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External HDD Scratch Disk Setup
I’m a Graphic Designer who is new to video and CreativeCOW. I’m trying to optimize (within reason) my system for video editing. The more I read about disc arrays and scratch files, the more questions I have. I spent all day reading forums and I think it would help for someone to answer my questions directly. For reference I’m working on an i7 iMac with 8GB RAM and 1GB AMD Radeon HD; I’m shooting with a Canon 60D.
I understand that in its basic form, a 3 HDD setup should give me a reasonable platform to work on. One disc for OS and programs, one for media/project file/scratch, and one for exports/storage.
Without upgrading my internal drives and external interface connections, could this setup be done (and increase performance) with two external drives?
I would assume that the fastest drive would need to be the media and project file drive. Would using a 7200rpm FW800 drive for be fast enough for HD-DSLR footage, or would I be better off editing off of my local hard disc? How much capacity would be recommended? I’m thinking that after exporting I could move my media and project files to the “exports/storage” drive to create more space on my “scratch” drive.
Stop me here if I have it all wrong please!
My next set of questions deal more with transfer speeds. If I decided to use a RAID 0 system for the media and project drive, would I notice a performance increase as apposed to a single 7200rpm disk? I’m concerned that it may not be necessary with HD-DSLR footage, or that the FW800 interface may bottleneck any speed advantages. Would I have to install a eSata terminal, or wait for Thunderbolt to become more available instead?
Would “Soft RAIDing” two FW800 drives for the media and projects drive give me faster speeds as opposed to a stand alone external RAID system connected with FW800. My only reasoning is that there are 2 physical points of transfer as opposed to 1. Maybe I’m just making it difficult.
If my main concern is speed for editing, would an external SSD be faster than a RAID 0 (would it benefit me in my application; DSLR)? What type of interface (ie eSata, FW800) would I need to free up the speed of the SSD?
With all that said, what might a 2 disk (1 local, 1 external) setup look like and would it be beneficial for performance?
A world of thanks for the help … my head is killing me!
– Eddie
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11 Replies
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Raid’ing 2 or more externals will not be wise IMO.
You can get by with one FW800 drive 7200rpm. With a 60D you can L&T to ProresLT.
Don’t edit off your internal OS drive.If you really want to step up (And I suspect you don’t) Use that ThunderBolt Connection on the iMac and get a TB raid. This will yield blazing fast through-put.
Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC -
Chris, thank you for your input. I don’t understand why I wouldn’t want to edit my footage in its native format? It’s already compressed to H.264. I thought this was the whole idea behind CS5’s Mercury Playback Engine?
Perhaps you could point me to a recommended Thunderbolt RAID setup? The only one that I’m aware of is the Promise Pegasus R4. I don’t think that I could justify the $1,000 investment.
Thanks again!
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Drop one of your clips onto the “Make a sequence to match” icon in the bottom of the browser. APP will create the best match up for your footage.
Use the default mpeg preview files – these are for ease of editing only – THEN, export your master, it will use the original files.
Changing your preview files to h.264 or whatever to match your footage only puts more demand on the computer to play the sequence. When you export, you have to “re-compress” anyways.
The Promise Pegasus is what I would recommend for TB raid.
Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC -
Sorry Chris, I’m very new to this. Basically you’re telling me that within my project panel I should drag each of my original MOV files into the “New Item” icon. I would then be creating “new sequences” referencing the original clips. Then I would drop these “new sequences” into my timeline and edit these instead of the actual MOV files.
I guess I don’t get it? There is no transcoding happening here. My main sequence is using the HD-DSLR preset chosen at the being of the project creation. I’m not following you, I don’t understand the benefit.
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Eddie, I have basically the same setup (iMac, Premiere Pro, Canon DSLR workflow) and some of the same questions as you.
And I am also confused by the workflow that Chris Tompkins is attempting to describe. But as far as I can tell, his second response is encouraging the use of the Mercury PE, using the default MPEG preview format, not changing the preview format to H264-I think he misunderstood what you were suggesting with your question…
Anyway, that’s what I do – edit natively in H264 using the Mercury PE system. And I am saving up for the Pegasus thunderbolt drive, which seems like a fairly good deal, considering the 4x1TB drives that are included.
But to reiterate your initial line of questioning: What is the rationale behind the common refrain of “Don’t edit off your internal hard drive” that Chris has reaffirmed? What specifically arrangement is recommended? Does one edit the project file/folder on the local drive and have all clips on an external? Or the project file external as well?
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Oh, and crucially, assuming I have all footage on an external drive, should the preview files/media cache be located on the external or internal drive?
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Since most likely your media is on the fastest drive, which is your external, your media cache and preview files should have their own folders on that drive as well for best performance.
Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxPrG3WUyz8
(Best viewed at 1080P and full screen)
HP Z820 Dual 2687
64GB ram
Dulce DQg2 16TB raid -
Thanks for the response, Tom!
Both my external drive, where my media is, and my internal drive are 7200rpm. I would assume the internal works faster because of its built-in SATA interface (vs. my external drive connected via FW800). BUT now that I’ve set up the drives as you suggested (external storing everything), I am experiencing much smoother playback from the timeline! How is that possible?
Lastly, wouldn’t it make sense to divide up the HD work between the two drives, so the external is handling media files and the internal is doing previews?
Your insight is much appreciated, as much of these arrangements are counterintuitive to me…
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No, its suggested by folks much smarter then me not to place media on the same drive that your apps are on (i.e.,the system drive). Accessing the apps AND media off the same drive can slow down things dramatically.
Though for HD work I would tend to want an external drive with better access time then FW800. Of course that is dependent on the format and compression type of your media.
As and example, since I want to be able to use Red, Epic ,H.264 and AVCHD (large and/or highly compressed media files) I purchased this
https://www.dulcesystems.com/html/pro_dqg2.html
Which is a high speed/performance PCIE based system. My systems runs like butta 😀
Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxPrG3WUyz8
(Best viewed at 1080P and full screen)
HP Z820 Dual 2687
64GB ram
Dulce DQg2 16TB raid -
I know am late to the party but how about when your internal drive is an SSD, is it still better to connect to an external 72RPM drive for scratch disk?
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