# How many SSD's do you use?



## Will Blackburn (Apr 4, 2018)

Hi guys,

I still haven't taken the SSD plunge yet mainly because of their price point. My WD external just can't keep up with the sample load though so i am going to have to bite the bullet. Question is how many do you guys use/need for samples alone? Im not sure whether to buy a larger sized TB drive and put all samples on that one drive or buy say a few 500gb one's and dedicate them to sections - strings/brass etc How do you guys do it/Feel works best for you?

Ps - Also which one do you use? Evo/Evo Pro?


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## Will Wilson (Apr 4, 2018)

Currently 4.

256Gb Samsung Evo for Windows OS and Applications
512Gb Samsung Evo for Games
2 x 1TB Crucial MX500 for Sample Libraries.

I'm on a PC so have have plenty of slots. Also have some spinners for achive and documents etc


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## Will Blackburn (Apr 4, 2018)

Will Wilson said:


> Currently 4.
> 
> 256Gb Samsung Evo for Windows OS and Applications
> 512Gb Samsung Evo for Games
> ...



Thanks Will. Does that 2tb cover all your samples or do you run some others from a different regular drive in project? I take it you just put everything on the drives rather than using one dedicated to strings, one for brass etc. Im wondering because i might try buying a 1tb for now and still use my external to run the less demanding samples in the same project. Just wondering if that might cause issues because i have always had my samples running from one drive.


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## fiestared (Apr 4, 2018)

wcb123 said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> I still haven't taken the SSD plunge yet mainly because of their price point. My WD external just can't keep up with the sample load though so i am going to have to bite the bullet. Question is how many do you guys use/need for samples alone? Im not sure whether to buy a larger sized TB drive and put all samples on that one drive or buy say a few 500gb one's and dedicate them to sections - strings/brass etc How do you guys do it/Feel works best for you?
> 
> Ps - Also which one do you use? Evo/Evo Pro?


3 1TB


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## MattCurious (Apr 4, 2018)

At the risk of stating the obvious, have you checked that the external drive isn't being bottlenecked by the connection to the machine? You may not need to go to an SSD - just a better connection or an integrated drive


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## iMovieShout (Apr 4, 2018)

Good question, but it depends. Do you have just one PC or Mac, or do you also have slaves.
My answer might seem a bit OTT and for that I apologise. This is what we are running - it might help to inspire some confidence to go down the SSD route.

I run a studio where we have around 14TB (and growing) of sample libraries and SFX. We've been running on SSDs for nearly 3 years now. These libraries are all stored on 8 2TB Samsung 850 Pro SSDs on a Windows Server. Thats just the beginning though. In order for all samples / instruments and articulations to be quickly accessible and useable, we have 9 servers (each with a 250GB SSD (running the OS), 24 cores and 192GB RAM, and running Vienna Ensemble Pro 6). These each load up the various sample libraries, so they are ready to go for use in our Cubase or Nuendo DAWs which run on a composer's Windows-10 workstation (which has three 2TB NVME Flash drives running the DAWs, effects plugins and other stuff). SSDs are good for speed and reliability, and use a lot less power to run. That said it still takes around 2 hours to load all the sample libraries up ready to use at the start of the day. On conventional spinning hard disks, this used to take about a day to load the libraries and used 10 times more power. So far we've not had a single SSD fail on us, though we have upgraded some to obtain faster read speeds - not that greater speeds makes much of a difference with NI Kontakt.
_Edit May 2022:_ With version 1120 of VEPro7 and Nuendo12 the template load times are even faster.

Basically we've found SSDs to be very reliable (particularly Samsung EVO 850 Pro and 860, or the Samsung 960 NVMe or 970 Plus NVMe modules - which are very fast), and require low power, create little heat, and are silent (unlike their spinning hard disk cousins).

That said we learned the hard way. During a power glitch last year we realised the value of having everything on a separate backup. So we installed another server just to store the backups and provide a source of all backed up sample libraries, just in case. That also runs on SSDs.

