# O.S and Libraries on Separate SSD Drives - Any Noticeable Difference in Performance?



## Frank1985 (Dec 10, 2019)

Have any of you noticed any improvements from having your o.s and vi libraries/DAW on separate SSDs?


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## colony nofi (Dec 11, 2019)

Very unlikely you'll notice any real world differences. However, once you get tonnes of libs, its much easier having them on their own drive... well, some of us would say so anyway. 
Boot drives tend to be smaller... and really *DO* make a big difference being very very fast. Nmve m.2 drives are great for this. For 90% of people, standard SATA SSD's, although slower, are more than ok for sample drives. Not that I'm not considering 4X2TB m.2's in an external enclosure myself - but only because my old J2 thunderbolt SATA enclosure is end of life.


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## BGvanRens (Dec 11, 2019)

I have OS and DAW and other software on my main drive. VST folder + sample libs go on separate SSD's. Even if with SSD's and especially nvme SSD's this could be a bit overkill depending on how many libraries you want to run at once. One good reason to do so is when you are migrating to a new system, you don't have to re-download everything. Most installers will recognize data that is already present at your system. Or if you need to re-install your OS, most data is preserved.


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## Eugenic (Dec 18, 2019)

I am following this, although I have a slightly more elaborate question, maybe somebody who tried this can answer it.

I have 5 drives, 1 for OS and 4 for libraries. Not big stuff, they're 1TB each.

I divided them for clarity by brand, but I am now inclined to think that I would have done a better job by spreading the "calls to disk". My reasoning is that, in a big tutti, perhaps having Woodwinds on one drive and Brass on another would stream better than having both WW and BR on the same drive, with the system trying to read patches all over the place in the same HD.

Does this make sense? Or is the advantage too little? I am asking because the only factor I can act on at the moment is increasing the buffer samples (and thus latency), making it difficult to play over a track.


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