Solid State Drives are not only faster, more reliable and compact in comparison with the traditional HDDs, but they are also catching up relatively quickly in terms of storage capacity, price and availability. It’s pointless to say that once you make the switch to SSDs, it’s really hard to look back.
The speed and overall performance this technology provide significantly outperforms traditional spinning drive storage solutions, especially when it comes down to playback, editing and rendering of UHD video content and beyond. With the recent announcements of 4TB and 6TB enterprise-class SAS SSDs by companies like SanDisk and Fixstars it’s clear that it’s only a matter of time before we get a reliable SSD equivalent for either home and professional use in terms of maximum storage capacities.
If you are in the process of building of a new editing station, or you are just upgrading your existing one, here are some of the largest capacity SSD options you can get right now.
Samsung 850 EVO 1TB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD
With the overall constant positive response and reviews it gets, the Samsung 850 EVO 1TB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD is one of the first available options that initially comes to my mind. This SSD is a true workhorse providing excellent performance regardless of the configuration. It features sequential read speeds of up to 540 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 520 MB/s which is perfect for storing huge chunks of 4K footage.
It also comes with 1 GB of low power DDR3 SDRAM used as cache memory to enhance processing speeds.
SanDisk Ultra II 960GB SATA III
Being one of the best budget options available with a retail price of $369 the SanDisk Ultra II 960GB SATA III features SanDisk’s own nCache 2.0 technology to further enhance drive speed and efficiency. The drive is also shock and vibration resistant and comes equipped with a SATA Revision 3.0 interface.
Samsung 1TB 850 PRO Series SATA 2.5″ SSD
This SSD features 32 layer 3D V-NAND technology that offers twice the speed and density of traditional SSDs and also provides the best-in-class 10 year warranty, but it’s a bit pricier compared to the other options. If the top performance and speed are your top priority, and you don’t mind to spend some extra cash than probably the Samsung 1TB 850 PRO Series SATA 2.5″ SSD will be your best bet.
Crucial BX100 1TB SATA 6 Gb/s 2.5″ SSD
The Crucial BX100 1TB SATA 6 Gb/s 2.5″ SSD is another cost-effective solution providing a reliability rating of 1.5 million hours.The BX100 SSD is over 15 times faster than a typical hard drive and delivers 535 MB/s sequential reads on both compressible and incompressible data.
With a retail price of $379 its almost half of the price of Samsung 1TB 850 PRO providing the same storage capacity.
Digistor 1TB SSD Drive Professional Series
The 1TB SSD Drive Professional Series for 4K Video Capture from DIGISTOR is designed to provide performance in critical uncompressed video capture applications, and it’s also certified for use with the BMCC 2.5 and BMPC 4K in Raw and ProRes recording mode. This single SSD can record either compressed or uncompressed video effortlessly and can be also used in conjuction with 4K recorders such as the Atomos Shogun, your editing workstation included.
With the given performance, steadily dropping prices and improving features, it’s clear that the gap between the relatively new SSD technology and traditional spinning disks is constantly narrowing.
Alongside the wide adoption of 4K acquisition and growing demands for faster, better and more reliable technology, we shouldn’t be surprised that Solid State Drives are becoming an integral part of every modern post-production facility these days.
B&H Order Links:
Samsung 850 EVO 1TB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD
SanDisk Ultra II 960GB SATA III
Samsung 1TB 850 PRO Series SATA 2.5″ SSD
Crucial BX100 1TB SATA 6 Gb/s 2.5″ SSD
DIGISTOR 1TB SSD Drive Professional Series for 4K Video Capture
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