Video /photo editing on new Macbook Pro and external drive

[satans worm]

So looking to buy the new m1 based macbook For 4K video editing with DaVinci resolve well as 100mp photos via lightroom etc , the spec I’m looking at is the most basic, seems the additional ram from 8 to 16 doesn’t make much difference, I was also going to get the small 256gb hard drive to keep costs down

To beef up the drive capacity for the video and photo storage I was going to buy a couple of External SSD 2tb hard drives ,

I’m a Luddite, so, does this sound like a good plan?

I just don’t want stutter on 4K playback or sticky photoshop sliders, is going external ssd the right move over I paying for Apple tax on large internal ssd?

Any recommendation of external SSD?
What should I look for in external SSD?

Thanks

[xeny]

I'd be very reluctant to buy the smaller RAM option if my express purpose is photo and video editing.

If you're concerned about cost, what pushes you to the pro over the air?

[malks222]

agree on maxing out the RAM at 16gb if you can. Apple now solder in the RAM so it’s not as easy/ diy job to upgrade as it used to be.

i have a 2012 (ish?) macbook pro (last of the ones with the cd drive) and upgraded it to 16gb of RAM and ssd and the thing still flies. starts up in 10seconds, no spinning beach ball when doing anything.

I’d definitely be future proofing with as much ram as I could when I come to replace it. but at the moment can’t justify the $$$ it would cost.

[mmm-five]

If it's for video, then you'll want a fast SSDs in a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure (ready-made or build your own)...
...or an Thunderbolt 3 enclosure that can house 4 x SSDs in RAID 10, such as the OWC Express 4M2


But if you're worried about the extra few £££ for the 16GB RAM option, then you'll not want to be pricing up multiple Thunderbolt 3 enclosures.

Edited by mmm-five on Tuesday 24th November 10:59

[mikef]

I'm using a Black Friday discounted 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe SSD in an OWC Envoy Express thunderbolt housing (jmported at $60):



That should handle most of your editing needs (the speed limitation is the TB3 connection, not the SSD)

[mmm-five]

mikef said:

I'm using a Black Friday discounted 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe SSD in an OWC Envoy Express thunderbolt housing (jmported at $60):



That should handle most of your editing needs (the speed limitation is the TB3 connection, not the SSD)

To be fair, it's the chipset in the enclosure that's the bottleneck as TB3 could transfer at 5000MB/s.

Maybe being bus-powered is why OWC have decided on the slower chipset?

However it is delivering the 1500MB/s that OWC claims, so there should be no complaints there

[mikef]

I’m using two 1TB NVMe drives, although I’m not sure if the M1 macs have more than one thunderbolt port

[satans worm]

Thanks for the replies so far, so to answer some questions

I will probably opt for the pro just because of the fan to keep it cool and stop throttle back, but at the same time, i recognize the YouTube comparisons don't reflect too much throttle back, so maybe ill save myself 250usd

the 8 to 16 ram upgrade really doesn't seem worthwhile, all the tests only give it a very small improvement that's not really noticeable in the real world, very unusual, but then the whole M1 chip is unusual it seems

my main concern is that i can play 4k in DeVinchi resolve without stutter, and it seems this is the case on all the range no matter how basic, which is amazing news

but i wondered if it would make a difference and slow everything down if i utilized external SSD instead of opting for the large internal SSD (which seems is quite expensive )

the Samsung T5 or T7 seem popular, but i know nothing about SSD and speed they run compared to the Mac Book and wanted to know if this would cause stuttering on replay if the source material is on an external?

[mmm-five]

satans worm said:

but i wondered if it would make a difference and slow everything down if i utilized external SSD instead of opting for the large internal SSD (which seems is quite expensive )

the Samsung T5 or T7 seem popular, but i know nothing about SSD and speed they run compared to the Mac Book and wanted to know if this would cause stuttering on replay if the source material is on an external?

The internal SSD throughputs are reported as 2200MB/s write and 2600MB/s read.

[Griffgrog]

malks222 said:

agree on maxing out the RAM at 16gb if you can. Apple now solder in the RAM so it’s not as easy/ diy job to upgrade as it used to be.

i have a 2012 (ish?) macbook pro (last of the ones with the cd drive) and upgraded it to 16gb of RAM and ssd and the thing still flies. starts up in 10seconds, no spinning beach ball when doing anything.

