Hey all
I'm looking at getting a new USB 2.0 external hard drive to use with FCPX, I was wondering what everyones thoughts were on minimum speeds and what everyone else uses.
I am looking at least 1-2TB.
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)
I have WD 1TB and 3TB myBook drives , USB 3 and 2 compatible, which have proven ok so far but are only used for time machine..
I guess your mac is not new enough to get a Thunderbolt drive? My machine is just new so I bought one for FCPX projects and events ...looking great so far.
Any fast drive has got to be better than thrashing the system drive.
geoff
I will warn you now that I am somewhat of a lone voice on these forums for recommending USB 2.0s.
I have used the 7,200rpm types with their own mains supply over the last 6 years (and exclusively for the last 3) and had no problems of any kind.
Having said that I am not a pro with tight schedules (or underwear!) but I have used DV, HDV, AVCHD with and without ProRes and AIC.
Most of my projects are short though I have done a number of 2 hour projects with comparatively simple editing and a few effects etc. One ongoing project has some 12 hours of DV which I dip into occasionally.
I have a couple of LaCie FW HDs which I stopped using a couple of years ago in favour of the much cheaper USB 2.0s and didn't notice any difference, though as I said I don't have pro time constraints.
Now is not the best time to buy HDs cheaply as the autumn floods in Asia knocked out many of the main suppliers, prices doubled overnight and have still not got back to last summers figures (2TB WD Essential £69 with free delivery).
Look at the price now!
My iMac is about 2 years old, so I guess USB 2.0 is my only option.
Well you could use FW but you've heard what I do with my FW drives!
Incidentally, Currys and PC World are places I avoid like the plague but occasionally they beat everyone's prices.
Currently Currys does the WD I mentioned for under £100. This is still £30 more than I paid last summer.
This drive is excellent. My other 5 drives are quiet but this is absolutely silent and works flawlessly.
This price is when ordered over the internet but you can pick it up in the store. If you haven't ordered it and you go into the store it will be a tenner more.
The 1TB is £78 but an extra £22 for double the size is a no-brainer.
Firewire has been on every mac since the Blue & White PowerMac G3... Your 2 year old iMac should have a Firewire 800 connection (which, with an adapter, can be backward compatible with FW400.)
Yeah, its got Firewire 800.
I have a couple of firewire drives that are getting very old and are still working very well ...are they better in any respect to USB?
For video (and any other) use FW is faster than USB 2.0 but I don't think that is really relevant.
What determines speed during editing is not so much how quickly you can transfer video files as how quickly you can transcode or render effects and media.
The speed of transcoding and rendering is determined mainly by the processor and RAM rather than the hard drive.
As long as the hard drive is fast enough to avoid dropped frames you are laughing . . . . in my case, all the way to the bank.
Ian R. Brown wrote:
I will warn you now that I am somewhat of a lone voice on these forums for recommending USB 2.0s.
For video (and any other) use FW is faster than USB 2.0 but I don't think that is really relevant.
... 10y ago, usb was a bottleneck, 'cause it 'occupied' CPU-time on Macs.
meanwhile, the sheer numbers proof ... :
a 1080p in proRes(LT), common codec for a FCPX project, although 1080p isn't officially supported yet: 170mbps
usb2 specification (yepp, under 'best' conditions and meant as 'up to') 480mbps ...
so, in real life, with 'old' usb2 and over-the-top codec (1080p), a usb-drive should handle 'video' well.
With my old set-up, for FC/e4, I used a fw-connected drive for cache/rendering, hoping to speed up processes ...
Actually, 3 usb drives in use simultaneously with FCPX - no probs.
Next months, my mini gets a new 7.200 intHDD ... guess, this will give a lil' bump ...
If speed is an issue: Ram, even more Ram! (here 8GBs, which is max on my device)
USB is not even supported by Apple in relation to streaming/editing video. I first learnt that from Tom, on these forums. They have written whitepapers about it.
USB is fundamentally different in the way it's designed & interacts with the operating system - Firewire gets a guarantee from the OS that it will provide it's required bandwidth (FW480/800), USB does nothing of the sort.
If it's video streaming/editing, there is absolutely no doubt, you should get Firewire over USB when shopping for an external drive.
White papers, especially those with perforations have only one use. 😁
The proof is in the pudding . . . . if it works well, it works well.
For millenia people, particularly experts claimed that heavier than air flight was impossible, the earth was the centre of the universe etc. etc. etc. . . . until forward looking folk tested the old myths and discovered they were baseless.
Perhaps the above is a tad OTT but nevertheless true.
Whitepapers are written based on research & knowledge.
You should base your ideas on that rather than anecdotal evidence, such as "it works for me".
In this case the forward looking folk are those who designed the specs & the technology for USB & Firewire. Any myths have been tested & the results are out.
You're on the wrong side of the search for truth here.
When was the paper written?
In a year or so Apple will be dropping support for FW in favour of USB and Thunderbolt.
Whether anything is anecdotal or not is completely irrelevant.
If it works, it works.
In many cases "anecdotal" simply means it has not been tested seriously because the powers that be, at that time, in their infinite wisdom, do not deem it to be worthwhile.
The number of mistakes, delays and deaths incurred following this credo is almost endless, but then who am I, a nobody. So anything I say or think bears no weight against qualified persons.
Best speed External Hard Drive to use with Final Cut Pro X ?
