External drive for 2013 Mac Pro

[RonaldSwanson]

Mac Pro Forum,

Huge fan. The 5,1 update to Mojave thread helped a ton with my personal Mac Pro.

My work has a 6,1 2013 Mac Pro that we're using in a studio. Its main purpose is to capture live video and audio to tape using MimoLive and Adobe Audition. The end result would be something like the Howard Stern Show or the Joe Rogan Experience.

The internal HD is 500GB, and I need extra storage to edit 1080p h.264 footage and the wave audio. I'd prefer not spending a lot of money on an external Thunderbolt 2 drive bay. With that said, we have a spare 500GB EVO850, and I was thinking to just add it to an inexpensive USB 3.0 enclosure and call it a day.

Will that thing be fast enough for what I'd like to accomplish?

I really appreciate the help!

 

[CC88]

In the past I have used this ICY Box https://www.raidsonic.de/products/external_cases/soho_raid/index_en.php?we_objectID=3239 with 2 1tb ssd 2.5" disk in raid0 and it was very fast (were using it for FCPX library for 4k projects).

Now I'm using it with 2 2.5" 250gb ssd in raid0 for my carbon copy clone of system volume.

I think you can use a 3.0 usb with a 500gb ssd with no problem for 1080p footage. Unfortunately I don't know about audio.

 

[axantas]

Simple answer: That´s exactly, what I do.
I cannot confirm, whether it is fast enough for you, but sometimes I even connect an old 2.5 harddisk to this kind of interface. Perfect solution for video editing to me...

 

[Selsk]

I would stay away from usb 3.0 storage on the 2013 nMP. There is only like one usb controller for all ports so it can throttle hard. For example, if I am importing photos from a usb 3.0 card reader and sending to my usb 3.0 HD it can take FOREVER. I would try to make use of the much more robust thunderbolt ports. Connect a USB-C SSD with the apple thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter and a thunderbolt cable. Or just go with a thunderbolt 2 dock and use the usb 3.0 ports on that.

 

[RonaldSwanson]

Connect a USB-C SSD with the apple thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter and a thunderbolt cable. Or just go with a thunderbolt 2 dock and use the usb 3.0 ports on that.

Thank you for all the replies! Selsk, would that adapter work? I only have Thunderbolt 2 ports (not usb-c), and thought that adapter only works with a male thunderbolt 2 that needs to go into a USB-C (Thunderbolt 3 port)?

 

[Selsk]

Thank you for all the replies! Selsk, would that adapter work? I only have Thunderbolt 2 ports (not usb-c), and thought that adapter only works with a male thunderbolt 2 that needs to go into a USB-C (Thunderbolt 3 port)?

Yea I was confused about that adapter as well. You need a drive that has a female usb-c port (aka TB3), and the adapter plugs into the drive. Then you use a regular thunderbolt cable from the adapter to your mac pro.