SSD + HDD?

[LNovik@aol.com]

In the past, say >5 years ago, the word was that  one needed a bigger HDD plus a 2nd SDD in  order to do music production and video editing.  When recently video editing a  song, I was maximizing my processor. So, I was thinking of getting an updated computer with a similar setup. However, I see that in 2024, many of the hard drives are now already an SSD, such as a 1 tigabyte SSD. So, is it still recommended to have 2 disc drives, so one is dedicated to storage and the other to music and video production? Or is a 1 TB SSD enough to do it all?

Thanks.

LNovik

[rsinger]

I just got a new DAW and have 3 M.2 SSDs - 1 Tb for system, 2 Tb for audio, and 2 Tb for samples. I just do home recording.

Edited August 6 by rsinger

[mettelus]

4 hours ago, LNovik@aol.com said:

Or is a 1 TB SSD enough to do it all?

The C drive on the machine does all of the "grunt work" for the system. As long as you have expansion slots, you can test only having one drive out for yourself to see how it suits you (it may be fine), but you may find it better long term to have multiple drives so that the machine can pull more data simultaneously.

[msmcleod]

Whether 1TB is big enough all depends on your usage.

I've got a 4TB SSD in my DAW machine, partitioned  512GB for my C Drive, and all my Kontakt libraries/sample based synth data on the 3.5TB "E" drive.  My projects are on a separate 1TB SSD "F" drive. 

It's worth mentioning though, that all I have on my C drive is DAW related programs - i.e.  SONAR, CbB, Sonar, MixCraft and Studio One... plus the odd utility... so no office programs at all.

If you're using your PC for anything else, then you want at least 1TB for a C drive, and a separate drive for your data.

[LNovik@aol.com]

Thanks to everyone for their helpful input. Well, one system seems to be bigger than the next. Scott, I would think you could get all of Edinburgh in your computer---digitally speaking, of course! I'm not trying to be picky here, but I just want to understand exactly what you're saying, since I am in the market for a new computer. 

So Scott, you say you have a "4TB SSD in  my DAW machine..." SO, I guess that means for the computer that you make music with, you have a 4TB SSD as your D drive? I'm not sure what a "partitioned 512GB drive is. I assume that's also an SSD. Unless, you mean the 4TB SSD is your C drive, and you've separated (partitioned) a piece of it (512GB) to be the area in which you're running your DAW program.  But if the latter is true,  where is your D drive? Unless that's a separate back up drive. 

Lastly, I've been told that for plug-ins, such as effects plug ins, but possibly also for virtual synths, etc, they should be on the drive that contains one's DAW program. But perhaps, that's just because I have a large'ish HDD for saving programs and then just a single SSD for Cakewalk.  So maybe I've just been told that it's best to keep plug-ins on SSD's. So, do you keep your plug-ins, etc on the same C drive as where your DAW program(s) reside, or do you feel that as long as they are on a SSD, they can be accessed quickly enough. (Or, are you plug-in's all on that first 4TB SSD that has a separate partitioned section. )

I'm making some assumptions here when I attempt to understand all this, so please feel free to call me a dunce if you feel it's appropriate. 

Lastly, I should say that with my music computer that contains this big HDD (either 1 or 2 TB's) and my 512 GB SSD, I don't seem to have any problem with running CbB. Though I must say I do music and videos as a hobby, not a job. The only reason I'm looking for a computer is that my non-music computer, which I use for my regular home computer AND for  video editing of songs after I create them on the music computer, has been maximizing out its power. So I see stuttering, freezing, and a very loud fan noise as my computer's processor is maximized. I guess it might be a bit slower than the music computer, but also perhaps it takes more processing power to edit music + video together than it does to just edit music alone.

LNovik

[Xoo]

12 hours ago, msmcleod said:

If you're using your PC for anything else, then you want at least 1TB for a C drive, and a separate drive for your data.

My C drive is 64GB.  I have Sonar, some older versions of SONAR, Office, VEGAS, SoundForge plus plug-ins of course, and use it for games from time to time and it sits at about 30-34GB free (depending on whether it's just run a Windows update or not).  What do people put on their C drives that takes up that much room?

[rsinger]

5 hours ago, Xoo said:

My C drive is 64GB.  I have Sonar, some older versions of SONAR, Office, VEGAS, SoundForge plus plug-ins of course, and use it for games from time to time and it sits at about 30-34GB free (depending on whether it's just run a Windows update or not).  What do people put on their C drives that takes up that much room?

My DAW just has music stuff, but my last DAW was 10 years old, and I just copied things like a folder called music over to the new machine. The music folder is under documents, and I have manuals for most of my HW and SW. I have the latest installers for most of my SW. That was nice in setting up the new DAW - I didn't have to download those large files. I have sonar X1 and platinum installers, although for platinum it's useless 'cuz you still need CC to authorize. Some of that I'm likely to store on an external drive. DimPro didn't have an option to move the sample library, so that and its expansion libraries are on the system drive. Biab has a fairly large footprint on the system drive, although I've moved what I can to the audio drive. And so on ...  

[Sock Monkey]

For the last 6 years my C drive was a 120 SSD,  my Data drives were both 240  GB SSD. I never came close to using half of any of them. I'm not a sample type person or a hoarder. 

 I just built a new machine and because drives are fairly cheap now,  I have two 1TB M2 drives. One is OS and some instruments and samples that I let go there without a fight.  The other is all my Audio projects and Instruments and samples that were easy to put there.  Then a 3rd  SSD 500 GB drive for safety back ups.  

[Starship Krupa]

On 8/7/2024 at 3:38 AM, LNovik@aol.com said:

The only reason I'm looking for a computer is that my non-music computer, which I use for my regular home computer AND for  video editing of songs after I create them on the music computer, has been maximizing out its power. So I see stuttering, freezing, and a very loud fan noise as my computer's processor is maximized. I guess it might be a bit slower than the music computer, but also perhaps it takes more processing power to edit music + video together than it does to just edit music alone.

When seeking build advice for a new system, it's helpful to list the specs of your current systems. Processor type, RAM, video, etc. There might be a component such as insufficient RAM or underpowered video that is bottlenecking your system. Also, what program are you using for video editing?

If you're getting overheating (and the processor throttling that goes with it), often a good blast of compressed air to the processor's heatsink will work wonders. When was the last time you did a dust removal on your systems? If your video card has fans, hit that with the duster as well. If you're using your processor's onboard video, that may also account for the bogging on your video editing computer.

Mark (not "Scott," although he is a Scot) uses an i7-3770 system as his studio computer. Many would consider this an outdated rig, but it works just fine for his purposes, and he's one of the Cakewalk developers.