Optimize your system for FCP X

Single 8800GT with two monitors does the green frame thingy too.

Hi,

This seems to be the most relevant post I could find to hopefully answer my query.

Looking to purchase a new Retina MBP to use as my main system for fcpx / motion 5 / etc use.

Already confirmed that i'll be increasing the CPU & RAM specs as high as possible but still undecided over the SSD drive. Standard is the 512GB SSD. The only upgrade available id to 768GB SSD for an additional €500.

Would be fine with spending the extra cash but is it really necessary? Keep hearing that normally for editing an External HDD is a must but given the new MBP is all solid state, wouldnt it make more sense to work internally (depending on size of the project obviously).

Would it make more sense to get the 768GB so wherever feasible I could store all my events & projects or just stick with the 512GB & pretty much always work externally?

Thanks all

Pacegian, Given the additional cost of upgrading the flash drive in the rMBP, I think I'd opt to purchase an external ssd drive with either a thunderbolt, USB3 or a firewire 800 I/0. An external drive gives you extra flexibility, and faster speeds even for the rMBP. Moving media to an external drive (recommended) will increase speed as it separates program from media read writes. It will also make it easier to work on projects on another computer. While the TB interface (fastest 10Gb) would put you over the 500 euro($625.00 US) upgrade amount, a USB3 or FW800 external ssd drive can handle file transfer and save some money over opting for the 762Gb upgrade. Ssd prices are coming down. I have a 2.3GHz/16GB rMBP and I am happy with FCPX even using a spinning hdd via USB3. Actually faster than my MP. A ssd for my external bay is next on upgrade list. Have fun.

Ok so this may seem like a stupid responce but I need this broken down into terms I can understand. I just purchased a Macbook Pro 15 in Retinia 2.7 ( turbo to 3.7 ) Quad 16g of ram. And final cut pro x is definately running faster than on my 2011 imac. however some of the effects still drag a little bit. I want to run the program off an external drive to save speed and storage. im concidering a LaCie d2 USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series 3TB External Hard Drive But the market seems packed with drive options that IDK what to look for to make my editing more efficent? Can you guys give me some guidence please. So lost.

Hi tl.
Congratulations on the new rMBP, think you will love it. What effects are you using causing a lag (drag/stutter/spinning wheel)? What codecs are using? Haven't really faced any such issues, but the cause may or may not be related to hardware but to software/codecs/effects used. FCPX generally works very well unless you have a corrupted file or shoving massive 2or4K files at it. You can always use either pro res or proxy files if needed.
Moving media files off internal will save space, but will not necessarily speed up FCPX unless the ssd drive is totally full and it is having a hard time swapping pages (ram swaps, use activity monitor and check for pages in/pages out and ram usage under system memory tab)
As to using an external drive, your transfer speeds will depend on 1) type of files 2) type of drive(s) in your external drive 3) to raid or not to raid 4) the i/o port utilized.
You say you want to run the "program off an external drive to save speed and storage", in reality you should store the media files on the external and FCPX and other applications should be on the internal drive.
FCP.co just posted a review of the G-Technology G-Raid 8 Terabyte Thunderbolt Drive, and BareFeats just did a review test of the LaCie D2 with ssd raid 0 here.... www.barefeats.com/hard165.html
Hope this helps. Greg

Hi thanks for the reply. I do love it very much. I tend to see the slow down when I use " SPLIT SCREEN X from " Crumple pop" and Volumetrix ( an assortment of light ray effects ) I was thinking maybe editing off of an external drive would free up some space. I have about 419GB of SSD left on my system ( out of the stock 512) So I wanted to beef up my storage and speed by editing directly off the drive. Its just that the market is so packed I had no clue where to start at a reasonable price. My projects are simi serious. Not my day job but I do edit weddings and different stuff for my job here and there. So nothing super long. my longest video has been 10 min. Im looking to spend about 300 or less if possible. Thanks again Greg for the advice!

pacegian wrote: ...given the new MBP is all solid state, wouldnt it make more sense to work internally (depending on size of the project obviously).

No, it would not make sense at all. An internal SSD drive still has the bandwidth bottleneck issue other drives do. It is about the data pipe, not the speed of the drive.

The OS drive has to run data back and forth for the OS and the apps running. That needs enough bandwidth to work smoothly. A fast SSD drive will help that go faster.

The multiple video and audio streams demanded of an NLE, no matter how fast the drive, can still eat up the data pipe very quickly. Which can potentially bog the whole system down. NLE, OS, apps, everything, all at once.

A separate drive is about freeing up bandwidth, not speed. So an internal SSD with an external SSD would be the optimal solution. T'bolt the fastest, USB 3.0 & FW800 being second choices.

So yes, you still want an external drive for Events and Projects.

I have a 15" rMBP with internal SSD and an external SSD. It screams. In my own test, Events and Projects on the internal SSD, that get either to plentiful, or timelines that get too heavy, will slow everything down. Moving them to an external does in fact help with overall system performance.

Some third party plugins do require a good bit of processing power, and a faster CPU/GPU will be the way to help those out.

Thanks for that insight Ben! Do you have a suguestion for a SSD drive. My price range is at about 300.

im looking at the LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt (120GB SSD)

Hey tl, you're welcome.
You still didn't say what video format you are using so not sure about read write speeds you need.
I personally haven't used the apps you say are causing issues, so this is just IMHO what may be going on.
If you are stacking both apps onto a clip then that is a lot of processing going on. From looking at the demo's on the websites, it looks as if both of the plug-ins are using Motion 5, (Not sure about Volumetrix) and have multiple filters effects rigged in. Split screen allows using multi cam clips in each window with lots of motion to boot. My guess is that both apps use a lot of processing power, hopefully handed off to the GPU.
Fire up Activity Monitor on top of FCPX, and set up the graph bars for memory usage, you can then play clip and see if it is maxing out all cores(you should see 8 bars) Switch off first one and then the other plug-in and see what happens. Still lag?
If you are using multiple clips in those apps, (a different clip in each of the split screen windows) you may experience the lags you mentioned. My guess is that using a fast external drive will improve your processing speeds. As Ben says, you are now facing i/o issues and better to have your media fed by other drives.
Which drive(s) you need for editing depends on video codecs/resolution etc... A USB3 7200rpm drive is totally fine for SD video but not for 1080p multi-cam. Forget about USB2 altogether as a video editing drive, ok for backup only.
Also, you will need to store the media somewhere as your internal drive will fill up fast. As it fills, even ssds will slowdown, not as drastically as a hdd will though.
I would also advise thinking longer term if possible about your future needs in selecting drives.
You will also want to get an additional backup drive to protect your work. This is in addition to any drives you use to cut a video on. The backup drive can be any drive, doesn't have to be super fast. If your file size is very small, you can backup/archive to dvds or SD cards. Keep these in case you need to re-edit in the future.
Hope this helps, have fun, Greg

Oh sorry I missed that part Greg. I'm getting a panasonic dmc gh3

AVCHD and h264 720 and 1080 at up to 72 megabits I believe. Sorry I'm not savy on the tech lingo. I was using a canon vixia hfs 200 waiting on the new camera but I just want to be ready when I start loading much better quality video from the new camera

Do your homework, shop around, get info from many resources. What codec your camera records in only determines if you're going to optimize, use proxies, or edit natively. Drives are still drives.