Helpful ReplyWhat SSD for DAWs?

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Dust3R_FiLeS
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2017/05/08 11:59:42 (permalink)

What SSD for DAWs?

Ok, few friendly people gave me very important advices about choosing a CPU. But as a newbie in a world of music producing, I don't know what SSD is better for DAWs. I don't know if is better to choose one with better sequential r/w, random 4k or what. My plan is to buy ADATA SU800 512 GB. Is there better in that price for music producing? Or would that be enough? Sorry for these basic questions, but as I said, I am newbie on music producing.
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tlw
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Re: What SSD for DAWs? 2017/05/08 13:41:21 (permalink)
Are you intending to spool audio from the SSD?

Will the SSD be the only drive? Bear in mind it's generally considered a good idea to use one drive for the operating system and software and at least one other to record to.

For audio recording/playing a fast sequential read/write performance is a good thing. For OS and software a drive with very low seek times might well perform better because OS and applications tend to be relatively small and are quick to load.

In the real world SSDs are pretty good at both sequential data handling and have very low seek times and the differences between them aren't always that great. I use an Intel 520 series as the audio drive and it easily handles everything I throw at it.

One thing to consider is that an MLC SSD may well outlive cheaper SLC varieties because it will (should) take much longer to "wear out" as a consequence of repeated delete and write operations. Though SLC SSD lifespans are way longer than the pessimistic views that were around when they were launched. And an SSD that is directly attached to the PCI bus will probably out-perform a SATA drive, though again the difference may not matter much in the "real world".

And if you are considering more than one drive don't use a USB SSD - the USB specification doesn't allow the OS to pass TRIM commands to a USB-connected drive. So make sure SSDs are hung off the SATA/PCI bus or are eSATA or Thunderbolt if external.

In short, just pick a model that's a reputation for reliabilty and decent speed figures. Don't get too hung up on minute differences, picking between them can be like reducing a DAW's round-trip latency from 5ms to 3. It looks like a big improvement, and in percentage terms it is, but in use you'll never notice the difference.

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dwardzala
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Re: What SSD for DAWs? 2017/05/08 13:41:28 (permalink)
What are you going  to use the SSD for?  If its for the OS/DAW program, you probably only need 256Gb.  If it is for audio, you might want to reconsider as the performance impact of using an SSD for an audio is minimal.
 
I don't know a lot about the ADATA drives, but I have had good luck with the Samsung EVO series.

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Dust3R_FiLeS
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Re: What SSD for DAWs? 2017/05/08 16:50:27 (permalink)
dwardzala
What are you going  to use the SSD for?  If its for the OS/DAW program, you probably only need 256Gb.  If it is for audio, you might want to reconsider as the performance impact of using an SSD for an audio is minimal.
 
I don't know a lot about the ADATA drives, but I have had good luck with the Samsung EVO series.


I want to have OS, DAW and programs for graphic design too on it. In this price category I want bigger SSD because if the SSD is almost full, it may be slower. But all finished projects I'll have on external HDD.
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dwardzala
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Re: What SSD for DAWs? 2017/05/08 18:16:27 (permalink)
If you are adding additional software that can utilize the benefits of an SSD, bigger probably is better.  For my laptop, which is not my main Sonar workstation, I have an SSD and a 1TB drive.  The 1TB drive keeps most other programs and data.  The SSD has the OS and Sonar (mainly because I want Sonar and projects on two separate drives.)

Dave
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#5
abacab
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Re: What SSD for DAWs? 2017/05/08 19:24:55 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby Dust3R_FiLeS 2017/05/09 10:28:16
I think any reliable brand of SSD should be fine.  I have had a good experience with the Samsung EVO 850 250GB.
 
This drive is SATA 6Gb/s compatible, but is currently used on a SATA 3Gb/s port.  Windows boot in a few seconds, and Sonar opens in a snap as well.
 

 
At this speed, a few percentage points are hardly noticeable. 
 
But from the numbers I have looked at, a modern spinning HDD at 7200RPM can handle audio tracking just fine.

DAW: CbB; Sonar Platinum, and others ... 
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Dust3R_FiLeS
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Re: What SSD for DAWs? 2017/05/09 10:36:57 (permalink)
abacab
I think any reliable brand of SSD should be fine.  I have had a good experience with the Samsung EVO 850 250GB.
 
