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Laptop Editing setup. External SSD raid enclosure vs single SSD

S

Sterling Williams

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Current Setup:

Dell XPS 9570 15"
i7 8750 (6 core)
16 gb RAM
GTX 1050ti
512 gb NVME m.2


Editing Scarlet W 5k R3D in Davinci Resolve.

I was initially editing on external hard drives and getting very choppy playback. When monitoring, I saw that at full and half res the processor load would go up to 100%. Whereas at 1/4 res the processor load stayed at 20%. However, at 20% processor load I was still getting choppy playback, so I figured it must be the external drive speed. I picked up a couple of 860 EVO 1TB SSDs and tried editing off of the SSD, and I now get perfectly smooth playback at 1/4 res (still choppy at half and full).

My question is: Will there be any benefit to running the two SSDs in Raid 0, or would I be better off just getting one 2TB?

Also, do you have any other suggestions on improving performance on a laptop?
 
Sterling Williams said:
Current Setup:

Dell XPS 9570 15"
i7 8750 (6 core)
16 gb RAM
GTX 1050ti
512 gb NVME m.2


Editing Scarlet W 5k R3D in Davinci Resolve.

I was initially editing on external hard drives and getting very choppy playback. When monitoring, I saw that at full and half res the processor load would go up to 100%. Whereas at 1/4 res the processor load stayed at 20%. However, at 20% processor load I was still getting choppy playback, so I figured it must be the external drive speed. I picked up a couple of 860 EVO 1TB SSDs and tried editing off of the SSD, and I now get perfectly smooth playback at 1/4 res (still choppy at half and full).

My question is: Will there be any benefit to running the two SSDs in Raid 0, or would I be better off just getting one 2TB?

Also, do you have any other suggestions on improving performance on a laptop?
Click to expand...

Your CPU seems fast enough to de-crypt-code-compress 5k FF .R3D
The max RAW data is 5120 x 2700 x 16bit x 50 fps ~ 1.3 GB/s from the CPU to the GPU (your 1050ti has 8 PCIe-3 lanes ~ 7.9 GB/s).

after de-bayering in resolve(32 bits) this becomes a lot more, 5120 x 2700 x 32bits x 3 colors x 50 fps ~ 7.73 GB/s (your 1050ti's bandwidth is still enough but an external GPU over TB3 will be bottle necked.)

At 24 fps this will be 5120 x 2700 x 32 bits x 3 colors x 24 fps ~ 3.71 GB/s (fit's both the 1050ti and an external GPU's bandwidth).

The de-bayered signal comes from the GPU and goes to the CPU for futher processing.

When you use a lot of uncompressed DPX see the data rates at http://phfx.com/tools/framesToDataRate/framesToDataRate.cgi?resX=&resY=&resolution=&REDresolution=5K-FF-5120x2700&REDresolutionB=&REDCODERAWCR=4&fps=&hours=&minutes=&intermediateCodec=none.

With normal optimized media like DNxHR and/or Cineform you won't go over the bandwidth limit of a normal SATA SSD.

SSDs in raid 0 can bring some improvement in specific scenario's (uncompressed DPX, etc..)

Buy an eGPU box and a faster NVidia GPU to do the de-bayering and other effects.

Puget did some testing with various GPU's in Davinci Resolve https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/DaVinci-Resolve-15-NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-2070-Performance-1264/
 
Thank you for the response Misha. Very helpful as usual.

My follow up questions.

1. Since there are sales right now on 1TB and 2TB 860 EVOs, should I get one 2TB or two 1TB?

2. If I am still within the bandwidth capabilities of my internal GPU, what is the reason for getting an external?
 
Sterling Williams said:
Thank you for the response Misha. Very helpful as usual.

My follow up questions.

1. Since there are sales right now on 1TB and 2TB 860 EVOs, should I get one 2TB or two 1TB?

2. If I am still within the bandwidth capabilities of my internal GPU, what is the reason for getting an external?
Click to expand...

1. Both can handle around 480 MB/s seq. R/W. raid 0 will double the speed, but you'll need a box that can handle raid 0 over USB 3.1 gen 2.

2. The bandwidth is okay, the processing speed of the GPU 1050ti is only around 2 TFlops (fp32) and let's say a 1080ti is around 11 Tflops (fp32).
 
Misha Engel said:
1. Both can handle around 480 MB/s seq. R/W. raid 0 will double the speed, but you'll need a box that can handle raid 0 over USB 3.1 gen 2.

2. The bandwidth is okay, the processing speed of the GPU 1050ti is only around 2 TFlops (fp32) and let's say a 1080ti is around 11 Tflops (fp32).
Click to expand...

Well since I will have to buy an external enclosure either way. Which would you do? Pros/Cons of single drive vs raid 0. This will simply be a project drive for on the go editing. Files are all backed up on other Hard Drives.
 
I would go for the raid enclosure with 2 SATA or 2 mSATA drives, you can never have to much speed (we have a raid 0 with 4 NVMe drives doing 7.5 GB/s R/W over 8 PCIe-3 lanes).

Just make sure that your laptop doesn't use the same port for TB3 and USB 3.1 gen 2, when they do just go for the 2 TB version with a USB 3.0 (480 MB/s) enclosure.

An eGPU will bring you more speed than a raid 0.
 
Misha Engel said:
I would go for the raid enclosure with 2 SATA or 2 mSATA drives, you can never have to much speed (we have a raid 0 with 4 NVMe drives doing 7.5 GB/s R/W over 8 PCIe-3 lanes).

Just make sure that your laptop doesn't use the same port for TB3 and USB 3.1 gen 2, when they do just go for the 2 TB version with a USB 3.0 (480 MB/s) enclosure.

An eGPU will bring you more speed than a raid 0.
Click to expand...

This laptop does have only one port for TB3 and USB Type-C 3.1 gen 2. It also has two USB 3.1 Gen 1 type A ports. Is the USB 3.1 Gen 1 type A port not fast enough for a raid 0?
 
Sterling Williams said:
This laptop does have only one port for TB3 and USB Type-C 3.1 gen 2. It also has two USB 3.1 Gen 1 type A ports. Is the USB 3.1 Gen 1 type A port not fast enough for a raid 0?
Click to expand...

1 good SATA SSD(evo 860 2 TB) can saturate a USB3.1 gen 1 port. Save the combined TB3/Type-C for an external GPU.
 
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