Hardware recommendations for PPro performance boosting

[Ryan Holmes]

For many editing formats Firewire 800 will provide sufficient speeds. Your local big box electronics store will have plenty of options or you can order from Amazon. If you work in ProRes, DNxHD, Motion JPEG, etc purchasing a Firewire drive to hold your media is a good move. Many people on here like G-Tech drives: https://www.g-technology.com/products

You can also look at Lacie: https://www.lacie.com/us/index.htm?gclid=CJOSwtyWyrYCFQaznQodzBgAxA

Beyond that for your system there’s always more RAM (which Adobe products love) or a more powerful GPU card that is CUDA enabled (Nvidia graphics cards only). The GTX680 for Mac is getting a good bit of love from the Mac crowd right now….it’s on my list of things to purchase (and I think it’ll work in your 2008 Mac Pro, but you’ll need to verify).

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Walter Biscardi]

I still use a FW800 4 Drive RAID at home with no problems. Unless you’re editing uncompressed HD, FW800 will serve you just fine. I run the WeibeTech RTX4 here at home with four 2TB Western Digital Drives.

There are plenty of FW800 options out there from OWC, WeibeTech and G-Tech to choose from. I would get something with at least two drives and if you can afford a 4 drive unit, that will be even more speed. The more drives in the chassis, the more the information is spread out across more drives, the more speed you get for playback.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

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[Dylan Hargreaves]

So perhaps something like this? https://g-technology.com/products/g-raid

Here’s where I get a bit sketchy… So I assign one of the drives in the Raid to store the media cache etc, then Premiere processes everything using all the drives in the array?

Considering the 4TB version costs $400, that’s incredible!

[Walter Biscardi]

[Dylan Hargreaves] “Here’s where I get a bit sketchy… So I assign one of the drives in the Raid to store the media cache etc, then Premiere processes everything using all the drives in the array? “

There is a checkbox in the Preferences or Scratch Discs (I’m not in front of a PPro system now) that says something like “Store Media Cache in the same location as the media.” That will force the Cache files to be placed in the same location as your Media. So as long as you properly put your Scratch Disc and all media out on the array, the cache files will also live there.

But it’s not the cache files that are causing you the problems, it’s the fact that you’ve got your media on your single Mac HD that’s causing the most problems. You’ll need to move all your media out onto the array.

Your link was broken so I’m not sure which product you were pointing at, but so long as it’s a two drive RAID at minimum, that should improve performance. The faster the RAID, the better the performance.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

Foul Water Fiery Serpent, an original documentary featuring Sigourney Weaver. US & European distribution by American Public Television
MTWD Entertainment – Developing original content for all media.
“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
“Science Nation” – Three years and counting of Science for the People.

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[Kevin Monahan]

You can also boost performance with a bigger, badder GPU too. Premiere Pro CS Next can handle almost any GPU now.

Kevin Monahan
Social Support Lead
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Systems, Inc.
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[Dylan Hargreaves]

Gents and scholars, all. Thanks guys!

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Dylan Hargreaves] “Thanks to Tom Daigon, I now realise I should be using a separate drive to store my media cache and prefs on. However, the only inputs in my machine are USB2.0 and Firewire800.”

Are you maxed out on internal bays? If not, use one of those for a fast drive (7200rpm or SSD). If yes, it may still make sense to swap one of the internal drives for a faster larger one.

What is your current internal storage configuration? (What drives, how are they used?)

Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Engineer
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA