External HDD vs SDD thru FW800?

[HunterGather]

Hey all!

For editing 1080p AVCHD video with an external drive through FireWire800, is it best to just get a 7200rpm HDD rather than an SSD drive?

I ask because of the limitations of speed the Firewire port will have, despite SSD being speedier.

Is the difference substantial?

If it helps to know, there maybe be 1 to 3 streams of 1080p video at once.

Thanks!

 

[AngryRedTicTac]

Sadly, the 7200 will be more than adequate to fully saturate the FW800 connection. Even a good 5400 will pretty much do that. The SSD won't accomplish much. Spinners have moved way past FW800s capabilities, now it's time to wait for affordable TB enclosures....

 

[nateo200]

I use a 1TB external for video editing....with 1080p 45mbps bitrate H264 I can't say its pleasant However I did run dual 7200's with a software RAID via USB to SATA and editing became SOOO much easier...currently setting up a RAID array from two 160GB 7200 2.5"drives and from what I've tested so far the results are pretty nice...I transferred about 60GB's between my internal drive and the software RAID and it took about 15 minutes which is pretty quick...

 

[KeithPratt]

The only speed benefit of an SSD over Firewire is in seek time and tiny-file transfer rate, which isn't a benefit for a scratch disk.

I use a 1TB external for video editing....with 1080p 45mbps bitrate H264 I can't say its pleasant

A typical 1TB drive is capable of 100MB/s.

In the real world, USB2 will give you 26-30MB/s.

45Mb/s is less than 6MB/s.

I transferred about 60GB's between my internal drive and the software RAID and it took about 15 minutes which is pretty quick...

If this is still by USB2, it's a new world record!

 

[nateo200]

If this is still by USB2, it's a new world record!

It was 48gigs never mind, but one hard drive was SATA II and one was USB! I didn't time it but the transfer rate that shows the estimated time was constant! I took a screen shot because I thought it was insane (see attachment).