Ableton Forum

Posted: **Sat Jul 28, 2007 11:52 am**

I have x2 external drives:

- Western Digital. USB. 200GB. 7200rpm.
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-2 ... B00092CK9S

- Lacie. USB. 250GB. 7200rpm.
http://www.savapoint.com/savapoint/prod ... ogle070718

I use one for backup and the other for WAV music files which I use when 'DJ ing' with Ableton Live on my laptop.

My question is 'which external drive is 'fastest?' Although their spec looks the same I wonder if anyone knows how I could test them or even better know where there are benchmark test results online?

cheers

Posted: **Sun Jul 29, 2007 3:48 am**

google. theres heaps of free speed testers out there.

anything usb aint great though. firewire always works better for continuous streams of information

Posted: **Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:31 am**

I was wondering about Djing via external drive,

i use about 150 samples in my set how many do you use?

do you have any drop outs and what pc/laptop specifications do you have?

Posted: **Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:20 am**

i get drop outs cos hp make bullshit laptops - an nw8440

but if your just playing heaps of samples, not too many massive tracks - then as long as they all go fit into ram when you load them up you should be ok.

lacie firewire drives have had the best track record with me so far.

Posted: **Mon Jul 30, 2007 12:52 pm**

depends.
I actually just bought an exterbal WD Pro 500gb today - and it happens to faster than any ext drive tested (this I fond out when I got home reading a cnet review - I was quite chuffed).
I was about to pull the trigger on a Lacie Quadra (usb2, fw400,fw800 and Esata) but it was $30 more - I'm on a Mac and was looking for to utalise the fw800 port, dont have a esata port and no drive can really utilize 1.5gb throughput.

Anyway, back to you - I say depends because if your on a Mac - Lacie - no brainer, only because its firewire - edit does it have fw?. USB2 isn't particularly good as a performance drive simply because of the inherent protocol structure. It requires your CPU to tell it when its OK to send packets, ect whereas FW is autonomous. It doesn't require direction from your CPU (very,very simplified explanation)

But PC's can be funny with FW - you need the TI bridge chip otherwise its hit and miss.

Posted: **Mon Jul 30, 2007 12:56 pm**

a firewire icybox with seagate drives is pretty fast and quiet.

Posted: **Mon Jul 30, 2007 2:08 pm**

cheers all.

'Jonny B' I am using:

Live5.
Edirol Firewire FA-101.
Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop:
Processor Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.86GHz
Processor Speed 1.82 GHz
Memory (RAM) 1024 MB
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
60 GB 7200rpm Internal Hard Drive

I use about 100 WAV files in a set. All preloaded into an Ableton project (warp markers set and Analysis files created). I get the odd glitch and stutter. I try to make room for the whole project on my laptop HD but I would like to drag WAVs straight off my external drive......... not really put it to the test (intensively) but will let you know how it goes....

Firewire dives seem to be the best option from what I can gather........ from other forums people also say that there is very, little difference between my two external USB drives........usb itself is the biggest slow down not the actual disc....

Posted: **Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:28 pm**

I was thinking about getting a bigger flash drive to keep my analysis files and tracks I use for djing - since they are solid state you do not have to worry about RPMs

Posted: **Wed Aug 01, 2007 7:35 pm**

'djmarkpappas' what sort of size are you thinking? I have seen them for about 8GB. would be handier to get something bigger. As they cost about £50 I am not sure if they are good value (size to cost ratio)? are they as fast as using you computers internal drive or an external firewire drive? for only 8GB it would be better to just free up space on the internal drive?