SSD Opinions and Reccomendations

[Apostate]

I am really interested in the efficacy of SSD drives, and I'd be super grateful for any help here, as I have great respect for KVR opinions.

I have huge libraries, East West, Iris 2, Kontakt, etc and need much quicker loading, also I am mixing a massive orchestral piece. Have SSD drives really enhanced your performance and how? What do you recommend for music production?

8 GB for SSD or more/less sufficient? What's the difference, if any? Here's my computer, I can replace the SSD drive (I write huge orchestral symphonies, film stuff, Rock/Metal, Avante Garde orchestral and chamber). http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SIJ ... E9SSYTV0PZ

[whyterabbyt]

Thats a hybrid drive. 1Tb spinny-disc-drive with 8Gb of SSD as a cache acting together as a single drive. Anything in cache (eg most recently accessed 8Gb of files) will be faster to load. Anything not in cache will need to be moved off the hard drive at regular speeds.

8Gb cache seems a bit low to me for the only drive on a system for a large sample-set scenario, given that system files etc will churn through that too. The system might be a bit more responsive than a regular 1Tb drive, but I suspect it'll be moot when dealing with lots of large sample libraries.

[Apostate]

Thats a hybrid drive. 1Tb spinny-disc-drive with 8Gb of SSD as a cache acting together as a single drive. Anything in cache (eg most recently accessed 8Gb of files) will be faster to load. Anything not in cache will need to be moved off the hard drive at regular speeds.

8Gb cache seems a bit low to me for the only drive on a system for a large sample-set scenario, given that system files etc will churn through that too. The system might be a bit more responsive than a regular 1Tb drive, but I suspect it'll be moot when dealing with lots of large sample libraries.

Thanks for the great answer! This is my old computer, which (believe it or not) could handle up to 8 separate East West Strings and Brass tracks apiece in Cubase, plus 6 Aria player tracks. The only problems I had were a) the fairly slow loading time and b) adding anything more (lol): http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-i15 ... B00ARDLUDQ

I'm guessing with the new computer described above, I'll at least experience some improved loading time and performance?

[whyterabbyt]

Thanks for the great answer! This is my old computer, which (believe it or not) could handle up to 8 separate East West Strings and Brass tracks apiece in Cubase, plus 6 Aria player tracks. The only problems I had were a) the fairly slow loading time and b) adding anything more (lol): http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-i15 ... B00ARDLUDQ

I'm guessing with the new computer described above, I'll at least experience some improved loading time and performance?

I'd expect loading times to be a bit improved (the HD is still going to be a 5400rpm drive I suspect), but not as much as the other overall performance gains in terms of raw processing power and the increase in memory. Youd definitely be able to load more samples, run more effects etc.

If loading times are your primary concern, though, it might be cheaper to put a 1Tb SSD into your old system, if the HD slot is accessible.

[Apostate]

Thanks for the great answer! This is my old computer, which (believe it or not) could handle up to 8 separate East West Strings and Brass tracks apiece in Cubase, plus 6 Aria player tracks. The only problems I had were a) the fairly slow loading time and b) adding anything more (lol): http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-i15 ... B00ARDLUDQ

I'm guessing with the new computer described above, I'll at least experience some improved loading time and performance?

I'd expect loading times to be a bit improved (the HD is still going to be a 5400rpm drive I suspect), but not as much as the other overall performance gains in terms of raw processing power and the increase in memory. Youd definitely be able to load more samples, run more effects etc.

If loading times are your primary concern, though, it might be cheaper to put a 1Tb SSD into your old system, if the HD slot is accessible.

Amazingly helpful replies, I can't thank you enough. The inability to add an SSD drive to my old computer is one of the reasons I bought the new one. With the new one, all that is possible. I can just replace the 8 gb SSD.

Glad to hear about even a slight improvement. Considering I paid just over 850 US for the new computer, that's very good news.

[whyterabbyt]

The inability to add an SSD drive to my old computer is one of the reasons I bought the new one. With the new one, all that is possible. I can just replace the 8 gb SSD.

Just in case the explanation I gave confused this; the 8Gb SSD space is part of the 1Tb hard drive. Its a single unit, with both types of storage in it.

[2ZrgE]

I wouldn't buy a hybrid drive, it mainly speeds up the OS operations (hybrids are cheaper though). Kind of neither fish nor fowl.

For fast sample loading I'd go for a full SSD solution (that's what I did a couple of years a go, I'd never work with a HD-system only.)

[Apostate]

The inability to add an SSD drive to my old computer is one of the reasons I bought the new one. With the new one, all that is possible. I can just replace the 8 gb SSD.

Just in case the explanation I gave confused this; the 8Gb SSD space is part of the 1Tb hard drive. Its a single unit, with both types of storage in it.

Okay, I think I get it now. I keep seeing mention of setting SSD as primary hard drive...not sure if 8gb fits the bill (or anything, as I'm a basic computer duh).

