Is there really need for ext. SSD? One SATA SSD enough?

[arnoldi]

I will install SSD drive to be used with Pro Tools 10&11 to my MacBook Pro (Late 2011)

I'd like to install only 1 512 GB SSD as internal (SATA) drive to my MBP and to use that one drive for Max OS and as well with Pro Tools and soft synths etc. Is there really some reason this would not be good idea?

I would still be using my current non-SSD 1TB ext. drive as backup for my PT productions, soft synths, etc...

It just would be more easy to use only one internal SSD drive for everything...

[VRW]

You may mind that if using Pro Tools (unlike to other DAWs) you HAVE TO use
a 2nd drive (one external or a 2nd internal one) to record/playback your audio files to/from!
Partitioning one drive is no solution because Pro Tools needs 2 independent drives, one for
the program, another one for the session data and the audio files.

It´s officially required to get Pro Tools to work properly as it should.
With other DAWs you can use just one drive for everything if you really want/need to,
with Pro Tools you will face problems, errors and failed recordings by the time on doing so.

And this 2nd drive has to be at least 7200rpm rotation speed. 5400rpm will be too slow actually.
It should be FW800-connected or even better via Thunderbolt.
More and more people also seem to be using USB3 while USB2 is not recommended.

If you want to keep it as simple as possible you at least will have to use your OS HD with the OS and all
the programs on it and a 2nd drive (internal or external) with your PT session data and all your audio files on it.

As mentioned before, this is an official requirement for the use of Pro Tools and
it is proven to only work properly this way (this is why I personally use Logic on my mobile system
from which I then transfer my data/audio files to Pro Tools on the main system ...which is a bit
more work to do for sure, but, you know...there are two sides to everything).

If you want to use Pro Tools only you have to use one 2nd drive actually at least.

Anyway. The very best to you,

cheers, VRW



MacMini i7Quad, 16GB Ram, MBP Mid 2012 2,5GHz i5, 16GB Ram, MacOS 10.9.4, Apogee Quartet+Duet 2, Genelec Active, Yamaha NS10,
Pro Tools 11.2, Logic 10.0.7, Waves, MCDSP, Duende Native, Softube, HOFA, IK Multimedia etc

[arnoldi]

Originally Posted by VRW

You may mind that if using Pro Tools (unlike to other DAWs) you HAVE TO use
a 2nd drive (one external or a 2nd internal one) to record/playback your audio files to/from!
Partitioning one drive is no solution because Pro Tools needs 2 independent drives, one for
the program, another one for the session data and the audio files.

It´s officially required to get Pro Tools to work properly as it should.
With other DAWs you can use just one drive for everything if you really want/need to,
with Pro Tools you will face problems, errors and failed recordings by the time on doing so.

And this 2nd drive has to be at least 7200rpm rotation speed. 5400rpm will be too slow actually.
It should be FW800-connected or even better via Thunderbolt.
More and more people also seem to be using USB3 while USB2 is not recommended.

If you want to keep it as simple as possible you at least will have to use your OS HD with the OS and all
the programs on it and a 2nd drive (internal or external) with your PT session data and all your audio files on it.

As mentioned before, this is an official requirement for the use of Pro Tools and
it is proven to only work properly this way (this is why I personally use Logic on my mobile system
from which I then transfer my data/audio files to Pro Tools on the main system ...which is a bit
more work to do for sure, but, you know...there are two sides to everything).

If you want to use Pro Tools only you have to use one 2nd drive actually at least.

Anyway. The very best to you,

cheers, VRW



MacMini i7Quad, 16GB Ram, MBP Mid 2012 2,5GHz i5, 16GB Ram, MacOS 10.9.4, Apogee Quartet+Duet 2, Genelec Active, Yamaha NS10,
Pro Tools 11.2, Logic 10.0.7, Waves, MCDSP, Duende Native, Softube, HOFA, IK Multimedia etc

Thanks for detailed answer! It was good to know this requirement from Avid. In such case though next question will be:

Is the bigger benefit from SSD when Mac OS system drive is SSD drive (with PT and soft synths in it) or the external audio drive as SSD? External SSD would be connected via thunderbolt in my case (not USB3 available)

Surely best thing would be that both are SSD but just thinking costs..