Loads more detail I could add to this, but now I've bored you stiff, I'd better sign off 
JB


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## synthpunk (Apr 4, 2018)

2 Crucial MX500 500G, $129 on Amazon/Newegg

2 Samsung T5 500G $169 Amazon

2 Samsung Evo 850 500G (new model 860 500G $145 Amazon)


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## iMovieShout (Feb 10, 2020)

jpb007.uk said:


> Good question, but it depends. Do you have just one PC or Mac, or do you also have slaves.
> My answer might seem a bit OTT and for that I apologise. This is what we are running - it might help to inspire some confidence to go down the SSD route.
> 
> I run a studio where we have around 12TB (and growing) of sample libraries and SFX. We've been running on SSDs for nearly 3 years now. These libraries are all stored on six 2TB Samsung 850 Pro SSDs on a Windows Server. Thats just the beginning though. In order for all samples / instruments and articulations to be quickly accessible and useable, we have 9 servers (each with a 250GB SSD, 24 cores and 192GB RAM, and running Vienna Ensemble Pro 6). These each load up the various sample libraries, so they are ready to go for use in our Cubase or Nuendo DAWs which run on a composer's Windows-10 workstation (which has two 1TB NVME Flash drives running the DAWs, effects plugins and other stuff). SSDs are good for speed and reliability, and use a lot less power to run. That said it still takes around 2 hours to load all the sample libraries up ready to use at the start of the day. On conventional spinning hard disks, this used to take about a day to load the libraries and used 10 times more power. So far we've not had a single SSD fail on us, though we have upgraded some to get faster read speeds - not that greater speeds makes much of a difference with NI Kontakt.
> ...


By way of an update: We recently upgraded our primary file server from a Samsung 850 RAID to 860 Pro RAID, which has resulted in a 20% to 25% increase in file load speeds over the 10GB/sec network. 
I've also upgraded my PC workstation SSDs to Samsung NVMe 970s (3 lots of 2TB) and have seen a massive leap in performance (now around 2400 MB/sec write and around 2600 MB/sec read).

Kontakt is still a bottle neck, and aso Spitfire Audio's own plugin (used for BBC SO and Hans Zimmer Strings) is a bottle neck as the plugin appears to constantly be de-compressing files and loading files which causes all sorts of latency issues and audio pops and whistles. Especially when loading up all Mics.


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## Akarin (Feb 10, 2020)

9x 1TB. Samsung T5. And I only have about 500 GB free 🤦‍♂️


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## Alex Fraser (Feb 10, 2020)

One glorious, solitary SSD sitting pretty beside the iMac screen.


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## jbuhler (Feb 10, 2020)

SSD
2 2TB
3 1TB

will soon add either a another 2TB or 4TB to that.


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## ProfoundSilence (Feb 10, 2020)

I've been meaning to get around to getting a few more large SSD's an another 6 TB

All 850 evos except the 2 TB was the "pro" version. 

I also plan on "trimming" some libraries putting them onto a storage 6tb when that time comes.


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## kessel (Feb 10, 2020)

I'm using four of them as well, one for system backup, one for music libraries, another one for my second most loved hobby after music, which is computer graphics and the fourth one is actually a backup from my WD cloud that I am now moving to dropbox as I'm sick of WD My Cloud software issues...


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## kitekrazy (Feb 10, 2020)

I've thought about trimming down and using five 1TB or less SSDs. Computer hardware in general is not affordable fr me right now.


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## Oliver (Feb 10, 2020)

5 ssd


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## Virtuoso (Feb 10, 2020)

Err...37 currently! 

I hadn't really thought about it until now, but I use _tons_. Of all the ones I've had, only two have ever failed - a 256GB OWC and a 256GB Intel, both from the very early days of SSD technology when 256GB cost $700!

