SSD with or without Thunderbolt

[Thomas37679426izma]

Heyy!

I would like some advice  🙂
I want to work from my macbook (M1, 2020 - but considering buying a better one soon) in adobe premiere.
I want to store the 4K files (and proxies) on the extern drive and work directly from this drive.

But is the black one (using thunderbolt) better for me while working in the timeline with adobe. Is there a significant difference? And is the orange one also fine if I want to work with adobe directly? If the orange one is also OK then I would like that one better..

They are both the same price right now (in Holland), the black one (Thunderbolt) is 2Tb, the orange one is 4TB.

Thanks!!

[Typo in title edited by moderator]

[Ann Bens]

Moved to Hardware forum.

(please do not double post)

[Warren Heaton · Accepted solution]

The Thunderbolt LaCie Rugged SSD has "Up to 2800 MB/s Data Transfer Speed" while the USB option has "Up to 1050 MB/s Data Transfer Speed".  

Each is fast and you might be fine with either; however, you're likely to appreciate the faster version when editing multiple streams of video and copying large files.

Personally, I'd opt for the Thunderbolt version. 

Be sure to implement a backup plan.  If your budget allows for it, purchase two of the same make and model mobile drives and then use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the primary one to the backup one on a regular basis.  If one fails or gets misplaced, you can immediately switch to the backup to finish a project without any down time.  Of course, there's a cost factor involved.  You could also opt for purchasing a much slower and cheaper second drive for the backup or use cloud storage

[Thomas37679426izma]

Ah Thanks Warren,

Very Helpfull!
Your back-up advice answer raised another question:
-With the back up issue, would you just store the files (4K + proxy) on the SSD and the project file (+project auto back-ups) on the Macbook itself? Is there a way to save the project (+auto backups) simultanious on the SSD and Macbook?

-If I buy both the SSD's (thunderbolt and USB-C).. Can I still use that carbon copy cloner to clone (for instance) 1TB data from the main SSD to the back-up one BUT also use that back-up one to store different data (because that one is 4TB)?

Thanks again!

[Warren Heaton]

As fast as these SSD drives are, you're fine putting everything on the SSD drive and let that clone to the backup SSD drive - but in a well organized folder structure for each project that might go on the primary, external SSD drive.

That said, Carbon Copy Cloner can clone drive to drive, drive to folder, folder to drive, or folder to folder.  With a 1TB primary SSD and 4TB backup SSD, you could use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the source media folder from the 1TB primary SSD to the source media folder backup on the backup SSD and the project files folder from the Macintosh HD to the project files folder backup on the backup SSD.  So, folders to folders instead of drives to drive.  You could even set a quota limit for Time Machine in the System Settings and let that use some of the 4TB drive as well.

For Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC), I'm suggesting just a clone rather than incremental back up (so if primary folder and backup folder always match), but CCC other options for how the clone process behaves that you might want to look into.

[Conrad_C · Accepted solution]

Just some context to add to this info…

The Thunderbolt LaCie Rugged SSD has "Up to 2800 MB/s Data Transfer Speed" while the USB option has "Up to 1050 MB/s Data Transfer Speed".  

By @Warren Heaton

The 2800MB/sec speed is roughly the theoretical maximum for Thunderbolt 3 and 4 data, and the 1050 MB/sec speed is about the theoretical maximum for USB 3, 10 Gb/sec data. (Do not connect with cheaper USB cables that only support 5 Gb/sec or 480 Mb/sec USB 2).

Just so you know how external storage options compare to Mac internal storage…

USB 3, 5 Gb/sec: up to 550 MB/sec (Avoid)

USB 3, 10 Gb/sec: up to 1050 MB/sec (fast enough for most things)

MacBook Air/Pro, internal SSD: up to 3000 MB/sec or more (most models)

Thunderbolt 3 or 4, and USB 4: up to 3000 MB/sec (better for intensive video editing)

Upper end pro Macs and PCs, internal SSD: up to 7000 MB/sec

[Thomas37679426izma]

Ah Thanks Conrad,

Very Helpfull. 

When I work like this (with 4K files and proxies on the tunderbolt SSD) and a extra backup SSD which I use regularly to backup, what is your advice on where to store my project file? 

Is there an option in Adobe premiere that by just saving the project file, that it automatically will be saved to two locations? To my main SSD (in the project folder) but ALSO to my internal storage of the macbook.

This off course that in case I loose the SSD, I still have the most recent project file on my macbook and I can switch to the backup SSD. Or if not, I'm interested in how other people do this. Thanks!

[Conrad_C · Accepted solution]

There are a couple of Premiere Pro settings you might want to try.

The first one is Auto Save, in Preferences (see picture below). If you set it up an enable it, Premiere Pro will save Project Versions to an Auto Save folder inside the project folder so that you can roll back to an earlier version. However, that location is where the project is, so to change that to a place on the Mac, also set the option in the next picture…

In File > Project Settings > Scratch Disks, set Auto Save to a specific location, like on your Mac. The problem with this is that it’s not at the application level, it’s at the project level, so you have to remember to set it for every project.