M1 Max Mac Studio | Do You Need the Fastest External SSD?
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- Опубліковано 11 лип 2024
- The M1 Max Mac Studio. Do You Need the Fastest External SSD for a video editing? In this video I walk you through a 4K multicam timeline on the base model M1 Max Studio using Final Cut Pro with footage from a Sony a7IV and show you what the read and write speeds are when it comes to these external SSDs. These Apple Silicon Macs are really efficient when it comes to video editing.
4K and especially 8K timelines require a lot of GPU and RAM to process this footage. So, along with the video codecs you're working with, the bit rate, and aspect ratio, these will impact that actual read and write speeds.
Thanks Pete! docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
The Drives Featured:
Acasis Direct: geni.us/Acasis
Acasis: geni.us/1vu6Jqc (Amazon)
Fledging TB3 Enclosure: geni.us/flJqziY (Amazon)
Samsung SSD (970): geni.us/yRA8d3R (Amazon)
Samsung 980 PRO: geni.us/AZkwLl (Amazon)
SanDisk Extreme (T00-G25): geni.us/n0B9Q (Amazon)
M1 Pro and M1 Max Related Hardware:
14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro: geni.us/7HlAh (Amazon)
M1 Macbook Air: geni.us/aB6N (Amazon)
M1 Mac Mini: geni.us/pDK2b (Amazon)
On My Desk:
Desktop Accessories (Use KEVINROSS for 10% off): geni.us/OxWta
INNOCN 4K Monitor: geni.us/INNOCN27 (Amazon)
Ultrawide Monitor: geni.us/un9I (Amazon)
Monitor Arm: geni.us/7j1xeS (Amazon)
CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 Dock: geni.us/CalDigitTS4 (Amazon)
Anker Mini Dock: geni.us/ACcOo (Amazon)
Thunderbolt 3 Dock: geni.us/ATbaAjc (Amazon)
MX Master 3: geni.us/pfEgz (Amazon)
MX Keys: geni.us/4wiTh (Amazon)
Audio Gear:
Overhead Microphone: bit.ly/DeityS2SMic
Overhead Mic on Amazon: geni.us/s1A9eNK (Amazon)
Broadcast Microphone (Q9U): geni.us/QkBCC (Amazon)
Handheld Recorder: geni.us/MTyrz (Amazon)
MOTU Interface: geni.us/NMoYwcJ (Amazon)
ATR Dynamic Microphone: geni.us/0V4K0Rk (Amazon)
Samson Dynamic Microphone Choice: geni.us/fVng5fM (Amazon)
Studio Headphones (250 Ohms): geni.us/BuzD (Amazon)
Yamaha Monitors (single): geni.us/MbemtUC (Amazon)
Studio Monitor Stands: geni.us/MiBAiE6 (Amazon)
What I use to Film:
My Primary Camera: geni.us/gQQxjr3 (Amazon)
Prime Lens 16mm: geni.us/BlBd9 (Amazon)
Sony 18-105: geni.us/Jb3O0 (Amazon)
SanDisk Extreme: geni.us/9MHZlT (Amazon)
Manfrotto Tripod (for vlogging): geni.us/0SYQD (Amazon)
Light Dome: geni.us/TzffFw (Amazon)
Key Light: geni.us/n2kAe (Amazon)
Stay in touch:
/ kevinrossrn
/ kevinrossrn
Send Mail & Packages to:
Kevin Ross
4845 Pearl E. Cir. STE 101
Boulder, CO 80301
I'm a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
The Hardware: 0:00
The Timeline: 01:07
Internal SSD: 01:40
970 EVO Plus: 03:38
SanDisk: 05:50
980 PRO: 07:20
Is DIY Still Relevant: 11:50
Export Times: 12:54
8K Timeline: 09:00 - Наука та технологія
This is SO eye opening!!! I have been debating on even upgrading from my M1 Mac Mini to a Studio Max or even the Ultra. I never realized this! I always thought the internal just did everything better when it came to transfers or editing... Thank you so much for spending time to do this.. I will be checking out your other stuff.
Glad to share a real world scenario. For transfer of files and actually loading apps, it can help, and the internal is great when it comes to swapping that memory because it’s so efficient that you really don’t even know it. However in this context, you’d be fine saving a few dollars.
Man, what a great video! A couple of viewers on my channel were asking about this so I've sent them here, awesome work as ever!
I appreciate your time as always. Glad to run these tests, and happy to help out the collective community. 👊🤘
Man, such a practical overview. You do great work. Thanks!
Appreciate that. And thankful you spent some time here.
I love your videos on real scenarios so we can see the day to day results:) thanks
You got it. Glad to be of service.
Great work my man! Thank you for this!
And thank you for your time. 🤘
Incredibly helpful. Thank you Kevin.
Glad to be of service. Thank you.
Dam Kevin. You are the nvme enclosure king for real. Lol. Been following you regarding this topic for a while now. Can only imagine how many tests and different setups you have gone through to try and figure out the best combo. 😂 gotta say you most definitely helped me choose which route to go 🙌
Awesome. Appreciate your time here and I’m just glad to be able to help out the community. Sending you my best.
Wow! That's the comparison I was waiting for. Thank you so much!
So, basically, because I'm on a budget, it means I can keep my SanDisk (1To) if I need extra storage while I'm editing with my Mac Studio M1 Max (1To) when I'll receive it (hopefully next week).
Those enclosures and Samsung SSDs are too expensive for me, especially in Japan where I live.
That video definitely saved me money and worries. Thanks man.
This one was for you 😉🤘
Glad to help.
Enjoyed this one Kevin!!! 💯
My heart is full.
Had to come back to revisit this video my guy! I just bought this SanDisk portable SSD. 😆
You did? That’s awesome. It’s still in my rotation. I hope you’ve been well.
@@KevinRossRN Yes! It was long over due. I got the 1 TB one for now. I currently have a 5 TB Western Digital one but I really like this small SSD one. I have been doing extremely well! How are you?
Awesome to hear. It should serve you well. And really glad things are going well. I’m in the process of a business acquisition and stepping away from my (main) company. The deal is done at the end of the year. Then, I should be back on YT creating again. This has just taken a lot of my time.
But, I’ve still been answering comments and chatting it up with the community while I’ve been away.
