# Sample libraries split between two 2.5 SSDs or keep on one 2.5 SSD



## mercury (Jul 24, 2022)

I’ve bought about 2TB ish of sample libraries recently (including Komplete 13 Ultimate collectors edition) which by any means isn’t a lot on here but was wondering. Would putting them all on one 2.5 SSD be the way to go or split them between 2 SSDs make a difference. I was thinking to just put them all on a 4TB SSD but then I read around and people split them up, maybe splitting them between 2TB SSDs.

The SSDs would be housed in an external enclosure, ThunderBay mini 4, thunderbolt 3 version. Because they would be in the ThunderBay and that connects over one Thunderbolt port, would there be a difference of splitting them between 2 SSDs or keeping them on just the single one, seen as they would be using the same port?


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## Loerpert (Jul 24, 2022)

mercury said:


> I’ve bought about 2TB ish of sample libraries recently (including Komplete 13 Ultimate collectors edition) which by any means isn’t a lot on here but was wondering. Would putting them all on one 2.5 SSD be the way to go or split them between 2 SSDs make a difference. I was thinking to just put them all on a 4TB SSD but then I read around and people split them up, maybe splitting them between 2TB SSDs.
> 
> The SSDs would be housed in an external enclosure, ThunderBay mini 4, thunderbolt 3 version. Because they would be in the ThunderBay and that connects over one Thunderbolt port, would there be a difference of splitting them between 2 SSDs or keeping them on just the single one, seen as they would be using the same port?


It would in theory be better to split them over multiple SSD's, but honestly I've never noticed any performance improvements compared to a single SSD.


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## sostenuto (Jul 24, 2022)

Same 13U CE with much uninstalled. ☹️ Actually need more than 4TB here. 
Would mainly split if able to do decent job of separate most-used content, but that changes continuously. 
Slight savings right now on 4TB, over (2) 2TB. Sorry _ not much help. 😳


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## GtrString (Jul 24, 2022)

It's good to save some overhead on the drives, about 20%, so it can depend on what you have. 1.6TB on a 2, or 3.2TB on a 4.


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## HCMarkus (Jul 24, 2022)

GtrString said:


> It's good to save some overhead on the drives, about 20%, so it can depend on what you have. 1.6TB on a 2, or 3.2TB on a 4.


Less of a concern when the drives are being used pretty much Read Only


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## jbuhler (Jul 24, 2022)

As my sessions have gotten bigger I seem to do better with libraries spread over multiple SATA SSDs. I did notice when I tried consolidating my most used libraries to a single drive that I had more issues than when I dispersed them. That’s anecdata rather than real data so treat it skeptically but I did opt to disperse my most used libraries. (And my whole sample collection is currently spread over seven 1 and 2 TB drives.)


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## mercury (Jul 25, 2022)

sostenuto said:


> Same 13U CE with much uninstalled. ☹️ Actually need more than 4TB here.
> Would mainly split if able to do decent job of separate most-used content, but that changes continuously.
> Slight savings right now on 4TB, over (2) 2TB. Sorry _ not much help. 😳


How comes you uninstalled much of the content, didn‘t find it useful?


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## mercury (Jul 25, 2022)

jbuhler said:


> As my sessions have gotten bigger I seem to do better with libraries spread over multiple SATA SSDs. I did notice when I tried consolidating my most used libraries to a single drive that I had more issues than when I dispersed them. That’s anecdata rather than real data so treat it skeptically but I did opt to disperse my most used libraries. (And my whole sample collection is currently spread over seven 1 and 2 TB drives.)


Thats quite a few SSDs, are they all connected to a dock?


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## Karmand (Jul 25, 2022)

I have 4 in one vep7 instance. Works better.


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## mercury (Jul 25, 2022)

Loerpert said:


> It would in theory be better to split them over multiple SSD's, but honestly I've never noticed any performance improvements compared to a single SSD.


Good to know, I wondered as its only 2TB so whether it’s even worth spreading them out over two SSD or keeping them on one SSD. I suppose it’s a matter of how much they are all used in a single project and now intensive it gets.


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## jbuhler (Jul 25, 2022)

mercury said:


> Thats quite a few SSDs, are they all connected to a dock?


That’s just the sample drives and I have others for back up, projects, and so forth. I currently have two Thunderbays holding eight drives, and a dock that has ports for four additional drives. And then a general USB hub where most of the backups attach, since speed is not really a concern for those. The system is a bit kludgy but it has been working well.


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## Justin L. Franks (Jul 25, 2022)

A Thunderbolt enclosure can support 3-4X the speed of a single SATA SSD, so there definitely can be a difference in speeds between one large SATA SSD and multiple smaller ones in a Thunderbolt enclosure.

