SSDs FTW!

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Tympanic
Posts: 342
Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2007 11:22 am

Re: SSDs FTW!

Post by Tympanic » Fri Dec 02, 2011 9:15 am

1
2

and: cheers
I used to be with it, but then they changed what "it" was. Now, what I'm with isn't it, and what's "it" seems weird and scary to me.


>v< - that´s the question today

...the work of production is reduction...

some music

steffensen
Posts: 274
Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2005 8:48 am

Re: SSDs FTW!

Post by steffensen » Fri Dec 02, 2011 12:15 pm

Yay for the speed, but ney for having to reinstall the OS every half month. + all the backups you have to do all the time. I'll wait til they last for at least 2 year before i jump on the wagon.

fisto
Posts: 354
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 4:06 pm

Re: SSDs FTW!

Post by fisto » Fri Dec 02, 2011 1:42 pm

steffensen wrote:Yay for the speed, but ney for having to reinstall the OS every half month. + all the backups you have to do all the time. I'll wait til they last for at least 2 year before i jump on the wagon.
man, SSDs last for decades while normal disks are much more risky to have. I think you sould have a reda here concerning the lifespan of SSDs:

http://www.storagesearch.com/ssdmyths-endurance.html

http://superuser.com/questions/39719/wh ... -ssd-drive (watch point 6) (from 2009, now we have 2011)

The Samsung SSD 830 series is said to operate 1.500.000 hours which is 170years non-stop operation :D.
I just hope that this is also true...

Gab
Posts: 280
Joined: Tue Mar 10, 2009 2:38 pm
Location: France

Re: SSDs FTW!

Post by Gab » Sun Dec 04, 2011 1:19 am

nuxnamon wrote:seems nice but still pretty pricey for me.. gonna wait.. but a question for those that do have it and run alot of vst's.. is there any benefit to having ableton run on a SSD but all the sample/vst libraries and recordings are on another drive (like your Komplete, Omnisphere library, Kontakt, or anthing you record)? any info would be great..
If you install your OS and Ableton on a SSD, and put all the sample libraries on a HDD, your OS and Ableton itself will benefit entirely from the SSD. Only the loading time of samples located on the hard drive will not change.

Personally, I put Ableton and its library on my SSD, and put Omnisphere's STEAM folder on a HDD. Even when I use Omnisphere in a project, everything feels snappier than when I had only a HDD. It would be even faster with everything on a SSD, but they still remain too pricey just for storing big sample libraries.
nuxnamon wrote:also, can ableton run on another internal drive besides the OS HD if your on a desktop?
Yes, you can chose the path (= the drive) when you install Ableton.

steffensen wrote:Yay for the speed, but ney for having to reinstall the OS every half month. + all the backups you have to do all the time. I'll wait til they last for at least 2 year before i jump on the wagon.
If your OS supports the TRIM command (Windows 7 and Lion do), there is no reason why you should have to reinstall your system that frequently. The TRIM comand ensures that performance does not degrade over time. Just take care not to fill entirely your drive (leave 15 GB free on a 120 GB drive for instance) and you'll be fine.

As for backups, well, HDDs also need backups, don't they ? ;)
fisto wrote:The Samsung SSD 830 series is said to operate 1.500.000 hours which is 170years non-stop operation :D.
I just hope that this is also true...
Provided you don't ask your SSD to handle a huge write/read server load, there is no reason why any good SSD should fail. If reliability is a concerne, avoid Sandforce-based SSDs and buy Intel, Crucial or Samsung.
'If they act too hip, you know they can’t play shit.'

nebulae
Posts: 15716
Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2004 12:16 am
Location: New Orleans
Contact:

Re: SSDs FTW!

Post by nebulae » Sun Dec 04, 2011 2:22 am

I'm waiting for SSD sizes to increase a bit, and I'd also like the reliability to improve a bit. I recall that there are still issues with a finite amount of read and writing of the SSD blocks, and a higher percentage of drive failures.

What I do love about the Optibay option is having a second drive for more space, and then also turning your DVD drive into a USB drive...very nice indeed! http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/

Gab
Posts: 280
Joined: Tue Mar 10, 2009 2:38 pm
Location: France

Re: SSDs FTW!

