# What SSD drive to get for a PC?



## Santuzzo (Oct 17, 2015)

Hi,

I want to re-install Win7 on my desktop PC and I thought while doing that I might as well replaced my hard drive with a solid state drive.
Currently my hard drive that carries Win and some other software is a 600GB drive, so I would like to get either a 500 GB or a 1 TG solid state drive.
What brands/models do you recommend? What should I look out for?
Would it be better to bet two separate SSD drives of say 250GB each than on 500GB drive?

thanks,
Lars


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## ferret (Oct 17, 2015)

Samsung Pro series is my brand of choice. I believe the current model is 850.

I would get a 256GB SSD, and then a 2TB+ non-SSD drive to hold files (Movies, music, photos, etc).

256GB should give you enough room for your OS and major applications, and a few games. Games where you don't care as much about raw performance you can install on the other OS. In music terms, you would keep projects you aren't currently working with on the big 2TB drive, while moving the projects you're active with to the SSD for performance.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 17, 2015)

Thanks!

I forgot to mention that I have two 1 TB drives (mirrored) that I use to save data on. So the SDD drive would be used to install Windows and software. So I guess a 500GB drive would be ok.


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## ferret (Oct 17, 2015)

It's a matter of price at that point. 256GB is all you should need for your 'active' projects, with non-SSD drives to hold your long term large data needs.

Getting 512GB is a matter of having the money and wanting a little more freedom to not move things around as often. Nothing wrong with it. 

I actually have two 256GBs, but that's because my first one, a Sandforce-based Mushkin drive, kept failing on me. Mushkin support was FANTASTIC, they RMA'd the drive for me twice, but I no longer trusted that model after it failed a second time. So I bought the Samsung 840 Pro to replace it as my main drive, and used the replacement Mushkin drive as a secondary for installing games. I've not had a single issues with either drive since then, and that was 2-3+ years ago.


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## leftyguitarjoe (Oct 17, 2015)

I went for a 256gb. I have a 1tb drive for my media and most of my games, but its nice to be able to have a few games on the SSD so they load super fast.


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## leftyguitarjoe (Oct 17, 2015)

Oh, I have a Samsung EVO 850 btw


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## asher (Oct 17, 2015)

leftyguitarjoe said:


> Oh, I have a Samsung EVO 850 btw



This. Just put a 500g EVO 850 in my new build, running great.

I just wanted more active space for fat games/programs on the quick drive - I've still got my old 1tb HDD with everything on it. And I felt up to swinging the extra money over a 256.

Hell, if you're SUPER lean, you can run on a 128G OS drive, though I don't know if I'd recommend it.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Oct 17, 2015)

asher said:


> T
> Hell, if you're SUPER lean, you can run on a 128G OS drive, though I don't know if I'd recommend it.



I do this. This was back when SSD prices were about 40% more expensive than they are now, so I couldn't blow the bank on a 256 SSD. I'd love to get one or a 512gb SSD, though...

I still have a dcent amount of space on my drive, though. 50GB out of 120GB left. I only put important programs there, though, and not a single game. But honestly, since SSDs are getting cheaper, blow the extra cash on a 256gb or 512gb SSD.

But yeah, +1 on both Samsung and Crucial. I'm a bit hesitant on Samsung, though, due to the 840 EVO fiasco. 

...Since I'm using a 120gb Samsung 840 EVO SSD. 

The 850 series seems to be fine, though.


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## ferret (Oct 17, 2015)

Ugh I must apologize. I kept typing Corsair, but I meant Samsung all this time. I edited my posts.

Samsung 840 Pro was the best drive of it's generation. I have not researched current drives but if I were looking to buy I would start at Samsung 850 Pro in my search.


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## Rev2010 (Oct 17, 2015)

I have two 500gb Samsung 850 EVO's in my DAW and they're simply awesome.


Rev.


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## Samacle (Oct 17, 2015)

Another 850 evo user here, very happy with performance. Bought the 250gb version for my OS and some programs. Used up around 120gb.


