Thoughts about multiple drives via USB C

I am setting up my new notebook for video editing/photo editing and creating. I have my workstation setup with a OS/Programs drive, a 1tb projects drive and a 1tb scratch drive for resolve. Also I have a HDD for finished project storage. I am looking at getting some external drives for editing while on the move. What kind of loss will I see with 2 ssd via a single USB C port?

 

Well, you can do it pretty easily depending on your budget.

USB-C depending on your hardware / chip that controls it could net you 10gbps for gen2 and 20gbps on gen2x2.

The economical approach would be to get a dual drive enclosure to keep the port to a single cable use.

Depending on capacity needs / budget could relegate you to SSD over NVME but SSD still gets you good speed but, the fastest throughput would be the NVME

SSD = ~500-550MB/s (there's quite a few options the JMS580 works well)
NVME = ~600-800MB/s+ depending on the drive + enclosure (RTL9210 based enclosures)

The chipsets make a difference in the enclosure speed / stability as well.

Size of the enclosure might make a difference as well.

~$50 - 4 - bay 2.5" - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0711L68MS - using SSD's over HDD's keeps it lightweight
~$130 - 2 - bay NVME - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085NNYNQ4 - physically about the size of a single 2.5" enclosure

If you want something a little more off the shelf / pre-packaged

SD Pro 256GB - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N7QDO7M ~$60 but USB3 not USB-C though you do get roughly 300MB/s in both R/W real world performance
PNY Pro Elie 1TB - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KD7HGCX - ~$140 USB-C and ~800MB/s

These won't get you 2 drives into a single port though w/o a hub of some sort dangling off the side to get you more ports. The convenience though might supersede the ability to carry 2+ drives in a single port configuration.

With any drive enclosure over a single drive 2.5" you need an AC power wart to plug in to support consistent power. With that in mind something a bit more substantial might be worth a look like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WR8Y2GK $70 and if you want more bays/drives there are options up to 5 drives

 

I want to house a scratch and project drive for resolve, no need for massive speeds here. NVME is super overkill for this application. Alot of people use regular HDD and they speed up their work flow. So SATA ssd is more than enough. I guess, using two SSD in a single enclosure should do the trick on laptop then.

 

It's a toss up on how you want to do it then. For portability w/o needing the AC adapter I would go NVME but, if you're just sitting at a desk the Yotta enclosure would work well. If you went with the SD Pro / PNY options you wouldn't really need a scratch disk most likely. Also, if these projects are in a single location you could add a USB-C hub to add more 3.x ports through a single USB-C cable. Adding ports opens additional options as well such as an additional monitor or increased charging for devices.

 

My current hdd does not have a power adapter, it gets power from the computer

 

Single drive = no adapter
more than 1 = power adapter

The USB port won't provide enough sustained power for multiple drives w/ some exceptions like the dual NVME enclosure above. The only reason there's an AC adapter that comes with the VME Enc. is for disk duplication w/o being plugged into a PC.

 

ahhh gotcha. So If I get a dual NVME drive enclosure on the usb c drive I should be good, then attach my finished project drive into the usb a port.

 

Kind of sounds a bit disjointed.

If you're going to use the Kingston + NVME then you need a single NVME enclosure not the dual and a 2.5" enclosure for the A400.

If you want to keep it simple then go dual NVME and use 1 cable to connect them to the PC.

You didn't mention if you need 1TB drives or only need 256GB/ea. You can slap a dual NVME together pretty cheap if you don't need capacity and even w/ 2x1TB you're still in the $300 neighborhood for something that will last forever and have less points of failure.

The higher the capacity the more durability you'll find for the chip/controller for the writes you can do to them and the IOP's will be higher as well. The larger drives also tend to have a 3-5 year warranty on them vs the smaller being 1-2 years.

Alternatively you could also go M.2 Sata dual enclosure but, the price difference is negligible at this point and 1/2 the speed.

 

I am trying to get a dual SSD setup for not a lot of money, and where I don't need an extra power cord to run. I need 1tb drives for this setup.

 

Then M.2 - SATA or NVME

Unless you want to take up 2 USB ports with 2 enclosures.