DW_Mike
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SSD's
I've been looking at SSD's for my new build and am interested in what my fellow Sonarites are using.
What brand do you have or recommend?
What size (GB) do you use and what do you have installed on it?
Is it better to RAID two lower GB SSD's or use one larger?
I'm thinking that my OS, Sonar and all my other programs like Melodyne and all my VST's should go on my SSD drive.
Or should I just use it for Windows and Sonar and put all the VST's and such on the 7200RPM HD's?
Mike
Sonar X3 ~ Scarlett 18i6 ~ Home Build DAW
GA-Z77X-UD5H
Intel i7 3770k 4.2GHz
32GB RAM Crucial Ballistix Elite (4x8)
2x Samsung 250GB SSD
1TB WD Black HDD @ 7200RPM 6Gb/s 64MB
Corsair H80i Liquid cooler
Noctua Silent Fans ~ 3x120mm ~ 1x140mm
Seasonic Platinum 760w PSU
Windows 7 Pro 64Bit.
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DW_Mike
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What about mSATA SSD's.
Good idea or bad idea?
Is it just a matter of preference?
My mobo has an mSATA port so that is an option for me.
Mike
Sonar X3 ~ Scarlett 18i6 ~ Home Build DAW
GA-Z77X-UD5H
Intel i7 3770k 4.2GHz
32GB RAM Crucial Ballistix Elite (4x8)
2x Samsung 250GB SSD
1TB WD Black HDD @ 7200RPM 6Gb/s 64MB
Corsair H80i Liquid cooler
Noctua Silent Fans ~ 3x120mm ~ 1x140mm
Seasonic Platinum 760w PSU
Windows 7 Pro 64Bit.
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Anubis
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You can't go wrong with the Samsung 840 series. Very reliable. Tiger Direct has the 500GB one at $369.
X2Studio_Win7(64)_SamsungChronos_QuNexus_QuNeo_Axiom25_Saffire24Pro_Saffire6USB_EdirolPCR300_Nocturn Amplitubes_AmpegSVX_StylusRMX_SampleTank/Tron_Komplete7_AddictiveDrums_TRacks3_Wavelab6 miTunes
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fireberd
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I have a 256 GB Intel SSD for my Win 7 (DAW) installation. One of our two forum DAW builders (don't remember if it was Jim or Scott) recommended Intel for reliability. I also have an OCZ Vertex 4 for Win 8 (dual boot), which is not on the DAW builders buy list.
I don't use RAID, I do regular full SSD drive backups with Macrium to either one of two conventional hard drives.
"GCSG Productions" Franklin D-10 Pedal Steel Guitar (primary instrument). Nashville Telecaster, Bass, etc. ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero M/B, i7 6700K CPU, 16GB Ram, SSD and conventional hard drives, Win 10 Pro and Win 10 Pro Insider Pre-Release Sonar Platinum/CbB. MOTU 896MK3 Hybrid, Tranzport, X-Touch, JBL LSR308 Monitors, Ozone 5, Studio One 4.1 ISRC Registered Member of Nashville based R.O.P.E. Assn.
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Paul P
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I use an Intel 520 series 120GB ssd for my os and programs (and most of my samples).
I'm sure other manufacturers are good, but I think Intel has about the best reputation.
Sonar Platinum [2017.10], Win7U x64 sp1, Xeon E5-1620 3.6 GHz, Asus P9X79WS, 16 GB ECC, 128gb SSD, HD7950, Mackie Blackjack
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Paul P
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fireberd, you mention Macrium. This is the first I've heard of this product.
Could you give us your impression of it ? Are you using the full version ?
