Composing : Separate Drives for OS and Programs/Apps? by Dan Backhouse

I built my studio computer and it works really well. This is basically what my setup is. I run my OS off of a Corsair SSD and run my VSTs off of an HDD. I don't know if it makes a big difference to run your instruments off of a separate drive but some manufacturers recommend it and it is the way that I work. I like having the OS on the Solid State because the boot time of my computer is less than 1 minute. I don't think you would find as much benefit of running your instruments off of a Solid State because you can get 10x the storage for the same price with a regular hard drive and having ample storage for all of your instruments and effects is, in my opinion, a bigger priority than speed. As long as you get an HDD that runs at minimum 7200 RPM with at LEAST USB 3.0 or better, SATA III transfer rate you should be fine for your instruments. Let me know if this helps at all. Brendan

Hi Brendan, thanks for your input. I think now I should have tried to keep my post to the point tho because I understand about having the instruments on a separate drive, be it a HDD or SDD and plan to have one for them. What I would like to know is whether having the OS and the Apps (such as Pro Tools, Cubase, MS Office, Web Browsers etc) on separate drives is recommended too. Or if having OS and Apps all on the same SSD is not noticeably different? Do you only have your OS on the Corsair SSD and install your Apps/programs on another drive? Basically like this; 1 Drive - OS 1 Drive - Apps 1 Drive - Instruments or just 1 Drive - OS and Apps 1 Drive - Instruments Additionally I think performance is a lot better with many large instrument sample libraries on SSD because the read rate is so much faster. Thanks again for your input. Dan

Sorry, I guess I misunderstood the question! I have my OS on the same drive as my DAW. I haven't had any issues with my system. I don't know if there would be a gain to do it separately. I agree that performance will be faster with an SSD for instruments. That is going to be true with anything. I mean, my OS was installed in 3-5 minutes onto my current SSD. It's just that, for me at least, a reliable SSD with the same memory capacity as a reliable HDD is not worth the money. HDD is $0.10/ GB and SSD is $1.00/ GB. Other than load/installation times I don't see enough performace boost to make it worth getting one for my SSD. Really, it's just my opinion.

Thanks Brendan. yeah the price/space difference is a lot. For the Apps/programs drive I may just stick to HDD then. I'm going to get an SSD for the instrument libraries tho because with the libraries I have and ones I plan to get in the foreseeable future I won't need a huge one and the speed should outweigh the extra cash. I'm definitely going to have the OS on a smaller SSD PCI-E card to take advantage of the faster bus speeds. Not sure I'm comfortable installing and running Apps off it too yet tho as it's a fairly new concept Apple is doing in it's new styled machines. Plenty of time to think it over as I continue saving tho :) Thanks for the insight Cheers Dan

Hi Dan, OS and Programs on the same drive are fine. Samples are best on SSDs. I have seen a few failures on OS SSDs, so make sure you have a bootable backup on a platter drive of some sort. Are you doing a true dual boot, or something like bootcamp? You need to be careful with some SSD PCI-E cards, as the drivers often don't work. I run 4 of my OS (MAC and PC) comps off of SSD SATA drives (not PCIE). Apps are also on them as well. Some of the data for the apps are on other 7200 platter drives (such as the NI, BFD instruments). Samples that need heavy streaming, such as percussion, anything with legato or needs to load a ton into memory, I reserve for the SSD drives, stuff that I RARELY use goes to 7200, or things like pianos, organs, etc. As for the gaming, it will hog up a bit of space, same with pictures and stuff, that you should leave to your 7200 platters. Best, Sam

Thanks guys! Really helpful. I'm wondering whether to bother with the SSD PCI-E now at all. can always get one and move the OS later I guess. My main reason behind it was the faster bus speeds even than SSD SATA but I don't suppose it should be too drastic a difference, especially just for the OSs. I'm having the machine built by a company which specialises is custom building Mac Pro 5.1s so I'm just selecting parts from their own list. I'm hoping that should mean no driver problems but something I can ask about. Sam I'm not sure about how is best to dual boot tbh. I used Paralells in the past on my Macbook Pro with issues but I want to dual boot the new machine as I won't need to access Windows when I'm working and vice versa. I'd just like the machine to start up with the page where I choose which OS I want. I've come to the basic understanding that SSD = best for reading and HDD = best for saving/writing to. With that in mind the drive setup I'm planning atm is; 250GB SSD PCIE - Partitioned Mac and W7 500GB SSD SATA - Mac Apps (Pro Tools etc) 500GB SSD SATA - Sample Library Instruments 2TB HDD - Windows Games Projects will be saved to and run off external HDDs for the time being. I may scrap the PCIE and move the OSs to the Mac App drive, that would mean having W7 on it too tho. Thanks for your help :) Dan

