Storing Large Video Files

DirtyBirdX · January 28, 2023

I am looking to add some form of storage for videos that I record of gameplays. I don't know what I need in all honesty. I've only ever used SSDs and HDDs around 2tb to 4tb. I was hoping for something higher, but there are so many options and I have no idea which ones are actually good. I plan on recording gameplay in 4k at 60fps or higher(if possible). I've looked into RAID setups but I don't know if that is what I need or if that is for something completely different. I'm not *too* concerned about price, but I would like to try to keep it under the $500 mark if possible. What should I be looking for? Speed? Read and write times? How many times it can be written to? Should I have several different storage devices? Should I look for internal or external drives? I am lost in a sea of options! I appreciate everyone's future help on this!

Below, I've provided the current specs of my PC in case that's important or helpful to get better results from you guys!

I currently have the ASUS Z690 Hero, and have one sata SSD (for OS), two 2tb 990 pros for games and apps. I believe the case has room for three or four internal HDDs. My power supply (if this is important) is 1000W 80+Titanium from beQUIET. I have 64gb crucial ddr5 and currently running a 3070 (waiting for my 4090 to come in) and an Intel i9 13900k.

OhioYJ · January 28, 2023

Are you recording these videos to the drive directly, or will they be recorded, edited, etc on another drive, then just stored on this drive? Personally external is only my "backup", never my "primary" source for data.

For my son's videos, we record to SSD, that's also where we do all the editing, etc. Once the video is "done" then it gets moved to the internal HDD, which in his PC is a WD Gold drive (14 TB). These files are then backed up to the NAS.

DirtyBirdX · January 31, 2023

On 1/28/2023 at 7:32 AM, OhioYJ said:

Are you recording these videos to the drive directly, or will they be recorded, edited, etc on another drive, then just stored on this drive? Personally external is only my "backup", never my "primary" source for data.

For my son's videos, we record to SSD, that's also where we do all the editing, etc. Once the video is "done" then it gets moved to the internal HDD, which in his PC is a WD Gold drive (14 TB). These files are then backed up to the NAS.

Hmmm. I see. I will probably record to an SSD in my PC then and edit everything before switching it over to a separate storage device.

Takumidesh · January 31, 2023

1 minute ago, DirtyBirdX said:

Hmmm. I see. I will probably record to an SSD in my PC then and edit everything before switching it over to a separate storage device.

how many hours of video, the bitrate, and codec play a big role. You can get 10TB harddrives for archival purposes pretty cheap.

Just one drive with all your videos though turns your entire catalog into a timebomb.