MBP Retina 2015 - Video Editing - 2 SSDs - Best Scratch Settings?

[Pmart317]

Hello all!

I am sure this has been answered, but i wanted to discuss my Portable setup that i am currently using for Video editing while using Premiere Pro and AE. When editing in Premiere Pro now, it seems to be running fairly smooth when editing 4k media with little to no lag. Based on research and reading forums, I have heard that an additional SSD can help improve the performance even more, specifically around the Media Cache. Since my internal SSD is a lot faster than the external SSD, how should the media cache be set up to really increase the performance/rendering times? Or is it even worth it to use the external SSD for just the cache, since you have to carry it around every time you edit something.

I did experiment a little and i moved all of my media cache/scratch disk files (Previews/Autosave/etc) to my external SSD and it seemed to slow my rendering/previews down. Maybe because my Projects/media were on my internal drive? Looking around, it seems that the Project Files/Media should be on the external drive and the OS/Apps/Cache/Scratch should be on my internal system? Please let me know if this is a correct statement or recommend any other settings.

Also, would i get faster speeds if i used Thunderbolt 2 vs USB 3.0 for my external SSD? Or would i get the same speeds?

Looking for some feedback/guidance, thank you all!! If this has already been discussed, please provide my to the correct post/forum.

Current Setup -

Internal System:

Macbook Pro 2015 Retina 2.8 Ghz i7

16GB of 1600MHz DDR3L onboard memory + AMD Radeon R9 M370X

1TB PCIe-based flash storage1

External SSD - Samsung T3 1TB Portable SSD (USB

Speed Test via AJA

Internal PCIe SSD ~ 1500 Write/1800 Read

External SSD (T3) ~ 370 Write/420 Read

Scratch Disk - Default location (Internal System)

Memory/Rendering - Set to Performance with 10/16GB RAM Reserved for PR/AE

Projects/Cache/Media/OS/Application - All saved on my Internal SSD

[Bill_Gehrke]

Pmart317 wrote:
Hello all!
I am sure this has been answered, but i wanted to discuss my Portable setup that i am currently using for Video editing while using Premiere Pro and AE. When editing in Premiere Pro now, it seems to be running fairly smooth when editing 4k media with little to no lag. Based on research and reading forums, I have heard that an additional SSD can help improve the performance even more, specifically around the Media Cache. Since my internal SSD is a lot faster than the external SSD, how should the media cache be set up to really increase the performance/rendering times? Or is it even worth it to use the external SSD for just the cache, since you have to carry it around every time you edit something.
I did experiment a little and i moved all of my media cache/scratch disk files (Previews/Autosave/etc) to my external SSD and it seemed to slow my rendering/previews down. Maybe because my Projects/media were on my internal drive? Looking around, it seems that the Project Files/Media should be on the external drive and the OS/Apps/Cache/Scratch should be on my internal system? Please let me know if this is a correct statement or recommend any other settings. 
Also, would i get faster speeds if i used Thunderbolt 2 vs USB 3.0 for my external SSD? Or would i get the same speeds?
Looking for some feedback/guidance, thank you all!! If this has already been discussed, please provide my to the correct post/forum.
Current Setup -
Internal System:
Macbook Pro 2015 Retina 2.8 Ghz i7
16GB of 1600MHz DDR3L onboard memory + AMD Radeon R9 M370X
1TB PCIe-based flash storage1
External SSD - Samsung T3 1TB Portable SSD (USB
Speed Test via AJA
Internal PCIe SSD ~ 1500 Write/1800 Read
External SSD (T3) ~ 370 Write/420 Read
Scratch Disk - Default location (Internal System)
Memory/Rendering - Set to Performance with 10/16GB RAM Reserved for PR/AE
Projects/Cache/Media/OS/Application - All saved on my Internal SSD

I found this interesting because I have a much earlier PC laptop which of course does not have any M.2 capabilities, but does have USB 3 ports so I could compare my Samsung T3  500 GB portable SSD.  I have also have recently experimented with my desktop that does have M.2 PCIe capabilities.  So first I downloaded the AJA windows test tool and ran it on my laptop as you can see below

Here is my Current PC Laptop Setup -

Internal System:

ASUS G750JW i7-4700HQ 2.4/3.1 GHz (2013 intro)

24GB of 1600MHz DDR3L onboard memory + nVidia GTX 765M

128 GB SATA III storage1 OS/Applications

256 GB SATA III storage2

External SSD - Samsung T3 500GB Portable SSD (USB 3.1)

Speed Test via AJA

Internal SATA III SSD ~ 421 Write/485 Read

Internal SATA III SSD ~470 Write/496 Read

External SSD (T3) ~ 389 Write/417 Read

Media Cache/Media Cache Files from the OS/Applications default are deleted frequently

Memory--Set to Performance with 18/24GB RAM Reserved for PR/AE

Projects/Media - All saved on my desktop archive hard disk via the T3 portability

I also have recently run my Premiere Pro BenchMark (PPBM) on my desktop with my new Samsung 960 Pro to see with this new super, super speed M.2 SSD could be used as a single only storage device and the results I got were amazing.  Yes you can use all on one  The AJA test on my desktop the 960 Pro 512 GB produced a 2012 MB/s Write/2986 MB/s Read speeds.  I am not sure what PCIe SSD you have but it is not the 960 Pro class device yet.

Yes if a Thunderbolt 2 to M.2 PCIe device existed it could be faster.  Thunderbolt 2 is 20 Gbits/second where USB 3.1 Gen 2 is 10 Gbits/second (Gen 1 USB 3 is 5 Gbits/second).  I would love to find one, I have 4 M.2 PCIe drives currently.

I leave all scratch files in the default location

[Pmart317]

Thanks for the reply! But, I am not sure if I am reading your post correctly. Or maybe it was me not explaining myself thoroughly. I dont think your setup really helps me out since you have more SSDs than I do. I am requesting advice on how my set up should be in order to optimize my performance. Based on the speeds I provided, I want to make sure that I have the files/media/projects placed on the appropriate SSDs. I am a noob when it comes to this, but it would make more sense to put everything on my internal drive, since I would get quicker speeds when rendering and color grading.

From the looks of your post, it seems that you have everything on your external SSD besides the OS/Application/Projects/Media. Is that the setup that you are providing me that will work best? Thanks!

If anyone has any advice around this, let me know! Thanks.

- My PCI is the SSD that came with my Macbook Pro Retina model 2015 (APPLE SSD SM1024G).

[JEShort01]

Pmart,

Yes, just put everything on your local PCI SSD drive. It's fast and that's best.

Regards,

Jim

[Bill_Gehrke]

I guess I complicated the issue. but this was the first time I found I could compare tests on both PC and Mac platforms   Jim is correct in that everything should be on the internal drive in your case.