# What brand of internal SSD for Hollywood Opus Orchestra do you use?



## Christian64 (Aug 26, 2022)

Hi everyone,
I plan to buy East West Hollywood Opus orchestra. 
For those who own this bank, what brand of internal SSD do you use?
Thanks in advance,
Christian


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## mybadmemory (Aug 26, 2022)

Many people here myself included like the Samsung T5/T7 drives for sample libraries. They’re also recommended by Christian Henson from Spitfire. I’ve never heard of specific drives being recommended for specific libraries.


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## PaulieDC (Aug 27, 2022)

Well, I would say stick with Samsung, I've had nearly a dozen different Samsung drives, never a failure. You need 2TB, so I would highly suggest this drive.


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## Christian64 (Aug 27, 2022)

PaulieDC said:


> Well, I would say stick with Samsung, I've had nearly a dozen different Samsung drives, never a failure. You need 2TB, so I would highly suggest this drive.


Hi,
thank you for your answer. 1 TB for this bank is not enough?


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## PebbleStream (Aug 27, 2022)

mybadmemory said:


> Many people here myself included like the Samsung T5/T7 drives for sample libraries. They’re also recommended by Christian Henson from Spitfire. I’ve never heard of specific drives being recommended for specific libraries.


I know I started another thread on this exact topic but I might as well ask here since people seem to be here... isn't USB too slow for Opus? I saw PCIe/SATA recommended on EW's website.


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## PaulieDC (Aug 27, 2022)

Christian64 said:


> Hi,
> thank you for your answer. 1 TB for this bank is not enough?


A 1TB drive formats to 953GB and the full Opus is 944GB, plus whatever else from EW you might get. BUT, that's for Diamond. If you go for Gold, then yes, 1TB will be more than enough.


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## arrivu (Aug 27, 2022)

I got myself a 4TB Samsung SSD to store all my libraries including EW. If I'm not mistaken the model is 870. One of my best purchase for my music production journey.


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## PaulieDC (Aug 27, 2022)

PebbleStream said:


> I know I started another thread on this exact topic but I might as well ask here since people seem to be here... isn't USB too slow for Opus? I saw PCIe/SATA recommended on EW's website.


Good question and not one answer. To me USB 3.0 running a standard SATA external drive is too slow. If you have a USB-C port and you get an NVMe external drive (PCIe), then yes, that will be VERY fast. I just bought an MSI Creation laptop with a fast USB-C port, and I also bought a nice external case and NVMe drive, and the speed is quite impressive. And the whole thing fits in a case made for reading glasses, lol. But even if you ran this external off regular USB 3.0 port, it's still going to be noticeably faster than a standard SATA SSD external with a USB cable. So here's a great external solution (and I have test MANY):


External Case:


1TB NVMe Drive:



Assemble that and you have a killer fast external. Look at the read speeds, 3000mb/sec, compared to SATA SSDs at 560mb/sec. You want fast reads for sample libraries of course.

The case has a rubber bumper and is made very well, UGreen makes great stuff.

And I discovered it fits perfectly in one of my many extra zippered cases we laying around for reading glasses. FINALLY, a good use for one of them, lol. This one would work also:


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## PebbleStream (Aug 27, 2022)

PaulieDC said:


> Good question and not one answer. To me USB 3.0 running a standard SATA external drive is too slow. If you have a USB-C port and you get an NVMe external drive (PCIe), then yes, that will be VERY fast. I just bought an MSI Creation laptop with a fast USB-C port, and I also bought a nice external case and NVMe drive, and the speed is quite impressive. And the whole thing fits in a case made for reading glasses, lol. But even if you ran this external off regular USB 3.0 port, it's still going to be noticeably faster than a standard SATA SSD external with a USB cable. So here's a great external solution (and I have test MANY):
> 
> 
> External Case:
> ...



Interesting... so if I understand this correctly, it's not whether the SSD is internal or external that matters as much as whether it's using PCIe or SATA?
And while I'm sure it's not _optimal_, is ~500mb/s _usable _with Opus?

Edit: Just checked out the Samsung T5 and it looks like it uses SATA... So I'm guessing that's a 'yes' to whether or not it's usable.


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## BassClef (Aug 27, 2022)

I have all of my libraries (including Opus) on a 4TB NVMe SSD in an external Thunderbolt enclosure, connected to my Mac Studio. Before purchasing the new Mac Studio, I had Opus on an external Samsung T7 drive connected to my old iMac USB, and that was plenty fast.


