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A Quick Overview
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Best Overall - Editor’s Choice | Best external hard drive | Best internal hard drive | Best portable hard drive | Most durable portable hard drive |
| Check The Latest Price | Check The Latest Price | Check The Latest Price | Check The Latest Price | Check The Latest Price |
Our Reviews of the 5 Best Hard Drives for Video Editing in 2022
Best Overall - Editor’s Choice – Samsung 980 pro SSD
Highlights:
- Blazing fast transfer speeds of up to 7000MBps/5000MBps for sequential read and write.
- It is built with the latest PCIe Gen4 transfer protocol for optimal performance.
- It also comes with AES 256-bit encryption to ensure good data security.
Coming at the very top of my list is the Samsung 980 pro SSD. The specifications of this hard drive make it a video editor’s dream. Video editors appreciate the value of good hard drive read and write speeds and this hard drive delivers incredible sequential read/write speeds as high as 7000MBps and 5000MBps. These speeds are quite good for playback during video edit.
Apart from the fantastic speed resulting from the PCIe 4.0 x4 transfer interface, this hard drive has 256-bit encryption, which offers good protection for your videos files and other data. It comes in a range of 250GB to 2TB capacities. While the 250GB ROM size may not be enough for high quality videos, the 2TB is just enough to get your work done, even if you are editing 4K videos.
The only drawback with this hard drive is that its high specs can only work with sophisticated motherboards with the right NVMe slots.
Best SSD External Hard Drive – SanDisk Extreme Pro
Highlights:
- Optimized USB interface that is suitable for use for all kinds of computers.
- High transfer speeds of up to 2000MBps for both sequential read and write.
- Good ingress protection rating and warranty that certifies durability.
External hard drives come in handy when we don’t have the time to upgrade our inbuilt computer specs before working on a project. As far as external hard drives go, it rarely gets better than the SanDisk Extreme pro. This hard drive is perfect for video editors who need an extra room during and after editing videos and, hence, the best external hard drive for video editing.
The SanDisk Extreme Pro has an optimized USB interface that is suitable for both PC and MacBook. It has a sequential read-and-write speed of 2000MBps which is enough even for editing high-quality videos. Furthermore, there is no compromise on the durability of this hard drive because it has an IP55 Ingress Protection rating.
The SanDisk extreme pro is just what you need if you are looking for the best external hard drive for video editing in 2022.
Best Internal Hard drive – Seagate BarraCuda
Highlights:
- Fast transfer speeds for an HDD easily compliments the efforts of the RAM when editing videos.
- It uses the standard SATA interface, which means you can enjoy this hard drive without upgrading your motherboard.
- Good cache space that helps playback during video edits.
The Seagate BarraCuda makes it on this list as the best internal hard drive for video editing. Unlike the hard drives listed above, this one is an HDD. Although it’s a hard disk drive, it deserves its place on this list of best hard drives for editing videos, and you will know why.
This hard drive is made for the more common SATA interface on computer motherboards. However, you don’t have to upgrade your motherboard before you can enjoy the excellent read and write speeds for your video edits—the transfer speed of the Seagate BarraCuda clocks at 7200rpm. Video playback is also not an issue as the hard drive has a cache space of 256MB.
The Seagate BarraCuda comes in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB, and 10TB capacities. Although HDDs offer a lot more space than this, this hard drive offers the best value per cost, and it deserves its position as the best internal hard drive for video editing.
Best Portable Hard Drive – Samsung Portable SSD T7
Highlights:
- A lightweight external hard drive that is suitable for video editors on the move.
- A tiny but durable hard drive that assures the user of a long-lasting hard drive life
- Good data protection with 256-bit encryption and an optional fingerprint scanner for additional security.
For video editors who are always on the go and need a portable hard drive for video editing, this hard drive is just right for you. Again, Samsung’s class jumps out in this mobile and yet powerful SSD. The Samsung T7 portable hard drive is relatively tiny (the dimensions of a credit card) and is lightweight.
It has sequential read and write speeds of 1050 and 1000MBps respectively, suitable for video editors. In addition, the presence of aluminum chassis in this portable hard drive gives you an assurance of durability even when you need to move around with it.
The Samsung T7 is also well protected with 256-bit encryption, and there is also the option of getting this portable hard drive for video editing with a fingerprint scanner. Furthermore, this hard drive is compatible with the Type-A and Type-C USB interface on the computer side, making it usable for most devices that can be used for video editing.
Most Durable Portable Hard Drive - ADATA SE800
Highlights:
- Rugged features for video editors that are mobile when executing their projects.
- Good connectivity options with computer-side interfaces.
- Fast transfer speeds for moving large files and even playbacks during video edits.
A list of the best hard drives for video editing is not complete without mentioning ADATA SE800. This external hard drive combines productivity with durability and still weighs less than 2 ounces. The ADATA SE800 has an IP68 ingress protection rating which is the highest of any external hard drive. Hard drives for video editors who are always on the move don’t get any more rugged than this.
