Recommendations for a capture disk

My internal SSD has little space left. I have an external USB 3.0 disk, but the Blackmagic Speed Test says it's not fast enough for capture.

I was thinking about a Thunderbolt hub with a Thunderbolt disk, but this looks very expensive. I am instead looking to an SSD disk inside an USB 3.0 enclosure, because I don't have USB-C. Will this be fast enough for capture? SSD is fast enough, but is USB 3.0 fast enough?

I'm presuming you're talking about your computer internal storage?

Capturing to internal storage is not recommended. I never do it, and never plan to do it. You should always use external storage as best practice.

You mention "capture" but provide no further information. What are you capturing (file size, codecs etc)? How are you capturing? You need to know the data rates of your "captures" before any hardware recommendations.

A good place you have a look at suitable hardware is barefeats.com. Might give you a nice starting place.


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I used to capture 1080i on my internal SSD disk, but the disk is getting full. I need something else. As I said, the Blackmagic Speed Test said my USB 3.0 regular hard disk is not fast enough. I capture mostly from PS3 and S-VHS, not much HDMI, bitrate about 5-20 Mbps. It does not matter what quality I select in the Desktop Video. I was fine with my internal SSD, but I am asking if USB 3.0 is fast enough for HD capture.

My laptop has only USB 3.0 and one Thunderbolt port. But I don' t want to shell out for a Thunderbolt hub and disk, I am looking to a USB 3.0 enclosure with an SSD.

USB 3.0 is just the interface/protocol, there are many different storage devices that can be connected via that interface. The speed variations of storage devices can be enormous even though they are all using USB 3.0.

For 1080 captures (ProRes422) even USB 2.0 is fast enough, as long at the storage medium is also fast. So it sounds like you've got a drive designed for general purpose data storage and back up.

I'd recommend you get an SSD (SATA) to USB 3.0 adaptor and use SSD drives. Even the slowest SSD (solid state drive) is going to be faster than a HDD (hard disc drive).

Some SSD drives using USB 3.0 will even be fast enough for 4K capture and playback.


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A lot of USB 3 external drives are 5400RPM harddrives with 8mb cache.. The cheaper the better it sells

If you have a fast SSD drive on USB 3 it will be way faster.. Thunderbolt might improve some more.. But ESata is a winner i think.. Most current laptoprs have Esata, and for desktop machines you can buy a simple Esata back panel.. That you can connect to a free SATA port.. If you have 6Gbit sata ports and you get a modern SSD drive it is like you have a extra drive internally..

Thanks for your comments, everyone. I went for this cheap enclosure: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OJ ... UTF8&psc=1

Most people are pleased with it, but some techies complain about the chip on it. Weird that it is so cheap and it looks like there are not many other options to find.

Got it in the mail, but not yet installed and configured for video capture. 500GB SSD is enough for my videos. The hardware - "Works with Linux!" and everything is 100% perfect for my needs. https://imgur.com/a/SYLAt