Hello everyone,
 
About two years ago I bought an HP Envy Touchsmart laptop model M7-J178CA to use with Sonar as well as other music software, but I did not get around to using it.  It came with one 1TB hybrid drive and I also bought two Samsung 840 EVO SSD's, a 500GB and a 1TB to speed things up. What would be the best thing to do, without too much hassle, while  keeping things reasonably simple?
 
1) Install the two Samsung 840 EVO's but keep the 1TB hybrid drive, so I have three drives installed?
2) Remove the 1TB hybrid drive, pop it in an external USB HD case I have lying around, and then install the two Samsung 840 EVO's?
 
If I go for 1) should I use the 1TB hybrid drive for storage only, and how should I setup the 500GB SSD and the 1TB SSD?
If I go for 2) how should I setup the 500GB SSD and the 1TB SSD?
 
Very much thanks indeed!
 
 
Here are the specs:
 
Screen Size  17.3 in
Native Screen Resolution  1920 x 1080
LED Backlit Display  Yes
Touchscreen Display  Yes
3D Capable Display  No
Processor Type  Intel Core i7 4700MQ
Processor Cores  4
Processor Speed  2.4 GHz
Hard Drive Capacity  1 TB (Hybrid Hard Drive)
Hard Drive Speed 5400 rpm
SSD Function  Not Applicable
id-State Hybrid Drive  No
RAM Size  16 GB
RAM Type  DDR3L SDRAM
RAM Slots  2
Optical Drive  SuperMulti DVD Burner
Built-in Memory Card Reader  Yes
Memory Card Reader - Compatible Memory Type  SD Cards
Graphics Chipset  NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M Graphics
Video Memory Configuration  Dedicated
Dedicated Video Memory Size  2 GB
Wireless Display (WiDi) Capable  Yes
Speaker Wattage  Beats Audio
Integrated Microphone  Yes
Microphone Input  Yes
Webcam  Yes
Keyboard Language  Bilingual
Numeric Keypad  Yes
Backlit Keyboard  Yes
Type of Pointing Device  Clickpad
USB 2.0 Ports  0
USB 3.0 Ports  4
VGA Output  No
HDMI Output  Yes
HDCP Compliant  Yes
IEEE 1394 Input/Output  No
eSATAPort  No
ExpressCard/34 Input  No
ExpressCard/54 Input  No
IR Receiver  No
Other Input or Output Ports  HP Protectsmart Hard Drive Protection; HP Simplepass With Integrated Fingerprint Reader; 1 Supporting USB Boost; 1 Headphone-Out/Microphone-In Combo Jack
EthernetPort  10/100/1000
Integrated Wi-Fi  802.11ac
Integrated Bluetooth  Yes
Approximate Battery Life  Information Not Available
Battery Type  Lithium-Ion
Battery - Number of Cells  6
Battery - Capacity  2800 mAh
Energy Star Qualified  Yes
Pre-loaded Operating System  Windows 8.1
Operating System Language  Bilingual
Loaded Software  Pinger; Skype; HP Support Assistant; CyberLink PowerDirector

My suggestion is keep all drives internal if there is enough space. Direct to SATA is better than being external.
 
I've no experience with hybrid HDD but functioning as OS boot disk / program storage should be no issue.
 
1 TB (Hybrid Hard Drive) : OS boot disk and program
1TB SSD : samples #1 and project data (setup Sonar - Preference - File - Folder location for project / audio / etc)
500GB SSD : samples #2 (for example drums samples that you may run at the same time with samples #1)
 

Thank you so much Albert,
Yes, I do have room for all three internally, although it would be more fiddly (wouldn't it?) as I would need to - on an ongoing basis - ensure that all the software I installed (not just Sonar) followed the described hierarchy.
 
Question: what would I lose in practical terms, if I installed the two SSD's and removed  the hybrid HD to an external drive for storage?  It seems to me (I could be wrong though) that performance would not suffer because SSD's are plenty quick, and all I would lose out on is as you mentioned, somewhat slower performance by having the hybrid drive in an external case connected via USB.
 
It would not bother me to have slower performance for the hybrid drive in an external case for two reasons: a) because it would be pretty rare that I would want offline storage and b) I would gain faster boot times by using one of the SSD's as the boot drive.
 
Does this make sense or am I missing something: 
1TB SSD: OS boot disk and program, samples #1 and project data (setup Sonar - Preference - File - Folder location for project / audio / etc.)
500GB SSD: samples #2 (for example drums samples that you may run at the same time with samples #1)
 
It also seems to me that if I was to keep the hybrid drive onboard (thus three HD's internally) it would be best used for backup / storage only, or am I missing something?

Chumer
Question: what would I lose in practical terms, if I installed the two SSD's and removed  the hybrid HD to an external drive for storage?  It seems to me (I could be wrong though) that performance would not suffer because SSD's are plenty quick, and all I would lose out on is as you mentioned, somewhat slower performance by having the hybrid drive in an external case connected via USB.
 

It depends on how much space you're going to require, especially on sample libraries. For example, I'm putting up a new system and from my previous Sonar X1 till now, the total sample libraries I've got is just around 180GB - so I decided that 1GB (edit) 1TB SSD space is good enough for my use for both program / samples / data. I've got another 120GB SSD as boot drive.
 
Taking out the hybrid would be practical if you don't need that much space. If it's mainly for backup, putting it external would be a good choice since it doesn't have to be running all the time, especially having spinning disk.
 

Chumer
Does this make sense or am I missing something: 
1TB SSD: OS boot disk and program, samples #1 and project data (setup Sonar - Preference - File - Folder location for project / audio / etc.)
500GB SSD: samples #2 (for example drums samples that you may run at the same time with samples #1)
 
It also seems to me that if I was to keep the hybrid drive onboard (thus three HD's internally) it would be best used for backup / storage only, or am I missing something?

I think that would be good option too - having a bigger SSD for more write operations would be ideal, just don't fill up the SSD fully.
 
 
 

Well that's great Albert, I'm obliged for your time and consideration! I'm not sure whether it's a.m. or p.m. where you are, but it's about 1:30 a.m. here, and I figure I should head-on-out to snooze-land. I'll sleep on it all, and tomorrow complete the configuration (two years in the waiting, where does the time go?).