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## ThePhilosopher (Oct 17, 2015)

I'm rocking a Samsung Evo 500 GB right now, I cloned my old 120GB SSD when it was getting full and I opted to have more room. I am tempted to throw it back in to use as a scratch disk.


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## tacotiklah (Oct 17, 2015)

Honestly? Get a 120GB SSD drive for booting your OS and stay with mechanical drives for large storage. SSDs are fantastic boot drives, but they don't have the longevity of traditional hard drives for mass storage. You'd be throwing money away if you bought just a huge SSD and used only that. They have a finite amount of read/write cycles and if you use them as traditional storage, they'll die off pretty quickly. If you use them as just a boot drive that you don't change info on a lot, they will last a long time and your PC will boot up in under 20 seconds. 

As far as what to get, the gold standard seems to be the Samsung 850 Evo, though Intel's 530, Patriot Blaze, and Crucial MX500 are all good choices too. I have a Patriot Blaze and it really does live up to its name. I can update my PC, reboot, and be back to a completely loaded desktop screen in about 30 seconds. I timed the mechanical drive of my laptop for just basic bootup and it was at around the 2 minute mark. Mechanical drives are horrible for boot drives.




leftyguitarjoe said:


> I went for a 256gb. I have a 1tb drive for my media and most of my games, but its nice to be able to have a few games on the SSD so they load super fast.



Pretty much the only reason to ever store games on an SSD. If you happen to own a game that has ridiculously long loading screens, reinstall it on your SSD.


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## ferret (Oct 17, 2015)

Or games that stream load as you move between seamless area transitions (Skyrim).


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## tacotiklah (Oct 17, 2015)

Yeah I was gonna say games like Skyrim, Fallout, Borderlands, etc. all seem to move seamlessly if you put them on an SSD. I just try to keep anything that involves a lot of writing and rewriting off my SSD to maximize its life potential.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 17, 2015)

tacotiklah said:


> Honestly? Get a 120GB SSD drive for booting your OS and stay with mechanical drives for large storage. SSDs are fantastic boot drives, but they don't have the longevity of traditional hard drives for mass storage. You'd be throwing money away if you bought just a huge SSD and used only that. They have a finite amount of read/write cycles and if you use them as traditional storage, they'll die off pretty quickly. If you use them as just a boot drive that you don't change info on a lot, they will last a long time and your PC will boot up in under 20 seconds.
> 
> As far as what to get, the gold standard seems to be the Samsung 850 Evo, though Intel's 530, Patriot Blaze, and Crucial MX500 are all good choices too. I have a Patriot Blaze and it really does live up to its name. I can update my PC, reboot, and be back to a completely loaded desktop screen in about 30 seconds. I timed the mechanical drive of my laptop for just basic bootup and it was at around the 2 minute mark. Mechanical drives are horrible for boot drives.
> 
> ...



Thanks for this info!
One question, though: if I choose a smaller SSD as my boot drive, it will be the C: directory on my PC, but how can I install software to another directory, when some software installs onto the C directory without offering any choice of a different directory to install to?


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## Promit (Oct 17, 2015)

I'm running entirely Samsungs in my machines. I'm curious to hear people's experiences with SanDisks, as I've seen a lot of those on sale and they seem like they'd be great for some non-critical uses I have in mind.


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## ferret (Oct 17, 2015)

Santuzzo said:


> Thanks for this info!
> One question, though: if I choose a smaller SSD as my boot drive, it will be the C: directory on my PC, but how can I install software to another directory, when some software installs onto the C directory without offering any choice of a different directory to install to?



I know of very few pieces of software that force installation on C. Can you provide any particular examples? Might be able to help you with it.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Oct 17, 2015)

Santuzzo said:


> Thanks for this info!
> One question, though: if I choose a smaller SSD as my boot drive, it will be the C: directory on my PC, but how can I install software to another directory, when some software installs onto the C directory without offering any choice of a different directory to install to?



You'll have plenty of space to install most programs. If you need to, get a 250gb SSD. Seriously worth the extra $30 - $40.

Also, you usually have the option to manually install programs. The HDD ends up being the D: drive.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 17, 2015)

ferret said:


> I know of very few pieces of software that force installation on C. Can you provide any particular examples? Might be able to help you with it.



