Timothy Connelly Posted November 23, 2023 Share Posted November 23, 2023 I'm in the market for a new PC. In this day and age, is it really necessary to have 2 drives, or can I get away with just 1 big one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeringAmps Posted November 23, 2023 Share Posted November 23, 2023 (edited) 2 drives MINIMUM, but below is better. C for OS and all programs A (audio) all your CWP projects D (data) if I “save” anything (except CWP) S (samples) for all your VSTi samples, also I create a “junction” that keeps any data that programs want to “dump” on the C drive (IKM is notorious for this, gigs of shite [ie: Tracks, Amp 5 etc] that should not be on the C drive) If a program needs more than 100megs of data to reference, I make a junction. V (video) if you do video. I also have a B (backup) drive internal and external. Why so many drives? Keep the C drive “lean and mean” 250 gig SSD (my systems use about 70gigs currently) is way more than enough, IF you “monitor” what lazy programmers put there (see IKM note) Evidently taking a few extra steps designing their installers is a “few” too many. BACKUP that C drive “religiously”. Image, Image, image. If a new install causes a problem, ET can “phone home”. Problem solved. You can thank me later…. t Edited November 23, 2023 by DeeringAmps 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Roseberry Posted November 23, 2023 Share Posted November 23, 2023 Can you make a single M.2 SSD work? Yes. Is it ideal? Absolutely not. For logistical reasons, you don't want large sample-libraries, audio, or video projects on the boot drive. ie: When you go to back-up the C drive, you don't want HUGE redundant files being included in each backup image file. That makes backup files incredibly large... and takes much longer to create/restore. As Tom pointed out above, it's best to have a drive dedicated to each specific task (OS/Apps, Audio, Samples, etc). If you're wanting maximum disk-streaming polyphony from many large sample-libraries, it's common to use multiple "Samples" drives. We have some TV/Film composer clients who are running 6+ SSDs for disk-streaming sample-libraries. This would be over-kill for more typical singer/songwriter scenarios. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted November 24, 2023 Share Posted November 24, 2023 (edited) My new computer only had 2 slots for M2 drives and so I put 2 - 1 TB Samsungs there. I pulled the 2 500 GB regular SSD Audio and Video data drives from the old Daw and put those in as backup drives. So I have 4 drives totalling 3TB. So my working drive is the new M2 data drive. I open projects from the original drive and do a save as to the new drive and carry on from there. Boy are things much faster right now. Video editing/ rendering is crazy fast. Drives are dirt cheap now. So I’d say why would you only have 1? Drives can die or slow down so having things sorted out makes a system more bulletproof. I had a 2 year old SSD drive slow down to a crawl just last spring. It had had its quota of read / writes. It was only 1/2 full. Edited November 24, 2023 by John Vere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy Connelly Posted November 24, 2023 Author Share Posted November 24, 2023 (edited) Thanks for the input guys. I guess I was a little tired, (or just not being forward-thinking) when I posted. I just wanted to know if it is possible, not ideal. It's been 10 years now since my last daw. As I understand your advice, I should stick to the two-drive approach (OS on 1 and Audio on the other, like my current system). I don't really have any sample files issues to contend with, and I plan on using an external drive(or drives) for backups and misc. files. M2 is the way to go for fastest throughput throughout the system? So, robust power supply, 2 M2 drives, fast processor( thinking i7 13th gen.),32G RAM, and LOTS of USB ports( I have a lot of peripheral gear). Are graphics really a concern? (I don't currently do video, and if that changes, I can always address). Does that sound like a realistic jumping-off point? Jim, I may take a look at your site. I am not a builder, and if I can't easily find an off-the-shelf PC that I can modify I may have some business for you. Thanks again! Edited November 24, 2023 by Timothy Connelly 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mettelus Posted November 24, 2023 Share Posted November 24, 2023 (edited) A motherboard with 2 NVMe M.2 slots is ideal. As mentioned above, images of the OS drive are important, and that drive is also the default for all of the temp files written/read by most applications unless you change them, so is also the drive most likely to fail first (hence the images). When bringing a new machine online is when to think about data management as well. I use directory junctions a lot (even for the bulk of apps) to keep my OS drive small for images, so I have 500GB for the OS (less