SSD advantage

[tarsierspectral]

I am waiting for my hex MP to arrive and was wondering if it would be wise to get something like 64GB SSD just for the OS. Currently, I have a WD 640GB Black Caviar that I am intending to put in my MP and the 1TB drive that comes standard with MP. So, should I get a 64GB SSD (something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148357?
Or do you think I should be OK with the standard configuration?

[johnnymg]

I am waiting for my hex MP to arrive and was wondering if it would be wise to get something like 64GB SSD just for the OS. Currently, I have a WD 640GB Black Caviar that I am intending to put in my MP and the 1TB drive that comes standard with MP. So, should I get a 64GB SSD (something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148357?
Or do you think I should be OK with the standard configuration?

Yes, get an SSD for that bad-boy!

That said, I would recommend a slightly bigger and faster SSD than the small C300. JMO, but for a MP I'd recommend a SSD greater than 80 GB in size.

I'm partial to the C300 128GB drive as it has worked fabulously in my MBP. I'll be moving it over to my Hex when it gets here. Keep in mind that these crucial drives are size/speed dependent. i.e. they get faster as the size goes up. That 64GB C300 is probably a bit slow compared to its bigger brothers.

Another VERY good option is the OWC Extreme Pro 120 GB drive. It's slightly more expensive than the 128 C300 and arguably a bit faster.

cheers and congrats on the MP order
JohnG

[tarsierspectral]

Yes, get an SSD for that bad-boy!

That said, I would recommend a slightly bigger and faster SSD than the small C300. JMO, but for a MP I'd recommend a SSD greater than 80 GB in size.

I'm partial to the C300 128GB drive as it has worked fabulously in my MBP. I'll be moving it over to my Hex when it gets here. Keep in mind that these crucial drives are size/speed dependent. i.e. they get faster as the size goes up. That 64GB C300 is probably a bit slow compared to its bigger brothers.

Another VERY good option is the OWC Extreme Pro 120 GB drive. It's slightly more expensive than the 128 C300 and arguably a bit faster.

cheers and congrats on the MP order
JohnG

What do I really gain though?? How much faster will my machine run?

[donw35]

Boot time, app speed launching and overall increase in os. I am running a Kingston 64gb, not the fastest but made big difference. Once you go ssd you will never go back.

[tomscott1988]

Read some of the numerous posts on SSD, theres no need to add another thread for a subject so widely discussed throughout the forum.

[Ice Dragon]

Boot time, app speed launching and overall increase in os. I am running a Kingston 64gb, not the fastest but made big difference. Once you go ssd you will never go back.

This.

According to MacWorld's August 2010 issue, the Kingston performed at about 33% faster than conventional hard drives (in terms of read/write speed) and others including the OWC Mercury Extreme performed at about 45% faster.

I never get tired of watching of SSD boot-up videos because they show such a difference from regular hard drives.

[reel2reel]

Since this thread is pretty active...

Does anyone know if the new Mac Pro's have the cabling already available for the lower optical bay (as they did in the 2009's)?

[odinsride]

I got the OWC 240gb for my Mac Pro. While I wait on the Mac Pro, I decided to put the SSD in my i7 MBP to see how epic it is...see videos below (1st is a video of a reboot, 2nd is a video where I set all apps from the dock to launch at login)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCkEhPtrO3M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbq6xG9FLV4

[Ice Dragon]

I got the OWC 240gb for my Mac Pro. While I wait on the Mac Pro, I decided to put the SSD in my i7 MBP to see how epic it is...see videos below (1st is a video of a reboot, 2nd is a video where I set all apps from the dock to launch at login)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCkEhPtrO3M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbq6xG9FLV4

Just incredible. May I also ask you what camera you used to record the video because it was very sharp.

[Garamond]

I am considering an OWC 480GB Mercury Extreme Pro SSD as my startup drive. How much better is this related to the default SSD option at Apple Store? What SSD brand does Apple use?

