New computer questions

REDD

Fractal Fanatic
I had my computer die and I have a new one coming that's awesome. It has a 1TB SSD and a 2TB HDD. Should I put VSTs and stuff like Superior drummer and mixing tools on the SSD and use the HDD just for recording tracks stuff? What's the general rule for this? How should the drives be used for best results? Does it matter? Thanks in advance.
 
I had my computer die and I have a new one coming that's awesome. It has a 1TB SSD and a 2TB HDD. Should I put VSTs and stuff like Superior drummer and mixing tools on the SSD and use the HDD just for recording tracks stuff? What's the general rule for this? How should the drives be used for best results? Does it matter? Thanks in advance.
If that were my setup ...

I'd use the SSD for OS and programs. Everything else, I'd put on the HHD.
 
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Great advice above :/

SSD is fast but expensive. HDD read is faster than write. Audio recording doesn't need much bandwidth.

1T will seem small as soon as you allocate space for stuff.

Agree OS and programs on SSD. You read them often.

From there, your current project(s) and most often used sample libraries on the SSD.

Everything else on the HDD. Reallocate as needed.

SSD is less likely to crash, but is still not bullet proof. Invest in a backup solution. Cheap 4-6TB external HDD. Backup to AWS S3 glacier. Use Dropbox, crasplan, etc. pick any 2 of the above (one onsite, one offsite).

Also, check out the speed of your SD card reader with a fast SD card. Maybe it is faster than HDD and can be a midddle ground location for read-only files.
 
In this case you would put the OS on the SSD and audio on the HDD for best performance.
Your sample library is more performance sensitive than the OS. We recommend to our customers that they always install their sample library on an SSD. In fact it’s been years since I’ve heard of anybody storing a sample library or project audio on an HD.
 
Your sample library is more performance sensitive than the OS. We recommend to our customers that they always install their sample library on an SSD. In fact it’s been years since I’ve heard of anybody storing a sample library or project audio on an HD.
That's a sound recommendation. However, a 1TB drive will fill up quickly so everything desired may not fit.
 
I was curious and ran some tests on the drives I have handy. I can run some SD tests as well tomorrow. The SSDs in the new Macs are insane. I have an OWC Express Thunderbolt 3 box with 4x2TB M2 NVME SSDs (but the power supply isn't here, so that waits until tomorrow...).

DISK READ WRITE Glyph Atom Pro 2 External NVME SSD 1.3 GB/s 2.3 GB/s OWC Express 4xEVO 970 2T 2.0 GB/s 2.8 GB/s MacBook Pro 2022 Internal SSD 5.5 GB/s 5.5 GB/s Mac Pro Studio 2022 Internal SSD 5.8 GB/s 5.6 GB/s

Edit: SD Cards == too slow :(
 
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I had my computer die and I have a new one coming that's awesome. It has a 1TB SSD and a 2TB HDD. Should I put VSTs and stuff like Superior drummer and mixing tools on the SSD and use the HDD just for recording tracks stuff? What's the general rule for this? How should the drives be used for best results? Does it matter? Thanks in advance.
Is your computer going be preconfigured with the OS on the SSD? If so, and you’re up to installing the OS on the HDD, I’d consider doing that and using the SSD for samples and audio. My earlier suggestion assumed the smaller SSD would be the boot drive.

Will your new computer support more than two hard drives? Will it have any fast ports for connecting external drives (eSATA, etc)?

In case this is helpful, here’s my drive setup:

My music PC is using 4 internal SSDs, plus an external HHD on eSATA. The SSDs are each for OS/programs, data flies, audio, and samples. The external HHD is for backups.

I also have 4 SSDs that are “loose” that I use to dupe the drives that are in the PC. The drives in the PC are in removable, caddy-less bays. To backup, I just pop the drives out of the PC and each takes its turn in a disk duper.
 
That's a sound recommendation. However, a 1TB drive will fill up quickly so everything desired may not fit.
That’s what I was thinking, too.

Also, if the OS/programs are on the same drive as samples, there’d be more competition for throughput, I think.
 
I bought the Sweetwater Creation station CS400. I thought it looked awesome but I'm not a big computer guy. I think the OS is on the SSD.
 
Assuming you have enough RAM to not be swapping, OS / App reads will happen once per run of the app.
I'm not a computer guy so much, hence the post. It has 32GB of RAM and expandable to 128. I believe the OS is on the SSD.
 
I bought the Sweetwater Creation station CS400. I thought it looked awesome but I'm not a big computer guy. I think the OS is on the SSD.
In your case redd I would put the OS and APPS on the SSD and, for now, record to HDD. Not sure what Sweetwater does for motherboards, but it is very easy and pretty cheap to add another SSD NVME.............Depends on the motherboard specs. Also, you do not need to be a computer wiz to do this.
But congrats on the new computer.
 
Hi @REDD
You 'aint going to like this, but spend a little more money, and get an SSD to replace the HDD... Makes a hell of a difference all around, and now's the time.
Thanks
Pauly

I had my computer die and I have a new one coming that's awesome. It has a 1TB SSD and a 2TB HDD. Should I put VSTs and stuff like Superior drummer and mixing tools on the SSD and use the HDD just for recording tracks stuff? What's the general rule for this? How should the drives be used for best results? Does it matter? Thanks in advance.
 
In that case it sounds like he‘ll need a bigger drive :). Seriously though, an HD these days is best used only for backups.
Yeah, the HDD could hold all projects (local "backup") and the SSD the current/active ones.

Of course, we haven't spoken budget. Sky's the limit? Build out an NVMe RAID or some such. If the current purchase depleted/stretched the budget, upgrade over time after you get a feel what matters in your workflow.
 
Yeah, the HDD could hold all projects (local "backup") and the SSD the current/active ones.

Of course, we haven't spoken budget. Sky's the limit? Build out an NVMe RAID or some such. If the current purchase depleted/stretched the budget, upgrade over time after you get a feel what matters in your workflow.
Just looked up the creation station. Very expandable, so I wouldn't sweat too much about your starting point. It will be easily expandable in the future.

The hot swap bay is a good place to add a cheap, slow, backup HDD that you can swap out. Put a copy of everything off site (safe deposit box, friends, work).
 
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