[Brian Thomas]

It was the BlackMagicDesign disk speed test. I just let it run for a minute or two before writing down the figures.

Anyway, I just thought I’d post those numbers as there are probably all sorts of people in my position who don’t want or need the very top tech but want to know what works lower down the scale.

FCPX and PPro 6. iMac 24 + MBP 17″. Near Geneva, Switzerland

[Brian Thomas]

Just in case it’s of interest: the G-drive was delivered in less than 24 hours and then I ran the DiskSpeedTest app to see what I’ve actually got:

HDD/connection Write Read
————– —————–
G-Drive 4TB/Thunderbolt 165MB/s 163MB/s
G-Drive 4TB/USB3 152MB/s 151MB/s
Cadigit AVDrive 2TB/USB3 66 63
Buffalo MiniStation 1TB/Thunderbolt 51 54
Buffalo MiniStation 1TB/USB3 45 51

Guess where my ‘fcpbundle’ will be located from now on…

FCPX and PPro 6. iMac 24 + MBP 17″. Near Geneva, Switzerland

[Brian Thomas]

Many thanks again for all the advice. I’ve read enough negative things about Lacie, Promise is the wrong shape for me and I like the flexibility of both Thunderbolt and USB3. At a reasonable price (at the Apple Store) that seems to boil down to a G-Tech g-drive 4TB

https://www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive-thunderbolt

I’ll be back after a few good-sized multicam projects to share my experiences. Thanks again all.

FCPX and PPro 6. iMac 24 + MBP 17″. Near Geneva, Switzerland

[Brian Thomas]

That’s what worries me – I’ve masses of HDDs accumulated over the years and only one has ever let me down, the one Lacie I had…

FCPX and PPro 6. iMac 24 + MBP 17″. Near Geneva, Switzerland

[Brian Thomas]

Many thanks for those great ideas and timely advice, MUCH appreciated!

Semi portable drives are what I’m considering (2 kgs or less, fits in a backpack) so that seems to narrow things down to the Lacie and G-Tech range.

I’ve only one machine with a Thunderbolt port and if I had a problem with it then I’d be back on my earlier-made iMac which only has USB 2 and Firewire 800. If I had only Thunderbolt connections on my chosen HDD then I’d need some sort of adapter which would let me plug a Thunderbolt disk into my USB/Firewire iMac such as, maybe, the soon-to-be-released Kanex https://www.kanexlive.com/article/thunderbolt-adapters – or have I misunderstood something here?

According to the G-tech specs their HDD 4TB Thunderbolt/USB3 drive (https://www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive-thunderbolt) is significantly slower than their dedicated Thunderbolt drives. Same slower speed irrespective of how it is connected…?

However, the Lacie looks like it might well fulfil my requirements: https://www.lacie.com/intl/products/product.htm?id=10600 It boasts speeds up to 215MB/s for both Thunderbolt and USB3. Is there a downside?

Last question (for now): in the circumstances, RAID 0 would be a good idea for a 4 TB drive and FCPX? Makes it go even faster..?

Thanks for reading all this!

FCPX and PPro 6. iMac 24 + MBP 17″. Near Geneva, Switzerland

[Brian Thomas]

Thanks Paul but I’m not sure I could be of any help here. I much appreciate your three pages and I know they’ll be a great productivity boost for me.

FCPX and PPro 6. iMac 24 + MBP 17″. Near Geneva, Switzerland

[Brian Thomas]

Thanks! I only started with FCPX a couple of weeks ago and I can see this will really help me. I have it pinned up above my work/hobby area.

FCPX and PPro 6. iMac 24 + MBP 17″. Near Geneva, Switzerland

[Brian Thomas]

Ah yes, sorry, it was a bit late for me last night and half my brain was already in bed. Many thanks for your help.

FCPX and PPro 6. iMac 24 + MBP 17″. Near Geneva, Switzerland

[Brian Thomas]

Fantastic, it works REALLY well I think. Not sure I fully understand “not optimize the media for the screen recording if you’re on an iMac” though… Please?

FCPX and PPro 6. iMac 24 + MBP 17″. Near Geneva, Switzerland

[Brian Thomas]

Perfect, many thanks Don I’m back on track again.

FCPX and PPro 6. iMac 24 + MBP 17″. Near Geneva, Switzerland