-
mobile editing – internal or external drive?
I’m sure this has been covered…but a quick search didn’t bring up anything directly relevant.
I’ll be editing a piece on my MBP and was wondering whether I should invest into an external 7200 or 10000 rpm drive via Firewire 800, or rely on the internal drive. (it’s a new 2009 mac…2.8 core duo – 8GB RAM. Drive inside says it’s a Seagate Momentus 7200rpm 500 GB drive.
Space isn’t a concern…I’m just wondering about speed…based on the fact that the OS is running on the same drive. What are you guys doing on the road?
Footage will be p2 1080i and ProRes footage. No compositing…simple editing with music. Maybe graphic overlay name key stuff…but very light. MAY be sending out to HDMI monitor for previewing to client via Matrox Mini (may tie up express card slot on MBP)
Thoughts?
-Jason
-
6 Replies
-
External. Never put your media on your system drive.
-
“External. Never put your media on your system drive.”
I disagree based on personal experience. I edit full-time on two MacBook Pros with 500gb 5400 rpm drives partitioned for OS and media and have never had a problem. Footage is HDV and ProRes, rendered to ProRes. I put out both long-form and same-day edit presentations. The internal drive puts out over 50 MB/sec. Everything is mirrored via SuperDuper on a regular basis to external back-ups. If you need to be mobile, internal is the best and safest way to go, IMHO, mostly because cables can become disconnected. YMMV.
-
[Joel Peregrine] “I disagree based on personal experience. I edit full-time on two MacBook Pros with 500gb 5400 rpm drives partitioned for OS and media and have never had a problem.”
I think most of us had edited with just one HD, but this doesn’t make it recommendable.
Two hands can do a job faster than one hand, and in the end will be less tired.
Rafael -
I use an external FW drive powered by the MBP.. it works great and I can plug in the drive on other powermac systems when I’m editing in house.
Moto Guzzi rider
dog lover w/wife, Ex & 3 kids -
Hi Rafael,
I understand the concept of having data coming from two sources can be a faster system overall, but IMHO saying it is mandatory not to use your system drive for media is outdated. This unquestionably was true back when data rates coming off of internal drives were so much slower and the processor speed and maximum RAM allowed were a fraction of what they are now. Back in the G3 and G 4 / ATA 33 HDD / 512 MB RAM days NLE’s were just barely able to pull in the resources they needed so as not to drop frames, but even taking into account HD formats the situation has improved dramatically, not only with all the hardware elements but also the efficiency of the software. Yet editors that have been around the block repeat the mantras that were drilled into them for so long and may not realize they don’t apply any longer. I’m guilty of doing this with a lot of different issues. Reevaluation isn’t as easy as just saying the same thing you’ve always said.
-
Hi Joel,
I don’t discuss at all the capability of the systems up today, I mean that is better to share the burden between two system when possible (ie. processors).
Also, as Brad have pointed, with an external HD you don’t need to transfer data when you need to work in another computer.
Another thing is size. My projects are easily 200 GBs media. Just with my MBP I have no much to do.
Rafael
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up