http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/computer-recording/switching-from-hdd-to-ssd-hard-drives-in-a-recording-computer-part-1/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12-16-13
 
 
 
 
Something I got in a email...thought it might help here.

More input on SSDs and audio recording.
Interesting thread, some one says UAD Apollo audio interfaces have issues with SSD drives.
I wonder how many other manufactures have issues not specified or admitted to...?
 
Kenneth H. Williams January 15, 2014 at 2:25 pm
"Hi Brandon, I recently changed out my mechinical hard drive for a SSD drive on a Macbook Pro running OS 10.6.8, UA Apollo Quad, Logic 9, Waves plugins, All the Spectrasonic VI’s, Battery, AD drums & Keys and a cast of others. Yeah I know old OS BUT everything was working great and I didn’t want to bear the expense that goes with the upgrade of OS. It was a beautiful thing for about one day, then Apollo started dropping audio and computer started the gray screen of death. I found out the Apollo does not play nice with SSDs at this point or fusion drives. I had to reinstall a mechanical hard drive. Has anyone else had this problem or know of a workaround? The speed of bootup, apps opening and response of VI’s was amazing to me. I”m hoping UA gets it sorted out soon. I will say there was no BS about it when I contacted them they were straight up about the issue."
 
Read the article:
 
http://www.recordingrevie...-a-recording-computer/
 
 
 

nice timing.  I'm about 2 days away from doing the switch myself.  I've been obsessing over every article I can find.  This will help a lot.  thx for posting.

You, and all, are Welcome!...
 
Just beware...Because speed does not always equate to performance gains in audio DAWs, if it causes: dropped audio, high latency, freezing, or crashing, clicks and pops, file degradation or corruption, with DAWs ,...
 
Not Isolating the mystery variable with my system completely ,( having performance issues with software, and hardware, may be why My system is unstable with so many DAW soft wares I own installed on it or was)... Sonar x1-x3d fails on it as well...did all kinds of troubleshooting and tweaking...and the SSD and or HDD controller is never questioned or suspected...until now..
 
But there are so many reasons and variables to consider with my build, and the controller for HDD on my motherboard not being totally bug free, It is too hard to isolate the cause to one thing or another Yet...
 
I just went out and bought newer components (motherboard, memory, cpu ,PSU)..(motherboard and memory got toasted by new PSU, cpu is ok they say)(now tied up in RMA)..So luck is not on my side so far....And will surely think twice about making a SSD drive for anything in my new build.
 
In this case Less speedy 7200 HDD are more stable a platform to build on, and proven more reliable in DAWs.
 
The New Mac Pro machines seem based upon SSD or solid state PCIe drive (one only) of varying sizes, one can select....I wonder now how that will perform.?
 
Hope this helps.
Good Luck .

Sir Les
 
In this case Less speedy 7200 HDD are more stable a platform to build on, and proven more reliable in DAWs.
 
The New Mac Pro machines seem based upon SSD or solid state PCIe drive (one only) of varying sizes, one can select....I wonder now how that will perform.?
 
Hope this helps.
Good Luck .

I agree about the 7200's, there isn't much difference when it comes to recording audio. I also have a new MacBook Pro with a 512GB Flash Drive; it is lightning fast, but I don't see a big difference with audio. For larger sample libraries, SSD is definitely the way to go. But if you're not using those, 7200's are still the way to go IMO.

I have a 128 and 512 Gb SSD, and two 4 tb 5400 HDD.

I can fit my OS, drivers, and Sonar and all the plugins onto the 128 Gb, the 512 Gb is for games, and the 4 tbs are just for backups and media (sonar save folder is on a HDD).

Another Problem with the old x58 boards, and the lack of Sata 3 6Gps ports, mostly restricted to 2 if that, but have the capacity to support 6 core cpu.
 
However the newer Z87 boards have 6 or more Sata 3 ports, but the processors are limited to four cores, I believe.....And being newer than most, the Controller chips being used are probably bug free, or of better Performance with SSD Drives..
 
So there are options...
 
I think the x79 platform boards is being revisited..with some new cpu types.
 
I hope something comes for the z87 1150 socket boards, cause four cores is kind of restricting things a bit too much, cause the Sata 3 ports are many, and it may suite my needs for now with libraries and such on SSD... I think, I hope...But that is just me saying so..When it comes to plug ins, and running DAWs Like Sonar...surely four cores will be limiting on this platform....So six or more core cpu would surely benefit it...If intel make directions towards it...I may have made a Perfect choice for once !?!?....Nah...LOL
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Vab
I have a 128 and 512 Gb SSD, and two 4 tb 5400 HDD.

I can fit my OS, drivers, and Sonar and all the plugins onto the 128 Gb, the 512 Gb is for games, and the 4 tbs are just for backups and media (sonar save folder is on a HDD).

How many tracks are you recording at once?...and how does it perform using 5400 HDD as your recording Drive?...I was told to use 7200 or more rpm Drives...So are you not creating a bottle neck issue between the two drive standards?...and what kind of caching is on the 4tb drive?...The more stuff you put on it, the slower it will become...if the SSD reads and writes faster than HDD is capable of doing, and that data is slow to be written...does it cause a issue?
 
.

SSD's have a limit on data writes.  Hit that limit and the drive will fail.  I do not recommend using a SSD for tracking personally.
 
SSD is awesome for the operating system, your PC will boot and load programs super quick.  I just migrated my general purpose older laptop to one to make it feel faster.  The damn thing boots in about 10 seconds now.
 
For a DAW, I'd use an SSD for the OS and program installations, then track to a 7200RPM drive, like a Western Digital black series.  Any modern HDD is plenty fast for tracking, though Hitachi and WD have a bit better reliability history than Seagate.  Reference: http://blog.backblaze.com/2014/01/21/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/
 
5400 RPM models will handle plenty of tracks, though 7200 RPM models have better sustained transfer rates and will give you more headroom.  Cache doesn't matter so much for tracking, you're streaming data constantly so the cache is depleted quick and the sustained rate takes over.

I didn't really know that tracking used up writes, if my save folder is on a HDD, then the tracking isn't recording to the SSD right?

I have the software and VSTs installed on the SSD, save directory on a 5400 RPM drive.

The latest seagate 4 Tb drives are just as fast in HDD benchmarks as older 7200 RPM drives, if not a bit faster. They were very well reviewed for their performance, as were the Samsung F4 5900 RPM drives I had before.

Heres some benchies I did some time ago:



The read / writes are almost as fast as lower end Sata II SSDs.