Today's Date: July 21, 2017
"USB 3.0 and Its Importance to Motion Picture Post-Production."
I came across this forum while searching for the fastest 3.0 SD card reader available. I'm aware that this thread was started in 2012, but I'm hoping to revive it. I found it quite funny that people were debating whether it was practical to switch to a USB 3.0 card reader. Yes, I'm aware that in 2012 that this may have been a factor for people who didn't want to spend a little more money to get the latest tech, even though it pays off in the end (if you're using your computer for a business that requires a very fast computer, such as in the film production industry). Reading these threads reminds me just how fast technology moves. USB 2.0 is now a useless, outdated data transfer option.
I am a cinematographer in LA, and I've been behind the camera for years. I've filmed multiple full-length motion pictures and a handful of television shows. Many of the cameras I operate (which capture video at 8K) don't use removable memory cards, but instead have an ultra-fast SSD with write speeds of over 1000 MB/s, which is absolutely necessary when you're filming in 8K. In the span of roughly 5 years, we have seen solid state data storage media gradually become the status quo. When I'm not filming on set or location with the 8K Red, I use my personal 4K video cameras which allow me to write the data to my SD card at speeds up to 280 MB/s, which is crucial to capturing ultra high resolution video. Video editing is my second job, so computer speed and data transfer speed is crucial to my business.
Whether you are an amateur videographer or a professional camera operator, if you want quality, you need a fast SD card, especially now that 4K has become the industry standard. If you have multiple hours of 4K video, you will fill up SD cards incredibly quickly. I often use my personal video equipment to shoot short films, commercials, and aerial video (with my DJI Inspire 2), so I spend a decent amount of time transferring the files on my SD cards to my solid state hard drives. I don't want to spend hours transferring files from the SD cards to the computer, so I am on the hunt for the absolute fastest USB 3.0 SD card reader on the market. Waiting for 10 hours of B-Roll footage to transfer is agonizing. I decided to build a new computer using only the best and newest technology available to the public. The USB 3.0 card reader is the last piece of my build, and I want the fastest one on the market. I figured I'd make up lost time by copying new files while rendering video simultaneously. I needed a computer that would blow away just about every other computer built using professional grade components. I ended up building my computer in July of 2017, designed specifically to edit and render 4K/8K video. I used the latest, fastest, and most ingenuitive custom components on the market, giving me the following specifications:
CPU: Intel Core i9-7900X X-Series (OC 4.5 GHz) Ten-Core LGA 2066 Processor
Motherboard: MSI X299-Gaming-M7 Motherboard
Graphics card: PNY Quadro M6000 workstation card with 24 GB GDDR5
Hard Drives: (2x) SAMSUNG 960 PRO M.2 2TB (read: 3500 MBps write: 2100 MBps)
Memory: 64 GB DDR4 @ 4 GHz (OC)
Cooling: Zalman RESERATOR 1 V2 Liquid Cooling System
Case: Antec Nineteen Hundred (Very Large)
Cooling Chamber: Custom built silent HVAC system with constant 55 degree, humidity optimized chamber
Artwork: One sticker which reads: "May cause severe envy."
The computer is in a custom built cooling chamber where air cooled to 55 degrees is vented into the chamber by a custom made fan and refrigeration unit. The compressor housing for the cooling chamber is mounted outside my home office for silent operation. It's very similar to a home HVAC system, but scaled down and easily mounted outside by drilling two 1/2" holes through the outside wall for the high pressure HVAC hoses.
I took the time to list the specifications of my computer setup so you can easily see that the computer was built with "bleeding edge" technology. This system will render 4K video faster than most high end PCs can render 1080p video. Once the video files are transferred to my system, post-processing / rendering is extremely fast. The bottleneck lies in the relatively slow 280 MB/s SD cards. A 280 MB/s SD card may sound like a speed demon, but considering my M.2 SSDs read at 3500MB/s, the SD card is well over 10 times slower. I literally spend hours at a time transferring files from my SDs to my computer. With solid state technology, I expected that extremely fast SD cards would be on the market by now. I managed to find 280 MB/s SD cards which have greatly sped up the transfer process, but I'm ready for cards that read/write at speeds of over 1000 MB/s to streamline the entire process.
If you care about what you're creating using your computer, don't skimp. Sub-par computer equipment will eventually cause you to loathe video editing and rendering. If your career is in the video production industry, it's worth the extra money to speed up the entire process. It makes your job easier, making your work feel more rewarding, and giving you more free time to live your life.
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