I've heard that all project assets should be stored on a separate "scratch" disk for the sake of increased performance. I'm wondering if that conventional wisdom holds even when your "scratch" disk is HDD and your internal disk is SSD. (I'm aware that the cost/capacity ratio is lower for HDDs. My question concerns performance issues, not capacity.)
Here's how my question originated: I am experiencing lag using my mid-2012 MacBook Air (i5, 8GB RAM) to edit Final Cut Pro X. I'm wondering if re-arranging my assets would stand a change of improving performance. Here's where things are right now:
- The application (the *.app file for Final Cut Pro X) is on my internal SSD.
- The library (the *.fcplibrary file) is on my thunderbolt-attached HDD.
- The digital assets (stills and video) are on the same external HDD.
My library file merely references the digital assets; I am not copying them into the resource fork. For that reason, my library file is small enough that I could store it on my local drive. The new arrangement would be:
- The application (the *.app file for Final Cut Pro X) is on my internal SSD.
- The library (the *.fcplibrary file) is on my internal SSD.
- The digital assets (stills and video) are on the same external HDD.
So, would I be breaking some law of the universe with this configuration? And where did the conventional wisdom on "scratch" disks come from, anyway? Does it still apply to SSDs? (Again, in terms of performance only please, not capacity.)