Shure SM7B vs. Electro-Voice…
Jun 02, 2021
Production and Creative
The SM7B and RE20 microphones from Shure and Electro-Voice are the benchmark dynamic mics…
Rad Beats is Always Droppin' the Latest Tracks
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- Category: Fresh Cut Fridays
Coffe Mugs Made from Recycled Coffee
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Key & Peele - Substitute Teacher Part 2
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Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD Review
The Crucial MX500 is a 2.5 inch SSD designed to be installed inside a notebook computer. We tested it by upgrading the hard drive in a Dell Precision 7720.
The internal style of SSD has a smaller profile than an SSD you might install inside a desktop computer. It can be used in both but is designed for tighter installations than you typically see with a desktop computer. That's why the MX500 includes a 7mm to 9.5mm spacer. By making the SSD profile smaller and including the spacer this SSD allows for more installation options. We did not need the spacer for installation in the Dell Precision 7720, but we did use it for a better fit.
Crucial includes a download link optimization software and Acronis for easy imaging of existing drives you'll be replacing.
It took less than 10 minutes to replace the Hitachi HDD in the Dell Precision 7720. Simply remove 4 screws to release the HDD bracket from inside the computer and another 4 screws to remove the existing HDD from the bracket. Replace the HDD with the Crucial MX500, put everything back together and your ready to format.
We originally had an SSD for Windows 10 and our Apps and a 1TB 7200RPM Hitachi HDD for our data. This is a pretty typical setup for many users that want a fast boot time and maybe don't have the need to move large amounts of data. For us, our laptop is often used for video production and media management so speed is a priority.
Moving files to and from the internal 7200 HDD was too slow for our needs. For example, we recently tested copying 84GB of media files, 472 total files, from the internal SSD to the internal HDD and took 11:48. After replacing the HDD with the Crucial MX500 into our system we were able to move that same batch of data in 3:06 about a 4X improvement. The 420 MB/s speed was a welcome improvement over the 125MB/s we were getting with the mechanical HDD.
Check out the full lineup of Crucial 2.5 SSDs here
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G-Drive Mobile SSD R-Series 1TB Review
The G-Drive SSD R-Series includes a USB-C port and is USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt 3 compatible. It includes a couple really short cables. The R stands for rugged and it comes in a very attractive case that feel plenty sturdy. The R-Series also boasts P67 water and dust resistance, 3-meter drop protection3, and a 1000lb crush-proof rating. Although we would advise pushing any of these claims. Keep it in your backpack.
We love this little drive. It's small, lightweight but sturdy and really fast. We absolutely love this for backing up media in the field. If you think USB 3 was slowing you down, you're wrong. It's plenty fast. The problem has been the slow external media you've been using. 7200RPM drives just don't cut it anymore.
For example, compared to a 7200 RPM G-Drive mobile HDD the Mobile SSD R-Series, the SSD was nearly 4X faster. For example, on a video shoot you have to manage media throughout the day. We recently did a shoot where each break we were moving about 100GB to and from our laptop. We dump the media to the laptop, back up to the internal SSD and then to external media. So at any given time the media is on 3 storage devices. We tested transferring 84GB of media this way using the G-Drive SSD compared to the G-Drive 7200RPM HDD.
Moving 472 files totaling 84GB took 11:48, let's call it 12 minutes, to backup to an external 7200 RPM G-Drive Mobile. Backing up that same batch of data to the G-Drive Mobile SSD R-Series took just 3:19, let's call it 3 minutes, so you're looking at roughly a 4X speed difference. Since we do media management throughout the shoot day. That time savings really adds up since we do media management a few times a day. Plus when we get back to the edit suite it's a lot faster to ingest the media into our NLE system.
Over the years, we've only had a couple of issues with flash memory where we experienced catastrophic failure, both with 64GB compact flash cards and not SSDs, however we're always mindful of having our media on multiple storage devices to minimize the risk of loss.
The G-Drive SSD R-Series has a very attractive design and it's smaller than anticipated, about ¾ the size of typical SSD. The 1TB series works well as a shuttle drive moving files from our field laptop to the NLE system in the studio. It rarely push this capacity because we're not using it as a storage drive and this extra headroom should allow for long term performance.
If you're still using mechanical HDDs in the field for media management we highly recommend considering moving to an SSS solution like the the G-Drive SSD R-Series. We love this little drive.
Check out the full lineup of G-Drive R-Series SSDs here.
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Nvidia Quadro P4000 Review
We like the single slot GPU because it allows us to use all the available PCIe slots in our system, it's not as power hungry as larger two slot designs and we think these cards really hit the price/performance sweet spot. We tested the P4000 in a Supermicro workstation sporting newer components, SSDs and plenty of memory.
The line between professional and consumer use of advanced GPUs is blurring as players become creators. Once upon a time it was enough to just be a gamer with your specialized rig dominating Fortnite at high frame rates. But these days players like to capture gameplay in OBS and stream on YouTube. When they're not streaming live they might be making tutorials or music mixes featuring game play highlights. Of course, you have to build cool intros and outtros in Afer Effects, Cinema 4D and Blender. And to do that you'll need lots of plug-ins to make your stuff standout.
In this new emerging world of creator/players sharing game experiences and derivative creativity, a GPU that can handle professional apps and gameplay is very attractive. That's where the P4000 shines. You can be an After Effects artist or Cad god by day and still blow off some steam with game play at night, all with a high level of peroformance. That's pretty much what we did with the Quadro P4000.
We ran After Effects, Cinema 4D, Blender, OBS, Fortnite, Roblox, Vegas Creative and myriad orther creative and gaming experiences. What we found was the Quadro P4000 was a reliable workhourse that performed well and performed just fine when running these apps simultaneously. We'd have a render cooking in After Effects while live streaming and recording Fortnite using OBS. No glitches, no delays and smooth as butter at high frame rates. 
Our supermicro workstation has robust mid case cooling and exhaust fans running at quiet levels and did not have to ramp up for extra cooling nor did we hear the quadro fan ramp up during our testing running renders in the background during gameplay. Having a quality power supply, case and good airflow makes for a happy GPU too. So keep that in mind. Small cases with poor cooling and marginal power supplies are not a GPUs best friend.
The Quadro P4000 is a really good choice for a single slot solution that can run professional creative apps and provide a smooth gaming experience as well. For many users there is little need to go beyond this level of peformance unless you've got the budget to spend or truly have the need for extreme GPU performance. Plus we love having all slots available in our system for high end audio cards and DSP processing. Long live the single slot GPU!
Check out the full NVIDIA Quadro lineup here.
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