Internal or External SSD for editing?

[CC268]

Hey guys,

I've been doing a lot of research on how to optimize my storage for video editing (without spending a fortune). I originally built this PC for gaming, so I only have one 250GB SSD and a 1TB WD Blue HD. See here if interested: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/bcnnTW

I found this video and their subsequent article to be very informative: Optimizing Storage for Premiere Pro - YouTube

I notice a lot of people are editing off of an external SSD instead of an internal one. Why is this? A typical setup usually looks something like:

C Drive: OS & Applications - 250GB SSD or M.2 SSD

D Drive: Project & Source Media, Media Cache & Scratch - 500GB-1TB SSD (INTERNAL or EXTERNAL)

E Drive: General storage

Cloud Storage, NAS, etc

In some cases folks even do a configuration like such:

C Drive: OS & Applications - 250GB SSD or M.2 SSD

D Drive: Project & Source Media - 500GB-1TB SSD

E Drive: Media Cache & Scratch - 500GB-1TB SSD

F Drive: General storage

Cloud Storage, NAS, etc

The configuration above seems probably excessive for a hobbyist like me.

[R Neil Haugen]

External drives, other than say the Samsung T5 drives, don't really have the sustained read-write for too much. But still at times if you must, they're useful when splitting things to different drives for best overall performance. The T5's are great over a USB3/3.1 drive port.

The option they show with three internal SSD's is really a good one, with the Nvme drive for projects/media. And you can use the old spinning discs even in external applications for storage and backing up things.

Neil

[CC268]

Thanks for the quick response. So the internal SSD is still really the way to go...

I would go the route of a M.2 NVME for the projects/media, but I would need a 1TB M.2 which isn’t cheap. So a normal SSD (Samsung 860 EVO) would have to do. I believe they state the performance difference between the standard SSD and M.2 NVME are very minimal. I would likely buy a 250GB M.2 for my OS/programs and use a normal 1TB SSD for projects/media.

[R Neil Haugen]

If at all possible, run on a 500GB Nvme for projects/media. Move projects (including media folders) onto the Nvme in active work, off to clear space when not being worked for a while. It gives in most systems enough of a boost of sustained read/write to be worth the while.

I've got the Nvme and the 860 in internal operation, the Nvme is definitely faster. Although I have 6 internal SSD's ... OS on a 256 Samsung SSD, the Nvme, and four other Samsung drives. Also a 4-TB spinner. And a couple more 500GB SSD's via USB/3 connection for some of my storage.

Neil

[CC268]

I guess my concern is that a 500GB Nvme may not be enough space. I recently transcoded some footage from Hawaii (to Cineform I believe) and it was 670GB - so the 500GB Nvme would not work, correct?

Keep in mind, I do this as a hobby, and I don't edit on a regular basis, so I am having a hard time justifying spending $500+ just on storage upgrades (especially when this desktop is approaching 3 years old). I figured an 860 SSD would be a huge upgrade from editing off my 1TB WD Blue! The normal SSDs are cheap enough that I could even buy another 1TB 860 for Media Cache & Scratch as well. Speaking of Media Cache & Scratch - how big of an SSD is needed for that? If I go with the M.2 Nvme I will be blowing the budget on that alone.

The 500 GB Nvme is priced reasonably ($168), but I am concerned it won't be big enough once I transcode my footage for longer family vacations, etc. Maybe there is some way to make it work?

What do you think?

Thanks again for all the help.

[SAFEHARBOR11]

SSDs are nice, but very pricey per GB compared to a HDD. As a hobbyist, a single (fast) HDD will certainly work, either internal or via USB 3.0 or USB-C interface, and you'll have a LOT more storage space than SSD, for less money. For instance, G-Tech G-Drive, LaCie d2, Glyph Black Box Pro. I'm running a 4TB BB Pro at home right now with USB 3.0, and editing HD and 4K just fine. For a performance boost, look at a two-drive RAID such as G-Tech G-RAID or Glyph StudioRAID. These will be almost double the speed of a single HDD.

For internal, WD Black or BarraCuda Pro drives work well.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera

Safe Harbor Computers

[CC268]

SAFEHARBOR11​

Interesting...so what your saying is that I would keep my current system as is (250GB Samsung 850 EVO for OS/programs & 1TB WD Blue HDD) and then add one of these external HDs (RAID setup being optimal).

Would I place Project & Source Media, Media Cache & Scratch all on this external HD? It isn't clear to me what the optimal workflow would look like with a setup like this.

It looks like the G-Tech G-Raid runs about $350 for 4TB and Glyph StudioRAID runs about $340. That would be very reasonable and doable for me.

Then I could simply buy a two bay dock (toaster) and some WD Blues and keep the archived videos on that.

Looks like you work for Safe Harbor - is this a topic that could be discussed over the phone? It might be a very beneficial conversation for me.

[SAFEHARBOR11]

Everyone has different takes on what should go where, how many drives to use, etc. I don't doubt there is some best/optimal/magic combination, but it's not practical for most people to use 4 or 5 different hard drives for Premiere! I've been using Premiere for about 16 years professionally myself and know what has worked for me.

In my experience, a small SSD boot drive will very quickly fill up with Media Cache files, so I'd probably set that to the internal Blue drive along with Scratch. Then put Project and Media files on fast external.

You are welcome to give me a call at the store, as we have several storage vendors with many options to choose from.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera

Safe Harbor Computers

www.sharbor.com

[CC268]

I agree - we have to keep this practical. There are so many different combinations and routes that I could go, it becomes overwhelming. I would like to keep this under $500, which seems very doable.

My original thoughts were to do something like this:

C Drive: OS & Applications - Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB (currently own)

D Drive: Project & Source Media - Samsung 960 EVO M.2 500GB ($154) - I may need to bump this up to 1TB

E Drive: Media Cache & Scratch - Samsung 860 EVO 500GB ($98)

F Drive: General storage, archived projects, documents, etc - WD Blue 1TB (currently own)

And then purchase some form of external hard drive, most likely an dock and some WD Blues - this would be for video archival. I could back everything up with BackBlaze cloud as well to have a backup of my backups.

[Richard van den Boogaard]

*Always* buy archive disks in pairs. One archive means no backup. There is a slim chance of one disk failing, but two identical archive disks failing is rare.

[CC268]

Yes I will get a SATA dock and WD Reds so I have an A & B backup. Later on down the road I can get an NAS or some sort of a RAID setup if I need something more.