Not sure of any particular example right now, but I can remember there's been software that didn't not give me a choice of where to install but installed to C by default.



HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> You'll have plenty of space to install most programs. If you need to, get a 250gb SSD. Seriously worth the extra $30 - $40.
> 
> Also, you usually have the option to manually install programs. The HDD ends up being the D: drive.



Thanks!


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## tacotiklah (Oct 17, 2015)

Yeah you can change where you install your steam games right in the client, and I would venture a guess that 99% of games out now let you change what directory you install the game. If you need help with getting set up, lemme know. It was super easy to do on 8.1, so I'm sure that win 7 would be a cakewalk.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 17, 2015)

tacotiklah said:


> Yeah you can change where you install your steam games right in the client, and I would venture a guess that 99% of games out now let you change what directory you install the game. If you need help with getting set up, lemme know. It was super easy to do on 8.1, so I'm sure that win 7 would be a cakewalk.



Thanks again!
So, should I only install Windows onto the SSD drive (once I have bought one) and all software onto a HDD drive?
How about Cubase? Wouldn't it be better to have that installed on a SSD?


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Oct 17, 2015)

Install Windows onto the SSD, and programs (IE, Cubase, browsers, etc) you'll be using often. 

Anything else (music, pictures, games, videos, ETC) go onto the HDD. 

Here's a helpful guide. I used his Win8.1 guide when I was installing Win8.1 to my SSD.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 18, 2015)

HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> Install Windows onto the SSD, and programs (IE, Cubase, browsers, etc) you'll be using often.
> 
> Anything else (music, pictures, games, videos, ETC) go onto the HDD.
> 
> Here's a helpful guide. I used his Win8.1 guide when I was installing Win8.1 to my SSD.



Thanks a lot!


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## SnowfaLL (Oct 18, 2015)

I'll chime in as a Samsung EVO user also. I did a lot of research and normally try to stay cheap, but the reassurance of getting the best reviewed SSD made it worth the price. I waited til it came on sale (not too much, think I paid around $80 cad for the 120gb) and it was worth the price over the cheaper brands.

I also use it as my boot drive, and have a 1TB normal HDD for storage. Windows boots up in seconds.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 18, 2015)

SnowfaLL said:


> I'll chime in as a Samsung EVO user also. I did a lot of research and normally try to stay cheap, but the reassurance of getting the best reviewed SSD made it worth the price. I waited til it came on sale (not too much, think I paid around $80 cad for the 120gb) and it was worth the price over the cheaper brands.
> 
> I also use it as my boot drive, and have a 1TB normal HDD for storage. Windows boots up in seconds.



Thanks for your input!
Do you also have other software installed on your SSD or only the OS?


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## Santuzzo (Oct 18, 2015)

One thought that just came to my mind is that I'm not sure if I even will be able to re-install my Win7, since I already installed it once, and I only have one product key for it. Isn't there a way the software recognizes your hardware and can tell that way if you try to install it on the same machine? In my case with a new drive it will recognize this as a different PC and probably won't allow for an install using the same product key.


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## ferret (Oct 18, 2015)

You can install it. At worse you may have to call in and talk to their robot to activate it.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 19, 2015)

I got another question regarding back-up:
If I plan on cloning my C drive with Win7 and other software on it, is it possible to do that on an external USB connected hard drive or would this only be possible on an internal SATA connected drive?


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## Santuzzo (Oct 20, 2015)

While I am at it I was thinking I might also get a 2nd HDD of 1TB or even 2TB to have more storage space.
My idea was to get two identical HDD drives to set up in a mirrored RAID system.

I have been looking online for internal HDD drives, and it looks like WD or Seagate are the top selling brands?
What HDD drives do you guys recommend?


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## leftyguitarjoe (Oct 20, 2015)

Santuzzo said:


> While I am at it I was thinking I might also get a 2nd HDD of 1TB or even 2TB to have more storage space.
> My idea was to get two identical HDD drives to set up in a mirrored RAID system.
> 
> I have been looking online for internal HDD drives, and it looks like WD or Seagate are the top selling brands?
> What HDD drives do you guys recommend?



