Is this Hard Drive setup ok for PT?

[Georgerob]

Hi,

I've got a Dell Inspiron i7 laptop, with 4gig RAM but a puny 5400rpm 2.5" drive inside. So as a record drive I plan to put my old 3.5" 500gb 7200rpm SATA drive in a USB 3.0 case and plug that into the laptop via a usb 3.0 port. My question is, will that be fast enough for PT9? Or will the fact that I've got a 5400rpm drive as the OS drive (that pro tools is installed on) in the laptop mean it will slow it all down to that speed? Surely if it's reading and writing to the external 7200rpm USB 3.0 drive that will be ok no?

I may also swap the 5400rpm internal drive for a 256gb SSD drive of some sort, if that would solve that issue.

Thanks

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Georgerob

Hi,

I've got a Dell Inspiron i7 laptop, with 4gig RAM but a puny 5400rpm 2.5" drive inside. So as a record drive I plan to put my old 3.5" 500gb 7200rpm SATA drive in a USB 3.0 case and plug that into the laptop via a usb 3.0 port. My question is, will that be fast enough for PT9? Or will the fact that I've got a 5400rpm drive as the OS drive (that pro tools is installed on) in the laptop mean it will slow it all down to that speed? Surely if it's reading and writing to the external 7200rpm USB 3.0 drive that will be ok no?

It will likely work, but if you have any sample based VIs that you want to run then you might start running into issues (those sampels should be on the 5400 rpm drive). That and a 5400 rpm drive is just overall slow, boots slowly etc. But its there so you should just try it and see.

Originally Posted by Georgerob

I may also swap the 5400rpm internal drive for a 256gb SSD drive of some sort, if that would solve that issue.

Thanks

I'd definitely look at SSD drives nowadays for boot/system drives, VI/sample drives (can get expensive if the libraries are huge) and recording drives. But the best initial use of SSD is likely for a system drive. SSDs are often so fast you can get away with recording to a system or sample drive that you really should not otherwise do (not that I'm recommending that - but if you test it and are careful it can work). I'm using Samsung 830 512 GB SSD drives in several Macs at the moment, all very impressive. I am not sure what exact model laptop you have (see the Sandra request below) but you may have an option of removing an internal optical drive and replacing it with a SSD drive.

BTW the really best help you can get to configuration questions like this is if you provide a Sandra report (see the "Help us Help You - READ THIS Before Posting!" link above on how to do this). People here will often spot issues/make useful suggestions based on that detailed Sandra config info.

Darryl

[Georgerob]

Excellent, thanks for the info. Think I'll go the SSD for OS drive route.

Got my eye on these 4 drives, do you know if they are any good?

£113 Kingston: http://check.co.uk/kingston-ssdnow-v...-internal.html

£112 OCZ: http://www.transparent-uk.com/ocz-agility-3-240gb.html

£122 256 Samsung: http://www.transparent-uk.com/samsun...-iii-bulk.html

£99 OCZ 256: http://www.transparent-uk.com/ocz-25...taiii-2-5.html

Apologies for the sandra report. I'm at work so not on the computer in question.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Georgerob

Excellent, thanks for the info. Think I'll go the SSD for OS drive route.

Got my eye on these 4 drives, do you know if they are any good?

£113 Kingston: http://check.co.uk/kingston-ssdnow-v...-internal.html

£112 OCZ: http://www.transparent-uk.com/ocz-agility-3-240gb.html

£122 256 Samsung: http://www.transparent-uk.com/samsun...-iii-bulk.html

£99 OCZ 256: http://www.transparent-uk.com/ocz-25...taiii-2-5.html

Apologies for the sandra report. I'm at work so not on the computer in question.

my personal bias is for the Samsung--but be aware these are so thin they won't fit a usual 2.5" slide type mount tray. There is a laptop kit version of these drives that comes with a thickness adapter/shim (the only way to buy thus adapter is get this whole kit), a USB2 adapter (to use while cloning) and a copy of Norton Ghost to help clone your current disk. This one..http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-2-5i...1075946&sr=8-2. The "bulk" parts are just the bare drive. (Not all laptops need the mounting kit/shim it depends on how they mount 2.5" drives, but still this is the package to get to be safe.

Darryl

[Georgerob]

Hi Darryl,

OK good advice, thanks. So the samsung is even thinner than the normal 2.5" drives? And thinner than all the other SSD drives?

Without opening up my laptop, what could I search for on google to find out how the 2.5" drive inside is mounted? Is there a particular technical term for the type of bay?

thanks

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Georgerob

Hi Darryl,

OK good advice, thanks. So the samsung is even thinner than the normal 2.5" drives? And thinner than all the other SSD drives?

Without opening up my laptop, what could I search for on google to find out how the 2.5" drive inside is mounted? Is there a particular technical term for the type of bay?

thanks

Yes the Samsung is thinner than standard 2.5" drives to allow it to be used in the latest crop of thin notebooks.

If the drive inside your laptop mounts using screws into the side of the drive you likely do not need the spacer, if it slides into a carrier that locates on the side rails you likely will need the spacer. If I needed to know for sure I would just open up the laptop.

I don't know about the other drives. The easy option (what I would do) is don't waste time and just buy the kit I pointed at, look around for best price I just found it on Amazon UK for you since I brought my Samsung 830 drives at Amazon USA. You will likely need the USB to SATA adapter in the kit anyhow to clone your drive.

Darryl

[Transputer]

Another SSD suggestion - Intel 330 series

[Georgerob]

Thanks for the help Darryl. I will probably buy that kit then. It won't be for a month or 2 anyway so hopefully by xmas the prices might be a bit lower anyway!

thanks