What size SSD Drive for Upgrade?

Discuss anything related to audio or music production.
Thanks1111
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Nov 02, 2014 5:26 pm

What size SSD Drive for Upgrade?

Post by Thanks1111 » Thu Feb 19, 2015 9:33 pm

I am upgrading my 2009 Imac because I do not have funds for new computer. I already had the local authorized Apple shop upgrade the memory from 4GB to 20GB. HUGE difference

Last thing I am going to do is add an SSD drive. Apple recently replaced my hard drive due to a recall and I have a 7200 TB drive which will now be used to save projects etc. The question is whether a 250 GB is large enough when you start adding all the virtual instruments, plugins, VSTs, other software like NI Komplete, Machine etc, or would you need a 500 GB SSD drive. The difference in cost is about $110.

Can someone familiar with these apps let me know if 250GB is plenty or is their a chance I could run out of space.

Thanks

beats me
Posts: 23319
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 6:39 pm

Re: What size SSD Drive for Upgrade?

Post by beats me » Thu Feb 19, 2015 9:39 pm

Komplete Ultimate is 320GB.

‘Nough said.

rhythmhead
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Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2009 1:24 am

Re: What size SSD Drive for Upgrade?

Post by rhythmhead » Thu Feb 19, 2015 9:45 pm

I would suggest get as small as you can. It will be faster and cheaper.

Then get one of these http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIDIMCL0GB/


Basically it swaps out your disk drive for a internal hard drive. There you put in a huge drive of your choice.


This way you get all the performance and storage you need.


Honestly when was the last time you used your disk drive?

Thanks1111
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Nov 02, 2014 5:26 pm

Re: What size SSD Drive for Upgrade?

Post by Thanks1111 » Thu Feb 19, 2015 9:46 pm

beats me wrote:Komplete Ultimate is 320GB.

‘Nough said.

I am shocked. I would have thought a 1 or 2 GB tops.

Looks like going with the SSD 480 GB drive.

Thanks

beats me
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Re: What size SSD Drive for Upgrade?

Post by beats me » Thu Feb 19, 2015 10:03 pm

IMO a 1TB drive should be the minimum so you have room to grow for a while. File size efficiency seems to be zero priority for developers. Omnisphere is 50GB, for one friggin softsynth. But I know 1TB SSDs are still cost prohibitive for most.

siliconarc
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Re: What size SSD Drive for Upgrade?

Post by siliconarc » Thu Feb 19, 2015 11:02 pm

beats me wrote:Komplete Ultimate is 320GB.

‘Nough said.
ultimate is 440gb now :lol:

but standard is 130gb and it's unlikely you'll want all the sample libs installed anyway.
i reckon 480gb SSD should be plenty for now.

beats me
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Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 6:39 pm

Re: What size SSD Drive for Upgrade?

Post by beats me » Thu Feb 19, 2015 11:21 pm

garyboozy wrote:
beats me wrote:Komplete Ultimate is 320GB.

‘Nough said.
ultimate is 440gb now :lol:
8O :x

I’m still waiting for the summer 50% off upgrade sale to go from KU9 to 10. When installing I did pick and choose based on what I thought I would never use but every so often I see or read about something I might use but I didn’t install it. And I can’t be bothered after the fact. :x

Tagor
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Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2009 3:18 am

Re: What size SSD Drive for Upgrade?

Post by Tagor » Fri Feb 20, 2015 12:54 am

Just consider that the Spectrasonics Plugs without Omni 2 already eat up nearly 250 GB
then maybe you get Reaktor or some other multisampled HQ-Stuff and already you are thinking
about updrade your disksapace. it is just a pleasure to change Multis quick- When you have
to wait 30 sec. until the instrument comes up, you think twice - so ssd its worth

just to get a glue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF_-tJVy0yk

Thanks1111
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Nov 02, 2014 5:26 pm

Re: What size SSD Drive for Upgrade?

Post by Thanks1111 » Fri Feb 20, 2015 1:44 am

Thank everyone for the great advice. I am a complete spanking Newbie and don't know squat about Ableton so my priority for the first 3-6 months, 6 maybe a year is to learn the software and also learn Push. I purchased Live 9 suite and did not install it yet on my Imac because I am getting it back from repair shop tomorrow. I plan on downloading every pack that comes with Ableton and that will be plenty for me to work with. I am not even sure how much GB Live 9 suite uses. But I know me and I love software and hardware so I will be adding other software and controllers when the time is ready. I completely understand Ableton is a DAW, but what is NI Machine or Komplete called? A VST or Plugin? I don't have the funds for a 1 TB SSD so I am going with OWC's 480 GB SSD with a data doubler which is around $260 plus an adapter and some other component. I am embarrassed to admit I don't even know what a data doubler is and will check with my local Mac guru to make sure I am doing this right.

I have to say one thing about Ableton. Every single person from any company involved or related to Ableton are the coolest fucken people I have had the pleasure of meeting. The people in this forum are no different. I am shocked how quickly you guys reply and it shows yo really like helping out. It means a lot to me and I truly appreciate the advice and trust me, I will have a lot more questions next week once I plug in Push and start trying to learn this software. Luckily, I found a cool ass company made up of all Ableton certified trainers called Warp Academy and ordered their Jumpstart Course. Very inexpensive and was the best training I could fine. I checked out [url]http://www.Lynda.com,[/url] http://www.macprovideo.com and a few other online courses and http://www.warpacademy.com seemed to have the best training plus the coolest vibe. I called Ableton support last week, and the guy on the phone said I made a wise choice because he is a DJ and is taking the DJ course from Warp Academy. I am NOT part of company or make a penny sharing this with you. Just trying to share some info that may help other users in this community and how I plan on learning this software. I may signup for Lynda.com's Push course which also seemed very good. I have been playing guitar for 37 years in every genre and once I learn the software which I pray will not be too difficult, that's when the fun will start. My next controller is the Fishman TriplePlay wireless guitar MIDI pickup. http://www.fishman.com/tripleplay Seems freaken badass and would love to know if anyone has any experience using it.