I have a western digital 1TB. Just sort by user reviews on Newegg and you should be good.


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## tacotiklah (Oct 20, 2015)

I have 3 Seagate Barracuda drives (2x3TB and 1x1TB) and I can't recommend them enough. Cheap and they work fantastically. Since I started working on PCs back in high school, seagate and western digital have been the top mechanical drive brands. Seem to still be the case now, though WD has gained more ground in popularity. (Sad to see that Maxtor isn't still in the mechanical drive market, they made great drives too)
The best mechanical drive you can get would probably be a WD Black, but Seagate's Barracuda drives have the best price to performance ratio. They're usually about $20+ cheaper and have nearly the same performance.

Also, avoid RAID on mechanical drives like the plague if you can, unless you're setting up a server or a productivity PC of some kind. It will slow your system down, unless you add a RAID card and those are both pricey and take up even more PCI-E space inside your build. If you have a schoolwork-oriented PC, then I'd recommend doing RAID 1 at that point because nothing sucks more than forever losing a 10 page term paper due to a failing HDD. Having a backup could literally be the difference between an A and an F.

However, if you're looking to take your already fast as hell SSD and really send it into over drive, get two 120/128GB SSDs and put them into RAID 0. How that works is that half the info is stored on one drive, while half the info is stored on another and both are called up simultaneously. Theoretically speaking, this could double the speed of the already blinding speed of SSD drives. Pragmatically speaking, it's not quite that fast, but still much faster than a standalone SSD. Only down side is that if one of the drives fail, you're screwed out of the info on both and will need to reinstall for both.


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## VBCheeseGrater (Oct 20, 2015)

I had good luck so far with a Crucial 256GB - no issues. Installed the OS on it and any programs I want to load quickly like games. Typical desktop apps and all other data I have on other drives.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 20, 2015)

Thanks guys,

I am planning on doing the RAID on HDD drives that I will use for storing stuff (mostly music).
The SSD will carry Win7 and software. I currently have two 1TB HDDs set up in a mirrored RAID and I use those for storage as well, so I thought I'd do the same with another two HDDs. Not a good idea?


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## tacotiklah (Oct 20, 2015)

Santuzzo said:


> Thanks guys,
> 
> I am planning on doing the RAID on HDD drives that I will use for storing stuff (mostly music).
> The SSD will carry Win7 and software. I currently have two 1TB HDDs set up in a mirrored RAID and I use those for storage as well, so I thought I'd do the same with another two HDDs. Not a good idea?



It's not so much that it's not a good idea as it is being a question of how patient you are. 
The more stuff you have going on in RAID, the slower your system is gonna go. Having two HDDs in RAID 1 for music isn't a bad idea at all. Few things could drive a recording musician insane than having that awesome song idea disappear from existence at random. The question you have to ask yourself is, "Do I really need redundancy for this?" If yes, then get RAID set up for it. If no, then just leave it be and enjoy the faster read and write speeds.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 20, 2015)

tacotiklah said:


> It's not so much that it's not a good idea as it is being a question of how patient you are.
> The more stuff you have going on in RAID, the slower your system is gonna go. Having two HDDs in RAID 1 for music isn't a bad idea at all. Few things could drive a recording musician insane than having that awesome song idea disappear from existence at random. The question you have to ask yourself is, "Do I really need redundancy for this?" If yes, then get RAID set up for it. If no, then just leave it be and enjoy the faster read and write speeds.



Thanks!
So, would having two RAID 1 double HDDs (so 4 HDDs in total technically) make the system slower than having just one RAID 1?
With my current system having this one RAID 1 set up everything is working fine.


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## tacotiklah (Oct 20, 2015)

Kind of a multi-sided question tbvh. Two RAID 1 configurations wouldn't be nearly as slow as if you had them set up for RAID 4 (and why the hell would you need 4 copies of info if you're not a server anyways?  ), but depending on how often you are reading and writing info on both configurations, it could slow it down a bit. 
I'm a freak for optimization and for not wasting money (being poor most of the time is probably the genesis for that.  ), so that's why I tell people to build/upgrade based on their needs and not on their wants. If you need the redundancy and can live with your system being slowed down a bit, by all means go for that second RAID config. If you could honestly live without the redundancy, then just get a single HDD with twice the capacity and enjoy the faster read/write speeds. 

