JohnG Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 There's a very interesting article by Auslogics (they make a good disk defragmenter IMO) here: Optimising SSDs. I have a 256GB mSATA drive for the OS and a 7200rpm 1TB HDD for the data. The sample libraries go on the SSD too as, once written there, they don't move. JohnG. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeringAmps Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 (edited) Andy, listen to Jim. 250 SSD for your OS. Keep it “lean”. 1gb M.2 for samples. Edit: 1 tb, I’m on my phone, pita! Conventional 7200 hd for projects. at least one more hd for data, backups etc. I’m not a composer who does “huge” orchestral mockups. But I can tell you that the M.2 loads Superior Drummer Trilian Kontact “right now”. Best money I spent last year! You can thank me later, T Edited February 17, 2019 by DeeringAmps 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 The only change I'd make is using a 500 GB SSD for the OS. Even though I've mapped all the Library folders (Documents, Pictures, etc.) to a different drive and use a second SSD for Dropbox and a database (my programming/business stuff), I've found that my 250 GB SSD OS drive still manages to get pretty filled up. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mettelus Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 A lot of things will linger on an OS drive (temp files, log files, dump files, Windows updates (which can be rather massive), etc.), or be installed to odd places (e.g., XLN installs to ProgramData) unless user intervention occurs. A few great utilities exist to monitor folder sizes (I personally use TreeSize Free - Administrator), which are excellent tools to see what is eating up your OS drive. There is a thread on the old forum called "Optimizing an SSD" that has a bit more detail for this. I did a high-level look at junction creation in post #8 on that thread which hopefully can still help folks curious how to keep the OS drive lean. Again, the only concern that I have with large OS drives is the time they take to image/restore, and the size of that image. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synkrotron Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 Hi @DeeringAmps 20 hours ago, DeeringAmps said: listen to Jim Yes, I have been getting a lot of help from Jim, with only the promise of a pie and a pint if he is ever within thirty miles of my house. 20 hours ago, DeeringAmps said: 250 SSD for your OS. Keep it “lean”. I understand that. However, based on the fact that my current laptop has a 512GB SSD for the OS drive, and there is only 107GB free, I will need a 512GB OS drive again. I could stick to SSD, but why not move on to better, faster tech? Yes, it is overkill, but I'm fifty eight and three quarters now and it is highly likely that I will never be able to afford to upgrade again in the future. So I am going for that tech now, rather than later. 20 hours ago, DeeringAmps said: 1gb M.2 for samples. Did you mean 1TB? Sounds might small that. Can't remember the last time I ever bought anything less than 32GB, and that was an Micro SD card for my camera. 20 hours ago, DeeringAmps said: Conventional 7200 hd for projects. The only time I use conventional hard drives now is for backup. I have two 1TB and two 2TB portable USB3 drives for that purpose. I'd never stick a HD in either a laptop or a desktop... 21 hours ago, DeeringAmps said: But I can tell you that the M.2 loads Superior Drummer Trilian Kontact “right now”. Yes, and at some point in the near future I may add a second M.2 NVMe drive to my system. In the meantime I will be ripping the 1TB SSD data drive out of my laptop. At the end of the day, right now, PCIe based storage devices are the fastest you can get, I believe. 21 hours ago, DeeringAmps said: You can thank me later I will offer you my thanks right now cheers andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synkrotron Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 On 2/15/2019 at 6:59 PM, JohnG said: There's a very interesting article by Auslogics (they make a good disk defragmenter IMO) here: Optimising SSDs. I have a 256GB mSATA drive for the OS and a 7200rpm 1TB HDD for the data. The sample libraries go on the SSD too as, once written there, they don't move. JohnG. Thanks for the link @JohnG I will have a look at that cheers andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synkrotron Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 15 hours ago, craigb said: The only change I'd make is using a 500 GB SSD for the OS. Indeed, Craig. As I said just above, 250GB was always going to be too small for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synkrotron Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 8 hours ago, mettelus said: There is a thread on the old forum called "Optimizing an SSD" that has a bit more detail for this. Thanks for the link, I will check that out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeringAmps Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 Maybe Jim will give us/me a definitive answer here; Are SSD drives the way to go for the project/audio drive? I thought there was an issue with multiple read/write cycles with SSD drives. As to the OS on the M.2: why waste valuable sample space with the OS? I upgraded my old Cat to ssd on the OS several years ago, cloned the existing drive, other than the time it takes Sonar to scan the vst’s, I really didn’t see a “blinding” increase in speed. Jim said I wouldn’t, maybe his optimizations, and keeping things “lean”? As to size; go 500 if you feel you need it, I’m on my phone so I can’t quiz my Cats as to actual use on my OS drives. I know my 9 year old “office” rig is 250, and it’s not “full” by any means. Best of luck with your build. just my nickel98’s worth. T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synkrotron Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 Hi Tom, 1 hour ago, DeeringAmps said: Are SSD drives the way to go for the project/audio drive? I thought there was an issue with multiple read/write cycles with SSD drives. Yes, most solid state drives give a guarantee up to a certain of read/write operations. But that is just the guarantee and it doesn't mean that the drive will stop working once that number is reached. For this reason I back up my data drive regularly. But you do have me thinking... I have a number of 3.5" HDD's knocking around, of various sizes. I suppose that if I thought I could free up some space on my SSD data drive I could consider dusting off some of the larger HDD's just for music projects. I do not run a professional studio. And I do not have a number of workstations, one that I use for "office stuff," one for "gaming" and one for "music." Everything goes onto the same workstation. All my CD collection. Photographs, and I sometimes work on those, so it is nice from them to preview, open and save quickly. Gaming data. My music projects. Office related stuff. It's all on there. For the last five years my laptop (specification currently in my signature) has done me for all of the above but I think that it is getting a bit tired, hence my recent delving into a new desktop workstation. 