Sonar Platinum [2017.10], Win7U x64 sp1, Xeon E5-1620 3.6 GHz, Asus P9X79WS, 16 GB ECC, 128gb SSD, HD7950, Mackie Blackjack
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DW_Mike
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I've read loads of good things on the Samsung 840 Pro series and OCZ Vertex 4. Pretty much neck and neck there. If I go with mSATA it seems that the Intel SSD 525 would be the way to go but they go for $290 for 240GB http://www.storagereview.com/intel_ssd_525_msata_review I watched a Newegg video about my board - Gigabyte GA-Z77x-UD5 - and if I use an mSATA drive it'll somewhat boost or help my spinning HD's. Something to do with caching I believe. I donno....I've been reading and watching loads of videos and reviews over the last week on so many products.... I'm fried  Thanks for the input guys. @ Fireberd, I have a question about the CPU cooler but I've had enough for one day. I'll PM you tomorrow. Night all. Mike
Sonar X3 ~ Scarlett 18i6 ~ Home Build DAW
GA-Z77X-UD5H
Intel i7 3770k 4.2GHz
32GB RAM Crucial Ballistix Elite (4x8)
2x Samsung 250GB SSD
1TB WD Black HDD @ 7200RPM 6Gb/s 64MB
Corsair H80i Liquid cooler
Noctua Silent Fans ~ 3x120mm ~ 1x140mm
Seasonic Platinum 760w PSU
Windows 7 Pro 64Bit.
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jeffb63
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Re:SSD's
2013/04/21 05:51:46
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☄ Helpful
I have a Samsung 840 Pro as the second drive in my laptop (see sig.) which I use for sample streaming. All good so far.
Studio: X3 Producer on i7 4770K Asus Z87-K 32Gb G-Skill Trident X. W8.1 x64. 2408 Mk3, ADI8-DD. BCF2000. Stage: Cantabile Performer 2 on Lenovo W530 i7 3720QM 16Gb DDR3. Samsung 840 Evo, Samsung 840 Pro. W7 x64.
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fireberd
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Re:SSD's
2013/04/21 06:54:42
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Paul, Macrium is a drive backup program. I had been using Acronis True Image for a long time, but Acronis let me down twice trying to restore hard drives. Acronis didn't get a third chance. I moved to Macrium (purchased full 4 PC version) and it does backups faster than Acronis and the Macrium procedure to create the WinPE bootable rescue disc is a breeze as it has a built in utility that automates much of the procedure. Acronis requires buying the extra Plus Pack to get the WinPE disc creation and even then much of it is a "manual" operation.
Acronis' regular "rescue disc" uses Linux, and I had problems with the Linux version on two newer PC's (both Z77 motherboards). On one it would boot up but I could not select a "target" drive (the drive to restore the back up to). On the other one it boots up but there is no mouse or keyboard control so I couldn't get any further. Both of those systems will boot a Linux distro and run without problems. I went to the WinPE versions, which does support both keyboard and mouse (and also UEFI BIOS). The WinPE supports all the hardware on the PC's.
One thing I noticed with the Macrium bootable rescue disc is that part of the procedure when it creates the disc is that it profiles the hardware in the PC. Because of that I made separate bootable rescue discs for each of the PC's I have. I haven't tried the rescue discs on other PC's (need to do that some time) to see if the specific hardware profiling makes a difference.
After uninstalling Acronis, I found I had a problem attaching external USB connected hard drives and flash drives. As it turned out, during the Acronis uninstall it left several Acronis programs and many fragments in the registry, which caused my problems. I tried manually editing the registry to get rid of left over Acronis but there were still many traces in software and registry left over. I finally found an Acronis utility that "cleaned" any left over Acronis. I used to recommend Acronis to my clients - no more.
"GCSG Productions" Franklin D-10 Pedal Steel Guitar (primary instrument). Nashville Telecaster, Bass, etc. ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero M/B, i7 6700K CPU, 16GB Ram, SSD and conventional hard drives, Win 10 Pro and Win 10 Pro Insider Pre-Release Sonar Platinum/CbB. MOTU 896MK3 Hybrid, Tranzport, X-Touch, JBL LSR308 Monitors, Ozone 5, Studio One 4.1 ISRC Registered Member of Nashville based R.O.P.E. Assn.
