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120gb SSD Enough for After Effects Disk cache?
Hi guys,
As the title says, would a 120gb SSD enough for use on AE’s disk cache?
Thanks
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8 Replies
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120 GB is a nice size for a dedicated cache, but it will probably recycle quicker than you think.
The disk cache stores uncompressed “layer-frames.” For example, a 10-layer, 100-frame composition can generate 1,100 cache files (one per layer per frame, plus one per frame for the comp overall).
If you work at larger resolutions or deeper bit depths, cache spaces goes very quickly indeed.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
Hi Walter,
Thanks for the detailed response.
I mainly work with 1080p Motion Graphics.
So is the ideal size 250gb?
This will be just a dedicated scratch disk, and nothing else will be stored or installed.
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I was thinking exactly about that and thought to go with a 250GB since my 100GB dedicated space on my computer is full very fast. Is it worth it? I mean, does an external SSD make AE much faster since disc cache and footage/comp files are separated?
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[Frank Cia] “So is the ideal size 250gb?”
I have a couple machines with 250GB SSDs as dedicated cache drives, but the “ideal size” is limited only by your budget.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
[Christoph Müller] ” I mean, does an external SSD make AE much faster since disc cache and footage/comp files are separated?”
With an SSD, separating the cache from the footage and project files is less important than it was with mechanical hard disks.
Having the cache on the fastest drive on the fastest bus of your computer is where you get the most performance. The cache reads and writes lots of relatively small files, so SSDs excel because they don’t have mechanical parts that add latency with the large number of IO requests.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
mmmmm… I just am thinking what kind of drives would actually be worth buying. The fastest bus would be an internal drive, but I can’t add any in my iMac. So it only would be an external SSD, but it must be the first in a daisy chain, right? Does this even make any sense? I mean, if other data goes through the SSD does this affect the speed? I just realize that I don’t have any clue how to buy something that really would benefit my workflow. Any suggestions?
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Thank you Walter.
I bought a 250gb SSD dedicated for AE cache..
I think its just enough for what I need…. for now.
Thanks for your help.
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So for those of us on Macs, does anyone have a solution for the lack of TRIM support on non-Apple installed SSD drives? Before Yosemite, I used Trim Enabler for my third party SSDs, but Yosemite changed something in the security protocols which caused Macs with Trim Enabler to cease booting up after the upgrade. I resolved with disabling Trim Enabler through either Single User mode or Safe Boot and Terminal, but now I have no trim functionality. Apparently you can disable the entire security protocol but that sounds sketchy.
TRIM clears out the garbage which severely slows SSD drive speeds as they are hit with more I/O operations. Obviously, an AE cache drive is going to be one of the worst offenders of creating garbage on SSDs, so aside from just reformatting the SSD cache drive on a Mac to reset it, does anyone have a better solution?
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