[deconstruct60]

So, should I get a 64GB SSD (something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148357?
Or do you think I should be OK with the standard configuration?

The problem with the Crucial SSD ( and probably any other SATA III (3.0) optimized drive) is that that its sweet spot is on a SATA III system.

http://www.storagereview.com/crucial_realssd_c300_review_256gb

The current Mac Pro is not one. So this specific drive is likely to lag behind the ones geared more specifically for SATA II .

If your current OS + Apps drive is 20-30GB big ( or can easily be pruned to that size ) then the SSD may work. So if you had 20-30GB on a 500-600GB drive it is a much better fit. If you have 55GB of data you want "SSD access time" to then it is not.

[odinsride]

Just incredible. May I also ask you what camera you used to record the video because it was very sharp.

I used an iPhone 4 to record both videos (though the second one didn't get uploaded at 720p)

[Ice Dragon]

I am considering an OWC 480GB Mercury Extreme Pro SSD as my startup drive. How much better is this related to the default SSD option at Apple Store? What SSD brand does Apple use?

Toshiba for the 512 GB, and Samsung for the others (128 GB/256 GB) according to what I have read in other topics.

And the OWC is far better than the Apple Store ones according to what I have read as well. I am not sure what the read/write speeds are for the Toshiba though I don't think they are even close to read/write speeds of the OWC which are up to 285 MB per second and protection against degradation.

[strausd]

Since this thread is pretty active...

Does anyone know if the new Mac Pro's have the cabling already available for the lower optical bay (as they did in the 2009's)?

The 2010 has the same case and cables as the 2009, only main differences are CPU and GPU. So yes, the 2010 already has the cables to put an SSD in the optical bay.

[davidp158]

I'm thinking about getting a SSD for my forthcoming 6-core MacPro, and want to know if I understand your comment regarding SSD vs HDD size. If my OS + Apps (no home folder) requirements are 55GB, are you suggesting that a 500-600GB HDD offers better performance than the 64GB SSD mentioned by the OP?

My current OS, Apps and Home folder data is approximately 44GB, so I though the OWC 60GB SSD would be ample size. I can trim down this by putting the home folder and other non-system/non-app essential files on another drive. I'm just wondering how to calculate an adequately sized SSD for my needs, and try to avoid performance degradation over time. As this will be my OS and Apps disc, I don't want to start off on the wrong foot. (been there, done that...)


If your current OS + Apps drive is 20-30GB big ( or can easily be pruned to that size ) then the SSD may work. So if you had 20-30GB on a 500-600GB drive it is a much better fit. If you have 55GB of data you want "SSD access time" to then it is not.

[reel2reel]

The 2010 has the same case and cables as the 2009, only main differences are CPU and GPU. So yes, the 2010 already has the cables to put an SSD in the optical bay.

Thanks, that's what I figured, but wanted to make sure.

[davidp158]

There is a photo on the OWC web site blog showing the optical drive bays with a cable dangling from the upper optical drive. I presume this is what you'd use to connect a drive in the lower bay.

http://blog.macsales.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/DSC_1500.jpg

[reel2reel]

There is a photo on the OWC web site blog showing the optical drive bays with a cable dangling from the upper optical drive. I presume this is what you'd use to connect a drive in the lower bay.

http://blog.macsales.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/DSC_1500.jpg

Nice, that's gotta be it. That's why people are saying to be careful when you pull those bays out, to make sure you don't damage the cable.

God I love Mac's.

[deconstruct60]

I'm just wondering how to calculate an adequately sized SSD for my needs, and try to avoid performance degradation over time. As this will be my OS and Apps disc, I don't want to start off on the wrong foot. (been there, done that...)

There are two issues you have to take into account with flash SSD drives. Performance over time. The second is just time that the device still works. Writing to the drive wears out the drive ( as in it will stop storing data correctly or at all.). Your capacity will shrink and/or the drive will report itself "dead".