That speed difference is greatly diminished when it comes to NVMe drives, as a single one can come close or even exceed the maximum speed of a Thunderbolt enclosure. But you're going with SATA SSDs, so that doesn't matter.

The ThunderBay 4 Mini supports speeds of 1500 MB/s. A single SATA SSD will give ~500-550 MB/s.

With that said, 2 TB drives are the "sweet spot" when it comes to cost per GB at this point in time. As in, two 1 TB drives will typically cost more than one 2 TB drive, but two 2 TB drives will typically be cheaper than one 4 TB drive.

So I'd probably go with one 2 TB drive for now, then expanding with additional 2 TB drives when you need more space.

But if you haven't purchased the ThunderBay Mini yet, I'd say hold off on that, and just get a 2 TB M.2 NVMe SSD and an Envoy Express single-drive Thunderbolt enclosure. Or the Express 4M2 Thunderbolt enclosure, which supports four M.2 NVMe drives if you want further expansion in a single enclosure.


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## sostenuto (Jul 25, 2022)

mercury said:


> How comes you uninstalled much of the content, didn‘t find it useful?


Not uninstalled _ never fully 'installed', due to storage limitations. At decision point in terms of additional storage _ providing 'acceptable' performance speeds. Also running out of SATA ports. Facing notable costs when considering usable external storage _ e.g. @ jbuhler examples in this Thread _ Post #11.


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## mercury (Jul 25, 2022)

sostenuto said:


> Not uninstalled _ never fully 'installed', due to storage limitations. At decision point in terms of additional storage _ providing 'acceptable' performance speeds. Also running out of SATA ports. Facing notable costs when considering usable external storage _ e.g. @ jbuhler examples in this Thread _ Post #11.


Cool I see what you mean, sorry I have read about people uninstalling or not installing certain parts on forums as they didn’t find those parts useful. Of course your reason is entirely different, I see what you mean as 13U CE is absolutely huge.


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## LinusW (Jul 25, 2022)

My most used libraries are distributed across four-five instrument SSDs. No raid, no huge drives… If (when) a drive will go down, it’s enough replacing that particular drive and restoring it from backup.


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## mercury (Jul 25, 2022)

Justin L. Franks said:


> A Thunderbolt enclosure can support 3-4X the speed of a single SATA SSD, so there definitely can be a difference in speeds between one large SATA SSD and multiple smaller ones in a Thunderbolt enclosure.
> 
> That speed difference is greatly diminished when it comes to NVMe drives, as a single one can come close or even exceed the maximum speed of a Thunderbolt enclosure. But you're going with SATA SSDs, so that doesn't matter.
> 
> ...


I’ve read a lot about NVMe and enclosures such as the Envoy Express, it’s definitely a possibility, as I was looking at the Envoy Express too. 

The sample libraries come to just over 2TB, it would be either getting x2 NVMe M2 and x2 Envoy Express or getting a 4TB NVMe, but they cost loads more. Plus if I got 4TB I’d be thinking would it be better to share the libraries between x2 2TB NVMe?

Regarding the 4M2, I’ve read the get the best out of it has to be used in a RAID to get the full speed benefits, instead of having individual SSDs.

If I were to get ThunderBay Mini, I’d run it as individual drives, samples, projects, system back up etc similar like my Mac Pro.


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## mercury (Jul 25, 2022)

LinusW said:


> My most used libraries are distributed across four-five instrument SSDs. No raid, no huge drives… If (when) a drive will go down, it’s enough replacing that particular drive and restoring it from backup.


Are your SSDs in an enclosure or externals? I’d run them as individual drives as well.


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## LinusW (Jul 25, 2022)

I use multiple setups in my studios. First studio with multiple external enclosures, second studio with the OWC 4M2 running individually drives. And well yeah, while you could get the most performance with a RAID I frankly don't trust that at all. The difference in speed is no biggie, sample files are small. It is still much faster than SATA SSDs. 

I also just gave up a SATA RAID because the chipset would not the partition when connected to a 10 Gbps USB computer like my Mac Studio. I have migrated to NVMe drives and might use the SATA drives as single drives later.


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## Justin L. Franks (Jul 25, 2022)

mercury said:


> I’ve read a lot about NVMe and enclosures such as the Envoy Express, it’s definitely a possibility, as I was looking at the Envoy Express too.
> 
> The sample libraries come to just over 2TB, it would be either getting x2 NVMe M2 and x2 Envoy Express or getting a 4TB NVMe, but they cost loads more. Plus if I got 4TB I’d be thinking would it be better to share the libraries between x2 2TB NVMe?
> 
> ...


