better to run clips of external or laptop hdd?

[mattleaf]

hello!

just wondering whats more efficient - running of an external hard drive or from the laptops hard drive?

cheers!

[eatyourwork]

laptop hdd.
external drive doesn't have same read speeds, like internal disk, as a result you will have dropped frames in most situations.

[listenpreis]

that's something I thought of too. What about a SSD over Firewire 800? Btw I'm interested in your experience concerning HDDs / RPM and performance (especially when cranking up the speed - I haven't had a good experience yet playing my videos faster in VDMX) - but I guess that's better suited for thread on its own.

[mattleaf]

cheers!

[jean poole]

I'd have thought the HD rpm speed mattered more than whether it was internal or external... ie a 7200rpm external drive runs better than a 5400rpm internal...

And with the dataflow - if there's a slight gain to be had from having an internal 7200rpm, vs an external 7200, I've never noticed it.

SSD on the other hand... vroom!!

[klany]

external drive doesn't have same read speeds

There is more things than just read speeds that affects your HDD´s performance

here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk-drive_performance_characteristics

If you have slow internal 5400 rpm HDD it´s better to use external HDD for clips.
You get much better performance when having your OS running on internal and media on external HDD.

[thomase]

I have always thought that running systems and software from the same drive as your clips isn't such a good idea. That's why I have always relied on external drives when using a laptop and an internal drive other than the system drive for my clips.

[blackburst]

Have a look for yourself with these tools, really useful. See the aja system test and data calc. http://www.aja.com/en/products/software/

[mattleaf]

on that note, are there any tips floating about on how to best optimize a Mac laptop...

i have an early 2011 MBP with the top spec... for a while i was running Ableton and VDMX simultaneously without any framedrop at 720p... but now its just starting to get a bit slouchy...

i'm wondering if thats just a product of wear over time, or if maybe a fresh install of Snow Leopard would give me a bit of a boost...\


any tips?

[mattleaf]

Hmm. Perhaps a complete overhaul of all my clips to AIC is in order first...

will report back

m.

[listenpreis]

Almost same setup - 750 GB 5400 rpm - and I found the fuller the hdd gets the slower it gets. I have had some heavy freezups (clips just stopped playing - freezed - and I think this is related as well to a full HDD).

I am checking now for a dedicated external drive for my clips - I guess best option is to use the firewire port. Maybe in future there will be the possibility to hook the SSD up over thunderbolt - but that's all tricky since you then would have to do chains - and I don't like chains when the extern projector/display is involved (anyone has information about whether it's possible to chain with a hub - let's say the one from Lacie - http://www.lacie.com/at/products/product.htm?id=10574) ?

Cheers

[mattleaf]

hmmm... my clips already were in AIC... hmmm

[magneticpitch]

mattleaf

if you don't have an SSD installed in your laptop, you're missing out.

i asked a couple of years ago, but i'll ask again-- anybody with new 17"Macbook Pros (6,1 or later) using an expresscard SSD for your media?

i generally run sets off my internal SSD on the go, but use an external eSATA drive at home (for laptop. my workstation has 2 SSDs). performance is pretty impressive so far (and i DO get better performance with my media on the internal SSD as opposed to the external eSATA)

the last things i read RE: File Mate expresscard SSD was kinda scary:: people talking about how they don't seem to really fit in the new Macbook Pros and having to use tools to pry their SSD card out of the expresscard slot. that's something i'm not too keen on - especially since at home, i use the expresscard slot for my eSATA external drive. (if i ONLY used the expresscard SSD, then i'd be "less" concerned if i installed the card but had a hard time removing it).

anyway, just curious if anybody's had good experience with this on a MacBook Pro 6,1 (pre-thunderbolt) i'm sure the performance would be another step up from eSATA but any info about technical snafus (or glowing reviews) would be appreciated. thanks

[2bitpunk]

A small SSD is much better than a slow HDD. If you are short on cash but earn you living from visuals I would go for a stripped down OS and a OCZ Vertex 3 60Gb and move your existing HDD to a external FW400 or 800 enclosure. The external drive could be used as your desktop OS and storage when not working live.

60Gb is big enough for the OS, visual apps and Mediabin. I ran on a 30Gb SSD for a long time and had plenty of room if the files were managed well.

[thomase]

Are you suggesting running the OS and the clips from the same drive? Wouldn't it be better to have them on two different drives?