Mac 1:-
8TB M.2 (2x4TB) + 8TB M.2 (4x2TB) + 4TB SATA SSDs (2x2TB)

Mac 2:-
1TB M.2 + 8TB external SATA SSDs (4x2TB)

Mac 3:-
2x256GB SSDs - old Mac Pro, no longer used

Macbook Pro:-
1x1TB M.2

PC1:-
1TB M.2 + 3x1TB SATA SSDs

PC2:-
4x1TB SATA SSDs

PC3:-
512GB SSD + 3 1TB SSDs

PC4 (NUC):-
128GB M.2 + 2TB SSD

Atomos Shogun Inferno:-
5x1TB SSDs

Korg Kronos - 256GB SSD
Playstation 4 - 1TB SSD


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## Greg (Feb 10, 2020)

8 1tb nvme ssds on 2 pcie cards. Projects load stupidly fast and it works especially well with logics disable unused tracks feature. I can now have a massive template and not worry about having to sit for 10-20 seconds while patches load. Most are near instantaneous


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## Virtuoso (Feb 10, 2020)

Greg said:


> 8 1tb nvme ssds on 2 pcie cards.


Do you RAID them or use them individually?


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## Greg (Feb 10, 2020)

Virtuoso said:


> Do you RAID them or use them individually?



No raid, seemed like overkill to me but maybe its worth it.


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## Virtuoso (Feb 10, 2020)

I was just curious because I've heard that RAIDing SSDs can actually have a _negative_ impact on loading speeds for sample libraries, since the read speed for tiny files is compromised. I haven't noticed that on mine, but the speeds are so fast anyway that it's kind of moot.


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## sostenuto (Feb 10, 2020)

Personal frustrating experience is umber of SATA slots available in each Win10 Pro PC DAW system.
Started long ago with Evo 1TB, then 2 TB. Added QVO 4TB and not going smaller !! 
Appreciate those going with external SSD configs, but now replacing 'storage' with 10TB or 12TB 7200 HDD(s). Functional drives all internal SATA SSD(s) with intent to replace 1 & 2 TB as needed.


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## Virtuoso (Feb 10, 2020)

sostenuto said:


> Personal frustrating experience is umber of SATA slots available in each Win10 Pro PC DAW system.


There are plenty of options for low cost PCIe cards (under $50) with 6-8 SATA ports, some with onboard RAID. Or if you need the speed, NVMe cards that take up to 6 blades (at a much higher price though).


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## sostenuto (Feb 10, 2020)

Virtuoso said:


> There are plenty of options for low cost PCIe cards (under $50) with 6-8 SATA ports, some with onboard RAID. Or if you need the speed, NVMe cards that take up to 6 blades (at a much higher price though).



(3) Desktop PC(s) in large Server cases, but ASUS MB(s) squash available PCIe space due to questionable, older nVidia graphics ( GeForce 560 Ti, 660, 760 ). 
Likely need to experiment with MB GPU(s) by removing bulky graphics cards. ???


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## Kony (Feb 10, 2020)

ProfoundSilence said:


> I've been meaning to get around to getting a few more large SSD's an another 6 TB
> 
> All 850 evos except the 2 TB was the "pro" version.
> 
> I also plan on "trimming" some libraries putting them onto a storage 6tb when that time comes.


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## dzilizzi (Feb 10, 2020)

4 - 1 TB SSD's of various types, not including my 1TB m.2 OS drive. Not all full but close - mostly large libraries like my Spitfire, OT, and EW ones.

2 - 6 TB HDD (7200 RPM) Not all full. Pretty much everything else. 

1 - 3 TB HDD (7200 RPM) has my projects, some sound files and some backup stuff

1 - 4 TB HDD (7200 RPM) my old Kontakt drive. Mostly duplicate stuff, but some stuff that didn't get moved over. 

SSD's for sample libraries can be QVO drives which are less expensive. They have the same read speed as EVO drives, but a slower write speed. Since sample drives only care about read speed once the samples are there, you don't need to spend for the write speed. 