Two 2 TB NVMe drives and two Envoy Expresses is what I use with my iMac, and they work great. Both have Samsung 970 EVO Plus drives.


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## LinusW (Jul 25, 2022)

Setup A: 
Acasis USB 4.0 (running as a Thunderbolt 3 cabinet)+Samsung 980 PRO 
Icy Box IB-1817M-C31+Seagate Firecuda 510 
Icy Box IB-1817M-C31+Samsung 970 PRO 
Samsung T5 2 TB 
Samsung T5 500 GB 
Sabrent EC-SS31+Samsung 860 EVO 
Plexgear cabinet+Samsung 870 QVO (now running in single) 
Plexgear cabinet+Samsung 870 QVO (now running in single) 
Plexgear cabinet+WD Blue SATA SSD 

Setup B: 
OWC Express 4M2 
2x Intel 660 
2x WD Blue SN570 

And a sidenote, I replaced the 4M2 fan after three years. It is noisy. OWC ThunderBlade is another option with no fans.


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## sostenuto (Jul 25, 2022)

Great to follow this Thread, as older (3) Win11 Pro Desktop PC(s) definitely not capable of expanding further. _One_ adequate replacement _ today _ looks to push $5K to meet current needs even for top Grand Piano VI(s). Orchestral adds so much greater storage capabilities ! ☹️ 
THX so much for helping shape 'proper' new config(s) !! 🙏🏻


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## mercury (Jul 25, 2022)

LinusW said:


> Setup A:
> Acasis USB 4.0 (running as a Thunderbolt 3 cabinet)+Samsung 980 PRO
> Icy Box IB-1817M-C31+Seagate Firecuda 510
> Icy Box IB-1817M-C31+Samsung 970 PRO
> ...


Thats also a lot of drives, how do you connect all of them, all at once, in a dock? Are they all used for sample libraries, or a mix of uses?

I’ve seen the OWC Thunderblade, they go up to 32TB! The 2TB version is over £1k. 

Have you seen the OWC Envoy Pro SX? I was looking at that as well, it’s more expensive (than an enclosure plus e.g. a 2TB NVMe) but I like the idea of a pre made NVMe drive.


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## LinusW (Jul 25, 2022)

mercury said:


> Thats also a lot of drives, how do you connect all of them, all at once, in a dock? Are they all used for sample libraries, or a mix of uses?


I decided on a CalDigit Element Hub when buying the Mac Studio. 





Thunderbolt 4 | USB4 | Element Hub | CalDigit – CalDigit







www.caldigit.com




It could be called pricey, but it solved everything for me. The USB-C based enclosures are fast.


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## molemac (Sep 25, 2022)

I have just bought a mac studio and need to know if its worth upgrading my sse black magic multi dock which is thunderbolt 2 To a thunderbolt 4 hub. Will that make a big difference just for streaming samples and if so what is a good one for4 ssds?


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## HCMarkus (Sep 25, 2022)

Since you are reading from SATA SSDs, upgrading would be pointless unless you plan on changing to NVMe SSDs for storage. You may need the Apple TB Adaptor to connect the MultiDock.


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## molemac (Sep 25, 2022)

HCMarkus said:


> Since you are reading from SATA SSDs, upgrading would be pointless unless you plan on changing to NVMe SSDs for storage. You may need the Apple TB Adaptor to connect the MultiDock.


Thanks , yes I bought that adaptor. So next question then is would I notice a big difference upgrading my sample drives to nvme. specifically in load times with logic and kontakt, spitfire etc.
Also for my rme ufx which is usb a , would it be better to convert from a usb c to usb a or stick to the usb a port. The studio has all these shiny new ports but I cant make use of them .


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## LinusW (Sep 25, 2022)

molemac said:


> Also for my rme ufx which is usb a , would it be better to convert from a usb c to usb a or stick to the usb a port.


The USB-A ports are full USB 3.1 5Gbps. There is no need to waste a TB4/USB4 port. 

But I would get the Apple adapter to have TB2 for your Multidock. 

Regarding storage, you could get a single NVMe drive in a TB3 chassis to cover the largest libraries with huge Kontakt monoliths.


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## molemac (Sep 25, 2022)

LinusW said:


> The USB-A ports are full USB 3.1 5Gbps. There is no need to waste a TB4/USB4 port.
> 
> But I would get the Apple adapter to have TB2 for your Multidock.
> 
> Regarding storage, you could get a single NVMe drive in a TB3 chassis to cover the largest libraries with huge Kontakt monoliths.


Good advice thanks . Any suggestions on tb3 chassis and drive . In terms of wasting the tb4 ports , I have the opposite problem,what can I use them for ?


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