Questions re SSDs and Samples

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BRainbow
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2016/11/02 03:22:38 (permalink)

Questions re SSDs and Samples

I'm about ready to spring for an SSD Drive for streaming my sample library and need some advice/feedback.
 
1. My sample collection is getting close to 2 TB (and may exceed that soon if I don't get some professional help).  Is there a drawback to using 2 different drives for samples?  For instance, buy a 1.2 TB SSD now for my largest, most-often-used instruments - keeping my lesser-used ones on my 2TB SATA drive.  Then add a 2 TB SSD drive later?
 
2.  Assuming I want to get a 1 or 2 TB PCIe SSD now, what are my best options for high performance at an earthly price?  Looking initially at the Intel 750 vs. Samsung 960 Pro that just came out (tho' I'd probably have to wait a while to get ahold of one), but I know there are other fast options out there.
 
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
 
Thanks,
Bill

Cakewalk (forever), Two WIN10 64-bit DAWs: home-brew ASRock x299 Taichi / i7 7820x w/ 64GB RAM and ASUS X99A-II / i7-5820K w/ 32GB RAM, ZOOM UAC 8, Mackie ONYX 1640i FW Mixer/Interface, Mackie ONYX 1200F, Avalon U5 PreAmp, NI Komplete 11 Ultimate, EastWest Composer CloudX, Yamaha MOTIF XS8, Ensoniq SD-1 and ESQ-1, Korg M1rEX, Yamaha TX-81Z, Roland D110, Line6 HELIX Rack and Native, POD HD-Pro, POD Farm 2.5, Yamaha NS-10 and Presonus Eris E8 monitors, Yamaha Disklavier Upright Piano, mics, guitars, basses, and the cutest little tambourine.
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    tomixornot
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    Re: Questions re SSDs and Samples 2016/11/02 05:52:37 (permalink)
    > Is there a drawback to using 2 different drives for samples?
    The more distributed the sample library, the better - especially when you carefully plan storing different type of often used samples over multiple drives.
     
    A regular SSD, even lower end ones will out perform about 5 times better than a 7200 rpm HDD (as least for reading data).
     
    * Based on estimated round up of 99% usage (HDD) compared to 19% usage (SSD) in this test :
    http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3503896
     
    You will even get double SSD performance by doing a RAID-0 setup (no safety, but I guess it's ok for read only samples that you already have a backup plan).
     
    * Based on the above test link, comparing 10% usage (RAID-0 2x SSD) compared to 99% HDD.
     
    I've no experience in PCIe SSD vs SSD, but unless your need is 5x higher (edit : in performance) than your current HDD, I guess one or more SSD will be sufficient, regular or RAID-0 setup.
     
    post edited by tomixornot - 2016/11/02 08:18:43

    Albert


    i7 2600K @ 3.40GHz / MB Intel DP67BG / 16GB Ram
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    - Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB HDD (Samples)
    Audio interface : Motu 828 MK ii
     
    i7 6700K @ 4.00GHz / MB Asrock Z170 / 16GB Ram
    - Samsung EVO 850 120GB / 500 GB SSD

    Audio interface : Roland Quad Capture
     
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    BRainbow
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    Re: Questions re SSDs and Samples 2016/11/03 04:57:16 (permalink)
    Yes, thanks, Albert.  Good to know speading thew samples out won't hurt performance and may help.  I know even the low-end SSDs will give me a big boost.  I'm using a smaller, mid-speed one now (Intel 600p) for my OS and love how quick it is.  I have some huge projects with huge samples and they take a very long time to load off my HDD so I am looking to the speed and to the future when asking about specific high-speed model choices for a larger samples drive.
     
    Bill

    Cakewalk (forever), Two WIN10 64-bit DAWs: home-brew ASRock x299 Taichi / i7 7820x w/ 64GB RAM and ASUS X99A-II / i7-5820K w/ 32GB RAM, ZOOM UAC 8, Mackie ONYX 1640i FW Mixer/Interface, Mackie ONYX 1200F, Avalon U5 PreAmp, NI Komplete 11 Ultimate, EastWest Composer CloudX, Yamaha MOTIF XS8, Ensoniq SD-1 and ESQ-1, Korg M1rEX, Yamaha TX-81Z, Roland D110, Line6 HELIX Rack and Native, POD HD-Pro, POD Farm 2.5, Yamaha NS-10 and Presonus Eris E8 monitors, Yamaha Disklavier Upright Piano, mics, guitars, basses, and the cutest little tambourine.
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    Jim Roseberry
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    Re: Questions re SSDs and Samples 2016/11/08 11:17:42 (permalink)
    Performance wise, running a pair of 500GB SSDs is better than a single 1TB SSD.
    You have two physical SSDs (each sustaining ~520MB/Sec) vs. a single SSD sustaining ~520MB.
     
    If you're running a library like East West Symphony Orchestra... that only allows a single drive location... and you require heavy disk-streaming polyphony; you can put a pair of SSDs in RAID-0 (yields ~1000MB/Sec).
     
    If your disk-streaming needs are massive, you can use either m.2 Ultra (PCIe x4)... or a PCIe x4 SSD (PCIe card).
    These drives sustain over 2500MB/Sec.
     
    Some of our clients combine multiple SSDs to sustain up to 4000 stereo voices of disk-streaming polyphony from Kontakt/etc.  The performance we take for granted today...   
     

    Best Regards,

    Jim Roseberry
    jim@studiocat.com
    www.studiocat.com
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    BRainbow
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    Re: Questions re SSDs and Samples 2016/11/10 03:26:43 (permalink)
    Right on.  Thanks, Jim.  I've got the massive EW Libraries so probably a separate SSD for that one will be my first order of business, followed by another for all my Kontakt stuff down the line.
     
    Aloha,
    Bill

    Cakewalk (forever), Two WIN10 64-bit DAWs: home-brew ASRock x299 Taichi / i7 7820x w/ 64GB RAM and ASUS X99A-II / i7-5820K w/ 32GB RAM, ZOOM UAC 8, Mackie ONYX 1640i FW Mixer/Interface, Mackie ONYX 1200F, Avalon U5 PreAmp, NI Komplete 11 Ultimate, EastWest Composer CloudX, Yamaha MOTIF XS8, Ensoniq SD-1 and ESQ-1, Korg M1rEX, Yamaha TX-81Z, Roland D110, Line6 HELIX Rack and Native, POD HD-Pro, POD Farm 2.5, Yamaha NS-10 and Presonus Eris E8 monitors, Yamaha Disklavier Upright Piano, mics, guitars, basses, and the cutest little tambourine.
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    Vastman
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    Re: Questions re SSDs and Samples 2016/11/22 20:53:48 (permalink)
    You might want to try and sort out the combinations of libraries you most frequently us and ultimately split these between drives to double the load time as Jim says...  I've gotten to the point where I've offloaded TBs of less often used libraries to external drives until I can replace more of my smaller SSD's with biggies...

    Dana
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