Omnisphere on external HDD

[Guido3]

My MBP has an internal 256Gig SSD. It is currently about 1/3 full. I have just purchased Omnisphere and due to it's large install size, I can't decided whether to stick it on a external drive rather than fill my internal drive.

Will doing this affect the performance? Are there any other pitfalls? Should I just install on my SSD and stop worrying?

[johnny h]

My MBP has an internal 256Gig SSD. It is currently about 1/3 full. I have just purchased Omnisphere and due to it's large install size, I can't decided whether to stick it on a external drive rather than fill my internal drive.

Will doing this affect the performance? Are there any other pitfalls? Should I just install on my SSD and stop worrying?

Yes, you should.

[tim_obrien]

Best setup for ANY daw:

OS, apps and plugins on boot drive
Sample libraries on separate second drive
Audio projects and tracks on another separate drive.

You dont want the OS and apps housekeeping work on the boot drive to interfere with the smooth loading of samples or the streaming audio from the projects drive. Smooth data flow is your goal.

[Guido3]

My MBP has an internal 256Gig SSD. It is currently about 1/3 full. I have just purchased Omnisphere and due to it's large install size, I can't decided whether to stick it on a external drive rather than fill my internal drive.

Will doing this affect the performance? Are there any other pitfalls? Should I just install on my SSD and stop worrying?

Yes, you should.

Yes I should stick it on an external drive or Yes I should install in on my internal SSD?

[Guido3]

Just as an aside, I have deleted most of the Apple Loop files (I never use them anyway) from my MBP. This has freed up over 30Gig of space on my SSD.

[muzines]

Yes I should stick it on an external drive or Yes I should install in on my internal SSD?

Well it all depends on whats important to you. Keeping the OS library on the SSD will vastly improve the speed at which you can select, preview and load sounds, but obviously takes up a lot of space. It also means you can use OS without your external drive attached.

So really it all depends on the space requirements, either will work fine, and the SSD will be (obviously) faster...

[blue manga]

Isn't RAM also a factor ?

I have SSD internal - but you know, the usual 3 TB of soundbanks.. including Spectrasonics - all running on an external HD via FW800 - I experience perfectly fine performance..

[muzines]

Isn't RAM also a factor ?

No, there will be absolutely no difference in RAM usage regardless of whether the OS library is on the internal SSD or external FW drive. Why would there be?

[Guido3]

Thanks guys. I'm going to put it on the internal SSD for now as speed is an important factor for me. I think long term I will look to get a bigger internal SSD if space becomes a real problem for me.

[blue manga]

Isn't RAM also a factor ?

No, there will be absolutely no difference in RAM usage regardless of whether the OS library is on the internal SSD or external FW drive. Why would there be?

I'm not asking that..

But is the performance of this and other similar instruments (which use lots of samples) - *just about disk/access speed ?

[muzines]

But is the performance of this and other similar instruments (which use lots of samples) - *just about disk/access speed ?

Of course not - but that wasn't the OP's question...

[blue manga]

Will doing this affect the performance? Are there any other pitfalls?

Well Desmond, really - I'm not having a tit for tat..

I'm just asking, for the record, if hard drive location is the only consideration.. a) for myself - but b) in case OP may not have considered that (see 'other pitfalls')

I'm not a techie, as I've said before - so I can't speak with any large degree of technical surety, as can you.
- which is why I put this in the form of a question.

[muzines]

Ram becomes more of a factor if you don't have much of it, because the operating system will start to page memory to disk, and this is a big performance killer. If your paging to an SSD, then obviously the whole process is faster than a mechanical hard drive.

If you are out of space on the system disk, regardless of whether it's an SSD or regular hard drive, your system may become affected by not being able to page to disk when necessary, particularly when memory is low.

But we can assume that if you are running OS, you have a decent enough system to run it - you're not going to be on an eight-year old computer with 1GB of ram... with a DAW running Omnisphere comfortably, alongside other instruments, I recommend 8GB as a system minimum.

OS in general loads samples into ram, unless you have streaming turned on. With an SSD, either is an option, but even so, I would expect the single biggest performance improvement on running OS from an SSD would be patch browsing and loading, which is probably a good enough reason to do it - but if you use up all the space on your system drive and have very little left, then your system performance might be negatively affected enough to make it worth putting the library elsewhere...

Do you have a specific question? I'm not really sure what you are getting at..?

[blue manga]

Thanks Desmond, very helpful.

But honestly OP - if internal space is an issue, or becomes an issue - I run Omnisphere on an external (as well as a lot of other heavier instruments) - and never had a problem.

Personally if I was in your position, I might do it the other way round - instal to the external first - and if there are any problems / issues, then go to internal.

[Guido3]

If you are out of space on the system disk, regardless of whether it's an SSD or regular hard drive, your system may become affected by not being able to page to disk when necessary, particularly when memory is low.

What would you say is a sensible amount of disc space to leave free? I know I have plenty to play with but it would be helpful to know.

BTW I have 8 Gig RAM installed in my MBP which unfortunately is the max it will run with.

[Guido3]

But honestly OP - if internal space is an issue, or becomes an issue - I run Omnisphere on an external (as well as a lot of other heavier instruments) - and never had a problem.

Personally if I was in your position, I might do it the other way round - instal to the external first - and if there are any problems / issues, then go to internal.

OK Thanks. Just out of interest what external drive do you use/recommend.?

[blue manga]

If you are out of space on the system disk, regardless of whether it's an SSD or regular hard drive, your system may become affected by not being able to page to disk when necessary, particularly when memory is low.

BTW I have 8 Gig RAM installed in my MBP which unfortunately is the max it will run with.

Have u checked with Crucial ? I thought my MBP mac was 8GB (because that's all Apple would ship it with in 2011) - but I got 16GB pack from them recently - runs great.

Which MBP is it ? U can use the memory finder, just in case u didn;t know about it : http://www.crucial.com/store/drammemory.aspx

I personally just use a G-Drive on the FW800 bus.. I even chain a RME FF400 from that (which I expected to give me problems) - and it's absolutely fine.. and I do big projects as well..

I did have the G-Raid, btw - but actually found that more sluggish on RAID-0 that just a straight single drive..

I've been running a 500GB SSD internal and all sound banks on FW800 HD since 2011 - and it's been great..

[muzines]

What would you say is a sensible amount of disc space to leave free? I know I have plenty to play with but it would be helpful to know.

You should always have at a minimum 10GB free on your system drive.

BTW I have 8 Gig RAM installed in my MBP which unfortunately is the max it will run with.

That's fine, like I say, 8GB is the minimum recommendation for a decently performing system. 4GB is too little...

[rACed2]

OK Thanks. Just out of interest what external drive do you use/recommend.?

I have just got 4TB G-RAID Thunderbolt to use - still cannot believe how fast it is.

[kinjo]

I'm looking for a new 4TB HDD,

can anyone help me to find the best one?