Hi Dan, I have a feeling you may be taken for a ride here.... Without knowing your budget or what exactly you want, you are buying into an old technology that has little growth for "updating" Macs. Macs already have a very, very stringent platform and have very few parts that they can actually used for updates. Replacing harddrives and video cards are really the only things that can be done (there are a few mods that can be made to the CPU, but that's not worth the cost). You can look on ebay for price comparison, since you most likely are buying a used MAC that is being modded: http://www.ebay.com/itm/HURRY-SALE-APPLE-A1289-MAC-PRO-2010-5-1-12-CORE-... If you are paying more for your computer (minus the SSDs) then you are probably being taken for a ride. SSDs write and read very differently than standard Platter-based 7200 rpm drives. SSDs are faster for both reading and writing, and specially seeking... Platters are just MUCH cheaper, and can store a lot more. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404258,00.asp SSD PCI-E cards are twice the price of a standard SSD drive, and while about 2x as fast, the difference you will see is negligible, unless you are doing heavy writing and reading - (mostly graphic apps, and serious number crunching where memory needs constant dumping). The best thing to do is max out your ram, get 2- 250gb SSD, for the OS(s), 1- 500gb SSD for your sample streaming (depending on the sizes of your libraries) and a 1 3tb drive for your other samples, project drives, etc. The cost of all these drives is around $600 total (these are good quality drive prices too) that you can install yourself - and which is about the price of the SSD PCI-E Card.... Also begs the question - why go mac at all? PCs are half the cost, will do the gaming you want much better, and are much more efficient in running apps like Cubase and Kontakt. Unless there are some Mac specific programs (like Logic) then I would seriously recommend you just get a PC. (I use both PC and MAC equally, I have no bias, except for gaming, PC is the only way to go there....) Use the money you save and invest in the software, sample libraries, plugins, etc... it's a much better investment, IMHO.

Hi Sam thanks for your help I really appreciate it! The company I'm looking at is Create.pro and they seem pretty well established with reasonable prices and reviews from studio working people. They have an ebay shop with pre built ones too. What do you mean exactly by old technology? Tbh the machine I'm looking at getting I wont be needing to upgrade for a while for what I want to do and it shouldn't be an old machine. Check out their site. If you're interested you can go here http://create.pro/configure?cat=scratch#config and you just select what you want in your machine from the drop down menus. They have recommended setups for different requirements too. I'm looking at something like; 3.46GHz 12 Core Xeon X5690 (New Chassis) 12GB (3x4) Nvidia GTX 780 3GB (Custom) Angelbird wk for Mac 250GB SSD PCI-E Angelbird wk for Mac 500GB SSD 2.5" Angelbird wk for Mac 500GB SSD 2.5" WD Black 2TB HDD 7200RPM SATA 3.5" Total £3,280 I'll be buying a lot more RAM from elsewhere as it's cheaper. I may not bother with the PCI-E tho now and just go with the 2 500 SSD SATAs. As for a PC it has been a thought in the back of my mind but I honestly don't know if I could go back now or want to. I personally dislike Windows and like everything about Mac. I'm not a big gamer I just want to be able to play a select few games to a good level on my own now and then. The Nvidia GTX 780 3GB with that system should be more than enough better than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 MB in my Macbook Pro, for me anyway :) The only other thing is you saying Cubase and Kontakt run better on PC? Is this a huge difference, especially with that system? I don't only do composing tho so I'm after an all round machine. I also do audio post for film in Pro Tools, and will soon be doing sound design for some games in Unity. Thanks again for all your help, really appreciated. Cheers, Dan

Interesting... Well you are UK, so that does change a few things I suppose. Here's the thing, Apple is not making the 5,1 macs anymore, they only manufacture the new trashcans... All the old ones are getting revamped, and repurposed. Chances are these guys have a bunch of old stock that is "new" and then they are doing the chip swaps on the mobo - so you are getting a better chip that is up-to-date. SSD PCIE is a waste of money for you want to do. If you can replace RAM, then you can add SSDs (just make sure you get the chassis adapter - otherworld computing (OCW) sells them. Protools runs a bit better on MAC, but Cubase and Kontakt are infinitely better on PC. From the price you quoted me, I could easily get a nice MAC and a kick-ass gaming PC, but that is State-side pricing... not sure what you get get across the pond. FYI - the GTX 780 is a nice board, last I heard it was incompatible with Mavericks.... must be a way around it now... The last one I know that worked was the GTX 680 Mac edition., which is 50% more expensive than the PC version..... My main work rig is a PC and MAC tethered together using a program called Share mouse. So I use just one Mouse and Keyboard, I have two screens, and can just jump back and forth on them, as if it were one computer. I can also drag files back and forth... workflow is super easy this way, and when I need to use PC software I have it already running - might be an option for you as well to get both machines....?? Well - best of luck on finding your system. It's never an easy decision, I just hate to see people over spend when there are other options. Best, Sam

Thanks Sam I’ll probably give the SSD PCI-E a miss then. I’ve been playing around with the configuration of hardware on that site for a while now just trying to get the best basic system I can then add to myself. Thought about adding SSD SATAs and drive sleds after too but tbh I’d save pennies if anything. Your system sounds amazing! I’m not sure it’s for me tho as I’m only really adding windows and a slightly better GPU for some reasonable gaming now and then. I won’t need windows running while I’m working. Would love than setup tho! I’ve had a look at a few custom pc sites now in the UK too and tbh the specs for the price don’t seem as good. Create.pro only have 5 GPUs to choose from. I read that flashing may be needed but I’m pretty clueless about it which is why I’m aiming to just get the best I can from them and not have to mess around upgrading later. Whether this ‘flashing’ will effect use in W7 is another thought :S If you’re interested they fit the following GPUs so I guess they work in Mac Pros now. I’ve no idea what (Custom) means tho.. AMD ATI Radeon 5770 1GB (Official Apple) AMD ATI Radeon R9 280X 3GB (Custom) Nvidia GTX 780 3GB (Custom) Nvidia GTX Titan 6GB (Custom) Nvidia GTX Titan Black 6GB (Custom) Anyway my main query about having OS and Apps separate or not has been cleared up I think so I’ll give the SSD PCI-E a miss and just get SSD SATAs and HDDs. Thanks for your help and all the best :) Dan