SSD impact on Vegas editing/preview
 

With SSD drives runnning about $2/GB, I recently purchased one for my daughters crashed laptop. She treats that laptop more like an iPod than a PC, so I am hoping it will show some added endurance.

With that in mind, I am curious if anyone has used an SSD with their edit system. My novice investigation shows that large file read times are exceptionally fast, but writing can be flat. Sound like a match made in editor heaven for source material.

Thanks to all that contribute here.
Mike

I don't know. The below article is from May, and according to it the Velociraptor (at the time of writing) was still best, except for the below drive, which I think was listed for around $1K at that time.

Memoright SSDs: The End of Hard Drives? : The HDD is Beaten - Review Tom's Hardware

It does appear the SSD drives are a-comin, but the ones that are affordable are not as fast as the Velociraptors. If anyone has more current information I'd also be interested. In all truthfullness, I do love my Velociraptors, and can't see replacing them until I've gotten my money's worth.

I found the 32GB version for $709. It is my opinion if you have the Velociraptors already, that money would be better spent on an i7 processor than SSD drive, and it would have much more benefit to preview performance. Unless you're running slow drives to begin with. Then I'd think you'd be better of purchasing a Velociraptor and upgrading to the i7 configuration

If you have not seen this SSD demo video, it is pretty saavy salesmanship.... even if the vid quality is lacking :-)

YouTube - Super Talent SSD Paint Shaker Video

Great marketing for a laptop drive...for desktop not as big a deal. With a laptop the SSD would be perfect, that is fer sure!

FYI, 300GB VelociRaptors at newegg for $199 after rebate (max 2 rebates) until 1-25-09

Thanks Michael. That is sick. I paid $300 for mine! I just couldn't wait at the time, as I had just upgraded. Plus I love fast hard drives.

thought id bump this.
Has anyone jumped on the SSD wagon recently???
The reviews now are saying the speed is unbelievable. That once you use a PC with an SSD system drive you wont go back.
Are they that much faster? Would this translate to better previewing and render times in Vegas?
Will it perform better than my Raptor?
thoughts people?

would be interesting to have a small drive for on the fly edits

during the last 6 months I've purchased 2 SSDs. One is a first generation Intel, the other is the new 2nd generation Intel (I'd read that Intel SSDs were the best at present). I use the first gen SSD as a boot for WinXP-32 bit (for programs that don't work well in Win7-64bit), and the new one for Win7-64 bit.

I don't recommend using SSDs for WinXP alone, for only Win7 has TRIM. TRIM actually clears the data from cells when a file is deleted instead of merely marking the cells as "available" when a file is deleted in other OS (such as WinXP). This difference makes a huge difference within a few months of use, for the the cells remain as responsive as when new if they are cleared of data each time a file is deleted.

So the bottom line? My 2nd gen SSD failed during a spectacular thunderstorm. As always, I had a recent image of that Win7 boot disk so I was back in business in a few minutes, albeit with a regular 7200 rpm spinning disk.

I could hardly stand using that disk - I had become so spoiled by the SSD. I didn't mind too much that the boot time was 4 or 5 times longer; but I became antsy every time I had to open a program. I seemed like my computer was working under thick molasses. I do a lot more on my computer than merely operate Vegas - having installed perhaps a hundred or so programs - each of which seemed to take ages to open with the spinning disk.

Thanks goodness, Intel promptly sent a replacement.

I must admit, that my read times - important for booting and opening files - have declined as the disk has filled. By putting all optional file-creating processes (such as Vegas temp files, etc.) off onto spinning disks, I've managed to keep my 80gigs with about 19gigs free. Nevertheless, read times have dropped from about 155MB/S down to 68 on my 2nd gen SSD. My first-gen SSD yields a read speed of 70 MB/S at present - similarly full (I use a separate partition on it for my 12GB page file for Win7, in addition to the WinXP system files).

However, the almost zero seek time still gives me fantastic performance for opening programs. Most open almost instantly. Vegas is a bit of an exception - my first opening of 8C after reboot takes 5 seconds to fully open; not too shabby, but not quite as good as when my SSD was almost empty.

All in all, I'd never ever go back to spinning disks for boot.

However, I don't think they are a good choice for creating a project - at least in my case. Many of my projects are huge, and I often need to go back and re-edit after collaborators give feedback - sometimes months later. I just can't afford to keep huge projects on expensive SSDs that long.

Instead, I put my .AVIs from one camera on one disk, from the other camera on a second disk, and my stills on a third disk. Doing so avoids the thrashing about of the head that is required during rendering (and previewing) when all of the files are on a single spinning disk. By using the several disks, it seems to me this has helped give me stable editing and rendering.

While on the topic of stability, I also create intermediates - usually PicVideo but sometimes Cineform - for all my video files so that only a single video codec is on the timeline for any given project. During the creation of the intermediate, if I'm using a green screen, I also add a pinch of chroma blue and saturate the greens so that when I put the intermediate on the timeline much of the heavy CPU work already will have been done, reducing the CPU load when the actual chromakey process is invoked. I also do whatever white balance and/or color correction that may be needed during the creating of the intermediate file.

I then edit in 8c - rock solid for me when the above procedures are followed. But I render in 9c-64bits - again rock solid for me (admittedly, I avoid really large stills, or else render the pans that I want to do with them in 9B-64 bits).

By following these procedures, I enjoy trouble-free video editing (so far!) plus the instant-open feature of SSDs when opening the many programs that I use. I've never been more pleased than now - much thanks to the SSD boot disks.

I'm desiging my new system so I'm also very curious about SSD usage. Anyone else install an Intel SSD for their boot drive?

I'm also considering a Velociraptor HD for just the boot drive.

Thanks.