Question A definitive storage arrangement

[Eamonn100]

What would folks say is a "definitive" storage arrangement for a videoing editing/video making, photography, gaming,, CAD... general digital arts processing storage needs.

I have a ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR VIII HERO (WI-FI) X570 ATX motherboard... that has 3 M.2 ports 8 SATA III ports.

 

[USAFRet]

What would folks say is a "definitive" storage arrangement for a videoing editing/video making, photography, gaming,, CAD... general digital arts processing storage needs.

I have a ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR VIII HERO (WI-FI) X570 ATX motherboard... that has 3 M.2 ports 8 SATA III ports.

There is no single "best".

Some people would suggest a single fast drive, for everything.
Others (like me) would suggest several drives.

My use case is not much different than yours. Photo/video/CAD, etc.
I have all this on individual drives, mainly just for easy housekeeping.

CAD here, photo there...

 

[NedSmelly]

What would folks say is a "definitive" storage arrangement for a videoing editing/video making, photography, gaming,, CAD... general digital arts processing storage needs.

I have a ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR VIII HERO (WI-FI) X570 ATX motherboard... that has 3 M.2 ports 8 SATA III ports.

For Photoshop and most NLE video editors:

1. Fast main application SSD (C: drive)
2. Fast secondary scratch disk & preview caching SSD (see Adobe guidelines)
3. Fasting working file drive (preferably its own SSD)
4. Large archive storage (HDD or SSD)
5. Backup system x3

Adobe recommendations:
"Scratch disks should be on a different drive than any large files you are editing. Scratch disks should be on a different drive than the one your operating system uses for virtual memory."

 

[USAFRet]

In my system, the cache space for the various uses live on 'the other drive'.
Rarely would I be doing photo AND CAD work at the same moment.

For instance, given individual drives for CAD, Photo, Video work.

The CAD (Rhino3D) cache space lives on the photo drive.
The cache space for the Photo applications (Lightroom/Paintshop Pro) lives on the CAD drive.
And on and on...

 

[Eamonn100]

and what extra heat do they give off?

For Photoshop and most NLE video editors:

1. Fast main application SSD (C: drive)
2. Fast secondary scratch disk & preview caching SSD (see Adobe guidelines)
3. Fasting working file drive (preferably its own SSD)
4. Large archive storage (HDD or SSD)
5. Backup system x3

Adobe recommendations:
"Scratch disks should be on a different drive than any large files you are editing. Scratch disks should be on a different drive than the one your operating system uses for virtual memory."

Thanks for this.

I just want to make a count of actual disks needed... Also for 1-5, could you give a good minimum working TB size for each and what type of SSD... NVMe or SATA .

When you've mentioned SSD's... which is better to have in each instance? NVMe SSDs or SATA SSDs?

(1). SSD... With all the different programs/applications and Operating System? NVMe SSDs or SATA SSDs?

(2). SSD... Both the "fast secondary scratch disk & preview caching SSD"... all on the one disk... or 2 speterate?

(3). SSD... Fast working file drive preferably its own SSD. NVMe SSDs or SATA SSDs?

(4). HDD... Large archive storage. (This I plan to make 20+TB)

(5). Backup system x3??? What do you mean here? 3 different SSD? NVMe SSDs or SATA SSDs?

 

[NedSmelly]

and what extra heat do they give off?

Thanks for this.

I just want to make a count of actual disks needed... Also for 1-5, could you give a good minimum working TB size for each and what type of SSD... NVMe or SATA .

My setup is 2x NVMe SSDs and a single large SATA HDD. Archive and backup is 4 bay DAS (RAID5) and 4 bay JBOD. Portable mirrors on multiple 2.5” 5TB HDDs (not ideal, but 8TB QVO SATA SSDs not doing it for me in terms of value and reliability spec).

When you've mentioned SSD's... which is better to have in each instance? NVMe SSDs or SATA SSDs?

NVMe

(1). SSD... With all the different programs/applications and Operating System? NVMe SSDs or SATA SSDs?

NVMe

(2). SSD... Both the "fast secondary scratch disk & preview caching SSD"... all on the one disk... or 2 speterate?

I just have both the media cache and scratch disk on D: NVMe SSD. And effectively avoid using scratch disk by having a large amount of RAM (128GB). More RAM is always better than scratch disk on fast SSD.

(3). SSD... Fast working file drive preferably its own SSD. NVMe SSDs or SATA SSDs?

Once the file is loaded for editing, it just sits in RAM - so speed of loading/saving is determined by choice of NVMe or SATA. Up to you and the size of your typical media files. But SATA SSD still better than HDD. Loading and saving large media files can saturate SATA interface (500MB/s), but HDDs usually hit 180-250MB/s max.

I actually work off HDD with archives, but deadline jobs I would create a LR catalog and session on working SSD - then archive to HDD after deliverables are sent to the client.

(4). HDD... Large archive storage. (This I plan to make 20+TB)

(5). Backup system x3??? What do you mean here? 3 different SSD? NVMe SSDs or SATA SSDs?

Have 3 backups of your master archive. I have 1x onsite mirror, 1x onsite differential, and 1x offsite.

 

[Eamonn100]

My setup is 2x NVMe SSDs and a single large SATA HDD. Archive and backup is 4 bay DAS (RAID5) and 4 bay JBOD.

NVMe

NVMe

I just have both the media cache and scratch disk on D: NVMe SSD. And effectively avoid using scratch disk by having a large amount of RAM (128GB). More RAM is always better than scratch disk on fast SSD.

Once the file is loaded for editing, it just sits in RAM - so speed of loading/saving is determined by choice of NVMe or SATA. Up to you and the size of your typical media files. But SATA SSD still better than HDD. Loading and saving large media files can saturate SATA interface (500MB/s), but HDDs usually hit 180-250MB/s max.

I actually work off HDD with archives, but deadline jobs I would create a LR catalog and session on working SSD - then archive to HDD after deliverables are sent to the client.

Have 3 backups of your master archive. I have 1x onsite mirror, 1x onsite differential, and 1x offsite.

My motherboard can take 2 or 3 NVMe... If there was a need for more NVMe's, is there a way to have more than 3 connected to a single motherboard?

Is there some sort of device for "plugging" them on to... then attaching that to a motherboard?

 

[NedSmelly]

My motherboard can take 2 or 3 NVMe... If there was a need for more NVMe's, is there a way to have more than 3 connected to a single motherboard?

Is there some sort of device for "plugging" them on to... then attaching that to a motherboard?

Yep, PCIe x16 slot to NVMe riser card. But you should check the motherboard specs to work out how many PCIe lanes are available. And it’s not entirely necessary, once file is loaded into RAM, Photoshop etc is fairly zippy. Thus I still work off files on HDD when I’m lazy.

Most freelancing media editors won’t need more than 3 SSDs, IMHO. I know a few pros who do everything on their MacBook 😛

 

[Eamonn100]

Are heat sink covers a good option for NVMe SSDs?

 

[CountMike]

Are heat sink covers a good option for NVMe SSDs?

Yes, up to PCIe v5.0 which are very hot.