Hey guys, 
For the 1st time in many years I'm getting "audio dropout"s in X3 running a few large and demanding libraries (Cinematic Springs 2, etc ).
According to task manager, the HDDs (many years old) are the issue, showing one pegging out and one close to it.
You reckon an SSD would fix the issue?
Thanks very much,
Randy

SSD's are faster, more reliable, and practically immune to damage due to PSU failures.  If you can spring it, get some, it should boost performance.  Also make sure you are topped off on RAM and make good use of it for streaming samples.  

Thanks Daniel, the RAM doesn't show any problems (YAY!!!!) but it would be nice to know if the spikes are definitely due to the (lack of) access speed...or anything else before I buy a SSD.
Thanks again bud,
Randy

Not sure if I had some kind of corrupted file or what but I had frozen a bunch of synths in the process of troubleshooting and decided to unfreeze one at a time to see what would happen.
It was the same until after unfreezing the last one (Dim Pro "Warm Finger") and then it played fine with no spikes.
I froze them one at a time again and it still plays fine now...I dunno, just thought I'd post this for potential future reference.
Thanks Daniel,
Randy

A fast SSD is about 3 times the speed of a fast conventional HD.
Disk-streaming sample libraries (were you're running massive polyphony) is where SSD really shines.
 
If your disk-streaming polyphony demands aren't much above 128 notes, fast conventional HDs are great.
If you're looking for 500+ notes of disk-streaming polyphony, you have to use SSD.  
Note that it's better to have two 250GB SSDs vs. a single 500GB unit.
Each of the two SSDs would sustain over 500MB/Sec vs. a single SSD sustaining over 500MB/Sec.
 
 

Thanks Jim,
I knew SSDs were faster but didn't realize they were THAT much faster.
While this particular project is using more demanding libraries than usual for me I think I'm at my limit judging by the resource monitor so I'll be shopping around.
Thanks again bud,
Randy