The space buffer I'm pointing out is more so for the latter issue. You want to leave a reasonably significant of your SSD drive empty. The more higher than average writings you are going to do to the disk, the higher than average space you'd want to leave open.

Write performance over an extended period of time is a different issue. That gets settled more so on Mac OS X by getting a drive that has some sort of internally driven garbage collection built-in. There are variations in the implementation but they shouldn't matter for an " OS + Apps (binaries plus preferences) + Home " drive much. [ If performance stays up in the 80+% of empty/fresh drive range that is decent. ]

If some App puts some custom swap space in your Home directory perhaps, but that is usually a configuration option.


Hard drives slow down as fill them up because invariably start to fragment the free space available to write into. SSD are relatively immune to fragmentation. ( in fact they fragment on purpose to some extent to reduce wear. ) You don't want to run an OS drive at very high % occupied either. Just different underlying motivation.

[VirtualRain]

My current OS, Apps and Home folder data is approximately 44GB, so I though the OWC 60GB SSD would be ample size. I can trim down this by putting the home folder and other non-system/non-app essential files on another drive. I'm just wondering how to calculate an adequately sized SSD for my needs, and try to avoid performance degradation over time. As this will be my OS and Apps disc, I don't want to start off on the wrong foot. (been there, done that...)

44GB on a 60GB drive is plenty. I think 10-20% is considered a safe amount of free space to provision. You're at 25% so have plenty of room to spare if needed.

[davidp158]

Thanks for the reply.

I've been reading about how SSD drives "wear" over time, but I am not clear on what is a practical size for just my OS and applications (home folder & working files NOT on the SSD drive). As I use a separate drive for my user-specified scratch disc (Photoshop, Illustrator), that wouldn't effect a SSD drive for the OS and apps. I don't want to paint myself into a corner with a small SSD that will cause problems, but I can't justify the expense of a really large SSD.

"Originally Posted by deconstruct60
If your current OS + Apps drive is 20-30GB big ( or can easily be pruned to that size ) then the SSD may work. So if you had 20-30GB on a 500-600GB drive it is a much better fit. If you have 55GB of data you want "SSD access time" to then it is not."

Regarding your post #11 (above), you were referring to a mechanical 500-600GB HDD, correct?

To a techno-challenged buyer like myself, reading the OWC marketing info suggests that their SSD drives suffer little performance degradation or loss of storage space over time. Thus, I thought a 60GB SSD drive would have ample free space to do its garbage management, and whatever else it needs to perform well over time. If a larger SSD drive is the only way to go, I will likely wait until the SSD prices come down some more.




There are two issues you have to take into account with flash SSD drives. Performance over time. The second is just time that the device still works. Writing to the drive wears out the drive ( as in it will stop storing data correctly or at all.). Your capacity will shrink and/or the drive will report itself "dead".

The space buffer I'm pointing out is more so for the latter issue. You want to leave a reasonably significant of your SSD drive empty. The more higher than average writings you are going to do to the disk, the higher than average space you'd want to leave open.

Write performance over an extended period of time is a different issue. That gets settled more so on Mac OS X by getting a drive that has some sort of internally driven garbage collection built-in. There are variations in the implementation but they shouldn't matter for an " OS + Apps (binaries plus preferences) + Home " drive much. [ If performance stays up in the 80+% of empty/fresh drive range that is decent. ]

If some App puts some custom swap space in your Home directory perhaps, but that is usually a configuration option.


Hard drives slow down as fill them up because invariably start to fragment the free space available to write into. SSD are relatively immune to fragmentation. ( in fact they fragment on purpose to some extent to reduce wear. ) You don't want to run an OS drive at very high % occupied either. Just different underlying motivation.

[3587]

See my sig for my machine... I purchased the Intel 160GB SSD... The best purchase I've ever made! The following comment is what got me to purchase an SSD...

