KVR Audio

sagetone · Post by **sagetone** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 5:08 pm

Hi,

My current Win 7x64 DAW consists of 3 drives, a 500GB SSD for the system drive with all programs and VSTs on it, a 500GB HDD for project folders/files, and a 1TB HDD containing samples and loops. Brand new motherboard and CPU last fall, and the next step will be the upgrade to Win 10. Before I do that, I want to do a clean install of the Win 7x64 OS, drivers, etc. This is making me ask a few questions about my drives.

I'd like to request feedback and opinions on the following:

My current system SSD is 1.5 yr old, and I am thinking of getting a new SSD for the system drive and moving this current one to the project drive. Can anyone comment on SSD longevity? And, will a project SSD "last longer" than a system/OS SSD? I am assuming so because I am assuming system SSDs get written to much more than project SSDs. Another question... Do I even NEED an SSD for the project drive? My DAWs are Sonar and Bitwig, and the programs are on the systems drive, so is there any performance benefit to changing the project drive from HDD to SSD?

I'd like to upgrade the samples drive to 2TB. Too costly to put in an SSD, so I am thinking of an SSHD (hybrid) drive. However, are SSHDs only really beneficial for system applications? My limited understanding is that the SS portion of the hybrid drive is basically a big cache for often used/accessed programs. So I may be better off just getting a good ol' HDD for the samples drive. Comments?

Thank you for your input,

Todd

glokraw · Post by **glokraw** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 10:31 pm

Some folks recommend between 10 and 30% of SSD should be
held back as unallocated space, for over-provisioning,
(some great search enfine fodder) so the ssd hardware has lots of room to do it's file dancing magic. Some drives come set up
already overprovisioned, some do not. To be safer, in either case, consider the drive full, at 60%, and try keeping it less than that.
Helped to keep XP from fragmenting old drives to death...

ssd speed helps large files move fast (samples), or lots of often accessed
small files move fast (booting). Stuff that isn't huge, and mainly just sits there, benefits least from ssd.

I'd be far more concerned with trusting -any- new operating system
to be the only production environment on hand. Keeping a great win7
computer to rely on, and a cheapo spearcatcher computer to test win 10 on, seems lucky. Clean installs of both, never trust msoft
to update your DAW in the dark. And they keep the lights dim
on purpose.
Cheers

glokraw · Post by **glokraw** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 10:33 pm

Some folks recommend between 10 and 30% of SSD should be
held back as unallocated space, for over-provisioning,
(some great search engine fodder) so the ssd hardware has lots of room to do it's file dancing magic. Some drives come set up
already overprovisioned, some do not. To be safer, in either case, consider the drive full, at 60%, and try keeping it less than that.
Helped to keep XP from fragmenting old drives to death...

ssd speed helps large files move fast (samples), or lots of often accessed
small files move fast (booting). Stuff that isn't huge, and mainly just sits there, benefits least from ssd.

I'd be far more concerned with trusting -any- new operating system
to be the only production environment on hand. Keeping a great win7
computer to rely on, and a cheapo spearcatcher computer to test win 10 on, seems lucky. Clean installs of both, never trust msoft
to update your DAW in the dark. And they keep the lights dim
on purpose.
Cheers

Zombie Queen · Post by **Zombie Queen** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 10:49 pm

sagetone wrote:Can anyone comment on SSD longevity?

I have 5 years old 40GB Intel SSD, running as system disk, used daily, almost always on. Intel toolbox diagnostic show 100% in "estimated life remaining".

PapaLazarou · Post by **PapaLazarou** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 2:35 am

Many of the SSD manufacturers provide a diagnostic tool that shows things like total data written over the lifetime of the drive, and estimated lifetime left (e.g. Samsung Magician, Sandisk SSD Dashboard). If not third party software can probably do a similar job. As said, keeping a decent amount of free space on an SSD is important.

As for whether hybrids are worth it for a data drive, as you say they work by algorithms that cache the most accessed data. I'm not sure if they will help much in the case of a large drive full of samples. At best I guess they might speed up drive indexing and searching. They are just a little more expensive than conventional HDD's so if they don't outperform in that role, it's no great loss. Personally I'd lean towards high quality conventional HDD's (e.g. WD Black) though.

sagetone · Post by **sagetone** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 3:43 am

glokraw, Zombie, and Papa, thanks for your feedback! Some good pointers!

Vintage73 · Post by **Vintage73** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 5:42 am

I don't know all of the technical aspects of HDDs, SSDs, and SSHDs, but how I have mine set up is SSD for System, SSD for Programs, SSD for plugins (because I have three), and HDD (WD Black) for samples.

sagetone · Post by **sagetone** » Tue Feb 09, 2016 3:13 am

Thanks Blue Phase -

A couple of Drive (HDD, SSD, SSHD) questions