KVR Audio

rustman · Post by **rustman** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 7:50 am

I bought a 1TB Samsung SSD for my sample library because Alchemy and Kontakt loaded slowly. Little did I know that the 840 EVO had a flaw and eventually slows down to a fraction of a regular HD speed. They have a "Fix", which sped it back up, but the jury is out as to whether it will degrade again.
I have only about 10 GB of free space left on it. I enabled a swap file for it last night and now it shows only 1 GB free. I was experimenting because Cubase throws millions of page faults. I reduced my swap file size on my main drive and will be watching to see if that reduces the PF's and maybe speeds things up a tad.

To the OP- I'm sure you know, but running a 32 bit OS limits the amount of RAM you can address, so you're maxed already (I believe).

dave dove · Post by **dave dove** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 8:05 am

all HDDs need empty space
(accepted wisdom is between 10-25% (apple recommend 25%))
to read and write efficiently
as they need to move stuff about a lot as they go

not sure an external usb drive is going to help
except to store/backup unused libraries
unless you use an external ssd on a usb 3.0 port (640MBps)
for a long while i used flash drives to run live projects for gigs
as i had usb3.0 but a crappy laptop HDD

usb 2 only allows @60MBps so the SSD will just bottleneck at the port
whereas your internal (old)SATA 2 will do @300MBps
so 5 times faster....

so you have at least 2 problems
1) near obsolete tech (in terms of speed of access)
2) physical space

i would back up my sample drive then run kontakt to see if there's any improvement
if its acceptable to you then more space will fix it
if its still too slow then new tech should fix it

is your choice what you do about it...
hope that helps

dave

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 8:34 am

HDs don't need to move stuff around when JUST reading. So for sample streaming and storage you can fill the drive up to the brim.

rustman · Post by **rustman** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 8:41 am

EvilDragon wrote:HDs don't need to move stuff around when JUST reading. So for sample streaming and storage you can fill the drive up to the brim.

...which is a perfect reason for me to turn the swap file back off for my sample drive. Nothing is being written to it afterall.

dave dove · Post by **dave dove** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 9:29 am

@EvilDragon
you are right
but
OP doesn't make clear he's using a separate drive
looks to me like 1 drive
if they on his OS drive is not ideal if its full....

dave

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 11:51 am

Yep, OP seems to have one drive only. In that case of course it's not ideal that it's full.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 12:01 pm

EvilDragon wrote:Yep, OP seems to have one drive only. In that case of course it's not ideal that it's full.

Yes, in my case the samples are on the same drive on the computer as Windows, and Kontakt.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 12:19 pm

Time to change that way of working

I currently have 7 hard drives in my system: 500 GB for OS and programs, 3x1 TB for sample libraries, 2x2 TB for sample libraries (mostly waiting for new sample libraries, so they're quite empty now), 1x1 TB work and audio projects drive (external).

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 12:38 pm

EvilDragon wrote:Time to change that way of working

Thanks for tips and input

This is most def something I will follow up to try and get things to run smoother/faster

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 12:50 pm

Also, how old is your computer? As in, when was the last fresh install of Windows?

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 1:18 pm

EvilDragon wrote:Also, how old is your computer? As in, when was the last fresh install of Windows?

2012

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 1:36 pm

Yep, that's about time when "Windows entropy factor" begins to impact performance. It's much less with W7 than it was with previous Windows, but it's still there... When you get a new hard drive, it might be a good idea to up the RAM as well and go 64-bit, with a fresh install of Windows.

t3toooo · Post by **t3toooo** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 11:59 pm

rustman wrote:I bought a 1TB Samsung SSD for my sample library because Alchemy and Kontakt loaded slowly. Little did I know that the 840 EVO had a flaw and eventually slows down to a fraction of a regular HD speed. They have a "Fix", which sped it back up, but the jury is out as to whether it will degrade again.
I have only about 10 GB of free space left on it..

Of course you need to have some space,for a 1 TB SSD drive i suggest around 80-100 GB free space just to be on the save side.
I would describe it as a healthy headroom.

For Samsung SSD's atm the first thing i do is a firmware upgrade (that's what i did for my 120 GB 840 EVO) and that's not just a simple fix,they are working constantly to improve the controller software for their drives.

Combine it and the drive should work like a charm.

Samsung's SSD's are too sexy to not get one for the price, they are lightning fast but otherwise i never had a single issue with Intel SSD's and i have installed around 6-7 on different comps.They are working like day one.
Depending on what you do but i probably still choose Intel SSD's for a tad more reliability.

How to get NI plugs to load faster?