than half full) and 2TB for the other NVMe. The non-OS drives are just robocopied onto an external drive for backup (quicker and more efficient than imaging), but keeping that OS drive small makes images/recovery significantly faster. A graphics card is not going to be a requirement for running a DAW; but as you said, that can always be added later on anyway. You can always add more drives later on as well. For an initial build you will not notice much (what you are looking at will work fine), but if you start collecting sample libraries (or doing video work), you will find drives fill up rather quickly. Edited November 24, 2023 by mettelus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeringAmps Posted November 24, 2023 Share Posted November 24, 2023 7 hours ago, Timothy Connelly said: sound like a realistic jumping-off point? Sounds good to me. Although, I use VSTi’s so I would op for a 250gb SSD for the OS. Samples on one m2, projects on the other. Many in the community rely on Jim for their needs. I have 2 Cats, eventually I will have a third… t Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted November 24, 2023 Share Posted November 24, 2023 There’s such a small price difference between underbuilding and getting what you want. I got all my parts from Amazon because they are the only ones with free shipping to where I live. I think everyone here will tell you that you always get twice or more the quality when you build your own. It’s not hard to DIY. Computer parts all come with clear instructions as well as the 1,000 of videos out there. My son helped me with the parts. This isn’t exactly what I used as some stuff wasn’t available etc. I managed to shave a few bucks off by looking for deals. But this web site helps you fit things together. https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/mr_bilko/saved/#view=rkmbpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mettelus Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 48 minutes ago, wiviv said: The motherboard I’m using appears to have access to 4 ssds Which motherboard? There are a lot of motherboards now with 4 M.2 slots, but also allow for even more SATA connections. It helps to know what motherboard you are referring to. As long as an old drive doesn't have the O/S loaded on it (i.e. the old C drive), you can just unplug a drive from one computer and move it to another for the most part. Be sure both machines are powered down and unplugged, and you ground yourself to the case before disconnecting/connecting any drive. The formatting used on the old system drives will still be recognized by Win11. The new machine just needs the available connections (either M.2 or SATA) to connect them all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 True story- I recently built a new computer and I put two 1 TB M2 drives in it. One for OS the other is the “Working” drive. I then removed the two 500 GB data drives from the retired machine. These had all my Cakewalk etc data so it made transition easier. But meanwhile the old computer I was keeping it as my backup and it was fully loaded with everything from the last 12 years and all my software licenses etc. I was constantly using it to sort stuff as I slowly got the new machine up and running with my software and plug ins. I found I needed certain things to be located exactly where they had been on the old computer in the new one or Cakewalk would even crash sometimes. I got everything working and I thought I’d put some recycled SSD drives in the old computer to replace the two I had removed. One old drive was labeled “OS Acer laptop “. I put it in the retirement computer which is a HP pavilion from about 2010. I opened my computer and found a “G” drive which when opened showed as loaded with an OS and a typical list of folders. Fine, I’ll just Format it. When the format was completed the computer shuts down? When I re booted it it all looks wrong? It was the Acer laptops desktop??? This should not be even possible! So as a result I had completely nuked the OS from the HP and it was now running happily on an OS from a completely wrong computer system. So long and short of it is be very very careful when recycling old OS drives between different computers!!! Good news is the HP was long overdue for a fresh install and now has a brand new SSD and OS. but I lost all things related to Cakewalk. So far I only have Next and Sonar Home Studio installed. I am waiting for Sonar to be released. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MozartMan Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 On 11/23/2023 at 10:26 PM, John Vere said: My new computer only had 2 slots for M2 drives If you have extra PCI-e 4 slot/s you can install more M2 disks using this adapter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JCFHCVN/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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