Which Hard Drive Should Be SSD?

[twitewhite]

Btw how much RAM do you have? If you're using a lot of samples but have a little amount of RAM, that could also be an issue ('bottleneck').

Yeah, I only have 8 GB, so I know that's partially the problem too. I'll get 32 GB in my new machine just to be safe.

[cleverr1]

The biggest mechanical 7mm hdd is 2TB afaik

Interesting. I never knew they didn't go bigger than that. I did a quick check:

Seagate Barracuda Compute 2,5", 5TB. Ok, it's only 5400rpm.. priced at 167 euro in Netherlands.

For 2TB HDD @ 7200rpm, currently in the Netherlands, prices are the same or SSD is already cheaper.

the ones over 2TB are 15mm unfortunately.

[Forgotten]

The biggest mechanical 7mm hdd is 2TB afaik

Interesting. I never knew they didn't go bigger than that. I did a quick check:

Seagate Barracuda Compute 2,5", 5TB. Ok, it's only 5400rpm.. priced at 167 euro in Netherlands.

For 2TB HDD @ 7200rpm, currently in the Netherlands, prices are the same or SSD is already cheaper.

the ones over 2TB are 1.5m unfortunately.

[cleverr1]

The biggest mechanical 7mm hdd is 2TB afaik

Interesting. I never knew they didn't go bigger than that. I did a quick check:

Seagate Barracuda Compute 2,5", 5TB. Ok, it's only 5400rpm.. priced at 167 euro in Netherlands.

For 2TB HDD @ 7200rpm, currently in the Netherlands, prices are the same or SSD is already cheaper.

the ones over 2TB are 1.5m unfortunately.

Lol!!!
All that for 256MB. What’s not clear is if you had to hire the chap in the white outfit to operate it.

[Mathematics]

I would go twin SSD internally, and one mechanical external. One thing that is important to keep in mind is that all SSD drives can only be written to a finite number of times before they begin to have bad cells which cannot be written to. This is all dependent on how you use the drive and how full you keep it.

Each cell in an SSD is written to once and then the next empty cell is written to. This goes on and on until the last cell in the last block is written to. Then the OS goes back to the first cell and starts writing to the first available cell. This is what the Trim feature is for, which was first introduced in Windows 7, I believe.

That in mind, you don't want one drive for your OS and your project files, because as time goes by, you fill your drive and decrease the number of available cells on which to write. This is why some tech gurus insist to keep at least 15%-25% of your SSD drive empty at all times. This also depends on the size of the drive. Bigger drives require a smaller percentage while smaller drives require a larger percentage. It's all inversely relative. Just keep 50GB free at all times.

Personally, I keep at least 50% of my system drive empty. I only use about 200GB on my system drive and have all the library sounds on other SSD drives.

Depending on how you work, you may want to consider 3 drives. One for the OS, one for Samples and Libraries, and a mechanical drive for your saved projects. WHILE you're working on a project, you may want to store it on one of the SSDs but don't save it there permanently.

I can take this into great detail but I didn't see anyone talking about SSD performance longevity and efficiency so I thought I'd chime in on that.

[thecontrolcentre]

Very interesting post, thanks. I have 3 SSDs in my laptop. One for OS & programs, one for music stuff (recordings, music library, photos etc) and one for video. I use two external USB3 drives for movie files & backups.

I've had this setup for 4-5 years ... no longevity issues I've noticed with the SSDs so far. I keep as much space free on each drive as possible, especially the C drive.

[Pictus]

That in mind, you don't want one drive for your OS and your project files, because as time goes by, you fill your drive and decrease the number of available cells on which to write. This is why some tech gurus insist to keep at least 15%-25% of your SSD drive empty at all times. This also depends on the size of the drive. Bigger drives require a smaller percentage while smaller drives require a larger percentage. It's all inversely relative. Just keep 50GB free at all times.

It depends on the drive model and usage.
If it is a drive where you only read and not constantly write, then
there is no need worry about free partition space.

If it is a drive where you constant write like the BOOT drive(Windows is
constantly writing stuff like logs and temporary files) then better to
always have some free space in the partition, the free space is used as
DYNAMIC over-provisioning.

IF we leave an unallocated partition in the SSD, the drive controller will
use it as a STATIC over-provisioning, all drives already have some hidden
space to use as a STATIC over-provisioning, but more maybe is better for
your BOOT SSD. Some SSDs models already have a big space reserved for
STATIC over-provisioning like the Corsair MP510 models or the enterprise
models(even bigger amount), with more space reserved for STATIC over-provisioning
we do not have to worry about if the partition is full...
Nowadays(2019) I am not sure if all drive controllers use unallocated partition
as STATIC over-provisioning, Samsung still does...

https://www.seagate.com/br/pt/tech-insi ... master-ti/

https://youtu.be/Q15wN8JC2L4