The Mac Pro is the fastest Mac you can purchase! The Mac Pro is so fast that is outperforms the conventional HDD. "The only holdup on a Mac Pro is the HD"... When I got the SSD, it felt like a whole new machine! Finally, my Mac Pro could breathe and there were no more bottlenecks! The only time I see a beach ball spinning now is when my conventional HDD startups during iTunes, because I have all my media on there... I've had it for about a year now... Still screams! Blazing fast!

I have my OS, Apps, and documents all on my SSD, because I only have about 80-100GBs of stuff, so I keep it all on the SSD for overall performance!

SSD, the ONLY way to go on a Mac Pro!

[mulo]

What do I really gain though?? How much faster will my machine run?

This totally depends! If you turn off your machine every day you will gain lots since you will be loading stuff to the RAM faster.
If on the other hand you like I hardly ever turn it off there isn't much to gain. The initial load will be slower then with an SSD, but from that point on you will have the data in the RAM, which will stay there for a long time unless reboot or have little RAM.

just for comparison I have 8GB ram in this 17" i7 MBP, now I can write and read from the RAM at 12GByte/s, so until someone makes an SSD that outperforms that, I'll stick to what I have.

[3587]

If you have the money and are really serious about purchasing one... What's not to say that you can't purchase it, install it, run it for a few days, then return it if it isn't everything that everyone is saying it is?

I basically use my Mac Pro for email, Internet, papers, websites, iTunes, etc. Nothing big, but I tell you what... That SSD is incredible! It shaves time off of everything I do! It is so fast, I think the applications open even before my double-click is done. Saving, loading, opening, moving, deleting, starting, shutting down... It's all FAST!

It may only be seconds faster, but when you are actually using your Mac, you can SEE and FEEL the difference.

[MonkeyET]

I am still trying to get a grasp on SSD. Is this something that is going to replace internal and external drives in the somewhat near future? I would add one to a new iMac should I need one (hoping I won't for several more years), but I am always keeping an eye on what I might want in the future.

[deconstruct60]

I am still trying to get a grasp on SSD. Is this something that is going to replace internal and external drives in the somewhat near future?

In desktops, generally no. There was alot of hype about 18 months ago about flash SSD drives dropping in price to "just as low" as hard drives. Didn't happen. Not going to happen. The $/GB of storage for a flash SSD will be about 10x that of hard drives for the foreseeable future.

Everyone wants a less expensive box or a box with more storage. A SSD only box gives you one that is more expensive and has less storage.


On laptops there is a tradeoff. SSDs consume less power and are not as sensitive to being moved around. Likewise, people are generally OK with storing less on a laptop.

Also SSDs don't have to be rectangular 2.5" diameter metal boxes. You can construct one that takes less space than a standard 2.5" drive. Again a much bigger deal in ultracompact laptops than it is for a desktop like an iMac.

SSDs play a space factor in an iMac if want to have two storage drives inside and don't want to give up optical drive. There not much empty space to put a second drive. Nor is there much extra thermal budget to dissipate the heat from a second one. So that's why they fit as a "second drive" option. Also help eliminate disk I/O through firewire if have to get an external drive to do work on iMac.



As usual you don't get something for free. While SSDs are faster than hard drives they also can wear out faster. The set of users who fill their hard drive up to the brim with "stuff" and that grind away on them for a couple of years would see SSDs crap out later about as much as hard drives would. They both wear out over time.



I would add one to a new iMac should I need one (hoping I won't for several more years), but I am always keeping an eye on what I might want in the future.

If you don't need a SSD in an iMac not don't buy one. The SSDs that will avaiable two years from now are likely to be dramatically better ( last longer , cheaper, etc. ).

If our iMac isn't being severly hamstrung by slow disk I/O then you don't need an SSD. An SSD can give you RAID-0 like speeds without having to use multiple disks.

[VirtualRain]

I am still trying to get a grasp on SSD. Is this something that is going to replace internal and external drives in the somewhat near future? I would add one to a new iMac should I need one (hoping I won't for several more years), but I am always keeping an eye on what I might want in the future.

