> I’ve been looking at NVMe Gen4 vs Gen5 options, but I’m worried about thermal throttling during those long 3-hour export sessions.

Hmm, I've had a different experience when it comes to standard consumer drives for 8K workflows. Not to disagree with the previous post, but I'd actually suggest a different approach if you really want to avoid that speed drop-off once the cache fills up.

I'm still learning the ropes with high-end hardware, but honestly, even the best consumer drives like the one mentioned before can struggle with sustained writes over several hours because they rely on SLC caching. Once that's full, speeds tank. Since you're doing heavy color grading, have you looked at "Enterprise" or workstation-class drives?

I've been using the Western Digital WD Red SN700 4TB NVMe SSD and it's been super stable for me. Another solid option for massive TBW is the Seagate FireCuda 530 4TB with Heatsink. They handle heat way better during those long 4K renders! Definitely worth the extra bit of cash IMO. Good luck! 🖥️

Honestly, I've been there. I bought a Gen5 drive thinking it'd be a game-changer, but it throttled so hard during a 4K render that it was actually slower than my old setup. Super disappointing! Now I stick with the Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVMe SSD with the built-in heatsink. It's Gen4, but it handles sustained writes much better without cooking itself. For heavy TBW, also check out the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G 4TB SSD. It’s designed specifically for gaming and heavy workloads, so it stays pretty stable. Hope this helps!

Seconding the recommendation above! Honestly, when I started editing 4K, I almost went broke trying to keep up. I've found that the Crucial T700 2TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSD is amazing for those huge 8K files, and it's usually a bit cheaper than the big names. Just make sure you get the version with the premium heatsink... it's a total lifesaver for long renders! Hope this helps!

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