This drive is SATA 6Gb/s compatible, but is currently used on a SATA 3Gb/s port.  Windows boot in a few seconds, and Sonar opens in a snap as well.
 

 
At this speed, a few percentage points are hardly noticeable. 
 
But from the numbers I have looked at, a modern spinning HDD at 7200RPM can handle audio tracking just fine.


Thank you, now I see, that the Kingston UV400 (I have it right now) with 560/495 is usable too.
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abacab
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Re: What SSD for DAWs? 2017/05/09 14:24:24 (permalink)
With those numbers, you must be running on a 6Gb/s SATA III port!  You should be fine with that Kingston.
 
I may have to look into that brand, as the Samsung have gone up in price, and I need to move my samples off a 7200RPM drive soon.
 
I have been running my SSD daily since Dec 2015, and it still shows a status of 100% life remaining, so the longevity of these modern SSD's also looks pretty good!  I do make monthly image backups to an external drive, just in case of a controller failure or something else eating my data.

DAW: CbB; Sonar Platinum, and others ... 
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Dust3R_FiLeS
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Re: What SSD for DAWs? 2017/05/09 14:55:06 (permalink)
abacab
With those numbers, you must be running on a 6Gb/s SATA III port!  You should be fine with that Kingston.
 
I may have to look into that brand, as the Samsung have gone up in price, and I need to move my samples off a 7200RPM drive soon.
 
I have been running my SSD daily since Dec 2015, and it still shows a status of 100% life remaining, so the longevity of these modern SSD's also looks pretty good!  I do make monthly image backups to an external drive, just in case of a controller failure or something else eating my data.


If sequential read is very important part of SSD for Sonar, you could look into that ADATA SU800. 

This is stability of it in AS SSD compression-benchmark. SU800 is cheap and have right quality. My UV400 definitely does not achieve this result as SU800 in picture.
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abacab
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Re: What SSD for DAWs? 2017/05/09 15:42:15 (permalink)
If you look at these numbers, which are based on disk space per minute (in MB) used by audio tracks, you can approximate the MB/s you would need for sequential read/write.
 
Calculating hard disk space required for digital audio recording.
https://www.sweetwater.co...gital-audio-recording/
 
You soon realize that a modern 7200 RPM drive is sufficient for audio recording, and that SSD is overkill for tracking audio.
 
The SSD sequential read is awesome when launching the DAW,  & loading projects with many VSTs and samples, etc.

DAW: CbB; Sonar Platinum, and others ... 
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Sir Les
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Re: What SSD for DAWs? 2017/05/10 01:57:05 (permalink)
check out the new crucials 1tb for secondary drives for your files and data?... costing what the others cost at half the size....but read reviews...cheap for more space less performance speed, might not be the way to go ?...depends on stability and life of without issues or lost data...as it is new...beware?.
 
One for the os?....well check it out.
 
.
ADATA are just fine here.
Crucial also work fine here.
Samsung evo also working fine.
 
 
 
 I have read in past, from dependable friends, Kingston ssds were not always dependable....So I did not try them out, yet since reading into that years ago...if they had a issue back then, they surely solved it by now?...i think it was a controller issue with the firmware that I read into .
 
Intel's ssds are more expensive but, it is supposedly more solid performance,and so built with a higher level of X is said to allow the price point of higher sales pricing, for that stability in the firmware or chips or the way it divides the digits into the memory chips....some say is worth it, if you value your data being never to be corrupted under it's terms of warranty...But then again..did not try....you can read into it if you google some.
 
 
So Price per performance these days is up to you.
And manufacturing and testing or burn in, is usually done before they ship the distribution to market these days.
You may find the odd bad apple in all of all if so one gets out....and if cutting prices, they cut somewhere in that development...it could be the burn in where they cheap out some, to lower the cost....if not the cut other higher price parts, for lessor price parts....ect.
 
But again, not all things work with other things....check the MB chipset is able , and no hick ups with MB drivers and onboard devices, Bios levels, and which sata ports do what, and in what order they implement as Drive 0 and drive 1, and express ports... etc .
 
As boot device order may only be the concerns these days, and proper bios support for this type now standardized into detecting properly...and it may not matter much with a good stable MB chipset, and parts put, and the drivers and firmware established proper on the MB.
 
Do the home work, and read the reviews of the new stuff...if so interested.
 
Hope it all helps build a nice system.
 
cheers.
 
 

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