Scratch Disk(s) for Adobe Premiere / After Effects

Hey,

I'm looking to build a new editing PC and for the first time I will be able to spend a sizeable portion of my budget on the SSD's for my system. I will be editing HD and 4k video in Premiere, making both shorter videos (~10mins) with lots of edits and effects, plus larger videos (1-2hr) with a lot less. I will also use the PC as a gaming rig.

My budget of £320 is for both my system/applications/games disk setup and also for my scratch disk(s). I've been looking at the Samsung 850 series, both the PRO and the EVO range. Roughly these are the prices for the disks I am considering:

120GB 850 EVO = £57
128GB 850 PRO = £80
250GB 850 EVO = £80
256GB 850 PRO = £120

Currently my thinking is to buy a single 256GB PRO for my system drive and use two 128GB PRO's in RAID 0 for the scratch disk for £280.

If anyone who uses Premiere and has experience with scratch disks can advise if I'm on the right lines or not, that would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

I honestly don't think the Pro line is worth the extra cost. With the prices you're seeing you're essentially paying an extra £40 for minimal performance gains for your boot drive. With scratch disks you are essentially thinking about cutting the size in half for that same small performance difference. The way I see it is £280 for 10/10 speed and 512 GB of space or £240 for 9/10 speed and 750 GB of space.

But, I can't make your decision, so it's all up to what you want most.

EDIT: Check out our storage benchmark spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/103OhRha1uNxuOw87KJvh0WOnrx14XJLvwPhOq2wlpzQ/

Thanks very much Mr Wiemerimer, you always seem to answer my questions! :)

You are definitley right about the speed and thank you for the link to the benchmarks, most appreciated. I think I agree that an EVO is more than enough for a system drive.

the scratch disks I'm still unsure about as I imagine they will be taking a pounding. I can't find any accurate / conclusive information on what I need in terms of speed and endurance, so I will be finding my feet with them. What I may do is go for another single EVO and see how it works out. With it being a dedicated scratch disk, I can always pop another one in and RAID it, if I need the extra speed.

Thanks again,

PG

any ssd will give you a massive benefit as a scratch disk, i would go with the pro for OS and use the EVO for scratch disk, also i would completely ignore doing raid 0 with a scratch disk because that's literally asking for trouble, just buy a single 250GB or stick wtih 120GB. Unless you're editing super big size files, you probably won't need anything past 120GB.

IMO i think 120GB is more than enough as a scratch disk, i see pro's where i work even use 60GB ssd's for scatch.

I recommend avoiding the evo's for a scratch disk, from the tech report write tests, they started to suffer from dying cells at around 100TB for the 240GB version.

If you use it as a scratch disk for cache intensive programs such as premiere pro, and aftereffects, and other similar programs, then expect to write 50+TB per year onto the SSD, this will only get worst with the advent of larger games with frequent large patches (and the uninstalling of old large games and install of new large games.

While the 850 evo will have better endurance than the 840 evo, when focusing on scratch disk use, it is best to go with the 850 pro, and be sure that you will have enough write endurance.

Remember, while at tech report, they pushed the drives further than needed, in reality when an SSD begins to suffer from dying cells, then it is time to backup your data and replace it. A silent failure of a flash cell is worst than a failed drive because it means that data is successfully written to the cell and the ECC confirms the write, but a few weeks of months later, that cell which is left alone for the data to age, then drifts to an uncorrectable state, or drifts to a different level causing it to be read wrong. This is really bad as it means that if it is a fine that you do not access often, you may perform multiple backups over time, and eventually replace all of your good backups with versions containing the corrupt file.
An SSD saves information by storing a specific voltage within each flash cell representing 1-3 bits of data (depending on how the controller is programmed)

If the voltage drifts to an area where there is some confusion, then ECC can work to figure out what it should be, but if it drifts too far, it may end up in a range where it fully believes that it is reading it properly, that is when you get corrupt data (e.g., how the 840 TLC crap failed some of the power off tests.

Thank you very much for your informative and detailed reply!

Personally I stay away from Samsung, take a look at other brands like Kingston and Adata and see how they stack up performance/dollar compared to Samsung and I think you'll be surprised. Also please please please please do not raid 0 the SSD's even for a scratch unless you can say "hey I just lost 20 hours work but that's no big deal, ill just do it all again" because one small problem with the os, your mb, ram or anything else in your system and thats what you'll be saying.

Thanks again.. would you be able to recommend a comparable model from Adata to the 850 Pro? The only reason I was looking at Samsung is because I have an 840 (standard) and an 850 (evo) as the system drives in 2 other systems for a while without any issues. Also they (the pro's) seemed to do very well in the SSD endurance test recently..

Based on everyone's information, I'm looking at getting a 2x 256 PRO's at the minute.. 1 for system, 1 for scratch. I'll probably pick up a 256 evo to temp store the videos on while I edit. The only thing I'm missing is the extra performance from RAID-0.

Since I'm getting the ASUS x99 Deluxe mobo, I will have the option to use up to 2x m.2 instead.. however, I don't know if I'll need it with 4k editing or if it would be unnecessary? Also reliability is more important to me than speed.. so I just don't know.. help!?

Thanks for keeping this discussion going!

Here is just one alternative in the adata range:



Also Kingston (My personal Favorite):

So the Kingston and Adata are on par price wise but you get a couple of extra gigs out of the adata.

2X 256GB drives will probably serve you well in that config, based on what you have just said instead of raid I would go with the M.2 for the os and drop one of the 2.5inch drives, M.2 uses PCIe lanes so you will have ridiculous reads and writes, if you keep your apps on here it will speed up performance of the video editor (well mainly the start time and loading effects etc.) and someone else can correct me on this but should be more reliable since it goes straight to the cpu and not through a controller, but you should be ok with SATA3 on the scratch even with 4k vids as you are using the ram as well dont forget.

let me know if this does/doesnt make sence, its kinda late where I am and Im not sure im thinking clearly lol. or even if ive left anything out.

It makes perfect sense, thank you.

I am just a little apprehensive about the m.2 as they seem to be in the 'teething' stage.. Although it's a personal issue I'm willing to overlook, by making weekly images of the m.2 to a HDD.

So, the big question is (lol).. what m.2 do I go for? I've only ever looked at the Samsung XP941.. but I absolutely no opinion on them as I haven't done any research yet. I remembered Logan talking at CES about the new Plextor M7e coming out around June (which will be fine for my build time), so imagine they wont be the only ones releasing new gear around the summertime.

To be honest, I'm now thinking about keeping things simple and getting 2x M.2 256gb and know that my system will be able to handle all my requirements for the next few years. Depending on the new GoPro etc, I could well end up editing 8k video (cropping down) and be grateful for the extra speed as well as the space 256gb will provide.

I've no idea how long DDR4 will take to start dropping, so 32GB of 2666Mhz will have to keep things ticking over. I'm also going for the 5820k, which is saving quite a bit instead of getting the 5960x. Even with 2x m.2 in actions, that only two lots of 4x pci lanes, so I can still get a single 16x graphics card like a Titan X or 390x without losing performance.