On the transfer front, this hard drive has a sequential read and write speed of 1000MBps, although it’s a little lower in real-life situations. The transfer speed is still fast enough for video editors, even though it can be better. This hard drive connects with the Type-A, and Type-C computer side interface for easy access.
If you are looking for a long-lasting, external, portable, good hard drive for your video editing projects, then this hard drive is just right for you.
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The read and write speeds of the hard drive dictates how fast a video editor can load raw video footage from the ROM for video editing apps.
How To Pick The Best Hard Drives
Making smooth video edits require top-notch computer specifications. While the ROM (read-only memory) specifications on your computer may look insignificant compared to the specifications of your processor or RAM when it comes to editing videos, a high-quality ROM will make your work a lot easier.
Choosing the best hard drive for video editing projects might just be the missing piece and hence the importance of learning how to choose the right one.
If you are here, then you are looking to choose a new hard drive. As a video editor, you have the option of either upgrading your in-built computer hard drive or getting an external one. Whether you are going for an internal hard drive or an external hard drive, there are some things you should put into consideration before making a purchase, and they are:
SSD or HDD
In simple terms, Solid State Drives (SSD) are a better and improved version of Hard Disk Drives (HDD). The key differences between the two are the read and write speeds. It is common knowledge that HDDs offer more storage space than SSDs, but SSDs are faster than HDDs. It’s not that simple for video editors, though.
Video editors have to choose the hard drive based on the function they want it for. As a general rule, video editors are advised to use SSDs to hold the file while working on projects (editing videos) and use HDDs for backup or long-term storage at the end of the project.
One hard drive can perform the functions of the other, maybe not as efficiently as you may want, so you can opt for one type of hard drive until you can optimize the use of both hard drives.
Size
The hard disk size you want should be determined by the function you wish for the hard disk to perform. In addition, you should know that the more storage space you want, the higher the cost incurred.
For SSDs, 2TB gives the best cost per storage space, which is quite adequate for most quality projects like 4k video edits. On the other hand, 16TB of HDD storage is also suitable for backup or keeping video files, although you can opt for more space.
Endurance and Warranty
Endurance in hard drives can be generally referred to as the total number of times you can overwrite the drive per day (1). The endurance of a hard drive is usually given with the warranty.
The endurance of your hard drive will give you a glimpse of how long and how well you can enjoy the hard drive. This goes without saying, but you should always go for hard drives with a more extended warranty and more extensive endurance.
Data Security
All hard drives have some sort of data security, but some are more secure than others. For example, video editors deal with sensitive files that shouldn’t be exposed to the wrong people, so there is a need for a well-encrypted hard drive. Some hard drives now even offer the extra protection of biometrics.
Price
Whether you want the HDD or SSD type of hard drive, the more the storage room, the higher the price. SSDs are costlier than HDDs. The difference in speed also comes into account when the price is being considered. Fortunately, the cost of both HDDs and SSDs is reducing due to more innovations.
Other considerations to be made before choosing a hard drive are particular to whether the hard drive you want is internal or external.
Picking the Best Internal Hard Drive
Hard Drive Slots on the Motherboard
We can quickly be excited by the specifications of a hard drive and forget the motherboard’s specifications. For example, AMD motherboards are designed differently from Intel motherboards and switching the hardware or hard drive, in this case, won’t work.
Apart from that, the motherboard model should be confirmed to be compatible with the hard drive you want to upgrade to. It will be such a waste to buy a powerful internal hard drive and not use it because of incompatibility. You can also avoid this altogether by getting an external Hard Drive.
Picking the Best External Hard Drive
Durable and Portable
After a product has met all desired specifications of a hard drive, we want to make sure that the hard drive can serve us as long as possible. If you opt for a desktop hard drive, you won’t be moving it around that much. On the other hand, you need the most rugged and portable hard drives you can find in the market if you move around with your hard drive.
Computer Side Interface
External hard drives also have computer side interfaces they are compatible with. Make sure to check the hard drive information and ensure it will work with your computer before buying one. A standard error people make is thinking thunderbolt ports are backward compatible with USB Type-C ports.
Both the external hard drive and internal hard drive can perform the functions for which you want it. Still, it’s necessary to consider the specifications of your computer and the hard drive before opting for either of them.
Yes, you can use HDD for video edits. While they may not be as fast as SSDs, they can work quite alright for video edits. There have also been improvements in their speeds in recent times.
Conclusion
Hard drives are as critical as any other computer hardware during and after video edits. Choosing a hard drive should be easy if decisions have been made on whether it’s internal or external, SSD or HDD, storage space, endurance, and so on.
I prefer the Samsung 980 pro SSD because of the blazing read and write speeds. Although it’s an internal hard drive, it meets all the requirements I want in a hard drive, and it comfortably edges all other hard drives on this list.
Do you prefer an internal or external hard drive? Do you have a favorite hard drive that’s not on this list? You can add your opinions in the comments.
References:
- Doug R. (2018 Nov). The great endurance race: SSDs in one lane HDDs in the other. Retrieved from https://www.micron.com/about/blog/2018/november/the-great-endurance-race-ssds-in-one-lane-hdds-in-the-other