I can't say if you should or shouldn't do something because it's not my setup and I don't really know your needs are for it. I've had to talk a few other PC builders out of buying that shiny 295X/Fury X GPU for their 1080p gaming build because it was just way too overkill for their gaming needs and made their upgrade cost twice as much as it needed to be. I do the same thing with storage. If you really do need the backup copies and can make a good case to yourself for it, then do it. But be real and honest with yourself. If you can't make a good case, then do yourself the world's biggest favor and save yourself the time, cash, and energy by going for non-RAID option.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 20, 2015)

Thanks a lot! This is some food for thought for me.
My reasoning for RAID 1 is simply having a back-up in case a drive fails. I have my music projects on the RAID set-up, so I definitely don't want to lose any of that due to a failing disc.
But I could also do back-ups on an external drive I guess.


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## tacotiklah (Oct 20, 2015)

Well music is a good case for doing RAID. I liken it as to falling under the "productivity" category, and things in that category benefit greatly from having a backup. Every day tasks such as web browsing/meme collections/etc. don't need to have a RAID setup.


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## tssb (Oct 20, 2015)

Promit said:


> I'm running entirely Samsungs in my machines. I'm curious to hear people's experiences with SanDisks, as I've seen a lot of those on sale and they seem like they'd be great for some non-critical uses I have in mind.



I have one in my MacBookPro, it completely died after about 3 months, got a replacement under warranty and has been ok since. However, it does seem to stutter and have little breaks once in a while.

Have 2 Intel 520s in my other mac, not a single hiccup from day 1. And those were abused compared to the Sandisk usage.

Hope this helps.


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## tssb (Oct 20, 2015)

Santuzzo said:


> I have been looking online for internal HDD drives, and it looks like WD or Seagate are the top selling brands?
> What HDD drives do you guys recommend?



Avoid Seagate, go for WD or HGST, consult backblaze blog for actual data, not just anecdotal.



tacotiklah said:


> I have 3 Seagate Barracuda drives (2x3TB and 1x1TB) and I can't recommend them enough. Cheap


You get what you pay for with these.



tacotiklah said:


> Also, avoid RAID on mechanical drives like the plague if you can, unless you add a RAID card


RAID has no issues with mechanical drives, it's the crappy software implementations for home PCs that you should avoid. Get a RAID controller or steer clear.



Santuzzo said:


> Thanks!
> So, would having two RAID 1 double HDDs (so 4 HDDs in total technically) make the system slower than having just one RAID 1?


Yes. Without a dedicated RAID controller, your PC will have to be working double for every input/output operation. More RAID groups, more work.



Santuzzo said:


> Thanks a lot! This is some food for thought for me.
> My reasoning for RAID 1 is simply having a back-up in case a drive fails. I have my music projects on the RAID set-up, so I definitely don't want to lose any of that due to a failing disc.
> But I could also do back-ups on an external drive I guess.



RAID systems are not designed or intended as backup solutions !
RAID systems are not designed or intended as backup solutions !

I said it twice so it's clear. Yes, you can use them for that, but they do not replace a robust backup strategy, merely provide some extra data security & cope with potential corruption or drive failure on multi-drive storage arrays.

Read this for a backup strategy 101.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 21, 2015)

Thanks guys!
I totally get it now as why using RAID is not a back-up. I always thought having RAID on my storage drive would be the prefect back-up system .... LOL

I will use an external drive for back-up instead! 

So, if I just get one single internal HDD drive used for storing files, music, etc, what size would be best? I think 1 TB would be plenty, but is there any downside to getting a 2TB or bigger-in terms of are they less reliable or anything like that?


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## Santuzzo (Oct 21, 2015)

tssb said:


> Avoid Seagate, go for WD or HGST,



Which WD would you recommend, I looked into it on different online stores, and they have so many different ones, with color codes ... very confusing to me.


