How good is an external Thunderbolt hard drive for video editing?

ralv585

ralv585

ralv585

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Hey guys,

I'm looking at getting a Thunderbolt external drive, but I'm reading some mixed reviews as to it's performance.

I have a 2011 Macbook Pro, i7 2620m @ 2.7ghz and I'd just like to know whether working off the external drive will be quicker than the internal drive I have (Hitachi HTS545050B9A302)

I've read on another forum that I will be limited to the speed of my internal hard drive, is that the case?

Thanks
 
with thunderbolt, you will near enough get the actual speed of the drive/array you are using over thunderbolt.

If you got an SSD/SSD Array/HDD array and used that over thunderbolt it would be leagues better than your internal drive. An SSD over thunderbolt(depending on SSD used) will easily be over 3-5 faster than your internal drive. With arrays you can get nearly 10x the speed.
 
kitkat9933 said:
with thunderbolt, you will near enough get the actual speed of the drive/array you are using over thunderbolt.
Click to expand...

Thanks, can you please clarify this statement?

So i'll get the speed that the Thunderbolt drive is rated at, and won't be limited by my internal drive?

Also are Thunderbolt drives faster than internal drives at 5200rpm?

Cheers
 
ravl585 said:
Thanks, can you please clarify this statement?

So i'll get the speed that the Thunderbolt drive is rated at, and won't be limited by my internal drive?

Also are Thunderbolt drives faster than internal drives at 5200rpm?

Cheers
Click to expand...

Basically using any drive over thunderbolt, you will get almost the same speed you would get with the external drive as if it were internal (if that makes sense to you)

If you get an SSD or Drive Array(Multiple drives together) it will be a lot faster than your internal drive. SSDs are more expensive per GB but are much faster

If you have a budget and capacity of drive you are looking for I can help you find something if you like.

This is an example of an external SSD drive which can reach near 400 MB/S read and write, which will be about 5 times faster than your internal drive.

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/H...-thunderboltusb-30-solid-state-drive?fnode=5f

And here is an example of a disk array, it will get speeds at around 300MB/S about 3-4 times faster than your internal drive. It is slower than an external SSD drive, but you get a lot more capacity for your money.

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/H...able?fnode=5f&fs=f=thunderbolt&fh=3783%2B309a
 
kitkat9933 said:
Basically using any drive over thunderbolt, you will get almost the same speed you would get with the external drive as if it were internal (if that makes sense to you)
Click to expand...

Sorry to continue to sound dumb :(

But does that mean I'm being limited by my internal drive?

So if the Thuderbolt drive is faster than the internal, I wouldn't be able to see the improvement because I'm bottlenecked by the internal drive?

I'm actually looking at the LaCie Rugged 1TB USB 3.0 Thunderbolt: http://store.apple.com/uk/product/HA384ZM/A/lacie-1tb-rugged-thunderbolt-usb-3-hard-drive?fnode=5f

That's around £160 which is my maximum budget.

Thanks again for the help!
 
ravl585 said:
Hmmm, might as well just get a 500gb ssd and replace the one in my Macbook if that's the case.

I was hoping for the Thunderbolt to be faster, as I feel it's getting a bit sluggish whilst editing video :(
Click to expand...

Thunderbolt is NOT the bottleneck.

It is the HDD inside the enclosure that limits the performance.

And yes a 7200RPM disk inside a TB enclosure WILL be faster than the internal disk...
 
If you are using it specifically for video editing as well, I'd ignore the suggestions of SSDs. While they are blisteringly fast, they are better at randomly seeking data quickly, which is why they can boot things so fast. Video editing deals with data where you have large files that are on a constant seek, thus the advantage of the SSD is lost. You are far better off with a large capacity and fast traditional drive.
 
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