[VRW]

Originally Posted by arnoldi

Surely best thing would be that both are SSD but just thinking costs..

That´s true .

Anyway actually if you only have these 2 options it would be for sure the better
decision to take the SSD as your PT/audio files-drive.
As you say it´s Thunderbolt-connected you would get one of the best, fastest
and most modern solutions as your PT/audio drive this way.
That should be perfect actually!

It of course would be helpful if your OS HD would be at least 7200rpm but I
have read here from people who seem to even use 5400rpm drives as OS drive.
Me personally would neither use this nor recommend it by personal experience
but obviously it seems to work too.

Best of success!

[arnoldi]

Originally Posted by VRW

That´s true .

Anyway actually if you only have these 2 options it would be for sure the better
decision to take the SSD as your PT/audio files-drive.
As you say it´s Thunderbolt-connected you would get one of the best, fastest
and most modern solutions as your PT/audio drive this way.
That should be perfect actually!

It of course would be helpful if your OS HD would be at least 7200rpm but I
have read here from people who seem to even use 5400rpm drives as OS drive.
Me personally would neither use this nor recommend it by personal experience
but obviously it seems to work too.

Best of success!

Thanks for comment! I checked and I have that 5400 SATA HD drive =(

Hmm, well option 1) internal 512 GB SSD would cost nearly the same than option 2) internal 256 GB SSD + external 256GB SSD from LaCie.. perhaps that kind of setup would the best as price for option 2 is around 100 euros bigger only...

[VRW]

PS ...to achieve the best performance and longest lifetime out of your SSD
you might install and enable this one (the link below). This enables Trim support
on your Mac for 3rd party SSDs.
There are 2 versions available, one is for free, the second "Pro"- version is $10.-.
But both versions do what needs to be done .
http://www.cindori.org/software/trimenabler/

If you install it as an OS drive internally Trim support is definitely working and even required for your 3rd party SSD.
For the use with an external SSD it might be the same when it´s connected via thunderbolt.
(at least I´ve read about this several times, have no personal experience with it though).

On the other hand with other connections like USB 3/2 etc. Trim enabling would NOT work ...
as mentioned before, via Thunderbolt and SATA it seems to work even with external (SSD) drives.

More info about Trim enabling in general you may find there (if you would need more ).
http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=352188

Anyway it doesn´t hurt your system at all to have it installed and enabled.
At my own SSD OS drive it also changed it´s speed performance dramatically upwards.

But don´t forget, after every Mac OS update you will have to use the little app again
as Apple automatically deactive Trim support for non-Apple SSDs via the OS.
For the rest of the time it´s completely invisible and safe and doesn´t interfere
with any other application on the system including Pro Tools.


All the best.

[VRW]

It´s up to you of course, what you may need.
If you intend to record a large amount of audio data,
particularly with more than 44.1 or 48KHz, so that you will get
really large files on the drive, 256GB for your audio drive probably
will be not enough in the long run.

If on the other hand you will work with rather small to average sessions,
recorded all at 44.1 or 48KHz it may be enough for sure for a certain time.

But there´s a 3rd option I´d like to introduce you to.
As the whole world is seeking SSDs nowadays, even high quality standard HDs
has become ridiculously affordable.
The ultimate standard HD almost every pro here at the DUC would recommend to
the use with Pro Tools is the WD Black series.
They are 7200rpm, have 16MB Cache, are really reliable and proven over the years
to be great drives with audio recording.

You could get one 750GB of this series for $74.- now, which definitely is a bargain.
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digita.../dp/B004I9J5OG
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Weste...al/WD7500BPKX/

If you would use such a one as the OS drive, a 512GB SSD via Thunderbolt as your audio drive...
well, this would be a great, high performance set up indeed!
And still affordable in a way.

