Choice of external HD ...

Hi,

I have a brand new iMac (4 x USB 3 and 2 x Thunderbolt ports) and expect to load FCPX onto it very soon.

However, I wonder which choice of external drives others might go for if they were in my position;

- SSD USB 3 or Thunderbolt
- Old style spinning discs on USB 3 (like the Lacie 4TB Quadra v3)

I would very much welcome your thoughts as to speed/access on either of the above options.

Thanks,

snaps

Hi I own a sandisk ssd external 2tb usb c drive it shows about 400mb/s on the aja and blackmagic drive test.

By far faster than my two drive raid which shows 230mb/s the sandisk cost me 600 which is a lot but it is external, its fast and its no issue but with all external usb be careful because of osx voltage issues within usb, results in ejected drives. ...back up a lot.

I would suggest G-Technologies, CalDigit or Promise.

Thank you AppleGuru,

However, the question still remains: SSD or spinning disc / Thunderbolt or USB3?

Thanks,

snaps

I recommend an AKiTiO, www.akitio.com , Thunderbolt 2 or 3 enclosure with a bunch of SSDs and/or HDs. The AKiTiO devices are less expensive than top brands' ones but equally reliable.

I don't understand you, everyone knows ssd is faster, I already wrote the speed difference via usb3 on ssd vs spinning.

It's your money do what you can afford, TB you are limited it's fast but not much more than usb3.

You can edit HD with a 5400rpm drive if you had to. Don't worry about it and buy what you can afford....

snaps042 wrote: … question still remains: SSD or spinning disc / Thunderbolt or USB3?…

single disk ~80mbps = usb3 is fast enough
multi-platter Raid 400, 800, 1000mbps = usb3 not fast enough

SSD ~400mbps = usb3 can handle it
SSD Raid = TB

1TB platter ~50-60€
1TB SSD ~300-400€

so, your decision tree is as simple as that:
How much I'm willing/able to invest?
How much data do my projects demand?

… add 'drives for backup' into your calculation…

I edit HD, UHD and 4K on a portable, bus powered OWC USB 3.0 7200rpm drive. Works fine for me.