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## Kryss (Oct 21, 2015)

I have a 256gb crucial in my gaming pc. it's solid and i'd buy another without hesitation. I did pick up a 512 Samsung 850 though on newegg on sale for $148. by far the lowest I had seen them. i'm going to put together a new hackintosh system eventually with the new skylakes once apple releases a new kernel that works for it. they announced new imacs but aren't shipping them out yet. so probably in a few months i'm hoping to have a mac pro clone up and running for recording. I was going to put a 1tb in but they are just too pricy atm and they don't really write faster than the spinner drives. so i'm just going to drop logic pro on this and NI Komplete 10. record to externals directly or another internal Seagate barracuda. not sure about lower end drives but I can vouch for crucial in one pc being good. gonna load up the Samsung soon too.


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## Kryss (Oct 21, 2015)

one guy also mentioned about using raid in recording. it used to be a bad idea to do that. there can be issues with the timing if using as a performance boost. I would imagine using a mirror would be ok in raid config most likely though. iirc raid 1? I wouldn't do a raid 5 for sure. although you might be able to do it these days with less issues. this is going back quite a few years and the software for timing issues and writing to multiple drives may be better these days. but if you get any weird artifacts in your sound it most likely would be due to the raid and trying to do that.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 21, 2015)

Thanks!

Yes, I have two Samsung 1TB HDDs setup in a mirrored RAID (RAID 1) and I store all my music projects on that drive.


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## tssb (Oct 21, 2015)

Santuzzo said:


> Which WD would you recommend, I looked into it on different online stores, and they have so many different ones, with color codes ... very confusing to me.



Avoid green, cheapest and have issues with spinning down - can't be disabled.
WD Red Pro or Black.
HGST Deskstar



Santuzzo said:


> Thanks guys!
> So, if I just get one single internal HDD drive used for storing files, music, etc, what size would be best? I think 1 TB would be plenty, but is there any downside to getting a 2TB or bigger-in terms of are they less reliable or anything like that?



No, it's a price thing. Sweet spot right now is 2TB or 4 TB, don't bother with 1TB. Even 6TB are fine, I would not go for 8TB though, they're too new.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 21, 2015)

Thanks!

a different question:
Is it necessary in your opinion from time to time to format the hard rive and re-install the OS in order to get everything cleaned? or would something like a cleaning software do the same job?


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## Rev2010 (Oct 21, 2015)

Santuzzo said:


> a different question:
> Is it necessary in your opinion from time to time to format the hard rive and re-install the OS in order to get everything cleaned? or would something like a cleaning software do the same job?



I know you didn't ask me, but as an IT Tech for a living I will say no it's not. It's a very common misconception. Some people used to use fragmentation as a reason but for one on daw's it's often preferred not to defrag for several reasons I won't get into detail here as I'm typing on my phone. But secondly, since you're moving to an SSD drive defragging isn't necessary. 

One reason to wipe and reinstall is if you've made a big mess of your drive by installing/uninstalling tons of different softwares & hardwares and have a bunch of crap wasting space you don't need and want to start fresh. It's still not necessary in that case just sometimes preferred. Best reason though is a bad virus infection. 

And lastly, best practice is to buy a large external drive and routinely make backup images of your machine. I usually keep two backup histories and simply delete the oldest before doing the next backup. I use Clonezilla which is free, simple text based, and handles most common partitions (Windows, Linux, etc) automatically. I used to use Norton Ghost which was good too. There are many utilities out there now and I know my Samsung Evo drives included one though I haven't used it. 


Rev.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 21, 2015)

Rev2010 said:


> I know you didn't ask me, but as an IT Tech for a living I will say no it's not. It's a very common misconception. Some people used to use fragmentation as a reason but for one on daw's it's often preferred not to defrag for several reasons I won't get into detail here as I'm typing on my phone. But secondly, since you're moving to an SSD drive defragging isn't necessary.
> 
> One reason to wipe and reinstall is if you've made a big mess of your drive by installing/uninstalling tons of different softwares & hardwares and have a bunch of crap wasting space you don't need and want to start fresh. It's still not necessary in that case just sometimes preferred. Best reason though is a bad virus infection.
> 
> ...



