Ableton Forum

Anyone have any experience with both types of hard drives? Did performance in Ableton improve drastically. If so, what SSD do you recommend. If not, what HDD do you recommend?

Thanks
BawksDeejey

got a 60GB Samsung SSD in my laptop as system drive (7x64) and a WD Scorpio black 320GB as "data hole".
applications and VST plugins on C:, data and projects on D:.
works great. the whole system is starting in about 15 seconds and Suite 8 in about 5 seconds.

SSD: Yes fast, but overpriced & shorter lifespan

HDD: Fast enough to git er done (7200 rpm ftw), very affordable & more dependable/longer lifespan

IMHO the verdict is quite clear. You can get a large capacity 7200 RPM drive for cheap as grits. It just works.

I'm curious: How can a SSD have a shorter lifespan than a regular HDD? Doesn't make any sense to me. SSD = Solid State Drive = No moving parts... HDD = Lots of moving parts and mechanics....

squelcht is right when talking about the 'cheap' stuff. it depends on the quality of the used NAND chips of a SSD. if you get a SSD from a well-known brand like Intel, OCZ or Samsung you might be better off than with some cheapo 'best buy' stuff. there might be a performance degradation over time, but that's not clearly proven yet, actually.

of course they're yery expensive, but let the laptop fall from the stage while giggin' - you'll notice the difference!

The problem with SSD in Live may be related to the size of your library. You want to be able to load samples quickly. Generally SSDs are used as the boot/root drive in conjunction with a HDD for large data storage. You might not see significant Live gains in that case. I suppose setting the page file to be on the SSD might help.? Anyone have a big SSD only setup? Good Ableton perf.?

c

squelcht wrote:SSD: Yes fast, but overpriced & shorter lifespan

HDD: Fast enough to git er done (7200 rpm ftw), very affordable & more dependable/longer lifespan

IMHO the verdict is quite clear. You can get a large capacity 7200 RPM drive for cheap as grits. It just works.

I do not agree on the lifespan part.

It is true that SSDs have a limited amount of write-rewrite cycles, in practice however the number is so high that this isn’t really a problem and you could literally fill and completely erase your entire HDD every day for 10 years before that happens.

An HDD is much more likely to die due to simple mechanical failure, especially in a laptop since it’s moved around so much.
IMO SSDs are a really good investment if you can afford it and don’t mind the relatively limited storage (you can always store more data on an external HDD, you don’t have to have everything on your laptop at all times). Price is a factor but it isn’t an issue if you do music for a living and want peace of mind regarding your data. HDD failure is the most common hardware problem and it obviously means you lose all your work stored on said HDD.

Putting an SSD in your laptop means no more moving parts in the entire laptop which makes it technically shake proof.

Basically it comes down to this:
Reliability and speed (although I agree HDDs are fast enough) VS Price and capacity
Your call.

BoddAH wrote: Basically it comes down to this:
Reliability and speed (although I agree HDDs are fast enough) VS Price and capacity
Your call.

amen, reverend!