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## ssnowe (Aug 27, 2022)

Technically you can run opus off an external usb hard drive, but it will take forever to load the opus libraries onto it and the response time for loading samples is painfully slow. An external sata usb ssd is much faster but is still noticeably slow in responding. An nvme on usb will be a bit faster than the sata ssd. With an external external nvme running thunderbolt response can almost be instantaneous and you can configure opus to stream direct from the nvme drive.


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## RogiervG (Aug 27, 2022)

I use a corsair mp600 pro xt 2TB


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## PebbleStream (Aug 27, 2022)

ssnowe said:


> Technically you can run opus off an external usb hard drive, but it will take forever to load the opus libraries onto it and the response time for loading samples is painfully slow. An external sata usb ssd is much faster but is still noticeably slow in responding. An nvme on usb will be a bit faster than the sata ssd. With an external external nvme running thunderbolt response can almost be instantaneous and you can configure opus to stream direct from the nvme drive.


What if it was an internal SATA drive? I really don't have much cash lying around to just buy all the latest and greatest.


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## nolotrippen (Aug 27, 2022)

I use 2TB Samsung externals and replaced the demonic Fusion internal with another 2 TB Samsung. Can't go wrong with T7s.


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## kitekrazy (Aug 27, 2022)

PebbleStream said:


> What if it was an internal SATA drive? I really don't have much cash lying around to just buy all the latest and greatest.


That's what I use. I use all of my SATA ports and N....would take away two. I chose my drives based on warranty with 5 years. With the price of NVME being more affordable I may go with the external option to hold a specific library.


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## kitekrazy (Aug 27, 2022)

PaulieDC said:


> A 1TB drive formats to 953GB and the full Opus is 944GB, plus whatever else from EW you might get. BUT, that's for Diamond. If you go for Gold, then yes, 1TB will be more than enough.


Isn't OPUS on version now?


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## Jrides (Aug 27, 2022)

weird. Lots of replies around external drives. To answer the original question… Crucial MX 500. Given the recent issues people have been noticing with Samsung, that’s the route I would go.


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## webs (Aug 27, 2022)

I've been doing well with the *cheap 2tb Crucials* as well.


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## PaulieDC (Aug 27, 2022)

webs said:


> I've been doing well with the *cheap 2tb Crucials* as well.


Crucial is the other brand I use in pc builds too. Great brand.


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## Monkberry (Aug 28, 2022)

I also have had good luck with the Crucial MX 500 2TB SSD's. I've also had good luck with the Samsung EVO 860 2TB series but they seem to have moved to the EVO 870 version and there have been an alarming number of fails with this model. I bought one EVO 870 about one year ago, simply because there were no 860's available. Have not had any issues yet (knock on wood) but I will definitely be getting Crucial, at least until the dust has cleared.


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## ZeroZero (Sep 11, 2022)

SSDs are capped at 560 mbps . They use SATA tech. If you put any drive on a SATA Lane it can’t go faster. If you have pci 3 lanes you can either put a m.2 straight into the Moro if it has slots, great for system drives, or you can use a pci adapter card and use M.2s there. Modern monos have PCI 4 and this means you can get a m.2 second generation which is even faster. They MUST be NMVE m.2s and the prices are good. On PCI3 you can get up to 7 times SSD SATA speeds, on pci4 up to 14 times as fast.


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## RogiervG (Sep 11, 2022)

ZeroZero said:


> SSDs are capped at 560 mbps . They use SATA tech. If you put any drive on a SATA Lane it can’t go faster. If you have pci 3 lanes you can either put a m.2 straight into the Moro if it has slots, great for system drives, or you can use a pci adapter card and use M.2s there. Modern monos have PCI 4 and this means you can get a m.2 second generation which is even faster. They MUST be NMVE m.2s and the prices are good. On PCI3 you can get up to 7 times SSD SATA speeds, on pci4 up to 14 times as fast.


you mean "sata ssd's" are capped.
m.2 nvme is also an ssd

in your post it sounds like ssd are only sata, which isn't the case
both are types are ssd's, the connection differentiates its max speed


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## ZeroZero (Sep 11, 2022)

Yes that’s right. The language is confusing. Most people think SSDs are the older case form factor. It’s about SATA or PCI really as far as I know there are no square case SSDs that are NMVE


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## MartinH. (Sep 11, 2022)

ZeroZero said:


> SSDs are capped at 560 mbps . They use SATA tech. If you put any drive on a SATA Lane it can’t go faster. If you have pci 3 lanes you can either put a m.2 straight into the Moro if it has slots, great for system drives, or you can use a pci adapter card and use M.2s there. Modern monos have PCI 4 and this means you can get a m.2 second generation which is even faster. They MUST be NMVE m.2s and the prices are good. On PCI3 you can get up to 7 times SSD SATA speeds, on pci4 up to 14 times as fast.



