J FowL
So I understand most of the basic tech spec differences between the SSD’s & HHD’s, however, does anyone see much improvement when storing your Tunes (MP3’s in my case) on an external SSD instead of an external HDD? I have a MacBook with USB-C that is about to become my DJ laptop and am going to purchase a LaCie SSD at this point, I think. My only current nag with my Toshiba HDD (had for 5/6 years) Is that when I drag & drop files onto a deck, it often has an approx 10 second +\- delay loading and before allowing me to play that file. The only other SSD post i saw on here agreed with me that this can be a nuisance when you are needing a track to load asap for spur of the moment mixing reasons, requests, etc. I wasn’t sure if this delay I experience is simply the HHD (spinning down, spinning up, or waking up from sleep,) a VDJ software limitation, or another PC Laptop limitation such as RAM etc.
note: I’m currently DJ’n on a Sony Vaio 1.8 ghz processor, 4gb ram, i5. Yes I know the new MacBook will be a huge upgrade. But I’m focused on IF the external SSD will benefit me and justify spending $200-300 versus the $50-100 of a standard HDD like i have now.
I’m aware The fast transfer speeds a SSD offers is already a plus for moving batch files etc. however, I’m really hoping it cuts out the delay loading (dragging&dropping) files onto decks within VDJ.
Thanks for ALL help and/or answers
note: I’m currently DJ’n on a Sony Vaio 1.8 ghz processor, 4gb ram, i5. Yes I know the new MacBook will be a huge upgrade. But I’m focused on IF the external SSD will benefit me and justify spending $200-300 versus the $50-100 of a standard HDD like i have now.
I’m aware The fast transfer speeds a SSD offers is already a plus for moving batch files etc. however, I’m really hoping it cuts out the delay loading (dragging&dropping) files onto decks within VDJ.
Thanks for ALL help and/or answers
发表时间 Tue 10 Mar 20 @ 7:55 am
locoDog
Was there a question there?
Yes it is worth it for boot up time alone. And track loading is way faster.
Yes it is worth it for boot up time alone. And track loading is way faster.
发表时间 Tue 10 Mar 20 @ 11:06 am
PhantomDeejay
The 10 seconds delay you experience is because of drive sleeping (power saving) after some time of inactivity.
That issue can be solved with many ways, depending on the drive itself, and your power manager settings.
Now, to your main question:
Getting an SSD to store media files is not about performance increase. Of course performance will be better and tracks will load faster e.t.c.
But that's not the main reason a digital DJ should consider to get an SSD to store his media files.
The main reasons a DJ should consider an SSD over a mechanical HDD are:
1) SSD's don't have any mechanical moving parts. Thus, they can't be damaged by vibrations. When you play music frequently near bass coffins (subs), vibrations caused by them can slowly damage your drive. Also when the bass coffins are really close to you vibrations can cause the drive to enter self protection mode (drive retracts it's reading head to park position to avoid damaging the drive surface) which can cause extremely high DPC latency and cuts in the sound. Physical drive damage and failure chances increase exponentially in this case.
2) SSD's in general draw less power and in a more constant manner, while mechanical drives can have power spikes when they spin up their surface and move the head to seek tracks. This is not critical for desktops, but it's critical for laptops and especially MAC's when using an external drive. MAC's don't offer too many USB ports these days and most users have to use USB hubs to connect all the peripheral devices they need. High power draw caused by a mechanical drive can cause disconnections (or any kind of other weird issues) on one or all devices connected to the hub. Of course things are better if the hub has it's own PSU, which means it can provide all the power the devices need to operate, but unfortunately not so many users use powered hubs.
So, the main reasons to switch from a mechanical drive over an SSD for media files storage is not really about performance increase. To be honest the performance increase will be beary noticeable, since reading a 10-20 MB file from the drive won't result in a human noticeable time difference between an SSD and a mechanical HDD.
That issue can be solved with many ways, depending on the drive itself, and your power manager settings.
Now, to your main question:
Getting an SSD to store media files is not about performance increase. Of course performance will be better and tracks will load faster e.t.c.
But that's not the main reason a digital DJ should consider to get an SSD to store his media files.
The main reasons a DJ should consider an SSD over a mechanical HDD are:
1) SSD's don't have any mechanical moving parts. