SSD DRIVES AS RECORDING DRIVE ONLY

Ok im building a new computer and i want to take advantage of sata3 6gig, I ordered two Intel 520 ssd drives, one for OS 120g, and one for my recording drive180g, From what i read, SSD for a recording drive can and has caused issues, but all the post are older, and none are on the new sata3 6g. I would love a CLEAR CUT ANSWER to this issue once and for all PLEASE!!! and if so, Any tweaks or set up proceedure advice would be greatly appreciated… note I still have my old hhd VelociRaptor 600g 32meg i can use…Please help ASAP, building as soon as i get an answer.Thanks All
Win7 pro 64bit
Cubase6.0.5 32bit
Asus p9x79 board
Intel 3930k cpu
Corsair Dominator 2133mgz 16gig
Corsair 950watt power supply
4 UAD 1 Cards
Motu HD192 with (Black Lion Mod)
Toft 16channel Balanced Main Baord
Universal Audio 1671

I don’t think that you’ll have any problems.

Windows 7 was the first Windows to natively support SSDs.

Just make sure to tell windows to NEVER turn off hard drives.

I think that there are SSD tips in the knowledge base as well.

complete waste of money to have an SSD as an audio drive

a single srandard Sata can do well over 140 tracks

as an OS its nice but offers no performance gain
only as a samples drive do you see a performance gain and thats only for load up time

Thank you for the reply, I have read that. I also wanted to know if anyone is running ssd in win 7. I would like to hear from all. Thanks cubasers

no issues at all now, early there was “trim” issues but thats pretty much resolved on good SSDs of which you certainly have!

Yes I know my hhd drive is stable and fine. I’m looking for those few who push and tweak and have rock solid evidence on what I’m asking for. I’m still getting suggestions, but no hard facts. To all that read this. Give it it up. And share.

ok for real? its been 5hrs and no concrete evedence on ssd’s… this forum is very dissapointing, after all the years and know how,wow hope it gets better

This isn’t an instant answer medium…

I have first hand experience on using SSD drives for recording. But because of your attitude, I don’t think I’m going to share it.

umm i DID just answer you.
i ship 100 systems a month a good number of them have SSDs. however prety sure not a single one used an SSD as the Audio drive. wait i take that that back after checking i found 2 do.

again SSDs are fine. would it had not smarter to ask BEFORE you bought?

Thanks Scott for all your info. Your right I should of done more research before buying a product. I didn’t mean to come rude yesterday to ant one, I was just fusterated and impatient, my bad. I will complete my build and see how she goes and if anyone has further info on this to shorten my learning curve that would be great. Thank you all. Happy Dawing

@Ibester,

What were the negatives you were reading about with SSDs for projects drive? Early SSDs could get write buffer overload, which would cause them to go slow for a sec or so.

Most modern SSDS have enough write ops/sec to not be a problem. However, I recommend formatting all project and sample drives with 64kB sectors (allocation units) as even with HDDs, I found 30-50% increases in copying speed for 1GB of mixed file sizes.

ALL our drives, except for the NASs, are SSDS, and we do not miss the platter whirr or head chatter or heat at all.

I use 3 SATA3 SSD’s in my DAW (Crucial M4)

1 for OS and Cubase
2 for samples
3 as “My documents” drive for projects and their audiofolders

The difference compared to normal drives is H U G E
system is MUCH snappier, no noise, no spinup parking iddle times
higly recommend. everything is realtime from plugin loading to editting undoing redoing, backgroundsaving. ectc etc

Hey Raphie…I have my eye on the M4s. Curiously, did you use their transfer program to migrate your OS drive or do you have a fresh install? I’ve got a MBP 15" that I’m itching to speed up and cool down.

Make sure to update the firmware.

SSD configuration is in our knowledge base since the end of 2011:

https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/knowledgebase_new/show_details/kb_show/ssd-configuration

And trim is still a problem…regardless which SSD drive you use…and how old it is…

Sometimes it could be helpful to use our database…

:wink:

TRIM is no issue here on Win7, also got an Intel 300 drive in my i7 XPS laptop and the tools shows that it’s always flushed, not issues, you might check again Win7 has Native trim support

It is correct, that trim won’t be a problem if you reinstall your Windows 7.

But it could be problem, if you just install a new SSD on an old Windows 7 operating system.
We had issues with a lot of users concerning the trim function on an established Windows 7.

Hi Marcus,

Just back from NAB and met with a few HDD vendors who claim that trim is not an issue on older OS’ if the leveling technology is built into the controller like the OWC drives or even the Crucial M4s which actually periodically house clean. Trim is just a feature in newer OS’ for SSD’s that don’t have that sort of firmware incorporated.

This was news to me…

Hi SuStudio,

that news from the NAB is not new. Trim can still be a problem especially, if the cleaning starts when you are using a DAW software. Stuttering and Drop- Outs are the result.

Normally this issue won’t occur on a fresh Windows 7 installation and we never had users with a “Trim” issue on a fresh Windows 7.

Let me give you an example:

I had a support request from a user with 2 new SSD installed to his system. The guy made everything correct,
he activated AHCI, correct RAID, perfect Alignment etc.
He reported to have drop outs and stuttering while he was using Cubase and another DAW as slave.
We have tried everything and couldn’t find any issue or reason why he had these drop- outs.
DPC Latency checker couldn’t find anything…

The strange thing was, that this issue only occurred after half an hour using Cubase and the other DAW.
The SSDs seemed to be active at these moments, while the error occurred.
After contacting the manufacturer of the SSDs the customer wrote back that this issue can only be produced by the “trim” and/or a wrong Alignment.
The Alignment was correct, so the last suspect could only be the “trim” feature.

The SSDs started to clean/ trim, because Windows reported an idle status and they started
cleaning/ trimming which were leading to stuttering and drop outs. This issue could only be solved if the customer restarted the computer. Restarting Cubase and/or the other DAW software did not help.

After reinstalling Windows 7 the issue was completely gone.