Have you ever measuerd how much of its bandwidth your m2 actually uses when loading a template?


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## ZeroZero (Sep 11, 2022)

MartinH. said:


> Have you ever measuerd how much of its bandwidth your m2 actually uses when loading a template?


No, but I work in an unusual way. I have a master template with 2600 plus tracks on it. I keep this fully disabled. I use it for auditioning. When I create music I start with importing tracks from this template according to whim, using file/ import tracks. The audition template loads in 7 seconds. The virgin ones in 3 or 4 seconds. I have my system drive on an M.2 this makes a huge difference.
I do know that if you cram a SSD or NMVE drive, it sloes it down, considerably, but, a 3500 mbps drive slowed down to half speed is still 3.5 times faster than an old SATA 560 drive. 
My system is old but very very fast. 8700k chip, 64gb, 8 M2s and an SATA Ssd for storage. The main speed benefit comes from an SSD system drive IMO and of course enough RAM


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## ZeroZero (Sep 11, 2022)

I might say that I have often wondered how much is the upper speed for loading instruments into RAM. This also depends on buffer size, latency settings and other things, but it might be that say, 1000mbps or some other figure is enough in all cases.


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## MartinH. (Sep 11, 2022)

ZeroZero said:


> I might say that I have often wondered how much is the upper speed for loading instruments into RAM. This also depends on buffer size, latency settings and other things, but it might be that say, 1000mbps or some other figure is enough in all cases.


Yeah, that's the hunch I have, that you might be limited by CPU or plugin architecture to loading speeds that are below the threshold where a regular sata ssd caps out. But I can't measure it since I don't have an M2. I decided against one when I saw how much of a hassle it would be to switch them out and I read in a review for my board that it tends to have some compatibility problems with M2s. So I settled for regular sata ssds. Don't know how much speed benefits I'm missing out on that way, but the decision is made.
I can't rule out that both would be fixed by a PCIe adapter for M2 drives, I simply never looked into it, but I also don't know if I'd have the space in the case below the gpu. I don't feel like making any changes in the next few years, the PC isn't even a year old.


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## ZeroZero (Sep 11, 2022)

M2 so are easy to fit. There is one tiny screw and that’s it. A old form factor SSD caps out at 560 mbps, whereas PCI 3 NMVE M2s cap out at 3500 and pci 4 cap out at am amazing 7200. I think if you get one, best to replace the system drive to it. Samsung have Magician which can do this, it’s easy anyway, you clone the drive so you have old system drive on your new Nmve, then you disconnect your old system drive and boot up. You may need to alter disk priority in BIOS, that’s all. You can rename the new drive C in disk management. Once all done, then reconnect the old system drive rename its drive letter, then wipe it for space by formatting in disk management


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## PaulieDC (Oct 3, 2022)

There are SO many moving parts such as buss speed, CPU throttling, drivers, etc that can affect it. Many on here use SATA drives with no issues.

So the solution is clear: Buy the first one you wanted from Amazon, try it and if you are happy with the speed, great. If not, return it.


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## ZeroZero (Oct 4, 2022)

I think the thing that speeded up my machine the most was putting the operating system on an nvm2, on board the mobo. Subjectiveply the machine feels twice as fast. Samsung has Magician software that will do the cloning easy


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## EanS (Oct 4, 2022)

Jrides said:


> weird. Lots of replies around external drives. To answer the original question… Crucial MX 500. Given the recent issues people have been noticing with Samsung, that’s the route I would go.


Dis. My pc case has an external sata port just like an internal one. Crucial MX, pay a little more for a MX than a BX (MX = Longer lifespan, allegedly)


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## ZeroZero (Oct 4, 2022)

EanS said:


> Dis. My pc case has an external sata port just like an internal one. Crucial MX, pay a little more for a MX than a BX (MX = Longer lifespan, allegedly)


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## ZeroZero (Oct 4, 2022)

All SATA drives max out at around 600 mBps. M.2 drives for PCI 3 boards max at about 3500, on pci4, you can get 7500.


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