I've noticed that more and more folks are using SSD's for their main OS drive and understand the rationale behind it.
 
How do you manage with the relatively (by today usual SATA drives) small size as many I see are only 128 GIG or even less?
 
I have an exclusive DAW which also has Video/graphics etc software as this is my pro rig for Audio, Video & 3D/graphics. In my work, many of these elements come together and I need to access a variety of software to get the job done.
 
I keep only the OS, programs and things like VST's on this drive and wonder how I would manage with even a 240GIG.
 
On my current system, any data created by a program is kept on another drive as are my samples and projects whether they be audio, video, web, graphic or any other for that matter.
 
any comments to enlighten me.

i am anxiously awaiting some brilliant nuggets of advice to this post.   let's bring it people.

Well I have a 120Gb SSD for my Windows machine and with a couple of DAWS installed (Sonar, Cubase, Live and Reaper) with numerous plugins in 32 and 64bit versions. I still have about 50Gb spare.

I think the key is to split your load across several drives, keeping the SSD just for the OS and programs. As for me, I have four drives which split my total storage needs:

1) 120Gb Corsair SSD for OS (Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit) + programs
2) A Velociraptor 300Gb drive - this is a 10k RPM drive I use for recording audio - so this is my project drive
3) A 1TB HDD for anything that needs a lot of storage - so I'm talking sample based instruments such as Dimension Pro, Kontakt, Omnisphere, Alchemy, etc. Most of these plugins allow you to choose somewhere else to store your sample content on installation.
4) A 1TB drive I keep just for backup purposes.

That has done me well for a long time. The Velociraptor I have is 300Gb which is fine for me although there are 600Gb versions available now.

I came from a 10k WD Raptor 74GB WinXP, I never had issues with spare space on my system drive over the years.

switched to a 120GB(111GB) OCZ SSD, Win 7x64 and I have to keep myself very organized. At the moment I have around 30GB free space left, not much software installed either.. a 11GB Email-folder,..
if I'd be more serious where to save my files, I'd probably have around 50GB spare (just like auricle)
A 240GB should def. be more than enough for a system drive though, maybe just a bit too much for my taste..

Thanks for your comment auricle but I already said that I split my data needs across multiple drives.

You mention that your Velociraptor drive 
Quote:
is a 10k RPM drive I use for recording audio
 
In reality if your OS and SONAR are on your SSD then that is where the audio is recorded. the project data is just read from your Velociraptor into memory, processed by SONAR and your OS and then written back to your Velociraptor when it's saved. It's not really doing much in the meantime. The crunch work is not done on that drive at all but on your SSD which is where you get your performance increase.

Using your 120GIG SSD I'd be short an aweful lot of disk space let alone still have 50GIG to spare. Currently I use a 500GIG drive with about 150GIG free space. If I ruthlessly pared it down to be really lean then I could maybe reduce it by a further 30GIG still leaving me in need of a drive in excess of 240GIG.

As I stated in my original post:
Quote:

I keep only the OS, programs and things like VST's on this drive and wonder how I would manage with even a 240GIG.

Perhaps my needs are unusually large by comparison with other users and my only real answer is to get a much bigger SSD drive for my needs.
Even though I know lot's of guys who use the same or similar software set to me for the same typre of  work I guess that is probably why even though more people are using SSD's that there are probably far more that don't yet because the cost per Gb is still prohibitivley expensive.
I suppose in realtity it was a silly question of me to ask, as if I use a 500GIG SATA 3 drive now then I'll just have to get a similar size SSD drive. My issue is about speed not space. It's a shame that in Australia that means around about $1000 give or take. Perhaps I'll shop over sees

My system drive is only 80gb.

I guess it depends on your approach, but that actually feels like a lot to me. I regularly uninstall things I find I don't need and keep the who thing fairly lean and mean.

Also, as well as getting your audio and video data on another drive, I've got my standard download folders and the like not on the CD drive. Amazing how quickly that sort of junk piles up.

In reality if your OS and SONAR are on your SSD then that is where the audio is recorded. the project data is just read from your Velociraptor into memory, processed by SONAR and your OS and then written back to your Velociraptor when it's saved. It's not really doing much in the meantime. The crunch work is not done on that drive at all but on your SSD which is where you get your performance increase.