[whyterabbyt]

Okay, I think I get it now. I keep seeing mention of setting SSD as primary hard drive...not sure if 8gb fits the bill (or anything, as I'm a basic computer duh).

You wont see the 8Gb. As far as Windows is concerned, it'll look like a regular 1Tb drive. 8Gb worth of that 1Tb storage (ie file data that has most recently accessed), though, will be accessible at SSD speeds, but that's transparent to the user.

[Apostate]

Okay, I think I get it now. I keep seeing mention of setting SSD as primary hard drive...not sure if 8gb fits the bill (or anything, as I'm a basic computer duh).

You wont see the 8Gb. As far as Windows is concerned, it'll look like a regular 1Tb drive. 8Gb worth of that 1Tb storage (ie file data that has most recently accessed), though, will be accessible at SSD speeds, but that's transparent to the user.

Can I keep clearing the cache, I mean...say if I just focus on one, big Cubase project, and then finish it. Do/Can I just clear the cache before loading and focusing on another? Forgive me if any of this is astoundingly dumb, please.

[whyterabbyt]

Okay, I think I get it now. I keep seeing mention of setting SSD as primary hard drive...not sure if 8gb fits the bill (or anything, as I'm a basic computer duh).

You wont see the 8Gb. As far as Windows is concerned, it'll look like a regular 1Tb drive. 8Gb worth of that 1Tb storage (ie file data that has most recently accessed), though, will be accessible at SSD speeds, but that's transparent to the user.

Can I keep clearing the cache, I mean...say if I just focus on one, big Cubase project, and then finish it. Do/Can I just clear the cache before loading and focusing on another? Forgive me if any of this is astoundingly dumb, please.

Its all done 'behind the scenes' by the hard drive controller inside the drive; you'll have no control over it.

[Apostate]

Okay, I think I get it now. I keep seeing mention of setting SSD as primary hard drive...not sure if 8gb fits the bill (or anything, as I'm a basic computer duh).

You wont see the 8Gb. As far as Windows is concerned, it'll look like a regular 1Tb drive. 8Gb worth of that 1Tb storage (ie file data that has most recently accessed), though, will be accessible at SSD speeds, but that's transparent to the user.

Can I keep clearing the cache, I mean...say if I just focus on one, big Cubase project, and then finish it. Do/Can I just clear the cache before loading and focusing on another? Forgive me if any of this is astoundingly dumb, please.

Its all done 'behind the scenes' by the hard drive controller inside the drive; you'll have no control over it.

Hmmm...an extra SSD drive sure looks more and more tempting.

[whyterabbyt]

Hmmm...an extra SSD drive sure looks more and more tempting.

Possibly. Hybrid drives are basically a relatively cheap way of speeding up regular mechanical hard drives. Speedwise, on average they sit between mechanical drives and SSD's, but the advantage you'll see depends on what the system useage is. Cycles of loading of large collections of files that are constantly different will show the least improvement.

[Apostate]

Hmmm...an extra SSD drive sure looks more and more tempting.

Possibly. Hybrid drives are basically a relatively cheap way of speeding up regular mechanical hard drives. Speedwise, on average they sit between mechanical drives and SSD's, but the advantage you'll see depends on what the system useage is. Cycles of loading of large collections of files that are constantly different will show the least improvement.

So, if I use the same sample libraries with the same files...I think I see. But then I'd still be limited by the 8g SSD, I think.

Still, an improvement over the computer I have now is still a significant factor for me. When I'm creating orchestral music on my current computer, I really don't experience too many problems (just fairly slow loading at times). It's just when I go to mix orchestral and multi-layered synths...actually, as long as I bounce the synth tracks to audio I can probably overcome the problems. Especially in mixing, where I need everything bounced down anyway.

Mostly thinking out loud.

[Phorous]

Hmmm...an extra SSD drive sure looks more and more tempting.

Possibly. Hybrid drives are basically a relatively cheap way of speeding up regular mechanical hard drives. Speedwise, on average they sit between mechanical drives and SSD's, but the advantage you'll see depends on what the system useage is. Cycles of loading of large collections of files that are constantly different will show the least improvement.

So, if I use the same sample libraries with the same files...I think I see. But then I'd still be limited by the 8g SSD, I think.

Still, an improvement over the computer I have now is still a significant factor for me. When I'm creating orchestral music on my current computer, I really don't experience too many problems (just fairly slow loading at times). It's just when I go to mix orchestral and multi-layered synths...actually, as long as I bounce the synth tracks to audio I can probably overcome the problems. Especially in mixing, where I need everything bounced down anyway.

Mostly thinking out loud.

If you want fast loading times for large amounts of samples you will want an actual SSD rather than a hybrid SSD. A hybrid SSD is only going to be a marginal increase in performance for your needs.

A 500GB Samsung 850 EVO can be had for $170 or so and would do wonders for your loading times. Just install all of your sample libraries on it and you are done.

If you need more space than that there are 1TB and 2TB sizes available as well.

Just to be clear, the use case of a hybrid SSD is more for average users not working with a huge amount of data that needs to be loaded quickly.