FWIW, before I moved to a 3 HDD system, I used to have all of my samples stored on an external USB 2.0 HDD and whilst it was slow in initially loading samples, playback was quick enough and didn't cause any further problems.

Bristol_Jonesey
FWIW, before I moved to a 3 HDD system, I used to have all of my samples stored on an external USB 2.0 HDD and whilst it was slow in initially loading samples, playback was quick enough and didn't cause any further problems.

Ah, yes. Thanks for clarifying that. I didn't mean to state USB 2.0 wouldn't work (which might be the impression I gave) but that one should not expect USB 3.0 speeds if there is a 2.0 connection somewhere in the chain.
 
Now here's something I'm curious about. These streaming samples... do they stay on the HDDs and get pulled as needed or do the relevant samples all get preloaded into RAM?
 
Cheers.

I think it varies from synth to synth Beep.
 
Certainly BFD2 allows the user to choose whether or not they're loaded into RAM or streamed directly from disc

Makes sense. I think I remember that option in BFD now that you mention it. I'm going to be doing a massive overhaul of my DAW after I move so I'm trying to learn a bit more about how everything moves around the computer. That way I can hopefully use some logic while setting it all up instead of relying on default install settings. Wanna get this system running as smoothly as possible to give X2 as much room to be what it is. Might even do some overclocking considering my CPU was designed for it. I also want to get a third drive (hmmm... although I do have an external now I bought for storage but I'm not sure it spins fast enough... I should look into that) and maybe even bump my RAM up to 32 GBs but that'll have to wait until I magically conjure up some extra money.
 
Cheers.

I've had some really weird things happen to external drives on hubs, even on powered USB hubs.  Definitely straight to USB ports on the PC.

3 things to bear in mind when adding an extra drive(s):

1. Increased power requirements. Is your PSU up to the job?
2. Increased noise - silence it if you can
3. Space. Some boxes don't have enough room to fit a 3rd drive

Oh yeah. All that should be fine. I've got a 700w Coolermaster and if I bought a third internal drive it would be the same as the other two (7200rpm Barracudas) so it wouldn't be any noisier than those although my E drive does make a bit of a clunk when it first spins up which I have to fix because it SHOULD be on all the time. I may even get a 10,000rpm now that I know they exist and use that as my C drive instead. Still not into dropping the cash on an SSD. Seems unnecessary.
 
Oh and the case has plenty of room. I think I still have three open drive bays. It's designed to take a RAID set up. Very nice case. Zalman z9 Deluxe if anyone is curious. If you can find one it is the shiz.
 
And now that I think about it I believe there is a sixth drive bay at the top for an SSD. Came with lots of ultra quiet fans too and I've got three more fan mounts available.