Sending you my best, truly. Your signed deck is still hanging on my wall, so I’m reminded of you pretty often 😉🛹
Great video Kev. Yeah, when you're actually creating content there is a lot going on before that content is actually ready to be written to SSD. So exporting/writing will happen at "lower" speeds.
When you're copying/transferring ready content, or are reading OS files and app files from SSD (in other words, files that are just sitting on an SSD) you will see higher speeds, depending on the size of the files. The bigger the file size, the higher the transfer speed.
Thanks! And yes, all good points on that front. I’m still blown away sometimes when I’m moving large files from one to the other and it’s practically instantaneous.
@@KevinRossRN You got us. 😉
Ha! Somebody else might want to take the wheel. 💀
@@KevinRossRN We will not have that. 👊
So to clarify further, aside from the demand on the GPU, the speeds will be influenced by the codec, resolution, whether you're using proxy files (which I'm not here), bit rate (as shown on the 8K timeline being higher because it's PRORES), and multicam timelines. I still rely on and recommend SSDs to work off of, especially if your library and media are going to be housed there, and of course not to mention transferring footage being faster.
You may have mentioned this and I missed it but the regular 980 non Pro is so slow. I worry some people think it would be an upgrade to the 970 evo plus and it is not.
Yeah, I’ve heard this and you’re correct. When I originally researched it I was under the assumption it was faster.
So are you saying here that, for the actual editing experience it's the GPU and CPU doing the heavy lifting and the SSD speed has little effect?
As long as the SSD can read/write at the minimum that the program is able to read and write, yes. The bottleneck here isn’t the drive, at least the ones I’ve tested.
@@KevinRossRN any idea what the read and write is in davinci resolve on mac?
Hi Kevin, thanks for the very detailed comparisons. Know that this video has been published for quite awhile. I do a lot of heavy video editing on Premiere and would need the most reliable SSDs with no proxies for Sony 4k 10bit, and potentially 6k in the future.
I'm getting the M2 Ultra but still debating if I should upgrade the internal memory to 4TB and not worry, or get an external SSD e.g. acasis with samsung 980 pro 2TB for working files. Has the acasis been running hot and experiencing slowdowns during heavy editing after using them for awhile? Would love to hear your insight and recommendations. Appreciate it!
Hey, thanks for stopping by. As far as the heat in these enclosures is concerned it’s certainly there under sustained loads, but this doesn’t typically occur until transferring large files consecutively, or during render/export, which again is only working as hard as the CPU and GPU.
I’ve worked with 8K on these enclosures with no issues and have done it for years (at this point).
Will you have a mobile setup as well, or just the studio?
@@KevinRossRN thanks for the swift reply! Great to know that the heat is only generated through those activities and not during editing itself.
I intend to mostly to do heavy video editing on the studio and not mobile. Do you still recommend internal or editing off external for long term usage? I love the idea of internal and having less drives dangling off my studio but the price difference is such a pain
@shawneydepp yeah the price difference is embarrassing. I think you’d be fine on the external for your needs. But, if this is your main machine and the one you’re going to rely on day-to-day, if you can find it in your budget, you may appreciate the internal.
With multiple machines it’s nice to have the external because it’s easy to just have your work move with you, but more and more I’m liking not having these extra peripherals.
At this stage (for me), I’m looking at going 4TBs minimum moving forward, and then building out a NVMe NAS box for additional editing space if I need it.
very interesting and relevant comparison. On a side note, you should use some manual focus on the camera that records your screen, as it keeps pulsating hunting for focus.
Yeah, I had manual focus set, changed the battery and it switched to AF 🤷♂️
Hi Kevin, great video. I am a bit surprised to see your GPU maxing out, my vram gets used a lot but I never see my rx6800xr go over 20 percent. I am only doing 4K pretty basic stuff but is this just because apples new GPU cores are being more optimized in fcpx, my rx6800xt in my Mac Pro 5,1 just never uses as much as what you are showing. I guess I need to try some 8k raw clips and see if that pushes the GPU more.
Yeah I’d be curious to see what you’re getting with that 8K. If you test it, definitely let me know what you find.
Kevin, Thank you for this info. My Mac mini M1 is running great! Thank you for you early reviews on the first gen M1 during the pandemic that convinced me to choose it. Time to upgrade my dock and get one more Ext Drive. I freaked out this week, because my WD HHD 6TB would not trash out a. recovery files. b. FCPX back up files. It was reporting,, cannot delete due to .links files. I could not figure that one out, believe me I tried to override it blah blah blah and almost over transferred to the M1. Freaking out! That lead me to seeing all this new tech you reviewed in this post. KR my go to Guy! Has not steered me wrong yet! Thanks.
The work around was transfer everything off the HHD to a seagate HHD 2TB, then some to SD Extreme 1 TB, then some to M1 500 GB. yea a pain 3.5TB transfers from old HHD. then I reformatted the WD and it dumped the FCPX files and recovery files. Now I am reloading everything back on WD as a back up to all my disks, yea another pain staking task. From your info and products you recommend, I am putting together a schematic of what upgrades I need to house all my files and grow. Storage transfer in my only main objective, but having my Iphoto software and (content to big for M1 450 GB) on the SanDisk extreme 1 TB, I think that's my upgrade drive to go for. Since I don't edit from any drive except M1, housing my FCPX, Upgrading to a SanDisk 4tb extreme looks like the way to go. I'll use it for, iPhoto, Time Machine, maybe eliminate the seagate 2tb ssd and use it that for a specialty back up disk and take out of line. Maybe even upgrade the WD 6TB to a new smaller version SanDisk or Samsung HHD device. < any recommendations? This Seagate 2 TB HHD is running well. Well I hope this helps any mere mortals viewers out there like me who may run into these issues. Like me, I am sure most out there are not is the producing game Full Time nor part time, so a resource like your channel is AWESOME! But this winter, I am jumping back in. . I have so much content and want to do so many projects. Just don't have the time. LOL Peace, Out RJUnleashed!
Always appreciate you stopping by and also thankful for you sharing your setup and thoughts on your current and future workflow.
Here’s to getting things dialed in and back to making content 🤘
Very good points. The bottle neck is with processing, not storage. I got the Mac Studio Ultra for the raw processing power and processing is still the bottleneck.
To keep costs down, I bought the Ultra and only 1TB. If I upgrade in a few years, again, I'll get a 1TB or base unit. By going external, I spent more on a 100% OP enterprise Angelbird drive that should last me a minimum of 15 years.
