# SSD time



## Jacob Fanto (Dec 10, 2022)

Hi all,

Time to upgrade from HDD to SSD. Amazon is offering 25% off 4tb Samsung 870 QVO, which I think is probably a good option for me. 

Unfortunately, I’m a bit clueless when it comes to the ways to maximize SSD efficiency. What do I need in addition to the drive itself? A SATA to USB? A larger dock?

Thanks for your help!


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## DaddyO (Dec 10, 2022)

I suggest you make your post in the Gear Talk subsection of the forum. You'll get more focused attention there.

VI Control > Gear Talk


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## Nigel Andreola (Dec 10, 2022)

I just did a bunch of research to get parts for a new PC build, so I may be of help.

Depending on what computer you are using, and what generation of USB ports you have, you may be able to take advantage of the extra speed of an NVME SSD. An NVME PCIE gen 3.0 SSD can be about six to seven times faster than a SATA SSD drive for a similar price. A gen 4.0 can be much faster still, but are more expensive. All of these drives can be plugged into USB or Thunderbolt with adapters.


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## HCMarkus (Dec 10, 2022)

Jacob Fanto said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Time to upgrade from HDD to SSD. Amazon is offering 25% off 4tb Samsung 870 QVO, which I think is probably a good option for me.
> 
> ...


QVO is good for Read situations, aka Sample Libraries. If your new SSD is going to be used for Read/Write situation (aka Uses Other Than Sample Libraries), I'd suggest spending the few additional dollars a TLC SSD (Samsung EVO, Crucial MX500) drive costs. Depending on your setup and needs, the NVMe SSDs mentioned by Nigel (with the same QLC/TLC considerations) might be a great way to go.

How you connect your new drive will depend on your computer. Specify your system and what you intend to use your drive to store; others will then be able to make meaningful recommendations.


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## Jacob Fanto (Dec 10, 2022)

HCMarkus said:


> QVO is good for Read situations, aka Sample Libraries. If your new SSD is going to be used for Read/Write situation (aka Uses Other Than Sample Libraries), I'd suggest spending the few additional dollars a TLC SSD (Samsung EVO, Crucial MX500) drive costs. Depending on your setup and needs, the NVMe SSDs mentioned by Nigel (with the same QLC/TLC considerations) might be a great way to go.
> 
> How you connect your new drive will depend on your computer. Specify your system and what you intend to use your drive to store; others will then be able to make meaningful recommendations.


I have a Mac and would just be using the SSD for samples.


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## HCMarkus (Dec 10, 2022)

Then a QLC SATA SSD in a USB3 case would work great. You might find project load times a little quicker if you go with NVMe in a Thunderbolt or USB enclosure (sample pre-load associated with the project might be faster), but sample streaming should be more than adequate from a SATA drive.


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## Jacob Fanto (Dec 10, 2022)

HCMarkus said:


> Then a QLC SATA SSD in a USB3 case would work great. You might find project load times a little quicker if you go with NVMe in a Thunderbolt or USB enclosure (sample pre-load associated with the project might be faster), but sample streaming should be more than adequate from a SATA drive.


What is the difference between QLC and QVO?


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## HCMarkus (Dec 10, 2022)

QVO is a QLC Drive by Samsung. EVO is a TLC Drive by Samsung.









QLC vs. TLC: Which is the Better SSD? | Pure Storage


QLC vs. TLC—which is the better SSD for your needs? Read on to learn how QLC and TLC differ in cost, capacity, and reliability.




www.purestorage.com


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## Jacob Fanto (Dec 10, 2022)

HCMarkus said:


> QVO is a QLC Drive by Samsung. EVO is a TLC Drive by Samsung.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Got it, thanks!!


How does this one look?


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## HCMarkus (Dec 10, 2022)

I've not used one. I'll leave it to others to comment. All I can say is it should be fine.

Semi-Related: Do you back up your files? Please say "yes." Time Machine is a simple way to get some data security on a Mac. Whatever you choose, backup is critical.


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## Nigel Andreola (Dec 10, 2022)

Jacob Fanto said:


> Got it, thanks!!
> 
> 
> How does this one look?



If you have a Mac I would strongly recommend going for a NVME 4.0 ssd with a thunderbolt adapter. These drives are typically up to twelve times faster than the 870 QVO and many have a much higher endurance rating (up to triple the life span). I believe the extra cost, is very much worth it, especially if you are loading a large template or orchestral instruments and don't have a lot of RAM. You'll be taking better advantage of the super high bandwidth of your Mac's Thunderbolt port with an NVME ssd.

If you want something cheap, NVME 3.0 SSDs are many times faster than the 870 QVO and cheaper. There are no advantages that I know of to using SATA ssd.

Furthermore, I've had issues with my Samsung brand SATA SSDs. They are often are unresponsive and one just died on me. I haven't had any problems with my other brands of SSD. I've seen others on this forum have trouble with Samsung SATA SSD as well. I don't think they are designed for high demand read/write applications like a DAW.


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## Jacob Fanto (Dec 10, 2022)

Nigel Andreola said:


> If you have a Mac I would strongly recommend going for a NVME 4.0 ssd with a thunderbolt adapter. These drives are typically up to twelve times faster than the 870 QVO and many have a much higher endurance rating (up to triple the life span). I believe the extra cost, is very much worth it, especially if you are loading a large template or orchestral instruments and don't have a lot of RAM. You'll be taking better advantage of the super high bandwidth of your Mac's Thunderbolt port with an NVME ssd.
> 
> If you want something cheap, NVME 3.0 SSDs are many times faster than the 870 QVO and cheaper. There are no advantages that I know of to using SATA ssd.
> 
> Furthermore, I've had issues with my Samsung brand SATA SSDs. They are often are unresponsive and one just died on me. I haven't had any problems with my other brands of SSD. I've seen others on this forum have trouble with Samsung SATA SSD as well. I don't think they are designed for high demand read/write applications like a DAW.