This is completely wrong. Where have you got this idea?

I have a OCZ Vertex 2 60 Go for my c: and it works like a charm. Sonar x1, samplitude 10 and cubase 6 with loads of plugs. You just have to ban the sound banks from the c: and put them on another drive. 

"mudgel"
I have an exclusive DAW which also has Video/graphics etc software as this is my pro rig for Audio, Video & 3D/graphics.


Perhaps my needs are unusually large by comparison with other users and my only real answer is to get a much bigger SSD drive for my needs.

Seems to me like you have already answered your question. 


I use a 120GB Vertex 3 SSD drive for the OS on a dedicated audio-only DAW. A clean install of W7 Pro x64 is 10GBs. Add another 20GBs for music apps. only..., libraries are on high performance mechanical drives (cost considerations). That leaves quite a bit of wiggle room for growth. I also do not intend to fill up this SSD as it is strongly recommended to always have at least 20 to 30% free space for the SSD to do its thing optimally. Also, with SSDs, the following guidelines may be obvious to some and not so obvious to others.


Simple Dont's with SSDs:

1] Don't full format an SSD. You should always use quick format only.
2] Don't run too many Benchmarks.
3] Don't fill your SSD beyond 80 percent capacity of the available flash space.
4] Don't defrag your SSD.


Do I need to enable TRIM on my SSD?

No. TRIM is automatically enabled in Windows 7, but to verify that TRIM is either enabled/disabled, follow these steps. TRIM is not currently available with MAC OS.

1] Type "cmd" in the start menu search box
2] Right click the cmd program and select run as Administrator
3] Type the following in the command line (omit quotation marks)

"fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify"

4] TRIM is Enabled when DisableDeleteNotify = 0
5] TRIM is Disabled when DisableDeleteNotify = 1


ref: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx

SONAR users with SSD for OS drive:
+1 

ONE, INTEL SSD (C:/ Windows 7 and Programs) *flying


And 5 normal  SAMSUNG F3 1TB SATA 300 drives for AUDIO, SAMPLING etc..
4 Drives are in FAKE RAID 1 disks.. 

Alegria

"mudgel"

I have an exclusive DAW which also has Video/graphics etc software as this is my pro rig for Audio, Video & 3D/graphics.


Perhaps my needs are unusually large by comparison with other users and my only real answer is to get a much bigger SSD drive for my needs.

Seems to me like you have already answered your question. 


I use a 120GB Vertex 3 SSD drive for the OS on a dedicated audio-only DAW. A clean install of W7 Pro x64 is 10GBs. Add another 20GBs for music apps. only..., libraries are on high performance mechanical drives (cost considerations). That leaves quite a bit of wiggle room for growth. I also do not intend to fill up this SSD as it is strongly recommended to always have at least 20 to 30% free space for the SSD to do its thing optimally. Also, with SSDs, the following guidelines may be obvious to some and not so obvious to others.


Simple Dont's with SSDs:

1] Don't full format an SSD. You should always use quick format only.
2] Don't run too many Benchmarks.
3] Don't fill your SSD beyond 80 percent capacity of the available flash space.
4] Don't defrag your SSD.


Do I need to enable TRIM on my SSD?

No. TRIM is automatically enabled in Windows 7, but to verify that TRIM is either enabled/disabled, follow these steps. TRIM is not currently available with MAC OS.

1] Type "cmd" in the start menu search box
2] Right click the cmd program and select run as Administrator
3] Type the following in the command line (omit quotation marks)

"fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify"

4] TRIM is Enabled when DisableDeleteNotify = 0
5] TRIM is Disabled when DisableDeleteNotify = 1


ref: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx

 
 
 
Don't defrag your SSD.
 
Absolutely important, Your SSD will and can get damage if you defrag SSD drive.
 
 
 
 
TRIM
 
It is automatically enabled when you installed Windows 7. You do not need to do anything.
The TRIM command is designed to enable the operating system to notify the SSD of which pages of data are now invalid due to erases by the user or operating system itself.  When files are deleted TRIM sends a message to the SSD firmware to tell it that the blocks which were once used by those are now available.