Thanks a lot!
This question was aimed at anybody who has knowledge about this stuff (unlike me), so I did ask you, too 

I have been using the same install for a few years now and I thought a clean reinstall might be in order, and that is what actually made me consider updating my PC with an SDD drive and another HDD storage drive.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 22, 2015)

@Rev:

So, would it be a good idea (in case I decide NOT to format my drive and reinstall Windows) to use something like a registry cleaner (CCleaner) to clean things up?


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## VBCheeseGrater (Oct 22, 2015)

Personally, I like to reinstall an OS after a few years if I notice things slowing down. Stuff just piles up. I'm sure a seasoned pro could clean it up manually better than I can, and i'm no slouch, but it's nice to have a shiny clean OS and know it's good as new (or better). My pc's rarely get like this, but if you've ever maintained someone else's pc who isn't too savvy, you know what i'm talking about - too much junk, easier to start fresh. I wouldn't go through all that for a fragmented disk though.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 22, 2015)

VBCheeseGrater said:


> Personally, I like to reinstall an OS after a few years if I notice things slowing down. Stuff just piles up. I'm sure a seasoned pro could clean it up manually better than I can, and i'm no slouch, but it's nice to have a shiny clean OS and know it's good as new (or better). My pc's rarely get like this, but if you've ever maintained someone else's pc who isn't too savvy, you know what i'm talking about - too much junk, easier to start fresh. I wouldn't go through all that for a fragmented disk though.



I have not installed too much stuff on this PC, but this install of Windows been on it for a few years now (maybe 4 or 5 I think), so I'm not sure ...


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## Rev2010 (Oct 22, 2015)

Santuzzo said:


> @Rev:
> 
> So, would it be a good idea (in case I decide NOT to format my drive and reinstall Windows) to use something like a registry cleaner (CCleaner) to clean things up?



Honestly I can't say as I haven't touched one in way too many years now. Last I can remember is that back then, many years ago, they could help or hurt, or even seriously mess up a machine or a specific software. But again that is very many years ago. Since I'm an IT tech I clean the registry manually if needed. Of course that doesn't help you, but before using one at least lookup and read a good number of reviews. And as mentioned before, if you make a backup image first well then go ahead and have at it! If it does mess anything up simply reimage the drive back to normal. Always best practice to have a backup image anyhow  


Rev.


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## tacotiklah (Oct 23, 2015)

Preferences be preferences, but I still stand by my Seagate Barracuda suggestion. But a great point was raised, RAID should NEVER be used as a replacement for regular backups. It's more of a "whoa sh*t" emergency form of redundancy. If you're really just looking to back up your music files, then nab an external HDD for that. I have a 1TB just for this purpose.


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## flint757 (Oct 23, 2015)

IME drives in a RAID configuration die sooner too. The only drives I've ever had crap out on me completely were Seagate. Likely just a coincidence, but they only lasted like 3 years.

WD Green drives are their eco drives so they kind of blow when it comes to performance, BUT a hard drive with a faster spinning disk is more likely to die giving it a short lifespan. All of my current HDD's are black drives though. I didn't like the speed of the green drives and the price difference between blue, red and black were minimal at the time.

IMO backing up data should just be done periodically to a separate hard drive and/or just using cloud storage. I have 105 GB on Google Drive and a 1TB backup drive for all of my stuff that is worth backing up. That means my important data is in 3 places at any point in time. It's highly unlikely all of them would fail at the same time. Going back to my comment about drives in a RAID configuration, I have seen that setup cause both drives to die simultaneously. Could be bad software though that was the culprit. For personal computers I find a RAID setup to be a bit much either way.


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## Santuzzo (Oct 25, 2015)

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input!


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## tssb (Oct 25, 2015)

Santuzzo said:


> Thanks!
> a different question:
> Is it necessary in your opinion from time to time to format the hard rive and re-install the OS in order to get everything cleaned? or would something like a cleaning software do the same job?



It's not _necessary_ as Rev2010 said below, but...



