anyone tried one of these new hybrid drives?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148591

"Jim Roseberry"
My sentiment would be... why bother?

Because... I can. 

"Jim Roseberry"
SSD will make a small improvement in making the OS/Apps "snappy"... but it's not a night vs. day difference.

That's relative Jim. Coming from a P4 2.8GHz HT running XP (8 year old machine), the night and day analogy describes the experience rather well. ;)

"Jim Rosenberg"
Unless you plan on getting a top-tier SSD (~$600+), you can achieve the same basic speed (~250MB/Sec) by putting two (fast) conventional HDs in RAID-0.

The 120GB Vertex 3 I recently purchased for my OS drive is not what I would consider "top-tier" @ $250 USD. Yet it does demonstrate some respectable specs.

Max Read: up to 550MB/s
Max Write: up to 500MB/s
Random Write 4KB: 60,000 IOPS
Maximum 4K Random Write: 85,000 IOPS

Even allowing for the manufacturers optimism., the performance is easily twice the numbers you're quoting. Since isolating the OS and applications from the user generated data and audio sample libraries is common practice today, the storage requirements are rather minimal. I actually believe that an SSD OS drive makes a lot of sense.

On the other hand, your proposal to use many high-performance, high-capacity mechanical drives in a raid array for sample libraries and user data is a practical, reasonable and economical approach with which I agree... until the price of SSDs comes down. The cost per GBs is negligible and the performance is adequate for today's libraries, but barely. A quick visit to Soundsonline's forum will confirm that their new orchestral libraries are very demanding and may well be mechanical drive killers. Let's hope that SSDs will become affordable sooner rather than later, as we need that kind of performance now for what we do.

Max Read: up to 550MB/s Max Write: up to 500MB/s

 
Well.. yeah... coming from a P4 to any incarnation of the i7 will be a night vs. day 
 
Ask Scott from ADK why he's not super high on SSD.
It's not because he (or I) can't afford them... or that our clients can't afford them.
It's because (for many purposes) they don't make a radical difference.
 
As I've mentioned before, I have machines with SSD drives.
Same model and size you're talking about.
Doesn't boot radically faster than my other machines.  Granted, my machines are fast...
 
Ultimately we'll all be running nothing but SSD.  (When the cost vs. size ratio is more favorable)
At this point in time, it's hard to beat conventional (high-performance) HDs.
2TB of storage space with sustained read speeds of ~250MB/Sec for $120 is killer bang-for-the-buck... and is plenty of performance for most users.  Those running mega-templates with Hollywood Strings and Hollywood Brass would be the exception.  Those folks are a small niche of the market.
8-16 times the storage space... at half the cost.
Need more performance/space?  Pop in a 2nd pair of drives in RAID-0.
That's 16-32 times the storage space (at about the same cost/performance) as the 120GB Vertex 3.
 
Personally, I like to run a combination of 5 1+TB HDs.

• Boot
• Audio
• Samples
• Pair in RAID-0 (for more demanding sample libraries)

I'm not doing huge orchestral mock-ups for the likes of Disney, but I've yet to encounter any scenario where I lack substantial speed (or storage space).
 

"Jim Roseberry"
Ask Scott from ADK why he's not super high on SSD.

I did... in a previous post in this forum. Scott did not answer my question at that time. Although since then, I stumbled on a thread at the GearSlutz forums, where he did give an explanation as to why he would not do business with OCZ anymore. Had it happened to me, I would of come to the same conclusion. But aside the high cost of SSDs, there's just no reason to ignore the benefits.

And it's not just the fact that they are light years ahead performance-wise when dealing with sample load times, but also background sample streaming (on the fly and in real time). The QL Piano's Bosendorfer, which I use on a daily basis is over 80 GBs. Add 2 extra mic positions and the total samples being handled approaches the 20 K mark. I may have 16 GBs of ram, but that certainly does not eliminate the need for real-time streaming. In this scenario, nothing comes close to the performance of an SSD. But I believe we do agree on this.

"Jim Rosenberry"
It's because (for many purposes) they don't make a radical difference.

For a dedicated DAW, they make all the difference. For OS purposes, maybe not a "radical" difference (radical is pretty extreme), depending on where you come from, but enough of a difference to make it appealing to me at the current price point and capacity (120 GBs is more than enough for OS and audio apps).

Bottom line Jim is that we are on the same page... except for the nagging perception that you and Scott seem to go out of your ways to discourage  the use of an SSD for an OS drive. And aside the cost argument, I haven't been convinced otherwise. 

DeeringAmps


Question,
Those who have installed an SSD for your OS.
Did you do a clean Win 7 install to the SSD?
 
Doubting Thomas

No... I cloned it over.
John

For a dedicated DAW, they make all the difference.

 
Here is where we simply disagree... 
I could ask, "How does SSD make all the difference?"... but it's pointless to continue. 
If I felt this way (and I don't - for the reasons mentioned), I'd use nothing but SSDs.
The reason I mentioned Scott... is that between the two of us... well... we work on a *lot* of machines.  Neither of us have an emotional attachment to any particular brand or technology.  The "honeymoon period" (like the exhilaration/fascination period with a new piece of significant gear) is long gone.  IMO, That brings a certain level of objectivity (not to be confused with negativity) to the table.
 
This said, if someone has the desire... by all means... setup a SSD as a boot drive and compare performance to same system using a high-performance conventional boot HD.
 
 

one last comment on this SSD thing.
SSD is more $, the higher the value of a system the more i make...
i still dont recommend them generally..

emwhy


I saw one in use at a studio a month ago. He had a 160 GB drive for OS and programs and was fast and smooth and as yous aid quiet. I'm just not sure which brand to get.

I can tell you what not to get. OCZ vertex2.