SSD or HDD for DAW setup?

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Level 1

9 points

SSD or HDD for DAW setup?

I'm looking into improving efficiency in my production setup by installing either an SSD or an HDD. My tech specs will be below. I don't know which to get. I've heard that SSD's can be faster than HDDs but they only load up the samples fast and then the rest is on CPU & RAM. Which would be the best investment? Also, would it be easy to get all of my sample libraries onto whichever device or would I have to reinstall them through some complicated process? Thanks for the help.

Here's my computer's tech specs:

iMac

21.5-inch, Late 2013

Processor 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Software OS X 10.9.4 (13E28)

Logic Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Oct 1, 2014 6:35 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 1, 2014 6:48 PM in response to blueteeth13

While this might go against the general consensus.....

I tried out a fast Samsung 850 Pro series 512GB SSD (Supposedly one of the best SSDs out there) and a WD Velociraptor Duo 2TB 10K Thunderbolt Raid system.. and the Velociraptor won out by some margin, both in capacity and speed of data transfer back and forth....

For $499 compared to the cost of the 4 X smaller Samsung, it was a no brainer for me.... So much so i now own 3 of these beasts for each of my main rigs... and I have had zero issues for at least a year now..

Here are links to the two models I tested for comparison...

http://www.amazon.com/VelociRaptor-External-Drive-Storage-Thunderbolt/dp/B008R7E WF2#

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electronics-Internal-Version-MZ-7KE512BW/dp/B00LF1 0KTO/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1412214092&sr=1-3&keywords=samsung+512 gb+ssd

Note: The original reviews of the Velociraptor Duo were mainly not so good because of it's original cost (Over $1000 in many cases) and not because of it performance which all reviews stated was sublime... Now at the much lower price of $499.... "that changes everything" as they say.......

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Answer 2

CCTM

Level 6

13,159 points

Oct 2, 2014 12:33 AM in response to The Art Of Sound

Hi

For those considering the SSD option, Samsung seems to have a bit of a problem at the moment.

http://www.vi-control.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40856

CCT

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Answer 3

blueteeth13 Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 2, 2014 9:47 AM in response to CCTM

Thanks for the heads up!

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Answer 4

Pancenter

Level 6

14,788 points

Oct 2, 2014 10:04 AM in response to CCTM

CCTM wrote:

Hi

For those considering the SSD option, Samsung seems to have a bit of a problem at the moment.

http://www.vi-control.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40856

CCT

Don't all SSD's suffer this problem over time, maybe not to the extent of the Samsung drives posted but as I understand it, over a given length of time, let's say 6 to 8 months, a standard 7200 - 10,000 RPM HD will show less of a performance hit than and SSD used in a similar manner.

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Answer 5

blueteeth13 Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 3, 2014 2:51 PM in response to Pancenter

So you're saying that an HDD declines in performance faster than most SSD's?

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Answer 6

Pancenter

Level 6

14,788 points

Oct 3, 2014 3:09 PM in response to blueteeth13

blueteeth13 wrote:

So you're saying that an HDD declines in performance faster than most SSD's?

No, I'm saying the opposite, excuse me for quoting myself,

>>over a given length of time, let's say 6 to 8 months, a standard 7200 - 10,000 RPM HD will show less of a performance hit than an SSD<<

>less of a performance hit< means the SSD will suffer the greater performance hit... over a length of time, used in a similar manner as the HDD.

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Answer 7

blueteeth13 Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 3, 2014 10:23 PM in response to Pancenter

Gotcha. Sorry. Read that wrong.

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Answer 8

blueteeth13 Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 3, 2014 10:25 PM in response to The Art Of Sound

Thank you so much for the recommendation. I'm looking closely at the WD Velociraptor Duo 2TB 10K Thunderbolt Raid system and what it has to offer.

Do you know if there is a transfer option of if i'll have to reinstall things to it if i was to get it?

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Answer 9

Oct 3, 2014 10:42 PM in response to blueteeth13

Do you know if there is a transfer option of if i'll have to reinstall things to it if i was to get it?

Sorry Blueteeth, but Im not exactly sure what you mean.....

But if you mean how to get your current Sample Libraries over to the WD... (assuming they are Kontakt Libraries?)

If they are stored on your System/Internal drive then you can move them to the WD but you will have to go through each library in Kontakt and Batch Resave each library via Kontakt's menu option... so Kontakt knows they are now stored on a different HD...

If they are stored on an external drive then move them over to the WD, eject the external drive and then rename the WD to the same name as the original external HD and OS X/Logic/Kontakt will not know any difference and use them as before...

if they are not Kontakt libraries then let us know....

Hope that helps...

Cheers..

Nigel

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Answer 10

blueteeth13 Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 5, 2014 11:36 AM in response to The Art Of Sound

Exactly what I needed to hear. I've already batch resaved them on my internal drive. Will this complicate things or can i re-batch resave?

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Answer 11

Oct 5, 2014 11:38 AM in response to blueteeth13

No.. it won't complicate things.. Just do the batch resave again... once everything is on your new drive and you will be fine 🙂

Cheers..

Nigel

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Answer 12

blueteeth13 Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 5, 2014 11:41 AM in response to The Art Of Sound

Thanks very much for all your help! Real quick, I read in another tread some information you provided about slaving mac minis to your main computer to improve efficiency. What can you tell me about the advantages of slaving a mini to a work computer if i was to do this? What does it give you that you didn't have before?

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Answer 13

Oct 5, 2014 12:22 PM in response to blueteeth13

I think you are referring to VEP5 in which case.. have a read through the liniks provided in this post......

http://www.logicprohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=91297#p473886

They should give you a good idea as to what you can achieve with VEP and why, for me, its one of the most essential parts of my setup here....

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Answer 14

blueteeth13 Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 6, 2014 8:09 PM in response to The Art Of Sound

Thanks AOS this helped me out a ton!

I too have heard EVERYONE sing the praises of VE pro and have been looking into it.

I've been thinking of investing in a mac mini but before i make that leap i've got an old macbook that I could slave to my iMac and attempt to run Vienna Ensemble Pro with (i understand not every computer will function as a slave with VE pro so i'll have to check on wether my macbook, a 2007 model maybe, has intel). But this is plenty of info to go on and help me when I start to make these changes to my system which will hopefully be soon.

I see in the articles that you use Glyph Externals. How are they compared to the Velociraptor you were telling me about?

Also any pitfalls to avoid when getting VE pro set up and going? any mistakes you made i can avoid? thanks so much

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Answer 15

blueteeth13 Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 8, 2014 8:09 PM in response to The Art Of Sound

Hey AOS thought you'd like to know, I got a Velociraptor, put my project files and sample libraries on it and Logic keeps giving me error messages. Thoughts?

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