Is one SSD enough please help!!

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Walt1227

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Jun 24, 2013
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Hi Guys,

I am building a custom PC for audio production and need help with SSD selection. I will be running two programs and the OS for the computer. I am thinking that Windows 7 will be my OS because Windows 8 is still bugged out. I'm not sure how many gb's the OS will need to install. One of the audio programs I will be runninng is Sonar X2 producer which requires 2gbs of ram, and a min. of 4.5 gbs for install on SSD but 20 gbs is recommended. The other program I will be using is Komplete 9 which needs a min of 2gb ram but 4 is recommended. It also needs 8 gb of space for the program install. The sound libraries for Komplete 9 will need 82 gb of space alone. What size SSD would I need to complete these three task? Is there any other programs I am missing for install on a SSD? I already have a WD Blues series 1TB 7200 rpm hhd for the sound libraries and for storing music files. I will also be getting a extra 1-2 TB hhd for backup. I am thinking of maybe Seagate or WD Black series for this and actually making it my main hard drive for storing the sound libraries and my music files. I think I rather use the WD Blue series as a backup hhd. Also I have 16 gb of ram for my system with the ability to max it out to 32 gb. I will be using a i7 4770k cpu if you need that info. This system is strictly for audio recording that means no internet except for registering my programs. I will play a blu-ray movies every now and then as well. One last thing I do have a simple GPU Asus GeForce GT 630 ddr3 2gb. Thanks for all the help and advice in advance!!
 
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quilciri
A single 120-128gb ssd is plenty for all your needs. There is no reason I can think of to get one ssd for your OS, and a separate ssd for programs; that's actually detrimental to performance and reliability.
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Suferbus

Suferbus

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I would get a Crucial 64gb M4 SataIII for your os install and anti-virus, and another Crucial 128gb M4 SataIII for your programs you are running. I run 2 Crucial SSD's personally and I love the performance and reliability. The only other SSD's I would look at are the Samsung 840 pro's. They are excellent but cost a little more. Either way the performance increase will be amazing. Make sure you turn off page file and turn on trim if the ssd's you pick offer this option. You have more than enough ram to turn off page file without affecting performance, and this will extend the life of your ssd's. Good Luck!! Suferbus..
 
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boju

boju

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as well as disabling defrag, indexing, recycle bin, system restore and power management.

Nice little guide here; http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-2/

Upto you, but some of the things are more important than other tweaks but mainly what Suferbus and I have mentioned so far.
 
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Walt1227

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@ Tradesman what is platter drive and could you post a link to the ssd's that Suferbus is talking about just in case he doesn't respond? @ Suferbus could you post a link to these on Newegg?
 
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Suferbus

Suferbus

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Wrong. Performance will not be affected running two. I have benchmarks and years of experience running 2 drives that proves my point, and it will save your programs due to any os crash, weather virus caused or otherwise. So it is actually recommended you run 2 drives if possible.
 
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quilciri

quilciri

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Most programs require re-installation (or are better off with re-installation) when you are installing a new OS. So if you lose your OS, you need to reinstall your programs anyway. No point in keeping them on a separate drive.

The performance issue comes from keeping your OS on a 64gb ssd, which is slower than a 128 (or 256). your OS loses the speed benefit of being on the larger drive.
 
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Walt1227

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Suferbus I will be running 3 drives total because in the music industry music can get lost easy with hhd or ssd fails so I will have 2 hhd's and 1 ssd for programs. I may even add a external hhd to the mix later for extra protection. If you look on You Tube at recording studio setups you will see that most of the pro guys use about 5 external hhd along with about 3-4 in there system. We talking about a lot of money being lost if all our music gets erased.
 
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quilciri

quilciri

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^+1. "The most expensive part of a PC is the data."

I would also recommend an offsite backup. You can go old school with a portable drive kept at someone else's house, or you can use cloud storage.