You’ve got it right there my friend. 😉🤘
It’s not clear to me, what do you think the source of the dropped frames, in this video, is then? I ordered the M1 Max Studio with 2tb internal, now I’m wondering if I should just get an external drive instead of that storage upgrade.
The dropped frames are just the bottleneck of the GPU. However do keep in mind that as stated in the video, this is a pretty loaded down timeline.
Hey Kevin. Did you add the link to the Google doc with Pete's test results in the video description? Maybe I missed it. Great content as always!
Thanks! Hang tight. Let me find it. Appreciate the reminder. I think my brain is extra tired.
Here it is: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1P7PGFCw4j2UUIKzEMyaCVbwE5zoVykbvFAuk37fzjN4/htmlview
I’ll add it to the description.
Thanks for the shoutout @Kevin Ross! Hopefully my testing is helpful in some way to someone besides me. :) My goal was 4TB or greater capacity at the highest performance possible, with 100% reliability and stability. Now that we've got MacOS Monterey 12.3, I bet some of the stability issues would be less of a big deal, but I don't have much of the hardware to re-test. I eventually settled on a Sabrent XTRM-Q 8TB all-in-one for my needs, and it is ROCK solid and REALLY fast. Still, nowhere near the performance of the super-wide PCIe internal SSD, but it rocks.
Hey, I (we) appreciate your investment of time and money. Very helpful to have these additional data points.
Hi! I love your videos!
I am looking for an external SSD and I am trying to decide between Samsung T7 or the sandisk Extreme Pro V2. I know the Sandisk is faster, but also more expensive. Budget doesnt matter, but I am wondering if it's necessary. I do photo editing on Lightroom and photoshop and video editing in 4k. I am shooting with the Sony a7iv. What do you think?
So with the Extreme Pro, if it’s the one that has a read/write of 2000MBs, I’d save some cash because it’ll fall back to about 1000MBs because of the protocol on these machines, which would still be plenty for your needs.
Thank you! I felt like this video was made just for me 😃
My Ultra just shipped, so that's that, but it's good to know I will be pretty good to go! You're the man!
Glad to help. And glad to have you here.
Have u ever tried owc ssd drives give us ur opinion about that thank you in advance thumbs up and great video
Yes, I have a couple of videos where I’m showcasing a OWC SSD. I actually have one that I run games on and also Windows. It runs great.
you have a good channel, id suggest you get some panel absorbers to take away the standing waves from your ceiling and walls, they will take your room out and make you sound more pro and you won't need the eq that is phase smearing and causing a hooded sound on your voice
Thanks! And that’s definitely in process as I’m still rebuilding the studio…but sound panels are on the list of incoming additions.
Hello Kevin, thanks for your videos. I have a MacBook Pro 16inch with M1 Max and 1tb of storage. I will edit a documentary (raw 4k footage won't exceed 2tb I hope) using Da Vinci installed on my Mac. Where do you suggest to store the footage? I guess I should go for an SSD external hard drive. 540MB/s of speed would be enough? Thank you.
You’re going to be fine with an external SSD for the footage. I would however try to bump up that Read/Write capability if you can just in case that footage will play back at a higher read just like with that 8K footage I was testing.
These M1 machines do have a lower read and write on these SSDs so a 500MBs r/w might land around 350-400.
But of course the read and write shouldn’t be an issue with exports.
Hey Kevin,
I have decided to cancel my mac studio order and just stick to my mac mini m1 i edit with those sandisk ssd which is slowest. Do you recommend just going with DIY acasis usb4 with samsung evo 970 ssd? My footage is just 4k 10 bit 422 from a7sIII.I know the 16gb ram of mac mini is limiting.Thanks
We’ll do you feel like you need more speed than what the SanDisk offers. All of the footage in the timeline is a 4K 10-but and it’s been just fine.
I do like the 970 EVO plus because there’s definitely a cost savings there, and I’ve had great experiences with their SSDs.
Hi Kevin, to avoid thermal throttling with external TB3 enclosure i rely on the internal SSD on a M1max MBPro, especially for vid editing. And the internal 4TB is so fast, with 4 partitions for my workflow… Some external USB-C enclosures/SSD for backup. Voilà
That’s good you set up partitions. That’s definitely one of the issues I’ve run into working off of the internal as it fills up with “stuff.”
Great Video Kevin, Many Thanks for your Channel.
Your channel is so useful for me at this moment in time,
on deciding whether to go for the Studio M1 Max base model (which I can just about afford)
A quick question:
An the moment I have a Mac Mini M1 1st gen, with 256 SSD internal, 16Gb unified memory,
and a 2Tb External Crucial SSD USBc,
I've tried to find a tutorial on porting all of the non-essential files from the internal 256Gb SSD,
onto the External 2TB SSD, to leave maximum free space on the internal SSD.
There are conflicting ways suggested on the internet,
including, MOVING my home/user folder from the internal SSD to the external SSD,
the advice is a bit flaky as to how to do it,
and I don't want to Brick my Mac Mini M1,
Any suggestions, as I feel there are many Mac Mini M1 owners with the same problem.
A Tutorial would be great, especially with your knowledgeable explananing.
So to clarify, are you wanting to (potentially) run your entire operating system off of the external?
Or just to keep your apps on the internal and just have all your media and libraries on the external?
@@KevinRossRN sort of your 2nd sentence Kevin,
to have the internal as the OS,
and all non-essential files (Applications, Music, Pictures, Documents, etc), on the external SSD,
and to use the external(s) SSDs for Media from DaVinciResolve, etc.
at this time, I have just Moved the relevant Folders from internal SSD to external SSD,
and where possible, to change the "Save To..." onto the External SSD,
I still have to occasionally manually move files,
and I feel I have not covered all the Pro's and Con's of "this" workflow,
I wish I could have a bombproof Workflow that does not compromise my Mac Mini M1 and Operating System (MacOS BigSur v10.6.4)
Yeah, I did do a video on this. I’ll have to dig it up. But I typically recommend a SSD (scratch) drive where you can have all of the files you’re currently working on, and then an archival set up like a back up HDD.
Let me see if I can find that video. It may or may not help, but I definitely keep all of my media/libraries on the external.
@@KevinRossRN Thanks so much Kevin,
unbelievable how fast your responses are.