Could you link to one you recommend?


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## HCMarkus (Dec 10, 2022)

Can't disagree with the NVMe recommendation for most purposes but (based on research others have posted here a VI-COntrol) for streaming samples, the speed of the drive may be underutilized. That said, I've seen 2TB TLC NVMe drives closing in on $150. Adding a TB enclosure will cost $80 minimum, so you'll be spending a little more than a SATA SSD will run you, but not a tremendous amount.

I'm on a Mac Studio and run two 2TB Samsung 970 EVO + NVMe drives in two OWC Envoy Express TB enclosures. No issues for me. The Envoys are two-lane, so max speed is about 1500 MB/s. Other enclosures (more expensive) use four PCIe lanes and can be almost twice as fast. But the added speed only comes into play when writing or reading large files (like video). VI Sample usage is lots of tiny reads.

I've had good luck with Samsung EVO (never used QVO) SATA SSDs, but there was period not long ago where there were a lot of issues reported here for Samsung drives purchased in 2020-21 IIRC. Crucial MX500 is a good TLC SATA SSD for which I have not heard complaints.

Bottom line is, SSD of any ilk will run circles around a spinning hard drive, especially for Sample Read usage. The QLC drives will take longer to load with the data (writing is slow), but read speeds are comparable to TLC drives.


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## Sombreuil (Dec 10, 2022)

Beyond 1TB, NVMEs are still too pricey compared to "standard" SSDs, and as someone already mentioned it, for sample libraries you wouldn't notice the difference anyway.

The only rule that I'd recommend to follow is to avoid the DRAMless/QLC combo at all cost. Crucial doesn't have the best reputation (they changed the NAND from TLC to QLC for one of their NVMEs without mentioning it), avoid the red/green series from Western Digital, Samsung is pretty much safe but a bit more expensive.

Never trust the reviews that are more than two year old, companies change their products a lot and what applied X months ago isn't necessarily true anymore (cf. Crucial), so make sure to find an up-to-date review for the product you'll buy.

Everything else is pretty much nitpicking.


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## Nigel Andreola (Dec 10, 2022)

Sombreuil said:


> Beyond 1TB, NVMEs are still too pricey compared to "standard" SSDs, and as someone already mentioned it, for sample libraries you wouldn't notice the difference anyway.
> 
> The only rule that I'd recommend to follow is to avoid the DRAMless/QLC combo at all cost. Crucial doesn't have the best reputation (they changed the NAND from TLC to QLC for one of their NVMEs without mentioning it), avoid the red/green series from Western Digital, Samsung is pretty much safe but a bit more expensive.
> 
> ...


Where I live in the US, I'm seeing that some NVME PCIE gen 3.0 drives in 4tb + capacities are actually cheaper or about the same price as some good "standard" SATA SSDs that have DRAM. It could be because of the sales going on right now. IDK. I agree about the reviews.


HCMarkus said:


> Can't disagree with the NVMe recommendation for most purposes but (based on research others have posted here a VI-COntrol) for streaming samples, the speed of the drive may be underutilized. That said, I've seen 2TB TLC NVMe drives closing in on $150. Adding a TB enclosure will cost $80 minimum, so you'll be spending a little more than a SATA SSD will run you, but not a tremendous amount.
> 
> I'm on a Mac Studio and run two 2TB Samsung 970 EVO + NVMe drives in two OWC Envoy Express TB enclosures. No issues for me. The Envoys are two-lane, so max speed is about 1500 MB/s. Other enclosures (more expensive) use four PCIe lanes and can be almost twice as fast. But the added speed only comes into play when writing or reading large files (like video). VI Sample usage is lots of tiny reads.
> 
> ...


It's the EVO SATA brand from Samsung that I and others have had problems with. I think I purchased mine before 2020 though. I work with very large Photoshop files. Almost every time I've worked with 4k or 2k video files my Samsung drives would fail on me and result in lost work. I bought a Force Series™ MP510 and installed it with an add in adapter card. It has worked flawlessly.
With 64gb of ram, when working in Cubase all I've seen my NVME drive do for me is shorten load times. I think the Engine 2 player streams off disk, I have those libraries on my NVME drive. I haven't tested if there's any performance difference between my NVME and SATA drives when streaming samples. I'm not able to test it right now because my PC died. My Samsung 850 Pro 1tb OS drive died on me. My PC is too old to run an OS off an NVME drive, so I have a new SATA SSD in mail.



Jacob Fanto said:


> Could you link to one you recommend?


If you can share with me what year and model of Mac you have, and you budget, I might be able to help with some recommendations.

I think this guy has some good advice and recommendations. The focus is setting up your drives for video editing. I think it applies to DAW work as well.



It's important to shop around. Stores have wildly different prices. B&H has a good sales team you can call on the phone that can give good recommendations. Take note of what they tell you, and buy it from whoever is the cheapest.
I bought MP600 PRO NH drives for my new build. They are probably overkill for DAW work, but I bought them for 4k video work and extremely high res digital painting. I'm not a fan of Corsair or anything, but they had the speed, capacity and endurance rating I was looking for at a good price.


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