Google and amazon will each give you 5gb free, and kim dotcom's new media-cow, mega will give you 50gb free (despite notoriety; the actual service is very stable). Symform will give you 100gb of cloud storage in exchange for allowing them to use 150gb of you HDD storage as a node in their cloud network. There's a few other site that will give you 5-7gb free. You'll need a subscription for capacity beyond that.
 
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Suferbus

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I have never had to re-install any programs when I change out my os drive, ever. Only some games I have had to re-install, but not all of them, and the ones that I have had to re-install would of had to have been re-installed anyway even if my os and programs were on the same drive. Keeping programs on 2nd drive is proven to be safer, don't have any idea where you are getting your information. And yes, a 64gb drive is a little slower, but barely noticeable at all. Let's put it this way for you, it is only about 2% slower than the 128 you are pimping, it is the 512gb and bigger that is really faster, so a 64 vs 128 you can barely tell the difference and VB 2012 boots off of my Crucial in 3 sec on a 64 and 3 sec on a 128.
 
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Xorak

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For your stated needs, and considering the cash you already have into the system, I would suggest a 256gb drive. I have the Samsung 840pro 256, and am very happy with it. There are a few reasons. First, with an SSD, you're better off for longevity and performance to have more space than you need, rather than trying to get by with the minimum. The bigger drives tend to be faster because they address more physical chips at the same time, and there are more physical chips to spread out wear. Second, depending on the nature of your programs, some or even much of the benefit of using the SSD in the first place may be lost if all their assets are not on the SSD. If you need to keep accessing the library, especially for many small, possibly random reads, the SSD will shine and really speed up your performance. In a situation like playing a game, where you tend to make one, large, continuous read to load a level and then you're good for a while, the SSD won't make such a huge difference. Searching very quickly for many smaller files that may not be near each other on a physical disk is where the SSD really beats a standard drive. In simpler terms, if you feel the hard drive is used frequently to run these programs after they are finished loading, you should probably size your SSD to hold all their assets.
 
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Walt1227

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The SSD is just for me to boot the computer and run those two programs I listed above. The sounds and effects will be installed on the HHD's. The problems with these music programs is they tend to take a while loading. For instance, on the AMD Toshiba laptop I have it takes Sonar about 2 minutes to load after scanning all the folders that work with it. Calling up the sounds are not a problem. However, depending on the file size of a sound it may take a few seconds longer than it does when loading a smaller file size. The biggest issues for me is being able to run my programs without having a heavy load on the CPU causing it to slow down or even cause audio dropouts. I'm sure that the system I am building which is over $1200 is capable of doing the job without any problems. I'm not sure if you read it above, I am not a computer gamer so some of that stuff you stated may not apply to me. From my understanding and what I have heard from others is that any programs you want to run should be on a SSD because it boots faster and helps with performance. I also heard that putting the sounds and effects libraries on the HHD would be the best option because they can hold more storage than a SSD. My sound libraries can be anywhere from 150-400gbs of sounds and will eventually be more later. Like I said earlier in the thread I am new to this stuff (not music recording) and trying to figure out the best way to go about using the SSD and HHD's. Thanks for the advice :)
 
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Suferbus

Suferbus

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Walt, if the SSd is just for os and a couple of programs, go with a 64gb. You can Install windows and you will have 40gb left. a 128 is to much space for just an os and a couple programs. Good luck.
 
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Walt1227

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Thanks surf! I actually may need that 128gb cause of a few more programs I will be getting later. But I'm sure I won't need more than that as all the sound libraries will be on a 1TB hhd and will be backed up with another 1TB in case of failure. I will also have a Glyph GT 062E (4 TB - 7200 RPM) to back up everything I am recording. I may throw the programs on it just in case the ssd were to fail.
 
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Suferbus

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I know SSD's have come along way in the last couple of years. At first they had a bad reputation for failing frequently, but I have been running my 2 Crucials for 2 years now and the Crucial in my laptop for 2.5 years without so much of a hiccup. Good luck!
 
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steave_01

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yes, i one ssd should be enough for OS. I would recommend the new sandforce based kingston hyperx 3k 120GB which is having very good reviews & also from my personal experience would recommend this

 
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