Is there any benefit to having 2 SSD ?

[LarZ2]

I finally have Ableton 10 running on my 2 year old Dell XPS computer.
I-7 (2600 quad core) 3.4GHz, 16GB RAM, and a SSD.

I just cloned the HD to the new SSD, and it made a huge improvement in load times, and save times.

Is there any benefit to using two drives with Ableton? C: drive would have the program, and the D: would have the project files.
The idea is one drive can read while the other is writing. That is how my CAD design PC is setup.

Would that make any difference with Live 10, or only make a difference when saving the file. Or is there a better way to set it up with 2 drives to improve real time performance.?

Thanks for any ideas, Lar

[jestermgee]

Keep in mind that when you are working on stuff, it mostly all runs in RAM so once Live has loaded, it is running from RAM. Exceptions will be some sample libraries can stream from disk so an SSD can improve that.

If you place your projects on an SSD they will load faster but that's about iot. All the content is loaded into RAM tho if you have large samples in your set that are in your project folder they can run from the drive.

Never fully trust an SSD (or any storage media) but SSD especially. They are pretty good these days but unlike a HDD that does have some tell tale signs it is failing, SSDs can literally just not work after being powered down one day.

I personally have my projects on HDD and my VST content and programs on SSDs.

[LarZ2]

Keep in mind that when you are working on stuff, it mostly all runs in RAM so once Live has loaded, it is running from RAM. Exceptions will be some sample libraries can stream from disk so an SSD can improve that.
If you place your projects on an SSD they will load faster but that's about iot. All the content is loaded into RAM tho if you have large samples in your set that are in your project folder they can run from the drive.
Never fully trust an SSD (or any storage media) but SSD especially. They are pretty good these days but unlike a HDD that does have some tell tale signs it is failing, SSDs can literally just not work after being powered down one day.
I personally have my projects on HDD and my VST content and programs on SSDs.

Thanks, That pretty much explains it. Most of the DAW work is done from RAM. With CAD, it is constantly writing every time you change a dimension, or change a model, then constant reading for graphics rotation. That's good advice, always backup to an external drive.

Thanks, Lar

[jlgrimes]

I finally have Ableton 10 running on my 2 year old Dell XPS computer.
I-7 (2600 quad core) 3.4GHz, 16GB RAM, and a SSD.

I just cloned the HD to the new SSD, and it made a huge improvement in load times, and save times.

Is there any benefit to using two drives with Ableton? C: drive would have the program, and the D: would have the project files.
The idea is one drive can read while the other is writing. That is how my CAD design PC is setup.

Would that make any difference with Live 10, or only make a difference when saving the file. Or is there a better way to set it up with 2 drives to improve real time performance.?

Thanks for any ideas, Lar

2 drives are more from the mechanical hard drive days which were alot slower than SSD and could have fragmentation issues.

Other than extra disk space I dont see an advantage for two SSDs for speed unless existing drive is getting near full.

[Tagor]

"interesting discussion. i'm doing a new pc build with 2x 1TB M.2 pciex4 NVMe drives (1 OS, 1 Samples) + 2x 1TB SSD SataIII drives in RAID-0 (Audio Record) + 2x 1TB SSD SataIII drives in RAID-0 (Playback) + 1x 2TB SSD SataIII (Backup). haven't decided yet between 3.6ghz hexacore or 3.2ghz octacore (Broadwell-E) cpu for the X99 board running 128gb of DDR4-3300. in fact, after I do the math, the Record and Playback drives might be changed up to PCIE SSDs too. 6 or 7 PCIE slots is a huge playground. Throw in one or two UAD2 Octo's and things will get interesting. what gets on my nerves is the RME Hdspe AES32 PCIE 'daughter-card' which doesn't use a PCIE slot, but is connected to the main card by a ribbon cable. I've thought about cutting a hole in the case chassis for it. Oh yeah almost forgot, only using a single-wide x8 videocard, so that helps cut down on utilized lanes too. RAID can be your friend, or your enemy. You make the call. It's your decision."

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-c ... 0-daw.html

[LarZ2]

"interesting discussion. i'm doing a new pc build with 2x 1TB M.2 pciex4 NVMe drives (1 OS, 1 Samples) + 2x 1TB SSD SataIII drives in RAID-0 (Audio Record) + 2x 1TB SSD SataIII drives in RAID-0 (Playback) + 1x 2TB SSD SataIII (Backup). haven't decided yet between 3.6ghz hexacore or 3.2ghz octacore (Broadwell-E) cpu for the X99 board running 128gb of DDR4-3300. in fact, after I do the math, the Record and Playback drives might be changed up to PCIE SSDs too. 6 or 7 PCIE slots is a huge playground. Throw in one or two UAD2 Octo's and things will get interesting. what gets on my nerves is the RME Hdspe AES32 PCIE 'daughter-card' which doesn't use a PCIE slot, but is connected to the main card by a ribbon cable. I've thought about cutting a hole in the case chassis for it. Oh yeah almost forgot, only using a single-wide x8 videocard, so that helps cut down on utilized lanes too. RAID can be your friend, or your enemy. You make the call. It's your decision."

Yo, I'm lost. That sounds like a really complex system, and expensive. So what are you planning to record that needs that much power. Is this a master machine for a big studio?

[Tagor]

No,

RAID-Arrays of Disks (SSD`s) makes the System more resiliant against Data-Loss..

... 4. Reading and Writing of data done at simultaneously.

https://www.interserver.net/tips/kb/rai ... -benefits/

[fishmonkey]

RAID 0 does not increase redundancy, it increases data bandwidth. it is less reliable since a failure of either drive renders the RAID 0 array useless.

[LarZ2]

No,

RAID-Arrays of Disks (SSD`s) makes the System more resiliant against Data-Loss..
... 4. Reading and Writing of data done at simultaneously.

That's what my original question was about, one drive to read, one to write. RAID arrays of disks ???
Now that I replaced my audio interface, my system is working great. I have 2 SATA SSD. Ableton is on one, and I save the sets on the other.
I'm not sure if my drives are configured for max performance, but it works fine for 8 tracks with a VST on almost every track, and several audio effects on most.
CPU load is about 20-35%. Thanks for your input, sounds like you are way advanced in the world of PC power.

Is there any simple trick to configure the 2 SDD for read-write in parallel. Or is that what they are doing?

LZ

[fishmonkey]

in your case there is no need to use RAID. you have plenty of disk bandwidth, and the SSDs are automatically used concurrently when necessary.

[TLW]

RAID is a specialised data storage/handling setup. Don’t worry about it unless you know you need it and why you need it. If you’re curious, Wiki explains how RAID systems work - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

Using two drives, one system and the other for tracking (recording) to is pretty common practice, especially if you are recording lengthy audio tracks as well as, or rather than, short loops. Some people might add a third drive for samples if they use really huge sample libraries, such as those which often come with professional orchestral sample libraries.

More than one drive means the computer doesn’t have to keep loading everything on and off the same drive all the time, which makes things “snappier”. Multi-track audio can rapidly fill up drive space as well, so a small single SSD that has to store the operating system, software and audio might get full very quickly.

With a 2 (or more) drive setup the computer will read/write from each drive as it needs to, just let it get on with it.