I found this one on your Channel:
ua-cam.com/video/Iz12xANJg8Y/v-deo.html
Also, I use Carbon Copy Cloner for Backing Up,
and have my external 2Tb SSD backing up daily to a WD 3Tb,
and I'm trying to figure the best way to do a 2nd backup to a Drobo,
there seems to be a conflict with CCC and Drobo,
I do not use TimeMachine
Yeah, I’m not sure about that Drobo conflict as I’ve been using Synology to push all those files over…They add up don’t they?
So I have another video here: ua-cam.com/video/AD4ZWAhfjOA/v-deo.html
This is where I talk about running apps off of the external.
I think I have another one as well when it comes to file management, but I do need to update this as I think I’m going to be building my own server.
I would be grateful for your insight:
I edit videos, make animations, work in 3d and make music. I want some more external space for my MBP M1 Max, 1TB, 64GB Ram. I would like to work on projects from the external SSD, potentially run Windows from it as well. I cancelled an order for a SanDisk Extreme Pro after learning that I wouldn't be getting the full speed with the new Thunderbolt 4 ports.
I'm considering getting a SABRENT 4TB Rocket 4 Plus with an ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVME enclosure. Would that work and am I supposed to get the full speed; is it overkill? I'd like 4TB, so is having a RAID setup with two separate 2TB a better option in terms of performance? If so, I'd maybe consider getting a couple of 2TB Samsung EVOs, undecided if 970 or 980. Not sure if you'd have a recommendation for or against sticking with Sabrent. Also, is heat a great concern? Any thoughts on cooling?
Thank you kindly!
So I haven’t tested that variation of the Sabrent paired with the Acasis, but someone from the community has. The spreadsheet is linked in the description.
However, when working on your internal SSD, have you tested the programs you’re using and seeing what the actual speed is when it comes to reading and writing the data?
Thank you, wonderful human being. I saw the combo got a FAIL! I will learn how to test the R/W speeds of the main apps I use: FCP, After Effects, Ableton, Cinema4D, Unreal Engine. And I might come back seeking a bit more advice 😅🙏
In general is a RAID (0?) setup of two SSDs that reach the same storage better than one for any reason? Kinda wished there was a 4TB option for the Samsung EVO 980/970. But maybe I'm missing something and it would be better to have 2 discrete 2TB SSDs.
In all humility, I am out of my depth here 🙃
very grateful for you videos and help!
So you can use iStat Menu as a way to test the read and write when using certain programs.
Also, RAID 0 can provide some speed, but do remember that you’re really only getting about 26Gbps out of that TB port, so you’re landing in the 3250MBs R/W give or take.
Which, this is what I’m getting close to with the 980PRO, but I also don’t even use that bandwidth (sustained).
Once you achieve close to the speeds theoretically speaking, just remember that your programs have to be able to take advantage of that bandwidth.
I’d start with calculating what your read and write looks like with these programs and then build something from there.
Hey beautiful human Kevin, great work as always.
If you are open to sharing your thoughts: What would be the most effective hardware (cost and speed) recommendations for for moving data:
1. FROM SD/CFExpress Card while in the field/mobile
2. TO external storage [Recommendation 1?] Hub enclosure with card reader(s) while in the field/mobile where it might also be edited
3. AND FINALLY to a [Recommendation 2?] Desktop Docking Station OR a [Recommendation 3?] NAS for editing, RAID mirroring, and for routine backups.
I’m looking for an integrated solution (that might have reuse) and am thinking to use an enclosure with an SSD Memory Card so that the memory card might also be moved later to a desktop Docking Station with SSD enclosure or into a NAS.
I have M1 iPad Pro 12.9” and an M1 Mac mini 16GB/512 storage.
Please share your valuable thoughts…🙂
Alrighty, before we get too deep into this, are looking for a CF Express and SD card reader combined? Like this amzn.to/3aDAA9U
And, as far as NAS, are you wanting something with HDD backup like from Synology? Or are you wanting SSD RAID? Although I'd recommend HDD as it's much cheaper for archiving, and you can work off of it, but just wanted to clarify before we get into it.
@@KevinRossRN Thank you for the response! If I can, for now, solve for a 1TB or 2TB SSD enclosure with an SD card reader (UHS-I and UHS-II) that will work with my M1 iPad Pro AND my M1 Mac mini, and that will let me move data onto the enclosure SSD and edit back and forth from the SSD, that would be really great. My SD card reader is very slow, and time to move up to a faster reading solution and to having external storage. And, 1 question, is there an enclosure SSD solution that can run right from iPad or Mac power? Or, if enclosure needs power then want to have a PD port on it. I think sometimes it depends on size of SSD as to whether it can just use iPad or Mac for power.
NAS is future consideration, but not too far in the future. If I can utilize the SSD with the NAS, that would be a bonus. I think some NAS hardware can use both HDD and SSD. Like this one from Sabrent for example: www.amazon.com/dp/B09NMSS4QB/
That RAID setup from Sabrent is nice. I might have to review it 😅
And to clarify further, I assume when you say "edit back and forth from the SSD" you're moving all of the footage from the SD card to the SSD in the enclosure? I just ask as I know some have tried to edit on the SD card itself, and that will definitely be a slow and painful process.
I've used the Acasis USB4 enclosure on the iPad without issue, however these enclosures typically need more bus power than say a USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 enclosure. This one is a favorite: geni.us/7iogvd
And if you're thinking about adding a hub to your iPad: amzn.to/3O4qo7V
Then this would allow you to have the SD card option and then plug in the USB-C enclosure on the other side of it.
This is just what I've been looking for, glad I found your channel. I just bought a Mac Studio Max base and love it except for the 512Gb storage limit. Debating whether I should buy one with more storage, and if operating entirely off of internal storage would be noticeably different from working off an external SSD for everyday tasks like opening and saving files, some light to midrange photoshop work, occasional Premiere Pro video editing. Thanks man.
Glad to help and yeah, Apple choosing 512 in this base model is really the biggest downside, but I typically keep all my work on externals anyway. Keeps the “mess” off the internal.
Glad we bumped into each other here.
@@KevinRossRN thanks. Do you think 512gb internal storage is still workable?
Yeah it’s workable, but you’ll definitely be relying on external drives.
