Confused: rMBP with SSD, still need external drive for editing?

Perhaps it's just me, but if I had only 256GB of storage I'd be up the creek. SSD drives are much more robust than magnetic media, so if 256GB works for you, skip the external.

Mobile923 said:

storage capacity aside (I would be editing smaller projects, like music videos or short films), my question is more about stability and 'wear and tear' of the SSD

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I suppose that could be more use of the drive than the average user, so perhaps you should plan on a replacement in 3-4 years instead of the typical 5 or more.

However, SSD is soooo much faster than an external (platter) hard drive -- to not use it is simply not making use of its advantages. If you do not plan to use it, why pay for it to start with? Use it up -- that's what it's for!

I would hope in 3-4 years we will have even better SSD options at lower prices, so it should not be an issue other than being able to get access to replace the storage device (less options to do so it seems with each new Mac model).

Mobile923 said:

'wear and tear' of the SSD

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You don't need to be afraid of them. Current ones can even stand swap partitions, let alone the, rewriting frequency-wise, much less aggressive / stressing video editing.

Mobile923 said:

storage capacity aside (I would be editing smaller projects, like music videos or short films), my question is more about stability and 'wear and tear' of the SSD

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As I said, they are more robust than the older drives, so there is no need to worry.

Mobile923 said:

I've been told that when editing video, it's suggested to keep your media on an external HDD, so you dont put a strain on the internal HDD where your OS/software is.

But now that everything's becoming built on flash architecture, is this still the case?

I have a new 13" Retina MacBook Pro, 256GB SSD and would like to continue editing video on the go. Should I still be using an external SSD for my media?

Thanks

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I wouldn't be overly concerned with straining components, but it is quite likely you will fill up your internal drive very quickly. An external drive to store your raw video and completed projects is probably a good idea. Use your internal SSD for current projects.

You should still use an external HD, remember the SSD in your computer not only has to handle the hd footage but also your OS and everything else that makes the computer work. Also depending on the kind off footage you're working with an external HD will make it easier to use multiple clips at the same time, this comes in handy if you get into multicam editing which is useful for music video editing. Any professional editor will tell you that an External HD is the way to go.

MrPlayer66 said:

You should still use an external HD, remember the SSD in your computer not only has to handle the hd footage but also your OS and everything else that makes the computer work. Also depending on the kind off footage you're working with an external HD will make it easier to use multiple clips at the same time, this comes in handy if you get into multicam editing which is useful for music video editing. Any professional editor will tell you that an External HD is the way to go.

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Can you support this statement with facts? Is it something you experienced, or just heard?

Because a good hard drive has an average throughput of 160 MB/s. While a good SSD (which we should expect from apple) reaches at least two times the reading speeds of an HDD.

I have to admit, I'm not into the numbers, I tried to find some sources. But it still sounds rational that a fast SSD will outperform two slower HDD's. The only limit could be the connection speeds (SATA or something like that). But if I'm not mistaken, the memory modules are connected directly on the motherboard in the rMPB. So no slow connections.

You might be right, that the system will work faster because it has an extra hard drive. But I wouldn't be surprised that video would load slower from a 5400 RPM external USB hard drive than from an internal SSD, that also has to load some of the software (parts of which are already loaded into your RAM).

Here's a good article with info on HDs

http://www.larryjordan.biz/app_bin/wordpress/archives/2070

I have a 15" Retina Macbook Pro, you can definitely do simple videos by using your internal drive hell you could even do it with an old computer also but eventually you will run into a bottleneck I've experienced it before. It all comes down to what kind of video you'll be working with and exactly what you'll do with it.

arjen92 said:

Can you support this statement with facts? Is it something you experienced, or just heard?

Because a good hard drive has an average throughput of 160 MB/s. While a good SSD (which we should expect from apple) reaches at least two times the reading speeds of an HDD.

I have to admit, I'm not into the numbers, I tried to find some sources. But it still sounds rational that a fast SSD will outperform two slower HDD's. The only limit could be the connection speeds (SATA or something like that). But if I'm not mistaken, the memory modules are connected directly on the motherboard in the rMPB. So no slow connections.

You might be right, that the system will work faster because it has an extra hard drive. But I wouldn't be surprised that video would load slower from a 5400 RPM external USB hard drive than from an internal SSD, that also has to load some of the software (parts of which are already loaded into your RAM).

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MrPlayer66 said:

Any professional editor will tell you that an External HD is the way to go.

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I'm a professional editor, and I say that if using your internal drive works, there's no technical reason not to use it. That goes for platter drives as well as SSDs. There are other reasons to keep your video off the boot drive, but those have more to do with keeping things organized, and that concern may well be outweighed by the convenience of not having an external drive attached to the system.

The common wisdom to always keep your video media on a different drive from your OS dates back to the early days of digital video. Drives have gotten faster and faster over the years, but video bitrates haven't increased all that much, even with the move to HD. The big issue is with smoothness of playback. You might find that when streaming video for long periods of time it drops frames or stutters if it accesses other parts of the drive. This used to be a bigger problem when transfer rates were low and seek times were relatively high, and although it's still possible that you might have a problem with it, I've used the internal drive on a laptop on numerous occasions with no issues whatsoever. Particularly with an SSD, you'll probably be just fine.

So give it a try and see if it works for you. If so, there's nothing “wrong” with doing it. From a data management perspective using the boot drive for video isn't really the best practice, but for working on the go it's perfectly fine.

By the way—drive spindle speed has very little relevance for video. Higher RPM drives tend to have lower seek times, but video is not an application where latency makes that much of a difference. In fact, I've seen evidence that the “green” drives with a lower spindle speed work better for video than higher RPM drives. Also, I've had far more problems with trying to edit from a USB external drive than any other type of connection, including editing from the boot drive.

Mobile923 said:

I've been told that when editing video, it's suggested to keep your media on an external HDD, so you dont put a strain on the internal HDD where your OS/software is.

But now that everything's becoming built on flash architecture, is this still the case?

Click to expand...

As I understand it, the problem is with the way SSD's handle data. Some SSD's compress the data and trying to compress large amounts of data can slow the system down. Some don't.

I know that only certain SSD's are qualified for use by companies like Atomos and Sound Devices for use in there recorders for this very reason.