What external drives are needed for new 2015 Imac?

[EasyWorkflow]

Hello friends,

I broke down and ordered the new late 2105 Imac with 1 TB flash drive and 32GB memory. Yes, it may be a tad overkill but I will never regret having the xtra memory and SSD drive.

Here are my questions:

1.) I use soft synths almost exclusively and my Godin MIDI guitar as my controller. I have Komplete Ultimate which has NOT been installed until new Imac arrives. I also have Spectrasonics TRillian, Omnisphere 2 & Stylus RMX which I currently use on 2009 Imac. I know Komplete is like 500 GB so just that program along with Ableton 9 live suite and the 3 Spectransonic programs that will take up a lot of space of the internal 1TB SSD.

DO I need an external hard drive to optimize this setup? Should it be an SSD drive and if so, how large. Would the Komplete library be installed on the external drive along with projects?

2.) I will also need a backup drive. Would a 7200 2TB spinning drive be the way to go.

3.) Thunderbolt and USB 3. How do these new options change the way my my MIDI controllers will work? I have a scarlette 2i4 interface. Does getting a thunderbolt interface have any impact on using Ableton.

Thanks

[doghouse]

DO I need an external hard drive to optimize this setup? Should it be an SSD drive and if so, how large. Would the Komplete library be installed on the external drive along with projects?

The internal SSD will always be fastest so I would put everything there unless there really is no room for it. External SSD is big money, you'll pay 3-4x compared to a same sized HD. Thunderbolt HDs are plenty fast for streaming.

I will also need a backup drive. Would a 7200 2TB spinning drive be the way to go.

For backing up data? The drive can be pig slow. Reliability is more important than speed...consider getting a RAID array.

Thunderbolt and USB 3. How do these new options change the way my my MIDI controllers will work? I have a scarlette 2i4 interface. Does getting a thunderbolt interface have any impact on using Ableton.

With a $30 adapter from Apple, a Thunderbolt port becomes plain old Firewire 800. As far as USB3, I've read complaints from users saying that some USB 2.0 hardware doesn't work right with USB 3.0 Macs. I would suggest following up with the manufacturers of your hardware.

[EasyWorkflow]

Hello friends,

I broke down and ordered the new late 2105 Imac with 1 TB flash drive and 32GB memory. Yes, it may be a tad overkill but I will never regret having the xtra memory and SSD drive.

Here are my questions:

1.) I use soft synths almost exclusively and my Godin MIDI guitar as my controller. I have Komplete Ultimate which has NOT been installed until new Imac arrives. I also have Spectrasonics TRillian, Omnisphere 2 & Stylus RMX which I currently use on 2009 Imac. I know Komplete is like 500 GB so just that program along with Ableton 9 live suite and the 3 Spectransonic programs that will take up a lot of space of the internal 1TB SSD.

DO I need an external hard drive to optimize this setup? Should it be an SSD drive and if so, how large. Would the Komplete library be installed on the external drive along with projects?

2.) I will also need a backup drive. Would a 7200 2TB spinning drive be the way to go.

3.) Thunderbolt and USB 3. How do these new options change the way my my MIDI controllers will work? I have a scarlette 2i4 interface. Does getting a thunderbolt interface have any impact on using Ableton.

Thanks

DO I need an external hard drive to optimize this setup? Should it be an SSD drive and if so, how large. Would the Komplete library be installed on the external drive along with projects?

The internal SSD will always be fastest so I would put everything there unless there really is no room for it. External SSD is big money, you'll pay 3-4x compared to a same sized HD. Thunderbolt HDs are plenty fast for streaming.

I will also need a backup drive. Would a 7200 2TB spinning drive be the way to go.

For backing up data? The drive can be pig slow. Reliability is more important than speed...consider getting a RAID array.

Thunderbolt and USB 3. How do these new options change the way my my MIDI controllers will work? I have a scarlette 2i4 interface. Does getting a thunderbolt interface have any impact on using Ableton.

With a $30 adapter from Apple, a Thunderbolt port becomes plain old Firewire 800. As far as USB3, I've read complaints from users saying that some USB 2.0 hardware doesn't work right with USB 3.0 Macs. I would suggest following up with the manufacturers of your hardware.

Thanks for detailed response but still a tad confused. Let's say I order the external 1 TB SSD drive. My current computer has 3 drives. I TB 7200 internal spinning drive, one 500 GB SSD drive and one exteranl 500 GB 7200 spinning drive.

Ableton said to install applications on internal SSD drive, libraries on internal 1 tb spinning drive, and projects on external drive.

I am know going down to 2 drives. So where is everything supposed to be installed? Does the application part of Komplete go on internal and entire library go on external? Where do projects go? Would soft synths like Omnisphere 2 run better on internal drive? I very rarely use loops and use my MIDI guitar to play soft synth and samples. Not interested in sound design. Just playing guitar and writing tracks. And advice on setting up using two drives? Thanks