I do need to buy some more, I think. And one of those PCI cards with a few SATA connections. I currently am not sure I want to get a 2TB drive, only because I do go mobile with these drives - they get used between my laptop rig and my desktop rig. Although they get put in cases, I did have one of my older SSDs fail recently. I think it was the ADATA one - so it wasn't a more expensive drive. Frustrating because I'm not quite sure what was on it. But everything is backed up or can be redownloaded.


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## jbuhler (Feb 10, 2020)

jbuhler said:


> SSD
> 2 2TB
> 3 1TB
> 
> will soon add either a another 2TB or 4TB to that.


Forgot system drive on laptop which is another 1TB SSD, a 3TB fusion system drive on the iMac, and a now retired 512GB SSD. Then 4x 4TB HDs for back up and media storage, a 2TB scratch HD, a 2 TB portable HD for classroom stuff. Then too many retired HDs to count. (Most are the size of toasters.)


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## dzilizzi (Feb 10, 2020)

jbuhler said:


> Forgot system drive on laptop which is another 1TB SSD, a 3TB fusion system drive on the iMac, and a now retired 512GB SSD. Then 4x 4TB HDs for back up and media storage, a 2TB scratch HD, a 2 TB portable HD for classroom stuff. Then too many retired HDs to count. (Most are the size of toasters.)


Yeah, I know about those toaster sized drives with something like 250 GBs. Or less. That was a lot then.


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## jbuhler (Feb 10, 2020)

dzilizzi said:


> Yeah, I know about those toaster sized drives with something like 250 GBs. Or less. That was a lot then.


Most of them still work so there’s that. Not really sure how to properly destroy them so that’s one reason they're still just lying about.


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## tmhuud (Feb 10, 2020)

3 Magic docks, 4 bays each with 2tb SSD drives. I just keep taking out the smaller ones and replacing them with larger and larger drives. I think all 12 were 500gb at one time then I went to 1tb, now 2tb. (What is that 24TB?) Will be glad when 4tb is at a good price. That’s the main computer. The slave is tapped out at 6 tb. This all sounds wonderful until you factor in BU space. It’s never ending really. I think I’m going to celebrate the day I dump the slave for one computer (preferably the nMacPro). Should make my life easier.


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## BassClef (Feb 10, 2020)

1 small internal SSD in my iMac. 2 Two terabyte external SSDs for personal data and sample libraries.


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## dzilizzi (Feb 10, 2020)

jbuhler said:


> Most of them still work so there’s that. Not really sure how to properly destroy them so that’s one reason they're still just lying about.


Run a good format then drill through the platters. Then take it to an electronics recycling place. At least that is what I've done. Though I usually only do it if I can't see ever using them again. Or they are dead. If you have access to a degausser, that works too.


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## cqd (Feb 10, 2020)

I'm rocking..

1 500g system drive
1 250g projects drive
3 1tb sample drives
1 250gb misc

I'm just hoping that is enough..it already feels a bit obscene..I've about 400g left on the last sample drive, and I don't want to fill it..


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## ptram (Feb 11, 2020)

For samples, I have four external SSDs (all Crucial, of various series and sizes), all connected to a single USB 3 port via a disk duplicator used as a multiple-drive dock. Not the most elegant solution, but it works fine.

Paolo


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## Bluemount Score (Feb 11, 2020)

2x 1TB external SSD's

I feel so small, reading through this thread.


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## TomislavEP (Feb 11, 2020)

I'm using WD M.2 SSD for the OS and applications, SanDisk and Gigabyte SATA SSD's for the libraries and VI's, and two Seagate SATA HDD's - one for the sessions, the other one for backup. I'm also using an external HDD for additional storage.

I'm mostly happy with this setup, though I would prefer using just one SSD of around 1 TB for the sample storage. However, SSD's over 450 GB are still quite pricey in the local stores around here, so I've opted for two lower capacity units instead - one for NI Komplete instruments, the other for 3rd party Kontakt libraries.