I’d definitely be future proofing with as much ram as I could when I come to replace it. but at the moment can’t justify the $$$ it would cost.

Absolutly this. With Apple now, it's go big or don't bother. I regret not going for the maximum RAM on a Macbook Air that I bought earlier in the year. I'd get the most RAM, biggest SSD and fastest processor (for Intel obvs). They last years so it's not a bad investment.

[Bacardi]

I just dipped my toe in the water and bought the base MacPro model. I use Resolve, so upgrading the Air to the 8 core gpu model was only £50 cheaper than the Pro. As gpu performance in Resolve is important for Resolve, went down that route... with a conventional way of thinking... which I think is a bit out of the window for these M1s. Also, I viewed this as a small portable and planned on buying a 'pro' Big Mac later on... although I'm wondering if I need one, just a new monitor... maybe.

Running footage from a Samsung T5 500gb into resolve plays back Blackmagic 4k ProRes and Raw without a stutter, also 4K All i 4k from a EOS R plays smoothly straight out of the box. Red Raw 6k stutters until I 'generate optimised media' and then it plays back smoothly. Other flavours of 4k from other manufactures may vary but haven't heard any problems. I plan on buying some T7 drives to add to my portable setup.

From what I can see, there's little difference in performance between 8GB ram and 16, however, Lightroom is a ram hog, it seems, but I don't use it, so your milage may vary.

There is some talk about ram swopping to the SSD which may effect longevity of SSD, but it still does it with 16GB, to a lessor extent.

Just watched this with loads of things running, something I would never do, but my ghast is fairly flabberd at how well the 8GB runs... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h487I_5xOZU&fe...

Also, editing 8k red raw in Resolve on a Mac mini, albeit from internal SSD... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxH3RabNWfE

Edited to add, just play with an 8k red raw file, running on a loop, realtime adjustments and it doesn't drop a beat! And this running under Rosetta, so hopefully Resolve will get ported to Apple Silicon... happy days!

Nuts!

Edited by Bacardi on Tuesday 24th November 23:08

[satans worm]

Bacardi said:

I just dipped my toe in the water and bought the base MacPro model. I use Resolve, so upgrading the Air to the 8 core gpu model was only £50 cheaper than the Pro. As gpu performance in Resolve is important for Resolve, went down that route... with a conventional way of thinking... which I think is a bit out of the window for these M1s. Also, I viewed this as a small portable and planned on buying a 'pro' Big Mac later on... although I'm wondering if I need one, just a new monitor... maybe.

Running footage from a Samsung T5 500gb into resolve plays back Blackmagic 4k ProRes and Raw without a stutter, also 4K All i 4k from a EOS R plays smoothly straight out of the box. Red Raw 6k stutters until I 'generate optimised media' and then it plays back smoothly. Other flavours of 4k from other manufactures may vary but haven't heard any problems. I plan on buying some T7 drives to add to my portable setup.

From what I can see, there's little difference in performance between 8GB ram and 16, however, Lightroom is a ram hog, it seems, but I don't use it, so your milage may vary.

There is some talk about ram swopping to the SSD which may effect longevity of SSD, but it still does it with 16GB, to a lessor extent.

Just watched this with loads of things running, something I would never do, but my ghast is fairly flabberd at how well the 8GB runs... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h487I_5xOZU&fe...

Also, editing 8k red raw in Resolve on a Mac mini, albeit from internal SSD... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxH3RabNWfE

Edited to add, just play with an 8k red raw file, running on a loop, realtime adjustments and it doesn't drop a beat! And this running under Rosetta, so hopefully Resolve will get ported to Apple Silicon... happy days!

Nuts!

Edited by Bacardi on Tuesday 24th November 23:08

That’s great news, thanks, it’s crazy but it seems like the base air could handle the tasks, for me it’s a toss up between the base pro or the 8core air and then add an external SSD!

[Bacardi]

satans worm said:

That’s great news, thanks, it’s crazy but it seems like the base air could handle the tasks, for me it’s a toss up between the base pro or the 8core air and then add an external SSD!

I'm pretty sure the base Air is more than capable, but the 8 core version is only $50 less than the Pro. From what I have seen, as it doesn't have a fan, it does throttle performance to avoid over heating. Bit heavier, but the Pro has brighter screen, better speakers and longer battery life... if that matters to you... pays yer money and makes your choice etc....