@@KevinRossRN Thanks! I hate to keep pestering you, but one last Q. On this machine, will I notice a difference between a Sandisk Extreme Pro and a DIY drive for everyday tasks (opening and saving files, navigating folders, having file icons in folders appear quickly etc). Really appreciate how you help us tech noobs!
Since this video, I’ve been using the SanDisk myself as a daily for the last week and there really isn’t a difference with that SSD and the DIY setups. Transfer speeds are still fast and everything loads just fine. I even have an OWC drive just like this SanDisk that runs an entire operating system on it.
They’re great.
how do you setup final cut to pull and send eveything to the external?
You might find this helpful: File Management for Video Editing | My Workflow
ua-cam.com/video/QhjQjBCHWQ8/v-deo.html
Just make sure as per the pinned comment in this video to leave the files in place. It’s a walkthrough of my workflow
Thanks for your great content. I'm editing on the base Studio on usb/sata ssds (340MB/s on BMD speed test). We're mostly doing sports events video production shot on all kind of cameras including GH6 4k100, sony, gopros, drones... the first phase of editing is just scrubbing through all the footage at high speed and tagging/adding favourites, this is demanding on drives, and I can sometimes feel the bottleneck with my sata drives. It is confirmed from your video : I see you peak over 700MB/sec.
Today in France the price of 2TB is : For the sandisk extreme 1050MB/s (usb 3.2 gen2) is 235 euros. For Acasis enclusure+980 pro: 435 euros. That's steep.... Knowing I value portability and reliability, would you still advise to go the Acasis enclosure way ?
The Acasis and 980 PRO have still been my favorite combination, and especially the enclosure because they can always upgrade the SSD, but the SanDisk is still in my rotation and I think it’s a great value.
The SanDisk would be more portable, easily fits in a pocket, it’s well protected for when you’re n the go, and I’ve personally never noticed a slow down playing through and scrubbing while working on it.
@@KevinRossRN I found a deal so i've pulled the trigger on that acasis+980 pro setup, i have a powerful mac studio and don't want to be limited by the drive 🙂
Awesome. Glad to hear you found a deal. That’ll make it even sweeter. 😉🤘
@@KevinRossRN Found a lot of comments online complaining about heat issues from this setup... The deal I found was for the 980pro with heatsink from Samsung... So I just leave the Acasis case open, and put it right behind the fan exhaust of the mac studio... I've been using it for hours, speed testing and editing, and it stayed bellow 45°C according to istats... So I guess it's not a stupid idea 🙂
It's a real joy to edit from a super fast drive, I'm happy I went this way, drive speed isn't a bottleneck anymore.
Great you found a solution. For editing I’ve never really had any issues with thermals because the editor is only writing as fast as the CPU and GPU can handle, but for sustained transfers of large files that’s where those 45-50C temps start pushing 80-90C for those short bursts.
But so far I still haven’t seen a combo that provides that level of throughput, but again, many of these SSDs would be fine for video.
Although the audio space…now that’s a bit of a different story. Speed is even more important there.
Great video, I am a computer engineer since the early 80’s. You correctly point out it’s not all about synthetic benchmarks or specs, but real world tests matter. My Mac Studio arrived. It only has 512gb. I am looking for an enclosure and a fast an resilient NVMe card. I have been considering the Samsung 980 Pro and the WD black SN850. This is my first Thunderbolt computer so I welcome enclosure recommendations. I already have a dock with a Seagate Ironwolf SATA SSD. I like the resilience of the Ironwolfs. My major use of this computer will be my Lightroom/Photoshop hobby. Thoughts? Thanks
Thanks for popping by.
And congrats on the Studio. So as far as the 980 Pro and SN850, I do like them both and use them often. The 980 Pro more often I’d say.
Did you happen to see this video? Samsung 980 PRO vs WD Black SN850 External SSD | M1 Mac and M1 Max
ua-cam.com/video/kNUQOIt2oqQ/v-deo.html
I don't know if this helps but I have a fledgling and a pretty "value" 2tb SN770 with my base level Studio and I have speeds of a little over 2500 read and write and in the UK that cost me less than £290 for both.
That’s awesome. Definitely a savings over upgrading the internal.
@@KevinRossRN I was watching an old one of yours, TB3 Vs USB 4 ext, it had me run the three tests you did and my crystal disk on the fledgling and SN770 is 2885.58/2742.53, AJA 1892/2522 and Bmd 2540.4/2524.3. Interesting. But as I said, the 2tb was £165 and the Fledling on Amazon Wharehouse £124 ( I think the enclosures are much cheaper in the states) though the included lead wasn't a TB so they gave me £15 more off and I used a 40gb USB4 lead I had lying around, so as you say, def savings, if they stand up to the task and I would benefit I may double up and Raid0 it, but at the moment none of my projects would benefit from that. Ta for your content and the way you do it. Have a great day.
Hey, appreciate you popping over for that bit of info. It really helps us all out here my friend. And yes, it seems in the states the deals are more “plentiful.”
Unfortunate for many, but hands down these have really held up quite well.
I'm still confused. As an editor usually editing 4 streams of 4K would i be better off going with 2TB internal on my Mac Studio or going with 1Tb and 4TB external? I'd love to import my project, edit it without proxies and offload it to an external when any alterations/finalizations and such don't require multicam view. Thereby, yielding that space for the next project.
Honestly, if you want to avoid externals then that would be the way to go. And as far as proxies, you shouldn’t need to work with proxies on this machine. At least, I haven’t needed to.
@@KevinRossRN I think i'm going to go for that ... 2TB internal and i'll evaluate my need for external SSD as i go. Thanks for the quick response. Glad to hear with the proxies. All the best and well done.
Many thanks, and sending you my best.
What App do you use to messure the temperature of your disks?
iStat Menus as well as TG PRO
As I don't have a modern Mac, let me see if I get this right.
a) Regardless if you use the internal or external SSD for your projects, unless you use an extra slow external SSD, you will get roughly the same performance out of them at least regarding FCP?
b) TB4 or just USB4 don't make any real difference for the same situation either as the speeds don't go higher than 500MB/s and the limit of either one is higher. In fact even USB3.0 limit is a little bit higher.
c) I've read that the M1 Mac Mini (non Studio variety) has issues with external drives due to the onboard controllers, which make the external drives too slow. Any idea if is true and if it also is the case with the M1 iMac?