There is no doubt in my mind that mechanical drives will eventually go the way of the floppy drive... it's just a matter of time.

However, the SSD market is in the early adopter phase and will likely stay there for at least a few more years.

As with any computer product, there's always a better one coming down the pike that's better and cheaper... there's never a better time to buy then next week, next month, or next year... but then where will that get you? :p

[reel2reel]

Do any of you SSD owners use Final Cut Pro? Just wondering if project files (not media) should live on SSD or mechanical or if it makes much of a difference.

[VirtualRain]

Do any of you SSD owners use Final Cut Pro? Just wondering if project files (not media) should live on SSD or mechanical or if it makes much of a difference.

When I do the occasional FCP project (usually a short 5 minute or less clip) I store all my project files, media and use the SSD's for scratch as well... but then I have plenty of SSD storage. My advice would be to put as much on your SSD as possible.

[reel2reel]

When I do the occasional FCP project (usually a short 5 minute or less clip) I store all my project files, media and use the SSD's for scratch as well... but then I have plenty of SSD storage. My advice would be to put as much on your SSD as possible.

That makes sense. And FCP projects won't create a lot of garbage, I wouldn't think.

[VirtualRain]

That makes sense. And FCP projects won't create a lot of garbage, I wouldn't think.

Yeah, and when the project is finished, you can move the contents to a mechanical drive for archival if you're short on space.

[johnnymg]

Do any of you SSD owners use Final Cut Pro? Just wondering if project files (not media) should live on SSD or mechanical or if it makes much of a difference.

I have FCS loaded on a 128GB SSD along with the OS. One thing I did do is put the LARGE FCS library folders on the data drive. The audio library files alone are HUGE (~30GB) and do not need to be on the same drive as the OS/apps.

cheers
JohnG

[VirtualRain]

I have FCS loaded on a 128GB SSD along with the OS. One thing I did do is put the LARGE FCS library folders on the data drive. The audio library files alone are HUGE (~30GB) and do not need to be on the same drive as the OS/apps.

cheers
JohnG

I do the same with that stuff.

[reel2reel]

I have FCS loaded on a 128GB SSD along with the OS. One thing I did do is put the LARGE FCS library folders on the data drive. The audio library files alone are HUGE (~30GB) and do not need to be on the same drive as the OS/apps.

cheers
JohnG

Especially if you install the full suite and all the extras (sfx, loops, etc) I'll have to remember that when I set up my SSD.

[Icaras]

When I do the occasional FCP project (usually a short 5 minute or less clip) I store all my project files, media and use the SSD's for scratch as well... but then I have plenty of SSD storage. My advice would be to put as much on your SSD as possible.

Hi Virtual Rain, I was just interested in why you think so to use the SSD space as much as possible, besides the fact of getting the most value for your money.

I'm a Logic user and I need to figure out an efficient way to handle my stored project files as well active projects much like you and the other FCP users here on this forum.

Just to clarify, you store all your project files on the SSD? Is this on your RAID configuration or do you have a separate SSD used primarily for scratch on current projects?

I'm not sure how to go about my Logic projects. If I should just store them on the SSD with the OS/Apps, or on a mechanical drive.

[reel2reel]

I'm not sure how to go about my Logic projects. If I should just store them on the SSD with the OS/Apps, or on a mechanical drive.

Icaras,

How does Logic manage media? Does it point to all the media, no matter where it's stored? Or does it self-contain, sort of like an Aperture library?

I'm guessing it just points to media, like Final Cut does. I'd think all your audio would be fine on mechanical. As for project files and caches, probably best on the SSD. For FCP, I can't wait to see how much faster thumbnails and waveforms load once I set them to the SSD, because they can really impede performance sometimes.

[Icaras]

Icaras,

How does Logic manage media? Does it point to all the media, no matter where it's stored? Or does it self-contain, sort of like an Aperture library?

