So I remember back in the day it used to be recommended to use an external drive (or any hard drive other than the boot drive) for samples and the Cubase project folder for better performance.
Now that all these SSDs are so fast, and especially with Apple’s new M1 processor and super fast SSDs, is it better to use the internal SSD for the Cubase project folder? Feel like it doesn’t make sense to use an external drive anymore, except for samples of course that take up a lot of storage.
With internal drives now getting larger and SSD becoming more common as standard spec I use the internal drive for all projects, samples, loops etc for ease of access. I also have a copy of them on an external SSD a) for back-up b) so I can use them with an external laptop with less internal storage. I think with samples it’s the memory and processor that are more important as they can be resource hungry.
Yeah I am gonna give the internal SSD a try when I get my new Mac Studio. It should be miles faster than using an external SSD via Thunderbolt. Just wanted to double check on here to hear people’s thoughts. Cheers.
Why is something like that so much more expensive than this Samsung or Lacie with similar specs? The Lacie is only 2TB, so it may be closer in price if it was 4, but still.
Is there a metric or feature to it that I’m missing? Just more rugged or better quality components?
The Samsung reads " read/write speeds of up to 1,050/1,000 MB/s" and it’s USB only. The other drives are Thunderbolt which has a higher bandwidth capacity and the LaCie would likely be the same price if it was the same capacity.
Incidentally, it’s possible to buy external enclosures for NVME drives and just put it together yourself. I did it with a USB C connected drive (USB, not TB) but I think TB is possible. Good way to ‘save’ an old drive you don’t need any more.
‘Incidentally, it’s possible to buy external enclosures for NVME drives and just put it together yourself’
This was my original plan and the rabbit whole I’ve been going down. But along the way many were saying it’s a bit hit or miss. Seems like folks have issues with overheating. I just want to get rolling, but this tech flips so quickly that it’s easy to waste money if you don’t do due diligence.
Really wish I had gone with a 2TB internal on the new mac.
For Macs, a good Samsung external SSD is plenty fast for all but the most extreme projects. Just do the math on the bandwidth needed, and you’ll see you’ve got plenty of headroom, and then some. Apps go on the internal drive, all content on externals. No issues whatsoever. I do tend to split project files from sample libraries onto separate external drives and render to the internal drive, but technically even one good Samsung drive would still handle most of my projects just fine, including scoring and post work.
But if all that’s not enough, then TB will do the trick. If TB won’t do the trick, then you’ve got some insane otherworldly projects, and you’re probably using a distributed network solution at that point (like VE Pro, AudioGridder (which is awesome BTW), and so forth).
For Windows and Linux, I use internal since I have so many ports and places to mount drives in, etc… CPU is far and away the limiting factor.