Need HDD setup help from FCPX user going to Resolve Windows

I am looking to switch from FCPX on Mac to Davinci Resolve 14 on Windows and needed some advice on HDD config.

For now I will be editing and publishing 4K footage from no more than 3 cameras (2 x Panasonic G85 and 1 x GoPro HERO 5).

Usually it is maybe 1-2 hour of footage max for each camera, usually synced multicam for the G85s and maybe some B-roll from the G85 & GoPro. Final output videos are usually less than 30 minutes. I only work on 1 or 2 projects at a time, and once published the final project can be archived to a NAS.

Export times are not as important to me as smoothness during playback/editing.

I am just trying to figure out the best hard drive config, as I have read varying advice with Resolve. Here is my system, though I am willing add/change hardware if makes sense:

Windows 10 Pro
Davinci Resolve 14 Free
Z370 Asus Motherboard with i5-8600K
16GB DDR4 RAM (can upgrade this to 32GB)
NVIDIA GTX 770 (will be upgrading to a better NVIDIA or AMD card in the near future)
2 x 512GB Samsung 960 Pro NVME SSD
2 x 512GB Crucial MX500 SATA SSD
Synology 1817+ NAS with many TBs available

Thanks,

Chris

You mentioned 4 SSD hard drives, but not your general system setup. What are these hard drives dedicated to at the moment?

Generally you might want a fast storage device for Resolve's proxy and cache files. So assigning one or two of your SSD drives would be a good choice for these files.

You mentioned 4 SSD hard drives, but not your general system setup. What are these hard drives dedicated to at the moment?

Generally you might want a fast storage device for Resolve's proxy and cache files. So assigning one or two of your SSD drives would be a good choice for these files.

This system has nothing but Windows 10 on it.

My question is more around how to use the NVME SSDs vs the SATA SSDs, specifically:

1. Should the Boot/OS drive be an NVME?
2. Sounds like the proxy/cache drive should also be NVME. Or should Proxy be one and cache another?
3. Should I use the SATA SSDs in a RAID 0 as an export drive, or is just one drive enough?

I notice you have a Hackintosh, as do I with this same hardware on a separate drive I didn’t mention. How do you like Resolve on the Hackintosh?

Chris

1. Should the Boot/OS drive be an NVME?

Personally, I have only one NVMe drive for OSX and for my Capture One catalog files. This way the system by itself "flies".

2. Sounds like the proxy/cache drive should also be NVME. Or should Proxy be one and cache another?

For proxy/chache files I use a single 2,5" SSD, but if I had a second NVMe, I would definitively use this drive for sure for all the cache media. I don't work on 4k timelines like you, but on 2,7k. For the sake of system performance I use cache media all the time (1080p, because my grading Monitor is 1080p as well) within Resolve but haven't done any multicam like you until today. So I don't have any experience with Resolve and multicam. I don't use proxy files neither, because I prefer user defined cache files.

3. Should I use the SATA SSDs in a RAID 0 as an export drive, or is just one drive enough?

It depends on you. Like you said earlier, you work on two projects simultaniously max. So a single 512 GB drive would offer enough space for your export files.

The Hackintosh works pretty nicely on the 2.7k footage I use. It was a little work getting all this stuff toghether in the first place, but in the end it was worth the efford. I just like OSX better and having a 6-core CPU for a reasonable price tag is just sweet. Resolve works so much better than on my old 27" iMac.

I would say have your boot drive on NVME. It'll just just help you get the best overall feel from your machine, especially if you don't have enough RAM. An NVME for media storage is overkill unless you're working with many streams of very high bitrate material.

You are best using the Optimized Media feature as the footage you're working with is compressed and very CPU intensive. I would suggest creating DNxHD media in HD resolution and to perform your editing within a HD timeline. You can always switch this up to UHD later for output. A single SSD will be able to handle many streams of DNxHD optimized media in HD res, so this format and should edit in multicam smoothly.

It's well worth you doing your own calculations. AJA has a great mobile app (AJA Datacalc) for calculating bitrate and storage requirements.

I would definitely recommend upgrading the graphics card next as a priority though, you'll get a lot more from your machine.

Thanks for all the advice.

I will look at using optimized media and upgrading to a GTX 1080 or Vega 56.

This is the drive config I'm going to try this weekend:

C: NVME for Boot/OS
M: SATA for Media
S: NVME for Cache/Scratch
E: SATA for Export