I'm guessing it just points to media, like Final Cut does. I'd think all your audio would be fine on mechanical. As for project files and caches, probably best on the SSD. For FCP, I can't wait to see how much faster thumbnails and waveforms load once I set them to the SSD, because they can really impede performance sometimes.


Hey Reel, thanks.

Yea, audio content and sample libraries just sit on a mechanical drive, however some audio files create copies of themsevles used in the project within the project folder.

It is definitely possible for a project with heavy usage of samples to go up to gigabytes in size if need be. However, my average project size is usually only just a couple of hundred MBs.

I think your right that it is a good idea to keep project files on the SSD, especially since my project sizes are relatively small. I'm just concerned about I/O performance. I am not going to be RAIDing any drives for use with my projects, so I was thinking about a second SSD for use with projects currently in work, aside from storage of completed projects (let's say, on boot SSD drive I guess). If I'm already reading my audio content libraries off the mechanical drive, it makes sense for me to write to another separate drive, right?

Is this what your doing with current projects? Thats the only thing I'm a little sketchy on.

[reel2reel]

If I'm already reading my audio content libraries off the mechanical drive, it makes sense for me to write to another separate drive, right?

Is this what your doing with current projects? Thats the only thing I'm a little sketchy on.

Yep, after years of managing media for very complex video projects, I've developed some workflows that I follow now. In my current setup at work (8-core 2008 MP) I've got the boot drive + three media drives. I try to keep the media drives separate and restricted to certain particular types of media. This helps me stay organized, but also makes it easier to clear off space when the time comes.

For example, I limit two of the drives to the main media (source files for a project) and one of the drives to scratch (render files, temporary media files, exports, etc). I make sure to keep my boot drive free of any renders, media, exports, etc.

For your case, I think you're on the right track. I'm not an audio guy, but I think a lot of workflow technique probably overlaps. I think I'd do exactly what your saying: one drive for your source files (reads) and another for writes. That will avoid a bottleneck and make your projects easier to manage.

I'll keep all my plugins, caches and project files on the SSD, though. I won't know how much the actual project files benefit from the SSD until I try it. Maybe they'll do just as well on mechanical? As long as they're not on the same drive as your media.

One last note re: project files...FCP files can bloat up to 300 MB's or more and if you save/backup your files for a lot of projects, the bulk can build up fast! With FCP files, though, if you throw them into a folder and zip them, they'll shrink down immensely. This is nice if you want to save space, but still archive all your project files. I'd bet Logic files are probably the same.

Anyway, hope any of that helps!

[mangrove]

I'm thinking about getting a SSD for my forthcoming 6-core MacPro, and want to know if I understand your comment regarding SSD vs HDD size. If my OS + Apps (no home folder) requirements are 55GB, are you suggesting that a 500-600GB HDD offers better performance than the 64GB SSD mentioned by the OP?

My current OS, Apps and Home folder data is approximately 44GB, so I though the OWC 60GB SSD would be ample size. I can trim down this by putting the home folder and other non-system/non-app essential files on another drive. I'm just wondering how to calculate an adequately sized SSD for my needs, and try to avoid performance degradation over time. As this will be my OS and Apps disc, I don't want to start off on the wrong foot. (been there, done that...)

Did you ever read Lloyd's Mac Performance Guide since he's an MP guy all the way.

I just decided to try the OWC August special for the 40GB SSD. I wanted to use Lloyd's thesis only for a hybrid boot drive. It works-see some threads under Mac Mini about it. I did a clean customized install and left in all my Apps, etc, but did not include iTunes data (120GB for me ) and iPhoto data (6GB soon to be 30 GB more). My boot drive takes up only 27GB. Hey for $99 (August only) that was a very good exercise and it's fast!

[Icaras]

Anyway, hope any of that helps!

That helps immensly, thank you! One last thing though, just for clarification. Do you recommend my writes be on the boot SSD drive? Or separately on a second SSD?

