# Is USB 3.0 External SSD ideal for streaming sample libraries???



## stprodigy (Apr 21, 2014)

My notebook has internal SSD drives in RAID configuration, which are plenty fast, but they are almost full in storage capacity, and I can pretty much say its because I have 3 libraries stored on it, Omnisphere (43GB), Lumina (32GB) and the Komplete Libraries (90GB). 
If I can unload these libraries onto an external storage medium, like an SSD, with minimum or even none negative impact on performance on streaming speed of samples when being played in a DAW, I think that would be the ideal thing to do in order to save the precious internal SSD space.
I like the idea of having all my existing sample libraries and the ones I may acquire in the future on a single storage medium reserved for that purpose only, and I've heard that its a good idea to keep the OS stored on a separate hard drive than sample libraries for optimum performance, I'm not just sure if a USB 3.0 SSD can handle streaming of multiple large size samples at once (some of Lumina and Omnisphere samples are pretty large in file size, but I've never had any problem playing multiple instances of these in a DAW when I'm streaming them off internal SSD).

So, basically my question is, can an external USB 3.0 SSD drive offer the same or similar performance for storing and streaming sample libraries as an internal SSD? And what are the potential drawbacks or advantages of using external storage mediums as opposed internal ones for sample libraries?
Thanks.


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## TravB (Apr 21, 2014)

Sorry not to have have a definitive"yes" or "no" answer to your question, but I personally don't think there is one. Allow me to explain. Whether or not a USB3.0 external drive will "work" for you depends largely on how well the USB3.0 interface and drivers are implemented in your specific system. I'm defining "work" here as resulting in smooth audio without pops, clicks, or drop-outs.

While USB3.0 is on the order of 10 times as fast as USB2.0, it may not be the best solution for a digital audio stream. Early on quite a few users found out the hard way that the shiny new USB3.0 ports did not offer any improved performance (and in some cases horribly worse) with their audio interfaces or USB controllers. Theoretical speed of the interface had nothing to do with it, but as often with digital audio systems the drivers were the culprit.

USB3.0 presents another layer of hardware and drivers an external device must navigate, and the technology (depending, again, on YOUR system) may or may not be mature enough to provide a robust audio stream that sample streaming demands.

If you have an eSATA option on your laptop, that CAN be just as effective as a direct internal SATA connection -- but again, it depends on the motherboard manufacturer's implementation of that protocol.

I think the short answer to your question is one that you really won't know for certain if it will work well or not until you try it.


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## proxima (Apr 21, 2014)

Well, having just installed an external SSD with USB3, let me share what I learned.

First off, yes, USB3 is at least in my case perfectly capable of generating fantastic near-SATA3 performance. I bought a Samsung EVO (750 GB) and tried two external USB3 cases for use with my 2013 iMac (the inability to easily get inside the iMac is my only gripe with it, so I was depending on USB3!). The first was a Cable Matters tool-free enclosure (good reviews, inexpensive, claimed to support SATA3). I got 250 MB/sec sustained read/write from it. Much better than a hard drive, but I knew that SSDs on a Mac could do better: my Macbook gets about 400-450 MB/sec on its internal SSD.

It turns out there's another protocol for USB3 communications called UASP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_Attached_SCSI). I was too hasty in buying the first enclosure, so I found a second enclosure by StarTech that explicitly supported UASP. Viola, I get around 400 MB/sec sustained read/write. These speeds are approaching the maximum speed of USB3.0, and given the performance of my Macbook, it's definitely in the ballpark of an internal interface. 

Of course, with sample libraries seek performance matters more than sustained, but I'd still make sure to get an enclosure that supports UASP, as it's supposed to help with random reads and writes as well. I've only had it a few weeks, but it seems to work marvelously for samples.


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## snattack (Apr 21, 2014)

I have an external USB 3 chassi with a SSD. R/W-performance is around 250-300 mb/s on a Macbook Pro which is enough for most libraries. I run Berlin Strings from it.

The point with SSD for sample streaming is mainly the fast random seek times, and in that case there's no difference internal vs external.

So yes, USB3 works fine for streaming samples.


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## Blake Ewing (Apr 29, 2014)

proxima @ Mon Apr 21 said:


> It turns out there's another protocol for USB3 communications called UASP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_Attached_SCSI). I was too hasty in buying the first enclosure, so I found a second enclosure by StarTech that explicitly supported UASP. Viola, I get around 400 MB/sec sustained read/write. These speeds are approaching the maximum speed of USB3.0, and given the performance of my Macbook, it's definitely in the ballpark of an internal interface.



Thanks so much for this!

I just received a StarTech enclosure with UASP support, and my Samsung 840 external speeds went from read~210Mbps to ~410Mbps !

I haven't done any actual work with the new setup yet, but those numbers are encouraging as reported by a quick Black Magic disk test.


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