# Hard Drives & VST Jungle



## MGLR (Dec 24, 2018)

Hello world !!

After very long times doing comparisons between DAWs and VSTi, I finally made my choice buying Cubase Pro and EW Hollywood Strings to begin. Brasses, woodwinds and percussions will come next months. As usual, that was a very long process for me, especially when those choices are expensive. I hardly try not to lose myself into an endless hardware compulsive shopping, and try to clearly restrict myself towards only what I need to comfortably work.

Now, I'm just facing another choice issue I can't figure out, concerning storage. My actual computer contains 32 GB of RAM, a 250Go SSD, and a 2 To 7200 RPM HDD. I read a lot of threads about storage, but had to much different informations I can't sort...

I know I need space to store all these big VST samples, but I don't really know if I have to invest in extra RAM first, or if an 1 TO EVO SSD could do the work (or if both are irrefutably indivisible) ? I ask that because I had test some VSTi and I could see Direct From Disk monitor shot up when a lot of VSTs are read on the same disk !

And I'm really lost about Sata, eSata, USB3, Thunderbolt, Firewire ? What's the best for VST usages ? Shloud I prefer stock all VST on the same SSD, or better to get different SSD where I allocate different VST into each ? And if it's better to get several SSD, can I dock it with any hardware ?

It's the jungle.

I would be very happy to hear from you and your personal experiences !

Thank you for reading and please excuse my English.

Best wishes for all of you, and Merry Christmas.

Mig


----------



## jbuhler (Dec 24, 2018)

MGLR said:


> Hello world !!
> 
> After very long times doing comparisons between DAWs and VSTi, I finally made my choice buying Cubase Pro and EW Hollywood Strings to begin. Brasses, woodwinds and percussions will come next months. As usual, that was a very long process for me, especially when those choices are expensive. I hardly try not to lose myself into an endless hardware compulsive shopping, and try to clearly restrict myself towards only what I need to comfortably work.
> 
> ...


What kind of computer? How many ports and of what kind?

I would invest in SSDs first. 32 GB will be fine at first. As the number of libraries you have and the size of your template grows, you'll need to upgrade RAM, but if you only currently have 250GB of SSD, you'll be needing to add to that long before you run up against the limits of 32GB. In general, USB3 is fine for streaming samples from SSDs. If you are running a multiple bay enclosure with several SSDs you might need a faster port type. But for a typical SSD, a USB3 port is fine.


----------



## ag75 (Dec 25, 2018)

I think with SSD you don’t need to stream from several drives as was once the norm. I believe all of your libraries can live on one SSD. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.


----------



## jbuhler (Dec 25, 2018)

ag75 said:


> I think with SSD you don’t need to stream from several drives as was once the norm. I believe all of your libraries can live on one SSD. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.


This is my understanding and has been my experience, that with SSDs samples do not need to be split across SSDs. However, the cost of SSD storage is still inverted where 4 1TB drives cost less than 1 4TB drive so it still makes sense for many of us to have samples spread across multiple drives.


----------



## MGLR (Dec 25, 2018)

Hello !

Thank you very much for your advices ! I'm working on PC _(32 GB + I7-4930K 3.4 GHz + Steinberg UR22 that does the work properly as I never do more than 2 analog instruments recording)_, and I don't know yet how many ports are available on the motherboard. I have to open to check. 

A friend of mine told me about RAID 0 (even if I have to be really sure to never unmount de RAID 0 or I just lost everything). Indeed, as I could remember, I faced DFD crashes with my 7200 RPM drive, then I'm happy to know I could not have this issue stocking all VST into single SSD. By the way, what you told me both makes more sense for me and just clear my choices.

I will buy first SATA SSDs Storage (2x 1TO 860 EVO - _or QVO is know as better performance for VST reading ?_) and update my RAM if I need it.

Thank you very much, it helps ! Really.

Mig


----------



## jbuhler (Dec 25, 2018)

MGLR said:


> Hello !
> 
> Thank you very much for your advices ! I'm working on PC _(32 GB + I7-4930K 3.4 GHz + Steinberg UR22 that does the work properly as I never do more than 2 analog instruments recording)_, and I don't know yet how many ports are available on the motherboard. I have to open to check.
> 
> ...


A lot of folks like Samsung for SSD, but tbh I haven't found much difference in performance or reliability of any brand. Maybe I've just been lucky.


----------



## MGLR (Dec 25, 2018)

Yes, that's true. I read few (very very few) data loss issues concerning Crucial MX5000.
For 10€+ I could invest on Samsung (even if I know that SSDs in general are not lasting).


----------



## MartinH. (Dec 25, 2018)

MGLR said:


> A friend of mine told me about RAID 0



You don't need that for sample libraries. You are better off with a simple SSD connected via SATA.
I have Samsung SSDs, you can have drive failures with every manufacturer. Backups are always mandatory.


----------



## jbuhler (Dec 25, 2018)

MartinH. said:


> Backups are always mandatory.


This always. (Though I back up to regular large capacity HDs.)


----------



## MGLR (Dec 25, 2018)

MartinH. said:


> Backups are always mandatory.



Yes ! It is, of course ! I don't want to use direct EWHollywood Strings Hard Drive for this reason. Just to transfer datas into a dedicated SSD with the other . Thank you Martin for your advice. It helps (...saving money) !


----------



## GdT (May 9, 2019)

Looking at Samsung SSDs. 
Can anyone please explain simply the difference between Samsung models: 
EVO, PRO and QVO?
For a samples drive which one to go for?


----------

