Question advice for One SSD and two HDD setup for video editing ?

[rekotomo]

My old computer config is like this :

1. One 500gb Seagate 7200rpm HDD partitioned as C and D drive, where C for the OS only and D for all the files I use daily.
2. One 300gb (?) Western Digital 7200rpm HDD (E: drive) for other files I don't use it daily.
3. RAM 8gb
4. Intel i5-4460 @ 3.2 ghz
5. Gigabyte B85M-HD3 mobo
6. Onboard video card, Intel HD Graphics 4000
7. Windows 7 SP1 64bit

I do a video editing is more like a hobby, so I do it just occasionally.
I use Adobe Premiere v7.2.1 and Adobe After Effect cs 6 and the program is in the OS C: drive.

What I use to do when I edit a video:

1. Make a new folder on D: drive
2. Put all the MTS file (from my handycam) in that new folder
3. Put some other files (for example mp3 for background music, jpg photo, etc) also in that new folder
4. Open Premiere, import all those files then save the .prproj file also in that new folder
5. Do the editing then export to E: drive

So basically the source files, media cache files, scratch disk, etc are all in the same drive (D: drive)
where E: drive is used only when I export the final movie (rendering stage).
Premiere use the Intel HD Graphics (OpenCL) which speed a bit faster than software rendering.
The render time for plain (no effect) 1 minute MTS file is about 73 seconds.

Now I am thinking to buy a small size SSD (Adata SU650 120gb is in my mind).
If I buy it, I wonder how do I setup it to be optimized for my video editing.

I am sorry for the long write as I want to be as clear as possible.
Sorry also for my broken English.

Any kind of respond would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advanced.

(btw, I don't do 4K video editing)

 

[AvidComp]

Hi,

I would recommend using both an SSD and HDD. The SSD could be for active editing and would allow for faster file edits and changes. Since video files tend to be large, editing off of an HDD could be time consuming when files need to be saved.

Is there a reason why you want to use only a 120gb SSD? There are some great deals now for even 1TB Drives, around $150 on Amazon. I believe you may be disappointed and quickly run out of space on that 120gb SSD.

The HDD would come into play for cold storage. Once the files are edited fully, you could move them over to the HDD space. If you want to go for redundancy I'd recommend installing a RAID card and using RAID 1 for the two HDD's to help protect against data loss.

Of course, RAID is not a full backup solution and you may also want to consider having another backup drive or using a cloud backup solution.

See more here for the differences between SSD vs HDD and the different uses for each drive type.

 

[rekotomo]

Hi AvidComp,
Thank you for your prompt reply.

The reason that I am planning to use only 120gb ssd :
1. My C:drive partitioned (100gb) used only around 50gb as I don't fill with many programs in it.
So, if the recommendation for the ssd is for the OS system (C:drive) - I thought I don't need a large ssd capacity.

2. When I do the video editing, my source video/audio/photo etc in total size is never exceed from 30gb.
Most of the time the total size of the source files is between 10 to 20 gb and the final exported video is between from 2 to 8 gb of H264 MP4 file.
So, if the recommendation for the ssd is for the source files only - also I thought I don't need a large ssd capacity.

I thought that to have a big capacity ssd regarding my "working environment" would be redundant, as there will so much space in ssd that I don't use besides a large capacity ssd is more money .

About the RAID, I think I want to avoid it as I'm not skilled on computer while I read from the internet about RAID, to me it's complicated.
Thanks for your recommendation though.

So basically what I would like to know after I bought the 120gb ssd, what is the recommendation ... (for example)
A. have the ssd as the C:drive for OS and installed programs and put also all the source files in the ssd when I do a video editing
B. have the ssd as the C:drive for OS and installed programs only and put all the source files in the HDD when I do a video editing
C. have the HDD as the C:drive for OS and installed programs only and have the ssd as a "stand alone" drive for all the source files when I do a video editing
D. other way

Thank you for the link, AvidComp.
I'm going to read it now.