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Paul P
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Thanks fireberd for taking the time for this.
I hadn't yet gotten around to buying imaging software for my new system.
I've used Acronis in the past but I've been wanting something with fewer complaints from users.
Sonar Platinum [2017.10], Win7U x64 sp1, Xeon E5-1620 3.6 GHz, Asus P9X79WS, 16 GB ECC, 128gb SSD, HD7950, Mackie Blackjack
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fireberd
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One of the DAW builders that posts on here mentioned he abandoned Acronis "years ago". He said he uses Paragon backup software now.
Macrium was recommended to me by several on the Windows 7 forum, including a friend that worked in software for IBM.
"GCSG Productions" Franklin D-10 Pedal Steel Guitar (primary instrument). Nashville Telecaster, Bass, etc. ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero M/B, i7 6700K CPU, 16GB Ram, SSD and conventional hard drives, Win 10 Pro and Win 10 Pro Insider Pre-Release Sonar Platinum/CbB. MOTU 896MK3 Hybrid, Tranzport, X-Touch, JBL LSR308 Monitors, Ozone 5, Studio One 4.1 ISRC Registered Member of Nashville based R.O.P.E. Assn.
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DW_Mike
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Do SSD's run as warm as a spinning HD?
Mike
Sonar X3 ~ Scarlett 18i6 ~ Home Build DAW
GA-Z77X-UD5H
Intel i7 3770k 4.2GHz
32GB RAM Crucial Ballistix Elite (4x8)
2x Samsung 250GB SSD
1TB WD Black HDD @ 7200RPM 6Gb/s 64MB
Corsair H80i Liquid cooler
Noctua Silent Fans ~ 3x120mm ~ 1x140mm
Seasonic Platinum 760w PSU
Windows 7 Pro 64Bit.
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fireberd
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I've never checked mine. There is no temperature reporting in Speccy like it does for conventional hard drives.
"GCSG Productions" Franklin D-10 Pedal Steel Guitar (primary instrument). Nashville Telecaster, Bass, etc. ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero M/B, i7 6700K CPU, 16GB Ram, SSD and conventional hard drives, Win 10 Pro and Win 10 Pro Insider Pre-Release Sonar Platinum/CbB. MOTU 896MK3 Hybrid, Tranzport, X-Touch, JBL LSR308 Monitors, Ozone 5, Studio One 4.1 ISRC Registered Member of Nashville based R.O.P.E. Assn.
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DW_Mike
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After posting this I went to Google.
Answer - No They run cool. They draw low power and have no moving parts.
Thanks.
Mike
Sonar X3 ~ Scarlett 18i6 ~ Home Build DAW
GA-Z77X-UD5H
Intel i7 3770k 4.2GHz
32GB RAM Crucial Ballistix Elite (4x8)
2x Samsung 250GB SSD
1TB WD Black HDD @ 7200RPM 6Gb/s 64MB
Corsair H80i Liquid cooler
Noctua Silent Fans ~ 3x120mm ~ 1x140mm
Seasonic Platinum 760w PSU
Windows 7 Pro 64Bit.
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IK Obi
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Yup, super cool, fast and with no noise due to no moving parts. Now if we can just get regular HDD sizes for a comparable price....
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DW_Mike
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Amen Obi.
Give it a year or so.
Mike
Sonar X3 ~ Scarlett 18i6 ~ Home Build DAW
GA-Z77X-UD5H
Intel i7 3770k 4.2GHz
32GB RAM Crucial Ballistix Elite (4x8)
2x Samsung 250GB SSD
1TB WD Black HDD @ 7200RPM 6Gb/s 64MB
Corsair H80i Liquid cooler
Noctua Silent Fans ~ 3x120mm ~ 1x140mm
Seasonic Platinum 760w PSU
Windows 7 Pro 64Bit.
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Jim Roseberry
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Re:SSD's
2013/04/29 08:37:07
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☄ Helpful
Samsung 840 series SSD drives are great.
