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FCPX: External vs Internal Hard Drive
So, what is the difference between editing in FCPX off of an external drive or an internal drive? Pretend they are both the same spec, (Read/Write speeds etc). Is there a difference?
I will be purchasing a Mac Pro as soon as they’re released and would have thought editing off the internal SSD would be the ideal option, and then back up to an external disk.
Many thanks,
Jack
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4 Replies
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The connection is the difference.
If it’s FW800 or USB 2.0, the speed is limited to about 75MB/s and 30MB/s, respectively. USB 3.0 – anywhere from 150 to 250MB/s. It could potentially be faster but I haven’t seen that happening yet. Thunderbolt2 – up to 2GB/s via a single link theoretically, with the right array.
If we’re talking about a single spinning drive, there shouldn’t be much of a difference speed-wise between an internal and an external (Thunderbolt or USB 3.0) connection.
— Alex Gerulaitis | Systems Engineer | DV411 – Los Angeles, CA
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Many thanks for your response, but I think you’ve misunderstood my question.
Irrespective of speed, irrespective of whether it is a hard disk or a solid state disk (as a thunderbolt raid array can come close to speeds of an SSD) what is the difference between working from an internal disk and an external disk when using FCPX?
I’ve read that there’s not point in using a scratch disk with FCPX so I’m wondering what would be wrong with working off the internal SSD and then archiving externally?
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Sorry. 🙂
[Jack Benson] “I’m wondering what would be wrong with working off the internal SSD and then archiving externally?”
That will certainly work – done that myself Premiere Pro and FCP7. Can’t imagine FCPX behaving differently.
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Many thanks again Alex, but I know this will work; I just don’t know which is the optimal setup or if there are any minute differences.
Previous to FCPX, in FCP7 and many other media applications, a different disk (a scratch disk) was recommended for working off instead of the system disk. I think this is something to do with the read-heads working slower if you use a system disk because it has to do serious multitasking but I’m not sure. I know that the scratch disk setup is redundant as Apple have mentioned this (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3753488), but I wonder if there is still a difference.
Thanks!
Jack
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