Video Editing Setup for my New PC | Storage Question

[AlluringImminence]

Hi there, I just built my new PC... actually typing on it now. In terms of storage here's what I've got:

1: https://www.newegg.com/intel-660p-series-1tb/p/N82E16820167462?Item=N82E16820167462 - I have the OS and program files installed here.

2: https://www.newegg.com/toshiba-x300-hdwe140xzsta-4tb/p/N82E16822149627?Item=N82E16822149627 - I have nothing installed here yet.

Where should my project files go, my footage, my graphics, and other assets? I use Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition and Photoshop primarily. Looking to get this figured out before I move everything over from my laptop to my PC.

Thanks.

[RjL190365 · Accepted solution]

That disk setup is much less than ideal for a video editing system. No hard disk can even crack 225 MB/s even on the outer tracks due to the severe limitations of spinning disk technology used in that 4 TB HDD. And of that 225 MB/s total throughput, less than half of that is available for reads and writes by an NLE due to the limitations of SATA: It cannot read and write both at the same time, as demanded by any NLE. Therefore, with only about 75 MB/s of total disk I/O throughput for the HDD, it is barely suitable for SD (480p) video editing due to the way NLEs handle video playback.

Any why a 1 TB m.2 SSD for the OS and programs? For that purpose, one should not be having such an SSD bigger than about 250 to 500 GB in capacity. You see, the OS, the OS virtual page file plus the ENTIRE Adobe Creative Cloud program package take up only about half of a 250 GB SSD all together. With your current setup you're completely stuck between a rock and a hard place: You either put your media and projects on the OS SSD (a big no-no) or on the woefully inadequate-performing HDD (also a big no-no).

As such, you will need a second m.2 SSD for your system unless your motherboard has only one m.2 socket.

[AlluringImminence]

I see, thank you for your repsonse. I do have a coupble external 1 TB HDD drives that connect via USB 3.0. Any use in those?

I've only got a single M2 slot.

[RjL190365]

No. Only for backups and archives. Just like the 4 TB HDD. In fact, your 1 TB HDDs are even slower than your 4 TB HDD.