Your 1TB HD you could use as an external backup drive for your PT sessions/audio files e.g.-
not constantly connected, just to save your work from time to time which indeed is
a very good idea to do as drives (particularly SSDs) can just break down of a sudden
and one could just lose all the work. That´s why it´s pretty good to have a copy actually.

You could just use such a one with the 1TB HD e.g.
http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-In...pr_product_top
or such a one if you have more old internal HDs you would want to use for
data backups or whatever
http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Lay-F...rive+enclosure

Just as a suggestion.


Best of success to you!


MacMini i7Quad, 16GB Ram, MBP Mid 2012 2,5GHz i5, 16GB Ram, MacOS 10.9.4, Apogee Quartet+Duet 2, Genelec Active, Yamaha NS10,
Pro Tools 11.2, Logic 10.0.7, Waves, MCDSP, Duende Native, Softube, HOFA, IK Multimedia etc

[sw rec]

Once again up on my soapbox...when I was recording on analog tape, a reel of 1" 456 for 16 tracks of audio/33 minutes cost about the same as a current 1TB hard drive. (Oh, wait, 15 tracks. We used #16 for time code.) We could use the tape ONCE, and get one side of an album on it IF the songs weren't too long! These ARE the good old days....

[Firewire]

I have a late 2011 17" Macbook Pro. A couple years ago I upgraded the internal hard drive with a 128GB SSD. I use this for the OS and Applications. I replaced the internal DVD Rom with an OWC Data Doubler (on sale now for $35.00) which is a kit that swaps out the Optical DVD drive and replaces it with a SATA interface and sled for a 2nd internal hd. I added a 7200RPM 750GB Hitachi hard disk. Protools runs great with this setup.

If were upgrading today, I would use a 250GB SSD for the OS and Apps, and would consider a 480GB SSD for audio files etc, although the 750GB HD has performed flawlessly - so an SSD might be overkill.

It's nice to have 2 drives inside the laptop - no external drives to haul around.

[VRW]

Originally Posted by Firewire

I have a late 2011 17" Macbook Pro. A couple years ago I upgraded the internal hard drive with a 128GB SSD. I use this for the OS and Applications. I replaced the internal DVD Rom with an OWC Data Doubler (on sale now for $35.00) which is a kit that swaps out the Optical DVD drive and replaces it with a SATA interface and sled for a 2nd internal hd. I added a 7200RPM 750GB Hitachi hard disk. Protools runs great with this setup.

If were upgrading today, I would use a 250GB SSD for the OS and Apps, and would consider a 480GB SSD for audio files etc, although the 750GB HD has performed flawlessly - so an SSD might be overkill.

It's nice to have 2 drives inside the laptop - no external drives to haul around.

Great posting!

That´s indeed a cool possibility to use PT on a mobile system without having to
use an external audio drive.
I´ve not listed it because me personally love/need to have an internal optical drive
but if someone doesn´t need it that much, it´s a great alternative actually !

There are the links for all the stuff.

Amazon.com-links:
Data Doubler
http://www.amazon.com/Doubler-Conver...nting+solution

Samsung 840 Pro 512GB
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electr...+840+pro+512gb

Western Digital Black Scorpio 750GB
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digita...scorpion+500gb

Samsung 840 Evo 250GB/500GB
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electr...pr_product_top

OWC-links:
Data Doubler
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDAMBS0GB/

Data Doubler+SSD 480GB set
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDMBSSD480/

SSD 240GB
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SSD7E6G240/

Western Digital Black Scorpio 750GB
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Weste...al/WD7500BPKX/


Whatever combination you would prefer ...

The most cost effective combination would be 2 WD Black Scorpio 750GB drives e.g.

A very fast but still affordable one in a way would be 1 Samsung 840 Evo 250GB as the OS drive,
1 Samsung 840 Evo 500GB as 2nd audio drive.

Me personally prefer the Samsung 840 Pro over the Evo as to it´s really great quality and performance,
so me probably would use a WD Black Scorpio 750GB as the OS drive,
1 Samsung 840 Pro 512GB as 2nd audio drive.

But that´s up to everyone´s personal needs and taste of course .

Thanks again for the cool heads up!

Best of success everyone again,

VRW