Sustain ~520MB/Sec on reads... when connected to an Intel SATA-III controller.
If used as a boot drive, don't expect the OS to be three times faster than if installed on a conventional HD.
The OS is slightly faster. Apps open up quicker.
Where SSD truly shines is streaming large sample libraries.
They load faster... and you can stream massive amounts of polyphony.
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Westside Steve
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so if you are using dimension Pro for example would that be considered a sampler? And if so would you put the library on a second disc?
WSS
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Jim Roseberry
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so if you are using dimension Pro for example would that be considered a sampler? And if so would you put the library on a second disc? WSS Hey Steve, Dimension Pro does play back samples... but they're loaded into (and streamed from) RAM. The samples will load faster... but you won't see a streaming advantage (polyphony increase) if the library resides on SSD. If you want the samples to load as fast as possible, place the library on SSD. Otherwise, conventional HD works fine.
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noldar12
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As Jim mentioned, where an SSD is most useful is in streaming large sample libraries, where the samples actually stream from the hard drive, and only a tiny portion of the samples are actually stored in RAM. Common examples would include the VSL full libraries and the EW Hollywood series.
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DW_Mike
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So installing Sonar on an SSD doesn't necessarily mean better performance?
Mike
Sonar X3 ~ Scarlett 18i6 ~ Home Build DAW
GA-Z77X-UD5H
Intel i7 3770k 4.2GHz
32GB RAM Crucial Ballistix Elite (4x8)
2x Samsung 250GB SSD
1TB WD Black HDD @ 7200RPM 6Gb/s 64MB
Corsair H80i Liquid cooler
Noctua Silent Fans ~ 3x120mm ~ 1x140mm
Seasonic Platinum 760w PSU
Windows 7 Pro 64Bit.
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Jim Roseberry
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So installing Sonar on an SSD doesn't necessarily mean better performance? Hi Mike, Sonar will open faster...  No other significant benefit
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Paul P
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So will the plugins and instruments.
With my SSD things are not all that much faster (though it's really noticeable on windows startup and switching users).
But, since everything is snappier, it makes using the computer that much more pleasant.
Sonar Platinum [2017.10], Win7U x64 sp1, Xeon E5-1620 3.6 GHz, Asus P9X79WS, 16 GB ECC, 128gb SSD, HD7950, Mackie Blackjack
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Jim Roseberry
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So will the plugins and instruments. This assumes they're also placed on the SSD.
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DW_Mike
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Sonar X3 ~ Scarlett 18i6 ~ Home Build DAW
GA-Z77X-UD5H
Intel i7 3770k 4.2GHz
32GB RAM Crucial Ballistix Elite (4x8)
2x Samsung 250GB SSD
1TB WD Black HDD @ 7200RPM 6Gb/s 64MB
Corsair H80i Liquid cooler
Noctua Silent Fans ~ 3x120mm ~ 1x140mm
Seasonic Platinum 760w PSU
Windows 7 Pro 64Bit.
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Jim Roseberry
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Re:SSD's
2013/04/29 16:06:01
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☄ Helpful
The write speed is considerably slower in the 250GB unit.
Considering you're mostly concerned with read speed when using SSD, it's not much of an issue.
Read speed is identical.
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Westside Steve
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DW_Mike
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I was just reading up on SSD maintenance and found THIS article. Is any of this helpful, harmful and/or necessary? Mike
Sonar X3 ~ Scarlett 18i6 ~ Home Build DAW
GA-Z77X-UD5H
Intel i7 3770k 4.2GHz
32GB RAM Crucial Ballistix Elite (4x8)
2x Samsung 250GB SSD
1TB WD Black HDD @ 7200RPM 6Gb/s 64MB
Corsair H80i Liquid cooler
Noctua Silent Fans ~ 3x120mm ~ 1x140mm
Seasonic Platinum 760w PSU
Windows 7 Pro 64Bit.
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