Drive assignments for PRE and PE 14 files

[Red Sanders]

I'm building a new video editing unit that will be running Windows 10, Premiere & Photoshop Elements 14. I'll have 8 GB of DDR4 RAM and a decent video card. My primary (C) drive will be Intel's 750 Series PCI-E Solid State Drive. I need to decide on the size and number of additional drives. I will be using a full sized case, which can easily accommodate multiple drives.

Some years ago, Harm Millaard posted a "Generic Guideline for Disk Setup". He suggested a very efficient arrangement would use four drives with the following file assignments: C: OS, Programs; D: Media, Projects; E: Pagefile, Media Cache; F: Previews, Exports. See: https://forums.adobe.com/message/2906955#2906955

In a more recent article by another author, it was stated that this arrangement is "old school" thinking, but I believe the article was more focused on Premiere Pro rather than Premiere Elements.

Is Harm's arrangement still relevant for my intended use, or are file assignments (and thus the number of hard drives) now different for PRE and PE 14?

Many thanks!
Raymond

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

I can only comment on my own setup which suits me. In outline:-

C: system drive, a 240GB SanDisk SSD, contains only the operating system and programs plus miscellaneous Windows temp files.
D: work in progress and system page file, a 150GB WD 10,000 rpm Raptor.
E: data drive, a WD 1TB Caviar Black HDD, used for everything else - miscellaneous data, downloads, etc.

Everything is backed up daily to a Synology DS412+ (RAID 10) which is also where I store all of my music, commercial videos, my archived videos etc.
The Synology unit is in turn backed up weekly to an external 4TB HDD.

[Steve Grisetti]

I'm for keeping it simple. You really don't need to have a separate drive dedicated to just caching data.

Here's how I work problem-free:
1) I keep my operating system and programs on my C drive. (In my case, a 500 gig hard drive.)
2) I keep my video and my video editing projects on my D drive. (In my case, a 500 gig hard drive -- but I've also go a third drive because I tend to edit a lot of video.)

No reason to get more complicated than that. The only challenge is that solid state drives tend to have less space on them so they fill up more quickly -- so you'll want to watch that.

But, with today's processors, there's no reason to get more complicated than that.

PS: Make sure you've got a good, fast processor and at least 8 gigs of RAM for smoothest performance.

[Red Sanders]

Thanks John and Steve, just what I needed to know! I've always very much appreciated the specific and timely help given here.

For others that might be interested in this thread, I failed to mention some things. I am not a gamer, and since I am led to believe that the processor and RAM are the most critical factors in video editing (with PRE and PE), thus my mention of a "decent video card". My primary focus is on editing personal home videos and pictures that I and other family members have accumulated for many years. I hope to share many of these on the web, for as with most families today, our family members are scattered all over the country.

Steve, the processor I'll be using is Intel's i7-5820 running at 3.3 ghz. It is a 6 core processor that handles overclocking and has 28 lanes. I vaguely understand the lanes and generation specs of PCIe cards and motherboard slots. Thus, I considered Intel's i7-5930 that has 40 lanes, but it's $200 more. Not knowing how much that would really improve PRE's and PE's performances, and given Steve's statement "...at least 8 gigs of RAM", I'm inclined to stay with the 5820 and boost the RAM to 16 GB.

I appreciate the advice on the size of the solid state drive, the one I'll be using is 400 GB.

John, I've been promising myself that I would learn how to set up a RAID system, and your system sounds great. But, at 73, I kinda have to study things a little longer and harder before it sinks in. In the meanwhile, I'm doing it the old fashioned way by frequently backing up my files to external drives, and keeping them off site.

Obviously, I am somewhat overbuilding this rig, but doing so really paid off when I built my last one in 2008. Only now am I having to replace it.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

John, I've been promising myself that I would learn how to set up a RAID system, and your system sounds great. But, at 73, I kinda have to study things a little longer and harder before it sinks in...

I'm no spring chicken myself!! But I have worked all of my life in IT so maybe that gives me a slight advantage.

[Steve Grisetti]

Red, you are definitely going to have power to spare!

[Red Sanders]

A vote of confidence that means a lot!!!