Post by Gab » Sun Dec 04, 2011 12:34 pm

nebulae wrote:I'm waiting for SSD sizes to increase a bit, and I'd also like the reliability to improve a bit. I recall that there are still issues with a finite amount of read and writing of the SSD blocks, and a higher percentage of drive failures.
Each new generation of SSD uses NAND packages with smaller theoretical life expectancy (= number of write cycles) than the previous one. Which means that if the longevity of the current flash memory is a deterrent for you today, you will not buy a SSD before a major technological change regarding flash memory, maybe in five or more years.

The thing to understand is that the controller in a SSD is here to level wearing (TRIM is the software side of wear levelling). Then there is overprovisioning — having more flash memory than advertised to help lower write amplification.

Finally, regarding failure, I believe there are less failures of reliable (= Intel, Crucial or Samsung) SSDs than of Western Digital or Seagate HDDs. And, if you take care to backup your system regularly (which EVERYONE should do, whether using a HDD or SSD) having it replaced through warranty in case it fails withing three years won't hurt that much.

I understand what we hear about how a SSD works is a bit frightening at first, but they are not timebomb ;)
'If they act too hip, you know they can’t play shit.'

nebulae
Posts: 15716
Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2004 12:16 am
Location: New Orleans
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Re: SSDs FTW!

Post by nebulae » Sun Dec 04, 2011 5:26 pm

I guess my perspective is that current hard drives are so fast and fairly reliable, that moving to SSD and incurring those issues AND lower drive space doesn't seem worth it to me. I'm sure at some point it will be worth it, but not at the moment. But that's just my opinion.

lqud009
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Nov 13, 2009 6:43 pm

Re: SSDs FTW!

Post by lqud009 » Mon Dec 05, 2011 9:40 am

Yes, I put also a SSD as 2nd drive in my old 2007 Macbook, because I didn't want to wait about 4 minutes till it boots. Now the ssd speeds up the computer and it makes really fun to work with that old machine. 30 sec to boot. Everything flows - nice!

nuxnamon
Posts: 1770
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2007 10:59 pm
Location: 650 area

Re: SSDs FTW!

Post by nuxnamon » Mon Dec 05, 2011 4:36 pm

Gab wrote:
nuxnamon wrote:seems nice but still pretty pricey for me.. gonna wait.. but a question for those that do have it and run alot of vst's.. is there any benefit to having ableton run on a SSD but all the sample/vst libraries and recordings are on another drive (like your Komplete, Omnisphere library, Kontakt, or anthing you record)? any info would be great..
If you install your OS and Ableton on a SSD, and put all the sample libraries on a HDD, your OS and Ableton itself will benefit entirely from the SSD. Only the loading time of samples located on the hard drive will not change.

Personally, I put Ableton and its library on my SSD, and put Omnisphere's STEAM folder on a HDD. Even when I use Omnisphere in a project, everything feels snappier than when I had only a HDD. It would be even faster with everything on a SSD, but they still remain too pricey just for storing big sample libraries.
nuxnamon wrote:also, can ableton run on another internal drive besides the OS HD if your on a desktop?
Yes, you can chose the path (= the drive) when you install Ableton.

steffensen wrote:Yay for the speed, but ney for having to reinstall the OS every half month. + all the backups you have to do all the time. I'll wait til they last for at least 2 year before i jump on the wagon.
If your OS supports the TRIM command (Windows 7 and Lion do), there is no reason why you should have to reinstall your system that frequently. The TRIM comand ensures that performance does not degrade over time. Just take care not to fill entirely your drive (leave 15 GB free on a 120 GB drive for instance) and you'll be fine.

As for backups, well, HDDs also need backups, don't they ? ;)
fisto wrote:The Samsung SSD 830 series is said to operate 1.500.000 hours which is 170years non-stop operation :D.
I just hope that this is also true...
Provided you don't ask your SSD to handle a huge write/read server load, there is no reason why any good SSD should fail. If reliability is a concerne, avoid Sandforce-based SSDs and buy Intel, Crucial or Samsung.
thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.. my stock mac OS hard drive is 320 GB.. and it seems like I can't find one that size at a reasonable price.. still, i'm gonna keep an eye out..

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