing all of the software you access via your desktop icons (usually, grab via "Print Screen" and "Windows key" combination, then paste (control-V) into the "Paint" utility, then store on a thumb drive); and,

(ii) complete text lists of all folders in both of the "Program Files" and "Program Files (x86)" folders, on your current C: drive (get a command prompt, then move (cd = change directory) to c:\Program Files, then use the command:

dir /b >list.txt  

(the "/b" switch keeps the list clean and simple)

Save that list to your thumb drive, then do the same for the directory, C:\Program Files (x86)

If you prefer to try to "clone" your current/existing operating system drive, onto your new M.2 chip, two software programs that can do that are:

Acronis TrueImage (which is good for backing up op-system hard drives, every few months); or,

Macrium Reflect ("Home Edition" is free)

One final comment -

Video files can be handled MUCH more rapidly, if both the source files, and the newly-created file, will be on either an SSD, or an M.2 drive.So, use either of those for file storage and working, during any specific project, then move them off, to a spinning drive, later.

I'm just now getting ready to try a new trick with Premier Elements -- I will designate ALL of my temporary/scratch files, to go to a 0-TEMP folder, on my M.2 drive. To do somehting like that, use:

Edit/Preferences/ScratchDisks

I'll post later, after I see how that works.

Okay . . . that seems like enough for a second post.

Anyone care to add/correct anything?

[John T Smith]

>reserved, for the second post -- how to partition and install

Since hardware failures do happen, MY choice is different... 4 SSD

Samsung 256Gig SSD Boot http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147193

Crucial M550 256G temp http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148791

Crucial M550 512G input http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148792

Crucial M550 128G out http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148790

[pdk-midwest]

THIS (current) thread is about trying to help users who have not previously considered shifting out of spinning drives, to either SSD or M.2 units (either type is substantially faster than a spinning HD), figure out whether they want to begin taking steps to move over to the recently built "faster highway" system, with cost and hassle kept as low as possible, for the initial move. So, I'd like to keep this thread focused on that track. Once someone is up and running, at that MAJOR improvement level, then they might start thinking about how to tweak it even more.

Having said THAT, I'll also reply that using 3 different SSD's, to create a video, raises some questions and possibilities that are sufficiently interesting to be worth a separate thread. For example:

1. If you are trying to minimize risk of hardware failure, then why would you make your system vulnerable to any of 3 different SSD drives, failing? That would seem to multiply the risk of a failure, rather than reducing it.

The above is NOT meant as criticism; it's just a question. And, I appreciate you posting your comment to THIS thread, because otherwise, I probably would not have seen it. The REAL question of interest is THIS:

2. Have you (or anyone else out there) done any actual speed comparison tests, when large files (such as at least 2 Gb) are being created? I can see some entirely reasonable logic in wanting "scratch" and "temp" files to be put on a different, separate drive (either SSD, or M.2) than the output drive; so, the Q becomes, does it make any actual difference, in how long it takes to create the output file, when you do it that way?

Long story short - I've created a separate thread, to address the subject of possibly using multiple SSDs (or even two different M.2 chips; my new mainboard has sockets for two, and for a modest additional cost -- without having to repeat the entire $750 "need to get a new system" cost -- I could add in another M.2 chip).

Anyway, the link to that new thread is here:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/Video-Hardware/Using-separate-SSD-or-M-2-units-for-scratch-temp-files...

[Guest]

I would really like to know more about why and how you set up your PC with 4 separate SSDs for managing the type of work we all do. I am building g a PC right now and cant decide on 3 or 4 SSDs or 2 m.2 drives plus a boot SSD.