I am trying to figure out if I buy a M1 Mac (Mini, iMac, Studio) if it would make sense to get a stock/base for storage and use external drives, from performance AND for cost as I don't already have such external drives. I was under the impression that at least for video editing (and I am not talking just for crazy high quality videos of 8K raw or something) it's almost necessary to use the internal drive for performance reasons. Plus as TB drives at least here are quite expensive, you don't really save much by not upgrading the internal storage.
For video editing, regardless of Mac or not, you’re really at the mercy of the GPU and RAM to push that project along.
Keep in mind that SSD really matters with transferring data (media files) and/or if you’re wanting to run entire operating systems or apps off of them.
In my other video I share the data regarding the differences when it comes to transferring very large files, but I’ve used just about every video editor and aside from loading up the footage and timeline, the biggest bottleneck is going to be that processing that occurs.
@@KevinRossRN So it is actually accurate that it is a good idea, if money is tight, to not upgrade the internal storage and that external drives even if they are not TB3/4 are plenty fast for this. Fascinating. Thank you.
So when you look at speed for speed when it comes to the internal vs external, these latest SSDs in the Mac are going to be faster than anything you’d connect to it and it’s sometimes the same cost if not cheaper to upgrade the internal versus getting a bunch of SSDs.
However, what I will say is that rocking the base model studio has been fine because I just work off of these externals all the time.
One thing that’s nice about 1TB or higher internally is just having the ability to offload files if I needed to, and to also have a nice buffer for that swap that occurs. There’s no question that 1TB should be the standard on these devices, but for a desktop computer it’s easier to swallow to just have external drives for your workflow.
My opinion of course.
@@KevinRossRN virtual high five! Thanks.
Back at you. 🤘
What app are you using to measure the disk speed?
iStat menu.
bit of topic here but man those white monitors 🔥🔥🔥
I know, right? I love these things. I use them daily.
Hey Kevin, I got the Samsung 980 pro with the enclosure you recommended and I have been getting the beach ball of death. Im just running lightroom and rating jpeg photos not even editing. Any thoughts what might be causing the issue?
Have you happened to try any other programs as a test? The only reason I ask is that there are a few Twitter threads going on about something going on with Adobe products as of late. I’ve been using LR just this week and hadn’t noticed, but I was going to see if I need to update it, and if so, then see if this causes issues.
@@KevinRossRN ill try a final cut project on it and see what happens. Should I run a performance test on it? If so is there one you recommend?
Well do you have some large files you can transfer to see if it just “sticks” during a transfer? You could try Amorphous DiskMark, but it is a synthetic that doesn’t necessarily create a real world scenario, but it’s one I use.
Theres a ton of bootleg Chinese copies of SSDs out there ,..Make sure you got an authentic one ..Thats a huge problem thats been going on for the last couple yrs ..
Wow 👌 👏 😍
Right back at you. 🤘
I have the Sandisk 2tb extreme portable and is fast for sure with my 16" m1pro. I edited to it in both 1080p and 4k and is fast (even with Premiere pro-FCP X must be faster)...but since my projects are at least 1 hr long, I noticed that the sandisk gets really hot! Hotter when exporting to 4k H.264...I hope it doesn't die prematurely due to overheating. I dunno enough about SSDs. I intend to continue using it til it dies! Which external SSD will get less hot than the Sandisk? I have a Lacie 5disk raid which is fast but impossible to carry around! Thanks
Well and this is something that I really like with the DIY options in that you get to choose the SSD, and you can even apply some thermal adhesive to help with that thermal management, but honestly I think these drives will be fine. The SSD should throttle (it “should”) to make sure it’s operating within that range.
@@KevinRossRN hey...well...I hope the Sandisk survives this year! It sure gets hot when exporting in 4k. I'll look into the DIY solutions and apply lots of thermal adhesive to keep them cool-I hope that soon SSDs will become cheaper...I would love a couple of 8TB to work with and slower drives for backups. Great video!
Oh yeah, even though they’re still expensive, I do remember years ago paying a ridiculous amount of money for half a Terabyte. But I hear you. Storage is the least exciting part of this business.
Great having you hang out. And as a side note those SanDisk drives should a Western Digital inside, so it should hold up.
I learned to back up my files properly after a disaster!! Storage is very very important. Not sexy for sure but crucial. I dont like cloud solutions yet. Besides I'm a small operator so 20TB storage is enough for me. I'll keep using the sandisk. I hope it doesn't melt! Lol
Ha! Well if it melts let me know. But I hope it doesn’t 😉
I ended up going with the Trebleet Mac Mini Dock, pricey but well worth it. I get read and write speeds around 2500mb/sec using the Samsung 980 Pro. I went with 1tb but I’m already order 2tb and an Akasis external thunderbolt enclosure. I’ll use the 1tb in the Akasis and the 2tb will be my work drive in the dock. I decided with my slow internet I wanted my Apple photos all on an SSD. I go insane waiting for videos to load through the cloud or a platter drive. Amazingly the cloud is faster that a platter drive and again my internet is terribly slow. We use fixed WiFi towers in my area and at best we get 30 down. I got Starlink on order, and have been waiting for it since August of 21.
Made and uploaded my first new video using the new drives and Mac Studio last night. The render time was not measurable in comparison to my 2013 MacBook Pro. Sharing it to UA-cam file format took about 40 minutes compared to almost 2 hours. I’m very happy. The only down side was my Apple Photos library. I had it all downloaded to a regular platter drive. It worked but videos were slow to load and play. I use my phone to shorter videos at the dog rescue and it was driving me nuts to get home, want to work on a video, and have to wait for the videos to load to pick out the correct videos, and then wait for them to download from the cloud. I missed how photos worked when it was in my internal SSD drive on the laptop.
So last night I uploaded my first new video on the new computer, I even used a lut for the first time and I think it came out ok for a stupid dog video at a dog rescue. My audience is very small and mostly old cat ladies. I was doing good in October and had over 9000 views on a video, but lacked consistency in the winter and UA-cam stopped recommending my videos. It’s upsetting as I enjoyed a larger audience but I don’t do the videos just to make a huge audience. Mostly I do the videos for my own pleasure and gives me a way of documenting what I’ve been doing the last few years of my life. I think it would be crude to share a link to my channel here but I have the Pets Are Worth Saving channel. It’s the one with “The Bedtime Show”. I walk around a dog rescue right before I leave at the end of a night and say goodnight to the dogs and let the audience know a little about each dog. Not sure if it helps with adoptions much, but it’s a nice meditation on love.