Rev2010 said:


> One reason to wipe and reinstall is if you've made a big mess of your drive by installing/uninstalling tons of different softwares & hardwares



This.

I would add however that if you're on Windows, that mess gets piled onto by the OS itself. For mission-critical systems where performance is paramount (i work with very intensive CAD systems) I re-install windows every 6-9 months simply because it's so crap at garbage collection after itself. 

So, in your case where your OS install is several years old, go for it.



Rev2010 said:


> But secondly, since you're moving to an SSD drive defragging isn't necessary.



+1

Also, ney bother with CCleaner.


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## tacotiklah (Oct 25, 2015)

Yeah, you'd actually destroy your SSD if you tried to defrag it. That's a big no-no. Leave the defragging for mechanical drives.


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## flint757 (Oct 26, 2015)

If you're using Windows disk defragmenter it just won't do it so there's no real risk of destruction. It will analyze the drive then do nothing. Since data isn't stored in sectors and plates in an ssd there's nothing to move around anyhow.


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## Kryss (Oct 26, 2015)

from my experience windows will slow down eventually over time. I have experienced 0 slowdown from Linux. been using mint for a couple years now and it still is super fast on everything on the same pc. if you want you can basically partition the drive into 2 drives and split it. that way you can leave the OS and apps on one drive and just data on the other part. makes it easier to do a reinstall of the os if a virus happens or you do a windows update that fails and hoses the whole system. less mess to recover everything. that's how I always do my installs.


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## Bloodshredder (Oct 26, 2015)

Kryss said:


> from my experience windows will slow down eventually over time. I have experienced 0 slowdown from Linux. been using mint for a couple years now and it still is super fast on everything on the same pc. if you want you can basically partition the drive into 2 drives and split it. that way you can leave the OS and apps on one drive and just data on the other part. makes it easier to do a reinstall of the os if a virus happens or you do a windows update that fails and hoses the whole system. less mess to recover everything. that's how I always do my installs.




That's how I handle it. This way, the OS has enough undisturbed space to operate cleanly for a longer period.
...I upgraded to W10 a couple fo weeks and go. After some minor issues, it works better than any OS I had before (on the same hardware that I have for 6 years) which surprised me a lot.


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## Pav (Oct 29, 2015)

Windows will not slow down over time with some TLC via CCleaner and anti-malware.


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## Kryss (Nov 5, 2015)

true the slowdowns are typically unremoved registry links and broken stuff there that the os sits there spinning on. using a registry cleaner though is use at your own peril. there is no guarantee it won't break windows once you start one. keep your rig as slim as possible and you shouldn't see too much slowdown. only install and run what you need when using windows. you should not see much degradation in performance then. also turn off all the stupid windows effects, they take priority in the os above all else. you can't just set that crap to a lower priority. so I always turn that chit off.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Nov 5, 2015)

Just throwing out there, since I brought up Crucial...

I'd avoid them. They were really good in the SSD market a year or so ago, but their recent products have apparently gone downhill. Stick to Samsung.


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## Thanatopsis (Nov 6, 2015)

I just picked up a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB M.2 drive a couple days ago, Samsung 850 EVO M.2 Series 500GB SATA III M.2 Internal Solid State Drive Single Unit Version MZ-N5E500BW MZ-N5E500BW - Micro Center. 

Best upgrade I've ever made. Boot time is like 5-6 second. I have a 4790k CPU and 16GB 1866MHz memory so I figured it was time to eliminate the major bottleneck in my system. Definitely plan on getting another SSD and using them for everything other than my music, movies, and pictures.

Just noticed though that I didn't really answer the main question of the thread. I would say get the single larger SSD versus two smaller ones. I also used to always partition my drives to separate things(and pre-NTFS or FAT32 to not waste space with big cluster sizes) but with SSDs fragmentation isn't an issue. Then maybe do like I'm going to do and get a slightly cheaper and slower 1TB SSD for less important things than OS and most frequently run programs. If this will be your first SSD like it was mine, you'll be wondering why you didn't get one long ago. The difference is night and day since until SSD's came out, hard drive technology hadn't really changed ever. Sure storage density and speed have improved, but it's always been the same basic technology.


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