Hi all, here is the setup:
 
Drive 1: OS/Applications
Drive 2: Audio/Sonar Projects
Drive 3: Samples
 
Drive 1 and 2 are definitely internal drives.
 
The question:  if you have the choice, which is the best setup for Drive 3 (samples)?
- Third internal drive?
- Or external (firewire, usb 2, or esata)?
 
Thanks for reading!

An internally connected drive will usually provide faster performance so I would go with that, if possible.

Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series. Get Sonar 8 Power - Today! Go to: http://www.garrigus.com/  - http://www.musictechshop.com/ - http://www.cooltechshop.com/

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Thanks Scott!
Is there any issue using SATA drives for Sonar audio files?  Or is this outdated information?

http://editthis.info/sonar/Optimizing_Your_DAW#Hard_Drive_Configuration

SATA rulez. You can even go eSATA and use an external with no real penalty to performance. The drive setup you posted is what most of us run on our DAWs.

Sorry to keep tagging on questions, but:
Are there any heat issues realted to having three drives in one computer?  Does it require an extra fan or anything?

Studious Thanks Scott! Is there any issue using SATA drives for Sonar audio files?  Or is this outdated information? http://editthis.info/sonar/Optimizing_Your_DAW#Hard_Drive_Configuration

What else would you use? The fact is that there are no drives that are faster at this point than SATA3 and most likely won't be for a long time. Oh,and that partition crap isn't true. The reason why you might want you audio data somewhere else is because you don't want the read/record head doing anything but reading and recording audio. A separate partition on your OS drive would still use the same head as the OS. That being said, these things are pretty good at figuring out what they are supposed to be doing and making sure the data gets dealt with properly.

Fat32 is a fine file format, it just doesn't handle files of 4gb. It is easier to repair if you have problems though.

You rarely need to defragment audio drives with NTFS.

RAID writes slower than a single drive.

You can't really buy IDE drives anymore.

Disc space is cheap.

It's an old guide. Ignore it. There are also a lot of people around here that are old guides. Ignore them as well.

There are many flaws in that particular wiki entry.  IMHO, that page will do more harm than good since it's too easy to unwittingly follow its erroneous information.
I say, invest in one of the newest good quality machines, upgrade to the latest versions, and you will need almost none of those risky "optimizations."

Never upgrade anything until you have a decent idea about how it will effect your machine. Running out and getting new drivers/software/firmware because someone on a forum tells you to is a horrible idea and might actually make your problems worse.

So is this the consensus?
1) SATA is fine for Sonar audio files
2) Best scenario is to have all 3 drives internal

What about:  any heat issues with 3 drives in one computer?  (need extra fan, etc...?)

Studious So is this the consensus? 1) SATA is fine for Sonar audio files 2) Best scenario is to have all 3 drives internal What about:  any heat issues with 3 drives in one computer?  (need extra fan, etc...?)

Those questions have been answered. The only difference would be if you do a lot of projects that go between computers. I do and all of my working projects are on external drives. I also use a lot of tracks and don't really have any issues, but internal is better if you can do it.