External HD recommendation

[critictalk]

Hi all, when mixing an atmos project with over 100 tracks, what kind of external HD would be recommended? I am using Protools and Mac Pro.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Darryl Ramm]

What Mac Pro exactly? "Mac Pro" covers a least four significantly different generations of products.

External HD? Hard Drives are last century technology. I hope you mean SSD, and then why external?

For any modern Mac with PCIe/NVMe internal SSD(s) a great starting position should be to work on sessions on the internal drive(s). And have samples on the internal drive as well if they will fit (good to size that SSD to fit everything if you can afford it). On a modern Mac you can't get anything faster than the internal SSD.

Are you having some problem now you are trying to solve?

[IrelandM]

Yes Darryl,


But Apple internal Ramm ssd costs to much possibly the reason many go the external route to save some Bucks, or Pounds here in the UK.

Regards

[colinato]

I had a similar sized post-production Atmos project that had to travel. I used a Samsung T5 external SSD without issue on various Macs (iMac Pro, Mac Mini, Mac Studio).

They have a T7 now which looks to be faster, but the T5 served just fine. Ran picture and session off the same drive.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by IrelandM

Yes Darryl,


But Apple internal Ramm ssd costs to much possibly the reason many go the external route to save some Bucks, or Pounds here in the UK.

Regards

I understand, but these questions without details are not the way to get useful help.

Folks sometimes have modern Mac systems with enough (very fast) internal storage and think they still need an *external* or separate drive for Pro Tools sessions.

This could be a 2010 Mac Pro for all we know with only USB 3.0 on it... in which case for external I'd be recommending a PCIe to USB 3.2 Gen 2 card upgrade as well as a Samsung T7 or SanDisk Extreme PRO Portable SSD V2. Try to get those drives on at least a USB 3.1/3.2 Gen 2 connections, the SanDisk even supports USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 but you are not likely to get that on a Mac. Or if external drives are not needed then adding M.2 drives on a (switch based) PCIe card is a nice option, with the right switch based/link aggregating PCIe card.

At least a mention of a Mac Pro excludes a Mac Studio with potential USB 3.2 Gen 2 performance problems on Thunderbolt ports.

If it's a trashcan Mac Pro there are caveats about external Thunderbolt 3 drives not working.

If it's a modern Intel cheese grater Mac pro there are very nice internal PCIe/NVMe options (cheaper than Apple storage options, faster than Thunderbolt).

Avoiding external drives if they are not needed, especially with sloppy USB-C connectors can help avoid cabling/drive problems.

Of course if your goal is to move sessions between systems or do backups you might want an external drive.

[Leverson]

Originally Posted by critictalk

Hi all, when mixing an atmos project with over 100 tracks, what kind of external HD would be recommended? I am using Protools and Mac Pro.

I still abide by the rule of separate threes. I keep my system software on the internal computer drive, and for those a SSD is your best bet. I keep my video files on a separate drive. Since my trashcan Mac Pro only has one internal drive, I use an external thunderbolt SSD for that as well. And I keep my Pro Tools session on a third drive, in my case I'm still using external spinning platter HDs, just because for feature films and television you can go through a LOT of hard drive space, and if you need dozens and dozens of drives for projects and backups, it's still far cheaper to use mechanical hard drives rather than solid state drives. I've never had a problem with my external HD's being too slow or unwieldily for even very large Atmos feature film sessions.

For many years I've been buying OWC drives, both solid state and spinning/mechanical ones. They have a range of selection and drive sizes, and they've kept a pretty good track record of operation over the years. Out of the 50 or so that I own I've only had troubles with one dying on me so far (knock on wood).

Those are my recommendations, if that is helpful!

[Sardi]

Originally Posted by Leverson

For many years I've been buying OWC drives, both solid state and spinning/mechanical ones. They have a range of selection and drive sizes, and they've kept a pretty good track record of operation over the years. Out of the 50 or so that I own I've only had troubles with one dying on me so far (knock on wood).

For clarity.

OWC don’t make drives (HDD or SSD). They make enclosures and even then, some are rebranded OEM cases designed by a third party.

What’s inside those enclosures is what matters from a Drive perspective, but don’t discount the enclosure itself as that can be a bottleneck to speed and also reliability & compatibility.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[audiolex1]

Originally Posted by colinato

I had a similar sized post-production Atmos project that had to travel. I used a Samsung T5 external SSD without issue on various Macs (iMac Pro, Mac Mini, Mac Studio).

They have a T7 now which looks to be faster, but the T5 served just fine. Ran picture and session off the same drive.

I just got a T7 2TB rugged for 160 bucks at Amazon. Getting 800 rw speeds with it.
Beats the 870s