Hey All
 
So sometime in October or so I'm gonna finally make the jump to SSD drives. I've been slowly but surely doing research and asking around for some advice, figured i might as well ask in here too.
 
So obviously I'm gonna want a good quality SSD so I get the benefit of that added speed, but I also don't have a huge amount of money to spend on it and I also need capacity... I figure a 256gb will probably end up being the size I can afford that still has the speed and is within my price range. This will all be in addition to my standard harddrives (2 1TB drives)...
 
However... my synth and sample folder on my D: currently clocks in at around 528gb. My Program Files folders on my C: is 80gb (admittedly I could clean out a few programs from there), and then of course there's everything else...
 
So the question of course is what would a good setup look like for me, assuming I end up with 256gb of SSD space and 2tb of standard 7200rpm Hard Drive space?
 
Obviously I'm gonna have Windows installed on the new SSD C:. I'll also have Sonar and all the most important programs. All my non current project files can be moved over to one of the HDDs, and I could have a folder of stuff I'm actively working on on my SSD. But what about those 528gb of synths and samples? Will I get the desired performance boosts if that stuff is all still on a HDD? Should I pick and choose and put certain ones on my SSD and certain ones on the HDD? I use Nexus2 alot and have a lot of expansion packs for it. Also NI Komplete. EastWest Composers Collection. Omnisphere with a bunch of expansions. A ton of Dimension Pro expansions. And many many more.
 
It just seems like there's no way I'm gonna get it all on SSDs so I'm trying to figure out what a good compromise will be that will still get me the increased performance.
 
Thanks for any insight, tips, and ideas in advance!

Hi Polarbear,
 
This has worked really well for me and I believe it's also the generally practiced standard in setting up 3 drives:
 
C: OS and all software programs (250GB SSD)
 
D: Sonar Projects (1TB HDD)
 
E: Samples (3TB HDD)
 
With the 2TB drive, I'd use that for all your samples drive and transfer everything from the 528GB to this new drive (that'll fill up really quick and you'd want that to be the biggest drive). You can then use the 528GB for your Sonar projects. You'll be extremely pleased at the speed and "snappiness" of the SSD/OS drive......I'm still amazed at the speed.
 
Good luck!! 

ok thanks for the response. so basically the samples being on a regular HD doesn't really decrease the boost i'm getting from having all the programs on an SSD? that's what I was worried about but it sounds like it doesn't.
 
probably gonna finally do it around october. can't wait :-)

Most of the VST samplers are pretty good at streaming samples using system RAM and disk these days as long as your sample HDD is 7200RPM (or faster) and is not otherwise busy tryring to record at the same time. That's where HDD separation is really important.
 
A newer 64bit machine with a decent amount of RAM should not need an SSD to stream samples. Your PC will definitely feel snappier with the programs on the SSD though. Keep in mind that VST's that need to load samples will not load much faster though.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

A fast SATA-III SSD is about three times the speed of a fast conventional HD.
That said, don't expect the OS to operate three times faster when installed on SSD.
The machine will boot faster... and OS navigation/operation will be a bit "snappier".
 
Where SSD really shines is when you need to pull massive amount of disk-streaming polyphony (say 500+ simultaneous voices).
If you don't need more than 128-256 simultaneous notes of disk-streaming polyphony, conventional HDs are fine.
Sample libraries (even when streamed from disk) will buffer/load faster when using SSD.
 
BTW, you'll save a good amount by using 250GB SSDs (instead of 256GB units).
Read speed is exactly the same...
You're better with two 250GB units than a single 500GB unit. (Each of the two SSDs sustains 500+MB/Sec vs. a single SSD sustaining 500+MB/Sec)