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## ProfoundSilence (Feb 11, 2020)

Kony said:


>


the libraries that fill them cost a lot more, especially since I dont do the whole" yar matey" thing


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## J-M (Feb 11, 2020)

I'm away from the studio (read: bedroom), but I remember having three...1TB, 500GB, and another 500Gb via USB. I still have plenty of space left...


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## khollister (Feb 11, 2020)

Main computer (iMac Pro) has 4 SATA SSD's (2x1TB, 2x2TB, all Samsung Evo's) in an Akitio TB3 cabinet. I also have a Samsung T5 that holds my Lightroom database and current year's images that I move between the iMP and the MBP. Previous year's images live on my NAS.

The Windows slave has a collection of recycled 1TB and 500GB SSD's. I don't duplicate everything on the slave - mostly the Spitfire, NI and Heavyocity stuff.

Also have a couple more T5's I use as bootable clones of the iMP and MBP


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## CSS_SCC (Feb 11, 2020)

I think it's better to offer the reasoning for a particular config.
A: SSDs - all internal
1. 256GB for Windows and DAW + plugins
2. 256GB for projects
3. 256GB for temporary files
4. 1TB + 2TB for samples (almost full so considering swapping the 1 for a 2TB or - depending on budget - 4TB)

B: HDDs
1. 6TB internal for back-up and other things including samples and loops that get accessed maybe once per week
2. 2 x 10TB external for general back-up (they get synced alternatively every other day and they are not connected at the same time)
3. multiple 1, 2, 4 and 8TB drives with backups and old projects
4. several HDDs for offsite back-up at a friends house that gets updated about once a month

Long time ago I was using a RAID enclosure for backup. At one point some "specialist" was working on the power grid for the local area and connected the wrong wires. He fried all the electric equipment in a few hundred buildings including my surge protector, UPS, RAID enclosure and power supply for the computer. I lost 5 years worth of projects. The insurance paid for the equipment but that's no joy. Lesson learned the very hard way.

Edit: I have a back-up laptop with 1+2 TB internal SSDs and everything ready to go in case the desktop computer chooses to behave badly in one particular day and I don't have the time to troubleshoot.


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## playz123 (Feb 11, 2020)

2 Blackmagic TB2 enclosures holding 6x1TB drives and 1x2TB drive....all Crucial. Enclosures connected to a Mac Pro with its own SSD drive.


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## Will Wilson (Feb 11, 2020)

An update to my setup since I switched from PC to an iMac:

iMac Internal is 2TB SSD which I use for everything except samples
4 x 1TB Crucial MX500 inside a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure RAID0 so it appears as a single 4TB logical volume, I use this to store all my sample libraries.

I also have 2 x 4TB spinners, one that mirrors my Sample Volume every night and another which does Time Machine backups plus a few other backup archives I make manually.


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## PaulieDC (Feb 11, 2020)

Will Blackburn said:


> Ps - Also which one do you use? Evo/Evo Pro?


First, having tried a ton of SSDs in my world an a software and systems developer, Samsung EVO is right now the most reliable and worth the extra they charge. If you will be getting an SSD that's dedicated to sample libraries, then you don't need to spend the money on the Pro version, what you're getting (besides marginally more "reliability") is faster WRITE speeds which isn't going to gain you anything. I use a 970 Pro for my C drive of course, but not needed for sample libraries.

Prices are finally starting to get realistic so you will gain a lot because you waited (I paid $500 for a 1TB Samsung just a couple years ago). IMO, don't buy anything under 1TB, libraries are growing by leaps and bounds. It's best to have a couple/few 1TB and/or 2TB SSDs to spread the love around... er… I mean sample libraries. You will realize the value of that when you load your template or a project the first time.