I'm guessing Logic's plug-ins and software instruments behave similarly to FCP and other pro apps. All of these are also pretty much tied to Logic itself, so the plug-ins and software instruments will be originally loaded from the boot. But once loaded, the CPU simply does all the processing of plug-ins and effects from there, right?

So does this mean it would be safe to write on the boot SSD? Or is it still beneficial to have a totally separate second SSD for the writes?

[mangrove]

I am waiting for my hex MP to arrive and was wondering if it would be wise to get something like 64GB SSD just for the OS. Currently, I have a WD 640GB Black Caviar that I am intending to put in my MP and the 1TB drive that comes standard with MP. So, should I get a 64GB SSD (something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148357?
Or do you think I should be OK with the standard configuration?

Hey, check out the threads under Mac Mini about clean/hybrid boot drives a la Mac Performance Guide. OWC has an August special 40GB for $99. Full boot with all my apps and only took 27GB with 12+ available for whatever.

[reel2reel]

That helps immensly, thank you! One last thing though, just for clarification. Do you recommend my writes be on the boot SSD drive? Or separately on a second SSD?

I'm guessing Logic's plug-ins and software instruments behave similarly to FCP and other pro apps. All of these are also pretty much tied to Logic itself, so the plug-ins and software instruments will be originally loaded from the boot. But once loaded, the CPU simply does all the processing of plug-ins and effects from there, right?

So does this mean it would be safe to write on the boot SSD? Or is it still beneficial to have a totally separate second SSD for the writes?

Hmm, this is stuff I'm not 100% sure on yet, because I haven't worked with an SSD before. The only thing that makes me hesitant about writing excessively to the SSD is the whole garbage/trim issue. I'd be worried about losing speed. So anything that loads (the app's resources, such as plugins, fx, sound library) should be fine on the SSD. It's the writes that should go to mechanical. This is just based on snippets I've read in many different postings. It sounds like VirtualRain uses a 2nd SSD for writes/scratch (?) so maybe I'm missing something here.

For my first SSD, I'm going to try to restrict it to reads-only (OS, app's, plugins, important libraries, etc) and keep all my other 'temporary' media on mechanical (project media).

Hopefully, VirtualRain will correct me on anything if necessary.

[VirtualRain]

I have 3 SSD's in a RAID0 array (more for capacity than speed).

I use Aperture every other day, and FCP, CS5 and Office, occasionally. So I'm hardly grinding my drives daily... keep that in mind.

My SSD's add up to 240GB (3x80) and I store the OS, my apps, my iTunes library, my personal files, my Aperture library, and if I'm doing a FCP project, all my media clips and project files. All these apps are setup to use the system drive (SSD's) as the scratch volume. Everything is blindingly fast and my unused space fluctuates from about 80GB to 30GB depending on if I've got a FCP project on the go.

My philosophy is to try and have everything I'm working on, stored on the SSD's. If I run out of room, I'll buy more. If I kill them from over-writing, I'll buy more. To me they are disposable. This may sound flippant, but in the grand scheme of things a few SSD's don't cost that much ($800 in my case) but make way more difference to my computing experience than anything else I've ever done to a computer in the last 15 years. I'm not going to ration myself. I also think paying an extra $800 on a $3000 computer for the benefit of running everything on SSD's is actually a good deal. It helps alleviate the #1 bottleneck in systems today and allows me to get the most out of my time on the computer. Now not everyone has the same budget or priorities, but I find it amusing that many people have no problem paying a $1200 premium for a 6-core CPU, but can't bring themselves to spend half that on a pair of SSD's. :confused:

I also think that keeping stuff on separate drives for organizational sake is not making the best of things... if you have multiple drives (SSD or otherwise) of the same capacity, stripe them and use folders for organization.

I use the stock 1TB mechanical to store library content, archives of my projects, and disk images of my camera CF cards.