Hey, I really appreciate you circling around to update us on what you’re using.
And I agree that you want to make content that you feel good about and like to actually create. It’s fun to get the views, but just chasing them with content you don’t enjoy can certainly be a quick way to burn out.
I’ll search up your content and appreciate you sharing it here.
@@KevinRossRN Hi Kevin, its "AbnormalBrain" better known as Matt on his UA-cam channel profile, wanted to add I just added 2tb to the treble dock and put the 1tb in an akasis dock and I am still getting read and write speeds around 2750 on both units. It dropped down to under 2000 for a little bit after transferring about 300 gigs between both units. I probably paid more than I needed for speed that I probably don't need, but I am very satisfied.
Yeah that drop at around 300 gigs would be expected, and sometimes sooner than that, but glad to hear that overall you’re happy with your investment. Really great to know that this should serve your needs, and then some.
Hi Kevin. Thanks so much for this video. The results are just a bit fuzzy for me. Can you clarify? I am a final cut editor. I want the fastest timeline experience possible. I currently edit on a spinning lacie big doc. The amount of time I lose waiting for a it to wake
up or read or write when looking through thumbnails on large libraries is crippling me. Each of my long term clients libraries are growing and reaching 2Tb each, so I have to consider cost. I thought that I would need the fastest SSD possible to read and write quicker to fix this. But from what you are saying here is that final cut can't or won't write faster than 100mbs/s when using the timeline on any of the SSD's you have tested here? Export times are not my concern, I just don't want the dropped frames and beach balls chewing up my day. Also. Sorry but I am not understanding your use of the word "Hang. It hangs" is this good or bad? Being from Australia, we have a different meaning for the word.
So as far as the spinning HDD, this does become a problem because the drive needs to spin up when you call up a task and these drives have a tendency to spin down for both efficiency and really to provide the spinning plates inside a “break” so to speak.
So as far as play back, in the 8K timeline I showed that it was reading at a higher speed, which is because of the codec and in this case this is where a spinning HDD would be more problematic as it would drop frames because that HDD might be able to read at about 200-300MB/s
HDD is great for archiving footage, but if you need to work with that footage, unless you’re set up with a RAID enclosure (that’s a whole other topic), then your best bet is a SSD.
I have a video (from a couple months ago) where I talked about the speed of these SSDs and the benefits of very large file transfers, which is where you’d see some time savings.
However a SSD that can at least read and write at 1000MB/s should suffice for most of not all of your editing needs because these programs are going to have a bottleneck either with the CPU or GPU.
@@KevinRossRN Mate. I understand. Thanks for taking the time to answer. Cheers.
You got it. Best of luck on that setup.
Kevin just helped me understand the point. Thx 😊
Can recommend this channel🎉
(I just dont get the point ...)
Some don’t 🤷♂️
In which usecases you will have a clear disadvantage over the internal Apple harddisk?
The Apple Harddisks are more than double as fast as the fastest external Thunderbolt Harddisks are.
So in what situations i am not able to get the job done, and in which situations i will need double the amount of time?
Thanks Conny
Well, the use case is primarily for those that don’t invest in adequate internal SSD space from the beginning, and then need to purchase an external SSD. Or for those that just use externals pretty regularly in their workflow.
So that being said, even if the synthetic bench is showing faster speeds, the question is whether it really matters because in many of the tests some of these externals performed just as well as the internal with read/write.
It just depends on how you’re using it.
I need to decide between 2 TB and 4 TB internal SSD.
What are you mostly using it for?
Why do all the links in your description have the same url?
They should all be different. I just double checked.
Hey Kevin, I just got the Studio. Would you recommend something like the Samsung T7 1tb for $110 for video and photo editing. Or pony up the cash for an external housing setup? Just debating since the t7 is so cheap.
Congrats my friend. That T7 should be just fine. I really like their SSDs and for that price, it’s a deal.
@@KevinRossRN thanks for the fast reply and your positive vibes. Have a great day and stay safe out there.
You bet. Happy to help. Sending my best to you as well.
@@KevinRossRN I forgot to ask, what cable brand or type would you recommend?
It will come with the USB-C cable, so you should be good there. If that’s what you meant.
What's the menubar that shows the temp and everything?
I think I was just using iStat Menu on this one, but I also use TGPro.
Question can you put larger then 2tb SSD inside these enclosures and they’d work with my macstudio??
Yes, you can put a larger SSD. I believe the Acasis will go up to 4, but I have to double check because it might be 8.
@@KevinRossRN where can I find This out I have the acasis enclosure but want to put bigger than 2tb in it
It should be on their site if I’m not mistaken. There’s also a spreadsheet that someone from the community here (should be in the description) where a 4TB was tested.
Kevin, I'm a newbie when it comes to Mac as I've always been a Windows PC guy. I have a Mac Studio on its way. My question is: To practice on the Mac's C:/ drive without screwing up files and wasting SSD space, I want to be able to boot to an external drive. At this point I don't care about speed. I want to use a spinning hard drive, 2GB 7,200rpm drive. Will I be able to accomplish this or will the Mac computer only let me boot to an SSD? Again, this is only for practice. Once I'm "up and running" when it comes to getting use to the Mac, I'll remove the external drive and use the internal SSD. Thanks in advance.
So, it doesn’t matter whether HDD or SSD, but it will be slower loading, but once certain programs/apps are loaded then you should be good, depending on what you’re running.
At some point you could just keep the OS on the internal and just run programs and media on the external of you want. I even keep my VM (parallels) on an external.
I’ve been on PCs and currently have two in the home. You’ll get up and running in no time.
@@KevinRossRN Thanks Kevin
You bet. Best of luck.
Eh, am I mistaken or some macOS versions ago Apple removed the option to run the OS from a mechanical drive?
The limitation is likely due to the APFS format, which sometimes doesn’t play well with HDD. I may just have to test this to see if that’s still the case. But for external use in this scenario I’ve typically stuck with journaled or even exFAT just in case I have to try and switch out machines, especially on older machines.
Hi, longtime FCP editor with a new Mac Studio M1 Ultra & Apple Studio Display.