Last thing: NVMe SSDs are WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY faster that standard SATA SSDs by three orders of magnitude. NVMe are PCI based and the speed is crazy. I load the Celli in Spitfire Chamber Strings in about 4 seconds. Actually, I use a mix of both because it's not super convenient to install NVMe SSDs in a standard system (talking PC here, not Mac's more "closed" system for upgrading). SATA SSDs are super easy, pop one on a SATA cable and add power, but now in 2020, SATA SSDs are just the standard drive. Spinners don't even come to mind except for archiving data. I have 4 NVMe drives but that's because my motherboard has two slots. The other two are installed on PCIe cards (I will list everything below). If you want the easiest path to getting killer speeds when loading and running your world, even on an older system, my suggestion is get a PCIe card that has two slots, one for an NVMe drive and one for a SATA drive (in that M.2 2280 format). Put your most-used libraries on the NVMe drive, and your lesser-used libraries and projects on the SATA. If you have any EastWest libraries, they can go on SATA also, because the Play engine loads at its own pace and you don't get a huge speed increase with NVMe drives. I did an extensive test on that and oddly enough, all EW libraries only loaded about 10% faster. Maybe that will change with future updates on the Play engine.

So, TWO options for adding, let's say, 2TB of SSD to your system. If you want to keep it super easy, just toss in https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Inch-Internal-MZ-76E2T0B-AM/dp/B0786QNSBD (one of these babies) and you'll have 2TB of SSD space and good speeds, certainly better than spinners!

If your budget is able and you want _super _fast load times, you'll need:


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01798WOJ0 (PCIe Expansion Card) - $23
*1TB* M.2 2280 Samsung NVMe SSD - $169 (NOTE, that's 1TB, for some reason the 2TB in M.2 format is still stupid expensive). You just mount the SSD to the card and plug it in, and you're done.
*1TB* M.2 2280 Samsung SATA SSD - $169
That expansion card has a second mounting slot which is where the M.2 *SATA *SSD lives. You simply need a SATA cable between the motherboard and the expansion cars, so the SATA SSD will be connected. So you'll end up with two M.2 SSDs on the card, one is NVMe and one it SATA. Same 2TB space but now you'd be loading libraries from two separate drives and one of the drives is smokin' fast. This is the setup I use, have two of them. In total I have 5 1TB SSDs (3 NVMe and 2 SATA) to hold my libraries. I alsio have a 500GB SATA SSD dedicated jst to Cubase files. When you spread libraries around multiple drives your load times are crazy god and you don't necessarily need to run a RAID set.

Last note, if you use the expansion card: You need a 4x slot for full speed. The expansion card does fit the small PCI slot that's an inch long but you do NOT get 4X speed from that, it's only 1X. You actually want to plug it into the long PCIeX16 slot on your mobo; it does fit. Usually on a newer motherboard you'll have 2 or 3 of those, BUT, they all don't run at 16X, usually only one runs at 16X for the graphics card, and the others run at 8X or 4X. If you have one slot only running at 4X, that's perfect for these SSD cards. The motherboard manual will tell you what speeds your slots run at, or just google the model#.

Is your OS on an SSD? If not, I would do that first. A 500GB drive works great for all apps and your OS. I don't keep any project files or any sample libraries on my C drive. You can get the Samsung 850 500GB for 79 bucks. There's a couple utilities to mirror your C drive (make an entire disk image) and transfer it to the SSD. I usually use Acronis TrueImage.

Good grief, I hope all this makes sense...


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Feb 11, 2020)

500GB NVMe for OS and projects
250GB for Dropbox
3x 500GB for samples
Various HDDs on the network for archiving projects and backups. I have a total of about 8TB of space available which gets copied on a number of drives. 

I should've probably gone with 1TB for OS and projects as I've had projects be too big and then I need to plug in a different drive. Same with Dropbox as I've had 400GB projects on there. It would also be nice to get my 3 sample drives down to a single 2TB NVMe one as I rarely work with samples any more and don't need the full throughput of multiple drives to do intense mockups. 2x 2TB NVMe would be cool as I wouldn't have any sata drives in my system anymore but that's still do expensive right now.


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## Pietro (Feb 11, 2020)

I have like 16TB of SSDs in my PC, mostly for samples. Including 3x Samsung 860 Evo 4TB. They are awesome and the price is reasonable.