I have a 1TB Time Capsule that does backups.

At any rate, I'm sure everyone can find a workflow that uses their own SSD budget to the best for their applications. I know Logic samples are enormous and you probably need to keep those on mechanical drives for now, but if that was my trade, I'd be seriously thinking about how I could move them to SSD's at the first opportunity. :)

EDIT: I should mention that you can restore your drives to factory condition without TRIM using the Secure Erase method (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=841182)... something I will do about once a year.

[Icaras]

Hmm, this is stuff I'm not 100% sure on yet, because I haven't worked with an SSD before. The only thing that makes me hesitant about writing excessively to the SSD is the whole garbage/trim issue. I'd be worried about losing speed. So anything that loads (the app's resources, such as plugins, fx, sound library) should be fine on the SSD. It's the writes that should go to mechanical. This is just based on snippets I've read in many different postings. It sounds like VirtualRain uses a 2nd SSD for writes/scratch (?) so maybe I'm missing something here.

For my first SSD, I'm going to try to restrict it to reads-only (OS, app's, plugins, important libraries, etc) and keep all my other 'temporary' media on mechanical (project media).

At any rate, I'm sure everyone can find a workflow that uses their own SSD budget to the best for their applications. I know Logic samples are enormous and you probably need to keep those on mechanical drives for now, but if that was my trade, I'd be seriously thinking about how I could move them to SSD's at the first opportunity. :)

Cool, thank you both for your very helpful advice. :)

Yea, Logic + 3rd party samples are huge and definitely can build up, especially with high quality orchestral libraries. I have been eyeing SSD as my sample drive for quite some time now. I'm still waiting for Intel G3 SSD drives first though.

The only thing is, I've read around in another thread here and another thread elsewhere that a RAID setup seems to not be ideal for audio, for some reason. I have no idea why, but that was the general consensus I gathered from research.

If there wasn't any issues, I wouldn't hesitate to just get 2 SSDs, RAID them and have your same exact setup with storing OS/apps/itunes library/personal files, (everything except my sample libraries), and just be done with it and be happy.

Looks like I need to research this a bit more in depth, but I really see no issue if I were to work on my Logic projects on a 2 SSD RAID0 config.

So it appears the RAID option is once again back on the table. So much indecisiveness. :p

Edit: Yea, after some quick googling, it does seem that RAID benefits audio much less than it does with working with video (particularly HD video). It seems the best bet for audio is to get 2 or more drives and just use them separately.

[reel2reel]

Edit: Yea, after some quick googling, it does seem that RAID benefits audio much less than it does with working with video (particularly HD video). It seems the best bet for audio is to get 2 or more drives and just use them separately.

I think it's just a matter of data rate. Audio files run much smaller than most video files, especially higher quality HD video. RAID helps move that video data rate and sustain it. If you're laying down a 50-minute show to tape, you can't have one single dropped frame or glitch. Audio data rates are much easier to sustain unless, I assume, you're playing back multiple streams/layers.

I think you'd benefit most from a small SSD as boot drive and for your Logic project files and whatever other files load everytime you launch a project. It would probably make your UI feel a lot snappier. Again, this is not based on experience, but just things I've read so far. I'll know much better when I install my new SSD.

[reel2reel]

My philosophy is to try and have everything I'm working on, stored on the SSD's. If I run out of room, I'll buy more. If I kill them from over-writing, I'll buy more. To me they are disposable. This may sound flippant, but in the grand scheme of things a few SSD's don't cost that much ($800 in my case) but make way more difference to my computing experience than anything else I've ever done to a computer in the last 15 years. I'm not going to ration myself. I also think paying an extra $800 on a $3000 computer for the benefit of running everything on SSD's is actually a good deal.

I like your way of thinking! I might just order up a second SSD when I get a bit more cash in the bank. I agree with what you're saying. Many times you need to spend money to make money. Saving time is worth a lot to me these days, so fast, solid performance is very valuable.