Good point. I'm planning (hoping) to use a couple of 1TB, external USB drives, one an SSD, the other an HDD, or in a pinch, an internal 1TB HDD I already have.

I just replaced the hard drive in my wife's laptop (which I might use for editing if we ever leave the house again).

Crucial 250GB MX500 2.5" Internal SSD (Boot Disk)

Crucial 500GB P1 NVMe M.2 Internal SSD (Project Source) 

The cost was ~$117 plus tax, no shipping. Though this NVMe disk is not the fastest on the market, it will be significantly faster than the one SATA disk that you listed.

I like to boot from a moderate sized disk, SATA is fine, and leave all project files on other disks. It makes saving system image backups easier. On my workstation, I boot from a 250GB Corsair Force LE and use an Intel 750 for video. That's not the low cost solution, though. Brands don't mean a lot to me.

john_dennis: I've saved all my data files on non-startup disks for a while--everything from Word files to video projects. But I had the impression that the disk where my OS was installed had to be pretty fast.

Just to clarify: Are you saying that the system disk does not necessarily have to the fastest one you have? I suppose with video files getting as big as they are, that might be the case.

Thank you for the reply.

1) NVMe disks excel at very large file transfers with deep queues.

2) The difference between SATA and NVMe for small file transfers is less dramatic.

The O/S and applications are riddled with small files. Though the NVMe disk is faster overall, you're less likely to notice a difference if the O/S and applications are on a SATA SSD. The motherboard you have has only one M.2 slot. Verify that it supports NVMe before you buy.

I also appreciate all thoughts as I am about to get a new Veg 17 box built as soon as possible. I explained this in my thread Help Martin to spend his dimes wisely. I'll follow this one too.:)

1) NVMe disks excel at very large file transfers with deep queues.

2) The difference between SATA and NVMe for small file transfers is less dramatic.

The O/S and applications are riddled with small files. Though the NVMe disk is faster overall, you're less likely to notice a difference if the O/S and applications are on a SATA SSD. The motherboard you have has only one M.2 slot. Verify that it supports NVMe before you buy.

Thank you for that, John. I basically picked that MOBO because it's not too expensive. Are there any other features/functions a MOBO needs for Vegas? I'm not really sue what you're saying about SATA vs NVMe disks. It sounds like NVMes would be better for a non-OS disk used for file storage and video playback. Would the SATA be better for the OS?

I can't read the image you posted. Can you tell me what info it has?

BTW, I'm also guessing about the PSU and Fan. How do I tell how much I need there?

@Widetrack

"I basically picked that MOBO because it's not too expensive."

I thought you might be price sensitive. That's why is suggested a moderately priced SATA and NVMe combination for storage devices since I just bought these two devices. I put them in a laptop so I wasn't going for the pinnacle of performance. The laptop chipset has an 1800 MB/s bus limitation which matched the limit of the Crucial NVMe disk well. The NVMe disk will improve performance where it's really needed; large file transfers.

"It sounds like NVMes would be better for a non-OS disk used for file storage and video playback."

Actually, NVMe disks are somewhat better in every respect. Because of the price premium, it's best to use them where they will do the most good.

If you choose to stay with a single 1 TB disk and partition it into a Boot partition and a Data partition, Consider this:

Crucial 1TB P1 NVMe M.2 Internal SSD for $99.95 or...

Samsung 1TB 970 EVO NVMe M.2 Internal SSD for $169.99.

"I don't personally think the Samsung price premium is warranted." he said, after spending $349 for a 400 GB Intel 750 thirty months ago.

"I can't read the image you posted."

Did you click or double click on it so the host site presents the full resolution image?

My next upgrade is Q1 2021. I refuse to even look at a motherboard for another year. Only two things have caused me to read about future hardware...

1) 10 GBe 2) DDR5 to support the bandwidth requirements for massive numbers of cores.

PS

No matter what type of device you use for your O/S-Application drive, you can always move most of your pagefile and application work spaces to your fastest disk up to the point of contention with other processes.

If I only have one motherboard m.2, I get a 512gb MVMe and make it my c: drive for the os. But pcie m.2 boards are plentiful and cheap so you can always throw one in an x4 slot for a work d: drive... I usually go for a 2tb one there. But the truth is that Vegas doesn't really perform any differently if you use a high quality sata ssd like a Samsung 860 for your work drive and they are less expensive, come in higher capacities, and don't run as hot.

john_dennis: Thank you for the help. I'm slowly starting to get the details of this. I have a couple questions, if you would be so kind.

"...you can always move most of your pagefile and application work spaces to your fastest disk up to the point of contention with other processes." I have almost no idea what "pagefile and application work spaces" mean or how I would determine degree of "contention with etc...".

"1) 10 GBe 2) DDR5 to support the bandwidth requirements for massive numbers of cores." Can you say this in simpler terms, please?

I get that 4k video needs huge storage/memory space and fast-as-possible data transfer, apparently satisfied only by SSD storage. The systems I see often have an SSD where the OS and Apps reside, and one SATA HDD, presumably for longer-term storage. So is the workflow to load new footage onto the SSD, create the .veg file, do all the editing off the SSD, then finally store the whole mess on the SATA drive?

Thnx again for all your help.

Tim

I found this. does it look like a competent system for editing 4k and a reasonable price?

