Best cheap fast external hdds video editing

[zachcuden]

Hi guys I've been debating which hard drives to use with a macbook pro retina display for video editing. What I'm leaning towards right now is the Seagate Backup Plus Fast to put all my media files on and to render to and the Buffalo Terastation 1200 4TB nas running in raid 1 as backup. Links below. They both have pretty good reviews and seem well priced.
Is the seagate fast enough for video editing 1080p videos shot with a DSLR for youtube? (Youtube search "Clothesencounters" and those would be similar to the types of videos I shoot).

I don't really need 4TB on the portable harddrive to be honest but it seems like a better deal than something like the LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt. The SSD one is way expensive and it seems like 5400rpm plus thunderbolt would be slower than 5400rpm raid USB 3.0. But if I could go with something HGST Touro S and not get slowed down that would be nice to save money. The nas drive will be shared with my girlfriend who will also have a macbook pro and identical portable hard drive. Thanks!


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/seagate-backup-plus-fast-4tb-external-usb-3-0-portable-hard-drive-black/5127078.p?id=1219111161080&skuId=5127078

http://www.amazon.com/BUFFALO-TeraStation-Network-Attached-TS1200D0802/dp/B00ND1L3DQ

http://www.amazon.com/HGST-7200RPM-High-Performance-Portable-0S03753/dp/B00IVFDNFK/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1420443754&sr=1-3&keywords=7200+external+hard+drive

 

[DataMedic]

Avoid Seagate at all cost, the new ones are terrible. Buffalo is so-so they tend to fail with little warning and will cost a bit to recover the data even if the drives are fine.

Of the three, I'd go with the HGST. If you're looking for a NAS, get a Synology (sold driveless) and put some good HGST or WD drives in it. If you're just looking for a cheap good USB 3.0 drive, I'd go with a Toshiba Canvio like this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CGUMSZC/ref=twister_B00COF3X94?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

It's probably the same drive inside as the HGST.

 

[Solandri]

Avoid Seagate at all cost, the new ones are terrible.

Not sure I'd agree - there are good model drives and bad model drives from every manufacturer. But I agree with your HGST recommendation.

Of the three, I'd go with the HGST. If you're looking for a NAS, get a Synology (sold driveless) and put some good HGST or WD drives in it. If you're just looking for a cheap good USB 3.0 drive, I'd go with a Toshiba Canvio like this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CGUMSZC/ref=twister_B00COF3X94?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

It's probably the same drive inside as the HGST.

Yup. WD bought HGST, but China wouldn't approve the deal because that would leave just two 3.5" HDD manufacturers (Seagate and WD). They brokered a deal where HGST would sell its 3.5" HDD assets to Toshiba (who previously only made 2.5" HDDs), and WD would get the rest. That leaves three 2.5" and three 3.5" HDD manufacturers (Seagate, WD, and Toshiba).

So the 3.5" Toshiba drives are all HGST drives.

If you get WD drives for a NAS, you're pretty much limited to the Red drives if you plan to RAID them. WD removed the timeout limiter on the other drives, which can cause the enclosure to decide the drive is bad and drop it from the array from a simple read/write failure. Red drives and drives from other manufacturers don't have this engineered defect (they sense when they're in a RAID, and will report a read/write failure after a few seconds so the computer can just mark the file as corrupt, instead of the drive as bad).

 

[casper1973]

$240 seems expensive for that Seagate. At that price range I'd rather something like this - http://www.amazon.com/Book-dual-drive-high-speed-premium-storage/dp/B00KU68A1A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420491238&sr=8-2&keywords=mybook+duo

2 drives gives you more flexibility. RAID0 for pure speed or RAID1 for some redundancy. Plus it comes with WD Red drives which are far superior to the Seagate Barracudas that likely come with the Backup Plus.

 

[zachcuden]

The reason I mentioned the Seagate one as opposed to the WD book series is because the Seagate is portable bus powered raid. I need one portable drive while the nas is just going to sit at home connected to my router. But if you guys think the HGST or the Toshiba which is just a single disk drive is fast enough for video editing off of and rendering to then I would just go with that. Just if the speed is not fast enough with those then for a portable solution I'm left with not many options.

Let's say I have 500-600 dollar budget (preferably spending less) for

1. A portable hard drive which I will constantly be video editing on though it doesnt need that much space but I don't want it to bottleneck my system.

2. A big secure (preferably nas raid 1) backup storage to put all my finished work and backup everything I need

 

[casper1973]

I think the HGTST drive you linked will be fine.

A single 1080p stream at 30fps will be just over 20MB/s while that drive should easily sustain 50-60+

It depends what you are rendering/editing though. If you are dealing with multiple camera streams and tons of layers it will begin to struggle.

For the NAS I'm quite a fan of the Netgear ReadyNas line although Synology also make excellent devices and come with far more features. I've used the Synology DS214 and was very impressed. Pair it with some WD Red drives and you are set.

 

[zachcuden]

I think the HGTST drive you linked will be fine.

A single 1080p stream at 30fps will be just over 20MB/s while that drive should easily sustain 50-60+

It depends what you are rendering/editing though. If you are dealing with multiple camera streams and tons of layers it will begin to struggle.

For the NAS I'm quite a fan of the Netgear ReadyNas line although Synology also make excellent devices and come with far more features. I've used the Synology DS214 and was very impressed. Pair it with some WD Red drives and you are set.

Alright I guess I will be good with that drive then as my videos wont be super complicated. They'll be like the link below, sometimes a little more intricate but not by a big amount. So if so then I guess I will be saving a lot of money on the portable drives and can invest in a better NAS than the Buffalo one.

Edit: what if i got with an ssd and a usb 3.0 enclosure for portable?
http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-Inch-External-Enclosure-EC-UM30/dp/B00MQ97QGE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1420517267&sr=8-3&keywords=ssd+enclosure

(My girl's channel)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EzpSwSW0gw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EzpSwSW0gw

 

[casper1973]

Putting a SSD in an enclosure makes for a great portable drive. Lightning fast and far more resilient to being knocked around or dropped since there are no moving parts. Also they are much lighter.

The downside is the cost. For a 1TB SSD you will be spending close to $400. You might get a 500GB for around $200 but is that large enough?

 

[zachcuden]

Putting a SSD in an enclosure makes for a great portable drive. Lightning fast and far more resilient to being knocked around or dropped since there are no moving parts. Also they are much lighter.

The downside is the cost. For a 1TB SSD you will be spending close to $400. You might get a 500GB for around $200 but is that large enough?

Funny thing the crucial m550 was actually going for a good price yesterday and today so I picked up a 512 GB one for myself and a 256gb one for my girlfriend right away. And yea I do think it would be plenty of space as we'd only have the footage shot of probably 1-3 videos at the most at any given time and they'd only be for 5-10 minute videos shot in 1080p.

Any preferred enclosure? So few thunderbolt ones and they're expensive so USB 3 is fine. very portable and durable would be good, she's quite clumsy.