Sorry for long post but all I can do tonight is try to get some questions answered and make some new friends to share this cool journey.

Peace

BobbyD

Stromkraft
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Re: What size SSD Drive for Upgrade?

Post by Stromkraft » Fri Feb 20, 2015 7:26 am

beats me wrote:IMO a 1TB drive should be the minimum so you have room to grow for a while.
Amen to that.
beats me wrote:I know 1TB SSDs are still cost prohibitive for most.
I got the 960GB Micron M500 from Macsales for around $300 (including freight to Europe). It costs more than a hard drive but it's so much faster than my old 1TB HD it's like getting a new computer. It doesn't increase CPU power of course, but the GUI is way faster overall because load times are way shorter. Anything I do that involves the drive is now tolerable. At last my old work horse is operating at optimal efficiency.

On my slow machine with its slow bus at 1.5 Gigabit, I have read/writes at about 130 MB/s. The drive might be able to do up to 300MB/s or so depending on bus speed.

Anandtech reviewed it in 2013: The Crucial/Micron M500 Review (960GB, 480GB, 240GB, 120GB.

As with all third party SSD drives you should investigate if Trim is needed. I found a third party solution. Even if this drive slows down a year or 2 down the line I still feel the purchase was worth it. I enjoy working more than I ever did on this old Macbook Pro. I just wish I've had gotten it sooner.
Make some music!

Stromkraft
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Re: What size SSD Drive for Upgrade?

Post by Stromkraft » Fri Feb 20, 2015 8:28 am

rhythmhead wrote:I would suggest get as small as you can. It will be faster and cheaper.

Then get one of these http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIDIMCL0GB/


Basically it swaps out your disk drive for a internal hard drive. There you put in a huge drive of your choice.


This way you get all the performance and storage you need.


Honestly when was the last time you used your disk drive?
Firstly, smaller SSDs are almost always slower than the largest versions of the same model. Obviously, a smaller SSD of one brand can be faster than the biggest of another. This is usually offset in price, however. What you want is the performance you need for as low price per GB as possible.

Your suggestion here might be cost effective, but I'd found the $300 M500 more attractive also if my drive bay were S-ATA. Drives are typically too slow to work against if you don't want to be held back, but a 10.000 rps drive might be interesting for some applications. These days it's a close shave pricewise. There are distinct merits of multiple drive systems of course.

Secondly, if the Macbook model has the optical drive on S-ATA, then the doubler is indeed interesting, but if it's on ATA as in my old Macbook Pro, that's just too slow to keep a media drive on.
Last edited by Stromkraft on Fri Feb 20, 2015 10:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
Make some music!

fishmonkey
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Re: What size SSD Drive for Upgrade?

Post by fishmonkey » Fri Feb 20, 2015 10:00 am

i'd go with a Samsung 850 Pro. their new V-NAND technology is supposed to be more reliable. they have a 10 year warranty, which was previously unheard of for an SSD. before that, some enterprise-grade SSDs had 5 year warranties, and consumer drives usually only 1-3 years...

Stromkraft
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Re: What size SSD Drive for Upgrade?

Post by Stromkraft » Fri Feb 20, 2015 10:57 am

fishmonkey wrote:i'd go with a Samsung 850 Pro. their new V-NAND technology is supposed to be more reliable.
At about $600 ($500 street?) for the 1TB, how fast machine do you need to enjoy the speed difference compared to, say the M500? If I was getting a later 2nd hand Macbook Pro (up to the 2011 models), I'd consider this one. Chances are my next Mac model will be a new one without third party drive support.

10 years warranty is great, but I don't think I'll be on the same machine even 3 years from now. There's second hand value of course.
Make some music!

beats me
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Re: What size SSD Drive for Upgrade?

Post by beats me » Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:15 pm

Stromkraft wrote:I got the 960GB Micron M500 from Macsales for around $300 (including freight to Europe)

Nice. I haven’t priced drives in a while. I might be getting a new iMac in the next year and contemplating getting a 3TB fusion drive because 1TB is even pushing it for me at this point and despite iMacs not being portable I’m not a fan of plugging in external drives beyond a Time Machine backup.

I’d like to clone my drive but am concerned it’s going to confuse the fusion drive because it sounds like it likes to put certain file types on certain parts of the drive based on install. I don’t know if throwing everything at it at once is going to make it go WTF? If I get the iMac before the current one takes a shit I might take my sweet time doing a fresh install and migrating files to make sure everything works before I fully switch over. Music software with a lot of songs and third party plugs is a nightmare.

Thanks1111
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Re: What size SSD Drive for Upgrade?

Post by Thanks1111 » Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:38 pm

Angstrom wrote:
I guess my advice is either become Larry Graham, or just do an ungodly amount of cocaine so you hear all your terrible mixes as majestic golden ear sparkles and convince everyone to go along with it.


Angstrom....I can't find a post in this thread with your advice.

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