Editing 4K on MB Pro: internal SSD or external SSD?

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Editing 4K on MB Pro: internal SSD or external SSD?

I'm looking at the new Mac Book Pro with the i9 processor (with the Radeon Pro graphics options that will be available later this month). I'm trying to decide how much internal HD space I want. You can go up to 4TB, but it costs thousands of dollars more to do that.

I've always edited on a desktop with an external RAID drive (recently an SSD RAID). I edit multiple streams of 4K footage and have had no problems doing that on my Mac Pro.

I've always heard it is better to have your OS and FCPX on the internal Macintosh HD and your FCPX project on an external drive. However, given the new MB Pro's optional 4TB internal SSD drive space, I'm wondering if it would be a bad idea to edit video on the MB Pro with everything (OS, FCPX and the project) on the internal SSD drives?

Are those internal drives fast enough that everything could be on them and I'd still get really great performance? Or would I still be much better off getting an external Thunderbolt 3 SSD and editing with my project on it?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Mac Pro, macOS Sierra (10.12.6), 3 GHz 8-Core, AMD D700, 64 GB RAM

Posted on Nov 8, 2018 9:06 PM

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Answer 1

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,867 points

Nov 8, 2018 11:13 PM in response to JDLee

1) There’s probably not much difference in it unless the internal starts to get very full. This can happen surprisingly quickly in the new OS as it saves snapshot backup states. This theoretically is grand, except I’ve found when working with video it’s not so quick on freeing up space when you might suddenly need gobs for an export.

2) true you want to back up. I use Time Machine for the internal, but I don’t have it connected all the time, and of course it’s not a real time, mirrored back up. An external RAID with redundancy is safer I think.

There is no right way. It depends on your productions, your needs, and what you can afford. I think Apple overcharges for the large drives, but they sure are handy when you want to pick up and go.

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Answer 2

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,867 points

Nov 8, 2018 10:29 PM in response to JDLee

SSDs are very quick. Apple has always charged premium pricing for storage. If the price is worth the convenience of an all in one box, then go for it. An external SSD with USBC will be very good too, better priced, but not as convenient in a cramped space.

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Answer 3

JDLee Author

Level 1

40 points

Nov 8, 2018 10:37 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Hi Tom - Thank you for your reply. If I'm not worried about the cramped space, what would your recommendation be?

(1) Are you saying that doing everything on the internal drives of the MB Pro would actually be faster than putting the project on an external drive? (An extremely fast Envoy Pro EX VE rated at 2600 MB/s.)

(2) Or maybe the 4TB of internal space on the MB Pro actually be separate drives that I could use individually (rather than just partitions)?

(3) Unless #2 is true, wouldn't I really need an external drive, anyway, if I'm going to be backing up my work as I edit. If everything is on the internal drive, then I'd lose everything if the internal drive failed, right?

Thanks!

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Answer 4

JDLee Author

Level 1

40 points

Nov 8, 2018 11:23 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thank you. That is all very helpful. It isn’t the answer I expected but it is what I suspect the answer might be.

For me, I think it makes the most sense to go with 2 TB internal and 2 TB external. That will let me work on the same project on multiple computers. That’s presuming I can connect the 2 TB envoy Thunderbolt 3 drive to my Mac Pro that has Thunderbolt 2 (which I can if Apple’s TB 3 to TB 2 adapter works that way). This will also let me make back ups to the internal drive with Carbon Copy Cloner.

Part of me is shocked you don’t pack up more frequently. Then again, I have been editing for over four years and have never needed to use a back up!

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Editing 4K on MB Pro: internal SSD or external SSD?

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