nonstop March 13, 2025, 7:41 p.m.

DESPERATE for a fast ssd for video editing - current setup making me lose clients!!

Starting to work with more 4k footage and my current storage setup is KILLING my workflow. Projects take forever to open, scrubbing timeline is painful, and don't even get me started on render times.

I'm shooting on BlackMagic and working primarily in DaVinci Resolve. Current setup is just standard internal SSD in my workstation but clearly need dedicated video editing drives now.

Budget is somewhat flexible since this is for paid client work, but obviously don't want to overspend if unnecessary. Was looking at external Thunderbolt options but hearing mixed things about reliability vs internal solutions.

Would appreciate insights from people actually editing professionally, not just spec sheet warriors. What's your real-world experience with different drives?

kjh March 13, 2025, 10:57 p.m.

Going internal NVMe is the only way that makes sense - no external drive will match that performance. PCIe 4.0 drives changed my entire workflow

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Reaagott March 14, 2025, 2:13 p.m.

I edit wedding videos professionally (dozens per month) and honestly, the difference between good SSDs and great SSDs is minimal compared to having proper proxies. Fix your workflow before throwing money at storage

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THE13 March 14, 2025, 9:28 p.m.

Careful with those TB3/TB4 externals... they throttle HARD after 10-15 minutes of sustained transfers. Great benchmarks, terrible for actual video work

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SiNoJoker March 15, 2025, 4:35 p.m.

The "storage hierarchy" saved my sanity: cheap SSD for OS, mid-tier for apps, premium NVMe for active projects, then archive to large HDDs once complete. Balance of speed vs. cost

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Freeboy March 16, 2025, 11:52 a.m.

DaVinci is notorious for storage bottlenecks. Might not just be your drives - check if you're GPU bound too. No point in lightning storage with weak graphics

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SCOOTER March 16, 2025, 8:43 p.m.

Don't buy into marketing hype. Most professional editors rarely see benefits beyond ~2000MB/s in real workflow. Sustained performance > peak benchmarks all day

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Blackbox March 17, 2025, 4:01 p.m.

Switched to SAMSUNG T7 last quarter for my location work. Tough enough to survive set conditions but still delivers performance I need for rough cuts right there with clients watching

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ddd213 March 18, 2025, 7:17 p.m.

What's your connection interface? TB3? USB 3.2? PCIe? That matters WAY more than the drive itself

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denis1895 March 19, 2025, 12:12 a.m.

seen people buy $500 drives then connect them through outdated ports wondering why performance sucks

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