External Drives
I had an interesting time with drives when I took video classes as part of my MFA at the University of Baltimore. I didn't have a lot of money, and that money seemed to always go for larger and faster drives. I started with a 500mg orange LaCie, and ended with a 2T G-Technology, and they always seemed to be full. (Didn't help that I didn't have any way to back them up, because I only had a DVD burner. I highly recommend a Bluray burner if you want hard backups of your data.)
I still haven't learned from my own lessons, but I recommend getting twice as much space as you can possibly afford or need, and burn projects to disk when you're done with them and get them off your computer, rather than letting them pile up.
USB vs. Thunderbolt
USB4 offers high 40Gbps speeds but presents challenges for video editing due to its optional standards, which can result in inconsistent performance compared to Thunderbolt 4. Key drawbacks include variable data speeds (20–40 Gbps), optional support for PCIe tunneling (crucial for external GPUs), and lack of mandatory, consistent high-speed capabilities.
Disadvantages of USB4 for Video Editing
- Inconsistent Specifications: USB4 is a "collection of optional standards," meaning not all USB4 ports or cables support the maximum 40 Gbps speed, PCIe tunneling, or high-power delivery. This causes confusion and potential bottlenecks.
- Variable Performance (20–40 Gbps): While top-tier USB4 supports 40 Gbps, many devices might only operate at 20 Gbps (USB4 Gen 2x2), limiting performance when transferring high-resolution video footage.
- Optional PCIe Tunneling: Unlike Thunderbolt 4, which mandates support for PCIe (necessary for external GPUs/drives), USB4 does not, making it less reliable for editing from external drives.
- Cable Confusion: Without strict mandatory labeling, users may face issues finding high-quality cables that support both maximum data transfer and power, impacting reliability, says this YouTube video.
- Less Reliability than Thunderbolt 4 or 5: Thunderbolt 4 requires strict certification, ensuring reliable 40 Gbps speeds and consistent performance for pro-level editing, which is not guaranteed by the open-standard nature of USB4.
- Lack of Daisy Chaining Support: While USB4 can handle single high-speed devices, it does not guarantee support for the daisy-chaining of multiple, high-bandwidth peripherals (like multiple external drives or displays) found in Thunderbolt.
For professional video editing, Thunderbolt 4 or 5 are generally preferred for guaranteed performance, whereas USB4 is more suitable for general, budget-friendly tasks.
There are two ways you can work on large files.
- You can work on your files on your computer. This would be the fastest, because you are routing everything through the internal networks in your computer, but on a laptop you are probably limited to 1 terabyte in file size, which can be a problem with video. SSD drives are the fastest here, but limited by size and money. (8/2015 they are $500 for 1T.)
- You can work on files outside of your computer, in which case you are only limited by money in how much space you can occupy, but are limited by how much data you can move through the connection (Thunderbolt2) and the limitations of the drive (the drives themselves and the drive configuration, controllers, connections, etc.). My understanding is that Thunderbolt 5 is the fastest most reliable external connection widely available, and only available on Macs. USB4 is fast but not as fast.
You then have two types of external hard drives available
- Single disks — limited by size of drive, speed of drive, and speed of connection. Solid State (flash) drives are going to be fastest, and are about $200 for 1 terabyte with Thunderbolt right now. Regular drives are limited to about 4 terabytes. If the drive fails, you have a problem.
- Arrays — Arrays are drive shells that contain multiple drives. (The LaCie I was talking about contains 2 drives; CalDigit contains 3.)
Arrays and RAID
Arrays can be set up many ways, but the common ones are:
- RAID 0 — Set so they “stripe” their information across multiple drives for a speed advantage, but if it crashes they are largely unrecoverable (they are best used for things like video editing). IMPORTANT! Many arrays are set to RAID 0 out-of-the-box.
- RAID 1 — You can mirror (duplicate) the information to multiple drives for maximum safety. In this case, your 6T array will really only hold 3T.
- RAID 1+0 — Best is mirror+stripe, which gives you maximum speed plus backup, but need 4 drives to do it. (CalDigit 4T is about $1200, so we’re talking something like doubling the price.)
- JBOD — Just a Bunch Of Disks — You can use the drives as separate disks for maximum storage.
RAID Levels Tutorial
RAID
Choices
If you want to save money, you could get 2 single drives:
- a Thunderbolt 4 or 5 drive that you could use for live work when you need more drive space than is available on your laptop,
- then another larger drive that you use for backup for projects you want to keep access to.
If you want an array, from what I read (can’t tell how recent the reviews are, etc.) the 2Big Thunderbolt 2 array doesn’t really take advantage of the Thunderbolt 2 performance advantage, so the CalDigit array is faster for about 25% more. Neither will be able to do mirror+stripe.
LaCie specs for its Thunderbolt 2 are 420m/s for $599, while CalDigit spec is 580m/s for $749 (both speeds are RAID 0).
Reviews
CalDigit Thunderbolt Professional RAID T3
Here's a comparison, but the CalDigit is their Thunderbolt 1 model and the LaCie drives aren’t arrays, they are single drives: Barefeats Roundup: Multi-drive Thunderbolt Enclosures
It's hard to get current apples and apples reviews of drives.
