Solved Black Friday Desktop Comp Deals - Which is Best?

I was wondering when I would get my next report from you, and a bit scared to hear if it all worked out :woohoo:
I'm glad it is working for you

The best workflow for fast Video Editing and Rendering is to use a one way flow direction, which makes sure your Drives can run at maximum speed. This means using 2 separate Hard Drives. If you only use ONE drive to read and write at the same time, the Read/Write speeds are cut in half because the play/record head in drive has to keep skipping backwards a forwards. Please note that I am only talking about what happens when you are actually editing. It is not a strict rule for all the time.

Drive 1 is what all your Source Media Files should live on - this is a Read Only drive.
Drive 2 is what the rendered videos are being Saved to - this is a Write Only drive.

On your computer, Drive 1 would probably be the 2TB internal Hard Drive.
Drive 2 could be the External Drive.
Ideally when you save up some more money, I would recommend installing a 2nd internal Hard Drive in your computer. This is very easy to do and would give you much faster performance than using External Hard Drives.

When you are finished rendering, you may then like to move the new videos files from Drive 2 back onto the Drive 1.

If you are using External Hard Drives, make sure they are connected to the blue USB 3.0 ports if your Hard Drive supports this - this is 10x faster than USB 2.0

I am interested to know how the Factory set up your Folder Locations, because you have an SSD and HDD.
I am going to show you now, how I have my default Windows folders set up on Windows 10. If you computer is not already set up like this, I would recommend making the change right now.

Open file explorer (press Windows Start button bottom left)
Select This PC (this use to be called Computer or My Computer on older Windows OS)

Here are all the folders that should be located on your D Drive (2TB Hard Drive).
I am assuming your 2TB hard drive will be the D drive - you can work this out fairly easily.
Downloads
Documents
Music
Pictures
Videos

I also would like to see how they have set up the folder structure on the D-drive.
In the screen shot below, double-click the D-Drive
What is the first folder that appears next ?
Keep double clicking each new folder until you get to: Downloads, Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos



Right-click each of the main Windows Media Folders with red arrows one at a time and select Properties
Then go to Location tab
What you should see is a D at beginning of each folder address and not a C.
C means the folder is on much smaller SSD drive.

This is the folder structure I use on my own computer for the D-drive
D drive is first
Users is next
User Name is next (what ever your user name is)
Then finally I have each major Windows media folder, like Documents

D
Users
User Name
Downloads, Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos



If any of these main folders are still on the C drive, press MOVE and then say yes to everything that it asks you.

If this is too overwhelming (it can be for some) and you are hesitant to move folders, wait until I do a video tutorial on this topic next week.
Next week I will be talking about Windows 10 and how to set up things properly.

Regards
Derek.

HI Derek, See the pics - when I did it I did not get any other text after the / so I am hoping it is correct
This is what it looks like before move





This is what it looks like after move

The after the move pic

Your screen showing afterwards is not correct.
I made it too complicated - sorry about that.
What you should have done is replace C in the address with D and then press Move - that's it.
If the folders did not exist on your D drive, it would have asked is it OK to create them and then copy and move all files.

Do this:
Go to This PC
Double-click D-Drive
Create folder "Users"
Double-click Users
Create folder "mike"
Double-click mike
Create folders Downloads, Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos

Your new folders are now ready.

Now press This PC again
Right-click each folder I marked with read arrow (Downloads, Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos) and go to Properties/Location.

Copy this address into each location and press Move and say yes to what it asks. Everything should work this time.

Downloads new location =
\Users\mike\Downloads

Documents new location =
\Users\mike\Documents

Pictures new location =
\Users\mike\Pictures

Music new location =
\Users\mike\Music

Videos new location =
\Users\mike\Videos

After this has been completed, you may end up with duplicate folders on your D-drive.
All the ACTUAL folders will be located inside of \Users\mike
If you open the D-drive and see Downloads, Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos sitting outside of Users folder, you need to delete these! HOWEVER, only delete once you know for sure that they are inside \Users\mike

ok I did and this is a pic of where it is and how they are named. Hopefully it is good now.

That looks very good now!
You can safely begin to move files from your old computer and drives onto the new system

Thanks Derek - so...if I saved and created projects on an external drive, I would attach the drive and save those projects on D now correct? And move all vid and audio clips as well to D?

Drive 1 (D-drive) is what all your Source Media Files should live on - this is a Read Only drive.
Drive 2 (External drive) is what the rendered videos are being Saved to - this is a Write Only drive.

Yes move all your existing Videos/Music files/Pictures on to the D-drive.

When you are finished rendering, you may then like to move the new videos files from Drive 2 back onto the Drive 1 and into Documents or Videos. The choice is yours. Everyone likes to use their own particular workflow that works best for them and makes sense to them.

If you are using External Hard Drives, make sure they are connected to the blue USB 3.0 ports if your Hard Drive supports this - this is 10x faster than USB 2.0

Kapow! Out of the ballpark Derek! Appreciate the input and info so I can set up this new comp in the right way that will do the work efficiently and make the best use of the resources to get the vid editing done quickly and easily (I hope).