I'm trying to determine which SSD is "better/faster" to use. I'm comparing 3: the internal SSD (Write: 5,152 MB/s & Read 5,358 MB/s), an external USB-C 3.2 SanDisk Extreme Pro (Write: 1182 MB/s & Read 1313 MB/s) & an external USB-C 3.2 Oyen Digital U32 Shadow (Write: 401 MB/s & Read 417 MB/s).
Each test is performed with the same single 5-minute 4k 60fps piece of test footage which I copied to each source independently with its own Library & with the imported file being copied within their own library. Then a single timeline with that single file with multiple effects.
It's obvious from the BlackMagic Disk Speed Tests which SSD is the slowest & which is the fastest, but when I perform timed rendering & exporting tests in Final Cut Pro 10.6.4 in macOS 12.5, every single SSD takes the exact same amount of time, give/take a few seconds.
So it appears to me that all 3 of the SSDs are "faster" than the M1 Ultra processor? Or faster than the GPU/CPU can process? So, does that mean that everything that is processed in FCP is based on the process of the GPU/CPU, making the speed of the SSD irrelevant?
Am I missing something here? I'm just trying to determine which external SSDs to invest in, but it seems irrelevant if the GPU/CPU is the bottleneck itself. My findings seem to match your video findings as well. So, I guess I'm correct in my thinking? Thanks!
Well, this is what my findings were in this video. Your bottleneck in this case is your CPU/GPU, not the SSD.
However, I will say that the SSD with the 401/417 might give you a bit of trouble when playing back certain timelines as I've found ones that will play through the timeline at mid to high 400's, but on export, the CPU and mostly the GPU is getting slammed. The speed of these SSDs helps with large file transfers, but you'd have to ask yourself how often are you actually moving massive files/folders around.
@@KevinRossRN Thank you so much for replying to an old(er) video of yours! I had watched that other video as well, great information also. Yeh, I need to replace all my 400ish SSDs for sure. It seems from all the advice that I just need something faster, but not the fastest & most expensive SSDs on the market. Agreed, you're not copying large files between drives for editing much, if at all, after the initial transfer from the camera/SD card. Thanks again for such great content & for the fast & informative response! You rock!
Happy to help. Best of luck on your investment.
@@KevinRossRN Thanks! Is there a particular codec you find works best to edit in FCP with?
Well ProRes 422 is a given, but on these newer machines h.265 has been amazing with the latest updates. I’ve tested quite a few Sony cameras and a handful of Canon.
I got a SanDisk Extreme 2tb ssd for my 14" but it keeps disconnecting and giving me the message that the disk was not properly ejected. I even have put disks to sleep turned off under battery. Is this normal problem that everyone has? Someone said that it's because apple shutting down the ports when it goes to sleep but that doesn't seem right. It's really concerning me because obviously I don't want my ssds to be disconnected unsafely and then getting corrupted or losing data. Have you had this expereince as well ? I'm wondering if there are any particularly safe brands of ssd that this won't happen with, or do I need to make my own with an enclosure?
What file format are you using? Also, have you tried this on the other Thunderbolt ports?…just to see if it’s a hardware issue with the Mac. Have you tried to repair the disk? It might have a missing partition table.
@@KevinRossRN Thanks for your response! I did run first aid with apple tech on the line just a little while ago and it said the disk was ok. I'm using APFS. It happens on at least one other port too. What I've been doing is in addition to turning off "put disks to sleep" is ejecting the disk if I'm going to be away from the computer for awhile like when I'm going to bed as I don't want that to be happening.
@@KevinRossRN In disk utility it has the GUID partition Map then an APFS container and then a APFS volume.
That seems like a bit of an inconvenience that you have to eject them. I know others have done this, but in my experience I’ve left these connected for weeks at a time.
So it disconnects after every time it goes into sleep mode or just randomly after waking from sleep?
Make sure u dont have a chinese knockoff ssd...They are going around like crazy and they are really hard to tell apart ..
Wow! This is literally money saving to me! So no need to be so obsessed about speeds for real time editing. For transfer I won't be transferring terabytes so a few minutes is not an issue. Instead I would rather have a 2TB 2x, one for usage and the second for storing it somewhere safe at home for backup, assuming 2TB would be enough for 1 year.
Yeah and if you’re really not working with high bit rate footage, then it’s best to just save a few bucks where you can.
⚠️ Link one in your description is not thunder bolt 4. It’s 3. Only that it still works with 4, but I learned first hand that you only get half the speed of the SSD. It was a big let down, so now I must return it.
Your 2nd link has no Thunderbolt specification so we can’t tell if it’s for thunderbolt three or dedicated thunderbolt four.
Your link #3 is not specifically made for Thunderbird 4 either. The verbiage on their site fails to say so.
So these first three links are a no go for us M1 Max Mac Studio users.
Lastly all you do is talk about video video video video. There is a whole Nother side to this industry known as audio.
Multi track audio recording software puts a demand many times over what video editing software will ever need.
So when us audio guys listen to your video guys we have to take everything with a grain of salt because the audio world puts a far bigger demand on the SSD than video editing ever will.
That’s cool. You don’t have to listen to us “video guys.” Just head over to some of the audio professionals to hear what they have to say on their channels about external SSDs/enclosures. I’m sure they can address the issue you’re trying to resolve. 🤘
⚠️ Note: ALL MAC STUDIOS USE THUNDERBOLT 4 . Thunderbolt 3 is not compatible with thunderbolt 4 unless you are willing to lose literally half of your read and write speed.
it always needs to be faster. apple should have installed a "turbo button"
Ha! Just like back in the day on older Intel machines with the Turbo button.
So pretty much what you’re saying is new M1 Mac kicks some you know what
It kicks a lot of it.
Why No Sn750 or Sn850 🤣
Well the 850 is still in circulation. The 750 ended up in a PC build. I guess one of the conveniences of these DIY enclosures. It’s like picking an outfit for the day.
For all you guys having issues with these drives ..Make sure u dont have a china knockoff...They are almost perfect clones....There are tons of them out there ..
Appreciate you sharing.
@@KevinRossRN yeah it's I see so many people questioning you on having the same drives as you but having difficulties. I think a lot of people overlook that they could have a fake
Yeah, I’ll be looking into this more. Might have to pick up a knockoff and run some tests.
@@KevinRossRN U can only find knockoffs when u are trying to buy a legit one lol ..
Guess I’ll have to roll the dice on a “legit” one 😆