Hi
Having an SSD (256GB) for the OS (Yosemite) only without the large libraries (Lightroom, FCX) I end up with 175GB of unused space.
Is that enough space left? My Scratch is on another SSD (512GB) PCIe card and the large media files on regular 3.5HD.
All SSDs are Samsung 850 pro.
Regards
Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), 2010 MP 6 Core GTX 760
Mac OS X requires about 9GB free to operate, NOT counting Paging/Swap space (if needed). Less than that will cause erratic operation. More is always better.
Mac OS X requires about 9GB free to operate, NOT counting Paging/Swap space (if needed). Less than that will cause erratic operation. More is always better.
You might want to put Lightroom on an SSD.
With the super-fast (1100MB/sec PCIe-Express SSDs) it doesn't make sense or help always to spread things out.
Some people chooose PCIe SATA III controller + a pair of SSDs and then using RAID0.
Lots of ways to optimize and configure.
I like boot drives to have 40% free. Also depends on TRIM and BGC just how well - and take into account not everything cached will go to the scratch drive volume, some -plugins will always use (~100GB) the boot drive.
9GB is always "minimum" and cutting it close and never a good idea for performance or for graphic or video ;production systems - just to prevent hopefully the directory from becoming fubar and wiping out files or locking up.
Unused space on an SSD is still used by the SSD controller to move files around as part of the Garbage Collection/wear leveling process, and, indeed, manufacturers build in unavailable (to you) space as "overprovisioning." This review of your SSD allows you to test various levels of additional overprovisioning to see how performance consistency is affected. Note that you can increase the effective overprovisioning by leaving some drive space unformatted (i.e. "free space").
i have been doing so much reading about the best way to setup my hard drives properly. I sit down and on wrote on paper all the drives I have and planned the best way to setup everything Also based on the advices from different sites such as Mac performance guide and so forth.
AS usual the simpler the better trying to optmize my system according to what I do and what I have available not being to fency a complicated,
my three ssd drives are different sizes (128, 256 and 512 Samsung pros) my 3.5 are 3x 3tb internal along with 3x 3tb externals. I also have a PCIe (dual) card.
by having so many drives is what making me confused.
i Have read read that it is not a good idea to have the boot dive on a raid0, so I set it up on a single 256gb SSD Mounted on the PCI card. A 512gb ssd also on the PCI card for the large libraries (Lightroom, potoshop and FCX). The third small 126gb ssd under the optical bay is a cloned copy of boot drive. The large 3tb are for the the media files. Those 3.5 are single volumes and at one point I thought about set them as raid 0 using disk utility but not sure if it's a good idea. I have read great reviews about the ssd blade that Hatter suggested but I don't want to spend more money now specially by having so many drives that I can work with and maybe this is the reason why I cant make up my mind. Maybe setup the media drives 2x 3tb bays 1 and 2 as raid 0 and leaving one 3tb as single may not be bad, I'll move my boot Os to the 512gd ssd and make the 256gb for scratch.
sorry for the long post and thank you guys for the replies
I would be concerned if any of the drives like 3TB are green, are slower rpm and not your 7.2k variety.
As long as you stick to having 2 or more backup sets you are fine striping into one large volune (and might need 6TB drives for backups).
Scratch is a throwaway, no need to be backed up,.
System should be but should be smaller, OS and apps only, and have a couple restore images so again, no big concern,
And the three data drives that are backed up.
System / data / scratch / backups - and one special case high speed volume for graphic libraries.,
Nothing complicated in any of that. I guess if you have a 2TB PCIe-SSD it could be one or two steps more reduced to simplest setup, and looks to be prototype of such devices from Samsung on horizon.
With faster speeds and larger less expensive SSD devices (1TB blades or Samsung 850) there is less need to split functions to different volumes.
Thanks Hatter. Yes, it would be easier if I had those 1tb or 2tb ssds to have them on the PCI card or the blades to have everything in there and not to use sata 2 anymore But I only Have a 512gb as the biggest for the system on the PCI The 3tbs I have a regular seagates 7200rpm but not the interprise, however I dont run 24/7. Is that ok? Also, when you mention the backup for the striped 6tb, do you mean that I can not use 3t usb3 external? Does it have to be the same size as the raid (6tb).
thanks
Normally the system does not need 512GB. 128GB might be too tight a fit but 250GB ($98 EVO 850) generally are fine, even with 100-150GB of it used for cache and getting lots of writes.
The user does not need to have anything on boot drive except the 10GB or so of ~/Library - everything else goes to your 7.2k drive volume.
Separating user and system still makes sense.
Aperture and Lightroom are two, audio plugin and libraries another, that benefit from SSDs.
Some users have gone with 4 x SSD (500GB because larger means faster nad more IO channels) so as to have one large easy to manage volume, and speed. Cheap today at $200 x 4 plus cost of two Apricorn controllers (~$200?) so just under $1,000
Price on new 2TB blade is around $1500 which is in line with 1TB Apple OEM prices on ebay, cheaper to get 750GB model.
The first OWC 500GB were $1500 if you remember - and SSDs came out in 2008 where 250GB was $600+
Not sure Lightroom etc need 500GB (50% free is fine).
While arrays have downside (backup, installs and such) the lack of Recovery volume is fne and better without, it can be anyplace. And instead of RAID0, JBOD would give you one 750GB volume,
If you are 'new' to array use, experiment. One reason not to use one for backup is more fragile. USB has its own issues, you are using 3rd party controller usiing PCIe slot too for another. Clone only needs to be 1:1 while TimeMachine needs to be 3.5:1 ideally. CCC also will archive a backup.
If you have 9TB (3x3) and 50% full, then I would want 6TB drives, or at least some 4TB unit or two.
SSD - How Much Unused Space I Need?