Dell XPS Tower Special Edition

• 9th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 9700 (8-Core, 12MB Cache, up to 4.7GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology)
• Windows 10 Home 64bit English
• NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 2060 6GB GDDR6
• 8GB DDR4 at 2666MHz; up to 64GB (Additional memory sold separately)
• 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (Boot)
• 2TB 7200RPM 3.5" SATA HDD (Storage)
• $1,371.99

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-desktop-computers/xps-tower-special-edition/spd/xps-8930-se-desktop

No visible specs for the MOBO, only 8Gb DDR4 RAM, don't know what the "GDDR6" means on the GeForce.

NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 2060 6GB GDDR6

Are you a gamer?

Otherwise I would go for a GTX (1660??)

No Gaming. Whatsoever.

That sounds like good advice, but this is a pre-packaged, as-is, take-it-or-leave it, thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down system.

If it will do well with VP17, and isn't over-priced, it would save me a lot of pain, problems and work.

What do you think?

In a few weeks I also let a new desktop build for me.
My choices are a little else

- Intel Core i7 (8. Gen.) 8700 / 3.2 GHz (12M Cache, up to 4.6 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology)
- Windows 10 Home
- 16 GB Intern geheugen
-  Behuizing inclusief voeding
- Taal toetsenbord optioneel
-   NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
-  HDD capaciteit 1 x 500 GB - solid state + 1x 2 TB HDD
-  16 GB DDR4
- optie voor meerdere trays voor HDD

Not the newest, not the fastest, but I think I will not need those the coming years for my hobby editing of video's for my children, grandchildren and myself. My wife is not so interested. 😇

I am in the same predicament as you, from on your last, uxorial, comment.

"I have almost no idea what 'pagefile and application work spaces' mean or how I would determine degree of 'contention with etc...'.

The pagefile (pagefile.sys) is a hidden file, usually in the root of the boot disk that Windows uses to manage memory. Windows can copy "pages" of data from real RAM to a hard drive to free space for O/S, applications and data. By doing, this Windows can over-subscribe real memory and allow more and/or larger applications to run without using all of real memory. Real memory has traditionally been a scarce and therefore expensive resource. Though, I have moved the pagefile on systems in the past, I haven't felt the need to do it since hard drive seek times were in the tens of milliseconds. Spend your time worrying about other things.

You could see "contention" for a disk when you have multiple applications that are reading and/or writing to the same disk. Once you reach a certain point the system spends more time trying to keep the process moving than it's worth. It might be quicker just to serialize the applications not to mention the fact that it stresses mechanical disk actuators. Here's an example of where I buried an excellent mechanical disk with reads and writes. Notice the write response time at ~90ms for many of the writes to D:. Even though the total throughput of D: is quite respectable for a mechanical disk, if your I/O is waiting for thousands of other I/Os to finish at 90ms each you might become frustrated.

"The systems I see often have an SSD where the OS and Apps reside, and one SATA HDD, presumably for longer-term storage."

Yes, the minimum configuration

"So is the workflow to load new footage onto the SSD, create the .veg file, do all the editing off the SSD, then finally store the whole mess on the SATA drive?"

Yes

" '1) 10 GBe    2) DDR5 to support the bandwidth requirements for massive numbers of cores.' Can you say this in simpler terms, please?"

10 GbE     Don't worry about it.

2) DDR5   It will probably be more than half-baked by the time I build my next machine in 2021.

On the Dell machine:

Get at least 16GB of dual channel memory. My wife's Dell laptop had 16 GB of memory but there was only one stick. I have to fix that when I get a round to it.

Holy cow, what a data dump! Thank you John, for the tutoriial. I realized halfway through reading that I had learnt the rudiments of page files back in the dim recesses of my memory, but your discussion added more to those basics.

By "dual-channel memory" you mean two 8GB sticks instead of one 16GB stick? Spreads out the workload, I'm guessing?

Looking at the jpgs of your system, I see you have two storage devices in addition to your :C drive. I am wondering if I can get away with using the SSD holding my OS and Apps as a work disk, along with an HDD for archiive.

Alternately,would a 1TG Samsung external (USB) SSD work well as a work drive? Would its transfer speed might be a problem.

thx again for the info.

@Widetrack

I am wondering if I can get away with using the SSD holding my OS and Apps as a work disk

Very important to keep it clean.
The first step I always make is to replace all the locations of C:\Users\username\ for Documents, Pictures, Video, Music a.s.o. to another Data disc.
On the Properies/Location tab of that location you find that replacement button

@Widetrack

I chose the Asus Z390 WS Pro workstation-class motherboard because it has a PLX chip which manages the Z390 & 9900K's limited 16-lane architecture.  You can check my other posts for more details...

@Widetrack

I am wondering if I can get away with using the SSD holding my OS and Apps as a work disk

Very important to keep it clean.
The first step I always make is to replace all the locations of C:\Users\username\ for Documents, Pictures, Video, Music a.s.o. to another Data disc.
On the Properies/Location tab of that location you find that replacement button

Yes! I never knew you could do that on the system level. Great suggestion!

@Widetrack

I chose the Asus Z390 WS Pro workstation-class motherboard because it has a PLX chip which manages the Z390 & 9900K's limited 16-lane architecture.  You can check my other posts for more details...

I will definitely check out your posts. thank you.

When I respond to someone's post, how do I get their @Soandso thing at the top?