So, who's using a solid-state drive ?

[xuoham]

I have to get a new laptop and i will very likely get one from ADKand there is the option to have a ssd internal drive (intel 80G).
After reading about the advantages and disadvantages of ssd, i wonder now how it works for you guys.
Is the asymmetric read vs. write performance a problem with your sets or recordings ?
Do you know about the encryption problem due to wear leveling ? Not really a problem ?
And the wear out after 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 write cycles (1,000 to 10,000 per cell) ? Two million times sounds confortable, no ?
Any experience to share ?
Thanks.

[gosinisha]

i have on a toshiba notebook 2,2c2d and all texas instruments controllers a transcend 192gb mlc.works about 30% faster than 7200sata,but the seek time is better.probably some newer ssd discs go little faster.they do not go so fast like the specs say.audio works the same,no latency improvement on ssd,but computer heats less,consumes much less battery,less noise,it is good solution.but vista or xp you can not install on it by default,you need to clone the hd.win7 installs fine and works fast.anyway i use always modified versions of win so they work mostly fast.just for an example,i use 3,9ms audio output latency on a indigoIOX34 even on heavy vst usage.

[leedsquietman]

I was able to use my Echo Indigo IO at 64 samples (1.5 ms output) with Reason on my ageing Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz laptop with 2 GB ram and Win XP SP3 and 96 samples with Cubase, streaming audio from an external maxtor HD. For Live, (if not getting intense with plugins, I could run it at 128 samples 3.3 ms and the vst buffer at 32 (except Arturia which required 64 samples).

Echo write great drivers on pcmcia/expresscard and pci based cards and those types of cards typically outperform firewire and USB anyway (with some exceptions, such as RME).

[gosinisha]

i run my indigo express34 on 128 buffer and never crackles,but i can use also 64 buffer.seems too low for complete project,but some vst can go lower than 128 samples.the card is okay and costs cheap,and i also think on taking multiface2 aroud christmas,but on ssd my conclusion is generally it is better for the pc itself but there is no audio performance improvement.and yes,only win ready for ssd is really win7.i use for audio vista64sp2 and works well.

[re.mark]

Was heavily considering it for my Macbook, but until OS X supports TRIM its not really a logical move.

[xuoham]

Thanks for the insight.
Though it's still perfectible, i think i'm going to go with a sdd because it fits nomadism and laptops : changing places a lot, playing in places with very different environments (heat, humidity, vibrations). It seems like a good way to avoid bad surprises when playing live.
There are still inconveniences but it feels very safe.

[re.mark]

Thanks for the insight.
Though it's still perfectible, i think i'm going to go with a sdd because it fits nomadism and laptops : changing places a lot, playing in places with very different environments (heat, humidity, vibrations). It seems like a good way to avoid bad surprises when playing live.
There are still inconveniences but it feels very safe.

Just make sure the OS you are using (and the SSD firmware) both support TRIM, otherwise you'll find your HD slowing down quickly.

[crumhorn]

Is it too late to stop people calling these things Solid State Disks when there is nothing even remotely disk like about them? Leaving behind the mechanical disk is the next big step forward in computer performance; can we please leave behind the word Disk as well?

I'd like to go down this route myself, but at the moment the ones I could afford are too small/slow and the ones that are big enough and fast enough are still way too expensive for my pocket. But this is obviously the future direction of storage, so eventually the prices will come down to something more reasonable. The next generation will Probably have dedicated interfaces instead of emulating a traditional disk so transfer speeds will get faster and faster.

[8O]

And the wear out after 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 write cycles (1,000 to 10,000 per cell) ? Two million times sounds confortable, no ?.

How does that compare with traditional hard disks, do you know?

[8O]

Is it too late to stop people calling these things Solid State Disks when there is nothing even remotely disk like about them? Leaving behind the mechanical disk is the next big step forward in computer performance; can we please leave behind the word Disk as well?

SSD = Solid State Drive - don't think many people call them disks, do they?

I'd like to go down this route myself, but at the moment the ones I could afford are too small/slow and the ones that are big enough and fast enough are still way too expensive for my pocket. But this is obviously the future direction of storage, so eventually the prices will come down to something more reasonable. The next generation will Probably have dedicated interfaces instead of emulating a traditional disk so transfer speeds will get faster and faster.

Yup, same here. Will be interesting to keep an eye on, for sure...

[xuoham]

Yep, still pretty expensive : the intel drive i'm talking about seems like around 400 bucks. My luck is that i have to get a new lappy and if you customize a pre-configured ADK one, there is the option for getting this drive for 150 bucks.
Unbelievable, kind of ...
Otherwise, if my Toshiba hadn't died on me (the power chip, just too microscopic to resolder myself and no one wants to fix it here in Okinawa... Island life, you know ...) i would sure have waited, as crumhorn wisely suggests.
But again, a drive resistant to any heat or vibration is a huge plus for me.
And thanks re.mark about the OS. ADK preconfigures the drive with windows 7, so no problem. If it had'nt been the case, you would have saved me from a big mistake !
80, i have no idea how 2 million writes compares to a traditional hd, but it still sounds comfortable enough. And anyway, changing a drive in a laptop is not very difficult after all, so i take the risk.
Thanks guys, great pieces of advice