The QVO are even 30% cheaper, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to "experiment". 

- Piotr


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## Nick Batzdorf (Feb 11, 2020)

PaulieDC said:


> First, having tried a ton of SSDs in my world an a software and systems developer, Samsung EVO is right now the most reliable and worth the extra they charge



I'm not dissing your credentials, but how did you determine that?

The SSD I bought 5-1/2 years ago is still going strong, and the money I saved by not buying a Samsung probably paid for most of the others I added since then - all of which are also working fine.

I use the warranty as a guideline more than the brand (unless it's Seagate, which is permanently boycotted by me for being assholes).


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## PaulieDC (Feb 11, 2020)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> I'm not dissing your credentials, but how did you determine that?


Fair question. I've built a ton of PCs for work, church office, family, friends and the hot dog vendor at 41st & 9th heading into the Lincoln tunnel. I've had to deal with a good number of failures, sending back for replacements, etc. So far that's happened with Lexar, Crucial, Mushkin, Patriot, SanDisk and possibly a few others I can't remember. I've never ever had a failure with a Samsung in the past few years with the amount I have purchased for me or others. Plus I work in the semiconductor industry and we kinda know who's got ducks in a row on the assembly line, and right NOW, at this point in time, all the IT pros I deal with use Samsung for their stuff. In fairness, this is just one person's experience albeit over a period of a few years. ANYTHING could change... in the early 2000s Seagate was the way to go, and then their quality totally tanked by 2005-2006. Western Digital pulled up the bootstraps and went from a joke to the top dog by end of decade.

Also, you make have purchased an SSD 8 years ago used from Bob's Pawn & Surplus at Maple & Front St and it's still running like a dream. Anything is a risk, but right now, my money's on Samsung for reliability, IF you are considering a new purchase. TBH, WD has entered the SSD market in the past year or more, I have one and it's running like clockwork. They give you more storage for the buck so maybe that's the way it'll swing.


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## PaulieDC (Feb 11, 2020)

Iswhatitis said:


> For external drives and given the limits of Kontakt do you feel it’s significantly better to have external NVMe SSDs vs external SSD Sata3s?


ONLY if the external NVMe case has a USB-C port and you are plugging it into a native USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 port on PC or Mac. Then you get rip roaring internal speeds on that external. If you use a cable with USB-C on one end and plug the other end into your PC in a normal USB3 port, you'll lose the speed because it'll run at slower USB3 speeds. I bought an external NVMe and it came with a USB-C-to-USB 3.0 cable with an adapter to turn the older end into USB-C, but that doesn't work! I got a native USB-C to USB-C cable and now I get internal drive speeds.


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## PaulieDC (Feb 11, 2020)

Iswhatitis said:


> Do you use the Blackmagic Multidock 10g or some other raid array for your NVMe SSDs?


Whoops, stupid me, forgot to mention that this is on my mobile rig which is just an Acer Predator gamer laptop with a USB-C port. I have a 2nd internal NVMe for some libraries, and some on the external, and with all USB-C cable between laptop and drive, the speed is nearly the same. No, no RAID or anything else.


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## Fredeke (Feb 15, 2020)

Here are my 2 cents:

I don't remember the letter salad jargon, but know that they are different qualities in SSD, explaining the disparity in prices for a same capacity. That difference resides in how many bits are coded in a single cell, from 1 to 3 bits per cell. Needless to say, the fewer the better.

But wait! This only affects longevity, and it only affects it in terms of number of writes. Since you'll be mostly reading from that drive, then you can afford the economy of buying the worst quality (3 bits per cell) without sacrificing anything in practice. (1-bit-per-cell are necessary for system drives because as such they have to take much more writing.)


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## Vokes (May 10, 2022)

Anyone know why does my SECOND external drive does not show up?


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## MarcMahler89 (May 10, 2022)

Vokes said:


> Anyone know why does my SECOND external drive does not show up?


