External SSD vs internal HD

dritter

It seems very complicated to install a solid state drive inside of my iMac(2011 version), so I am considering an external SSD. Would a thunderbolt connection to an external SSD have a higher data rate than an internal HD? Has anyone tried this model: la Cie Ruggged with Thunderbolt connection.
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10599

I have just started working with 1920x1080 footage within Isadora and I am mixing two 25 fps HD movies (photo-jpeg, 50%) from a single internal drive and it plays fine, but when the compression is 75% the frame rate drops to 20 fps and the fade-in of a second movie falters a bit at startup. The iMac has 2.7 Ghz Intel Core i5, 8GB ram and built-in hard drive. My question is if the slowdown is being caused by the CPU’s speed or the hard drive? If it is the drive, then hopefully the external SSD would solve the issue.

thanks for comments,
Don

[NOTE: edited by mark to remove all the blank lines]

dritter

sorry for all the spaces in my original message. I cut and past it from MSword. Not sure why this happened.

vanakaru

Generally using external drives is good solution. I would search for the speed specs on your iMac SATA bus versus your iMac Thunderbolt and decide from there. If you have the LaCie alrady then run a test

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blackmagic-disk-speed-test/id425264550?mt=12

Also I would search and test what codec HD movie will perform the best. For instance ProRes or DXV(not DivX) or HAP may work better than PhotoJPG(but not always).

dritter

thank you, no I haven't bought the drive, I wanted to be sure it would improve the performance. I just found this test, so it seems it will be twice as fast as the internal HD

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/review/lacie-rugged-usb3-thunderbolt-review-benchmarks

fubbi

might wanna wait for this little beast. It doesn't get any faster than this, not even with PCIE ssd cards.

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10621

fubbi

crystalhorizon

fubbi, thats really a beast!

MatthewH

Given that the Lacie you linked to will likely cost most of what the original poster's entire iMac cost it is probably not worth waiting for. For typical playback applications that TB2 Lacie unit would be beyond overkill. I have a couple of the thunderbolt rugged portable SSDs and they do the job pretty well