1 hour ago, DeeringAmps said: Best of luck with your build. Thank you very much Stay tuned to find out how it goes cheers andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ien Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 SSD endurance is based on write not read/write. The spec sheet of the drive will tell you its endurance. You can still read from an SSD after you can no longer write to it. I use HD's for consuming media; iTunes, video, etc. Games i put on an SSD as it noticeably decreases load times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 Remember that you can (and I believe should) map your library folders (documents, pictures, movies, etc.) to another drive to keep them off of the OS drive. Just right-click on the folder (e.g., Pictures), select Properties, and then select the Location tab to change where this folder resides. Next, I highly recommend getting Glary Utilities to keep things lean, mean and running smoothly. It's just like the good parts of the old Norton Utilities, but without the A/V or bloatware that came with Norton. We use the one-button cleanup with our clients. You only need the free version too. Just remember to go to Settings and turn off things that will cause it to start when you reboot, sit in your task-tray or notify you (you'll want to say no to sample submissions too at install time). It not only will clean up broken registry items and links, but it will remove a ton of temporary files off your OS drive. It wouldn't surprise me if your OS drive only takes up about 100 GB after you do the above tips. 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synkrotron Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 13 minutes ago, craigb said: map your library folders (documents, pictures, movies, etc.) to another drive to keep them off of the OS drive. Already doing that Craig 13 minutes ago, craigb said: It wouldn't surprise me if your OS drive only takes up about 100 GB after you do the above tips. Who? Me? I'll let you know. I will be starting afresh rather than doing a mirror, so, although it will take a lot longer to get back up to speed, I will surely save some space. I doubt if I will get down to 100GB though. I've just had a shufty at how much space I could free up with a Disk Clean-up and it comes to less than 230MB. I won't be reinstalling all of my DAW software, including leaving out some VST stuff. So might make a bit of a saving there. But if I go through my current OS, here's what I find:- Autodesk = 11.4GB Cakewalk Content = 200MB Cakewalk Projects = 4.8MB Crash = 0 Intel = 1.7MB KORG = 0 Maps = 39.2GB Multisamples = 1.92GB NVIDIA = 2.4GB Perflogs = 0 Program Files = 26.8GB Program Files (x86) = 190GB ProgramData = 12.9GB temp = 1.65MB Users = 6.13GB Windows = 43.4GB Well... That was a bit of a shock haha! ? Program Files (x86) = 190GB I had a look in there and found my "Steam" folder which takes up 143GB. Delved a bit deeper and I have the following games installed in that folder, DOOM (67GB), R3E (26GB), Assetto Corsa (32GB) and a couple more which are relatively small. I suppose I could have a look into whether Steam allows the user to specify a different drive/folder for those installs. If not, then I need to make allowance for them even though I may not want to play them straight away (or at all) Maps can probably go as well... I like the software but find I hardly use it any more. I'll still have it on the laptop anyway. The Autodesk stuff may come back, but not initially. Depends on if I get any work to do at home... So, yeah, I reckon you are right and that initially the OS should only take up 100GB. And when I got this laptop I had a 128GB OS drive and a 256GB data drive. Then over time I upgraded as I saw fit and didn't really give much thought to the space being taken up. As I said above, my new desktop will be used for everything so I want a bit of room to stretch into as I re-install more stuff. So I'll still with the 500GB OS I think... Cheers, and thanks for making me have a look at WTF I have on my OS drive andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 I'd install the non-music stuff to a different hard drive (which could always be another SSD of course!). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 Just thought of this... Since you're going to use this monster for multiple reasons, I'd also create a "music only" user along with a "gaming user" (then just log out of one and "Switch User" to get to the other). This will keep things as clean as possible for both. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synkrotron Posted February 18, 2019 Author Share Posted February 18, 2019 13 minutes ago, craigb said: I'd also create a "music only" user along with a "gaming user" Good idea that Craig. Except, it's only stuff that goes into the User folder that will be different, isn't it? Way back when I made my XP desktop dual boot, one for music, the other boot for everything else. But I think that has its own obvious problems and I don't think I can be bothered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ien Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 39 minutes ago, synkrotron said: it's only stuff that goes into the User folder that will be different, isn't it? User settings (particularly apps), desktop, tasbar, anything related to 'at log on', user reg keys and offline web content. The user folder also contains the appdata folder. I do this. I have 3. An admin account, which is very seldom needed, and 2 user accounts. One for work and one for entertainment. It keeps the environments and user directory focussed, which i prefer. It's not dual boot. Just users. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 It definitely IS the stuff that goes into the user folders that will be different but, as ien pointed out, that includes a LOT of things! If you ever went the dual-boot route, I'd suggest putting each OS on a different hard drive, but I don't think you need to do that here - just two different user accounts. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synkrotron Posted February 18, 2019 Author Share Posted February 18, 2019 1 hour ago, craigb said: just two different user accounts yeah. let's keep it simples Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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