Maybe not being formated with a proper/compatible filesystem for your OS yet? If you use Windows, it would usually be NTFS.

If this is the issue, open windows disk management and format the drive (it should be visible here) :








How to Open Disk Management


Disk Management is used to format and make other drive changes in Windows. Here is how to open Disk Management in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP.




www.lifewire.com





If its not visible here, then the underlying issue is probably something connectivity related (e.g using an USB 2.0 port for a 3.0/+ drive)


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## Vokes (May 10, 2022)

MarcMahler89 said:


> Maybe not being formated with a proper/compatible filesystem for your OS yet? If you use Windows, it would usually be NTFS.
> 
> If this is the issue, open windows disk management and format the drive (it should be visible here) :
> 
> ...


Thank you for your reply, when it's alone it does show up, bot when I connect both drives, only one show's up, the first one connected
* Note I am using laptop, maybe I do not have enough power for both at the same time?


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## tmhuud (May 10, 2022)

tmhuud said:


> 3 Magic docks, 4 bays each with 2tb SSD drives. I just keep taking out the smaller ones and replacing them with larger and larger drives. I think all 12 were 500gb at one time then I went to 1tb, now 2tb. (What is that 24TB?) Will be glad when 4tb is at a good price. That’s the main computer. The slave is tapped out at 6 tb. This all sounds wonderful until you factor in BU space. It’s never ending really. I think I’m going to celebrate the day I dump the slave for one computer (preferably the nMacPro). Should make my life easier.


update. Replaced a few with 4TB and they are failing. hmmm...


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## Bluemount Score (May 10, 2022)

Bluemount Score said:


> 2x 1TB external SSD's
> 
> I feel so small, reading through this thread.


It doubled since I made this post


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## dzilizzi (May 10, 2022)

Vokes said:


> Thank you for your reply, when it's alone it does show up, bot when I connect both drives, only one show's up, the first one connected
> * Note I am using laptop, maybe I do not have enough power for both at the same time?


You may need a powered hub if the drives are bus powered only. The other problem I have found is that the drives have the same drive number. What I do (partially because it works better with Kontakt) is to pre-letter all my drives and they stay the same when I unplug and replug them in. It is best to use end of the alphabet drive letters (r/s/t/u) than things like g because any new drive will take over the lower letters and if you plug a new drive in first, it will mess up your naming convention. 

Does that make sense at all? You can re-letter drives in Disk Management. Right click on the drive and select change drive letter.


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## Chris Schmidt (May 11, 2022)

One, because I'm not a hoarder


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## TomislavEP (May 11, 2022)

Since my last post, I have also changed the SSD setup inside my DAW. Besides M.2 for OS and applications, I now have a 1 TB SSD for sample libraries and VI's and a 500 GB SSD for projects. I should be covered for some time, as I don't plan some drastic software expansions in the foreseeable future. For long-term storage and archiving I favor HDDs, mainly since SSD drives with a capacity larger than 1 TB are still quite expensive in my book.


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## Double Helix (May 11, 2022)

I have four: two 500GB *SanDisk Extremes and two 1TB SanDisk Extremes (only one of which is currently connected to the hub--I just save safety copies on the extra 1TB)

*Thanks to a very kind Canadian member who was instrumental in helping this pre-neo-noob set them up in the beginning



Chris Schmidt said:


> One, because I'm not a hoarder


One person's hoarder is someone else's, uh, "enthusiast" (I wish I had your discipline, Chris 8-)


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## Denkii (May 11, 2022)

9


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## chlady (May 11, 2022)

With my 2012 mac pro 5.1 have 7 SSD and 5 HDs connected with two additional 4 bay SATA enclosures.


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## dunamisstudio (May 11, 2022)

Currently three 2x 1TB Samsung NVME, 2TB Samsung SSD.
One of the 1TB i want to double.

hope to upgrade one and add two more before year's end.
I want to add two more 4TB SSD's. Currently only VSL is on the 2TB and everything else is on a 6TB HDD.


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