Creseba

Q: I want to have my media and libraries/events on an external hard drive. What is the best external hard drive for this purpose?

I am running FCPX off of my fusion drive Mac Mini (late 2012).

 

I  want  my media and libraries on a high performance external hard drive.

 

What would my best solution be?

Mac mini (Late 2012)

Posted on Jan 30, 2016 8:25 AM

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Q: I want to have my media and libraries/events on an external hard drive. What is the best external hard drive for this purpose?

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  • by EcoGreg,

    EcoGreg EcoGreg Jan 31, 2016 7:58 AM in response to Creseba
    Level 3 (537 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 31, 2016 7:58 AM in response to Creseba

    Hi Creseba

    How fast a drive you need is dependent on what you edit. Different formats, resolutions, number of multi-cams/angles and number and type of plug-ins effects will create different through-put speeds/needs.

    Here is a Larry Jordan article on "Configuring your system"… https://larryjordan.com/blog/configure-your-system/

    For the fastest external drives you can use TB or USB3 with either a multi-drive RAID 0 or get an ssd drive. (1 ssd = 3-4 hdd)

    Figure your needs first, then spend your money to meet them.

    Don't forget to back-up everything. 2X is better than 1X.

     

    Hope this helps, Greg

  • by BenB,

    BenB BenB Jan 31, 2016 6:59 PM in response to EcoGreg
    Level 6 (9,886 points)
    Audio
    Jan 31, 2016 6:59 PM in response to EcoGreg

    RAID 0 is pretty much dead, you'd go with RAID 5 today.  Today's drives are plenty fast and RAID 0 won't do anything more modern RAID levels will. 

     

    Thunderbolt is the fastest, with a RAID 5, you could edit a feature film.

    USB 3.0 is second fastest, and you can get a lot of great performance out of a RAID 5 on it, also.

     

    Larry's article gets a little convoluted, but it's good information.