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Adding FCPro SSD storage, but anticipate new iMac in '22

senseless

senseless

macrumors 68000
Original poster
I need to add an external 4 terrabyte SSD drive to my 2014 iMac for my FCP libraries. My external Thunderbolt 2 spinners are too slow. However, I plan to get the upcoming big screen iMac next year. What drive do you recommend that will be useable by both computers?
 
I'm surprised at how expensive Thunderbolt 3 SSD drives are. I'm wondering now if the new iMac will fix my Final Cut sluggishness problem rather than changing to SSD.
 
If you're using spinning disk HDDs, I seriously doubt any new computer will make them faster. Just an inherent flaw of spinners; I find that they're built for storage capacity, not speed. I've seen 20 TB HDDs, but I find SSDs max out at about 8TB. Only way to make it faster would be to RAID a bunch of HDDs together for the aggregate speed.
 
I don't know what model iMac you have, but I know OWC/MacSales sells internal SSD upgrades for 2014 iMacs. Still pretty expensive and the videos make it seem like installation of internal drives are a pain in the neck, but still possible.

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I don't want to put any more money into my current 27" retina iMac, since I'm going to replace it next year. But you gave me an idea. Maybe I can establish a FCP library on the internal fusion drive for active videos and move them to the externals for archiving. I have 800 GB free on the internal.
 
What are you using to backup your libraries?

At the house I have a four drive JBOD (non raid) TB enclosure. I have two independent project and library files so I install two SSDs and two spinners One SSD for one project, the second SSD for the other. Backups and archived projects go on the larger capacity spinners.

You don't necessarily need TB3 enclosures for your project as the adapter mentioned above is by directional. With it you can use a TB2 enclosure with a TB3 Macs while providing nearly the same real world drive performance. YIts cleaner with a TB3 enclosure, however.

At the office I have NVMe drive in a TB3 dock, that thing flies.

Generally you get what you pay for in the storage area, and its a bit of money tp play fast. For some of us, time is money.

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Good idea. 1 active SSD drive for working events and spinners for archiving. I could get by with a 500 GB SSD in that case, for reasonable cost.
 
FCP is now working great with the new SSD as a working drive. That was the cause of the slowdown for sure. Thanks
 
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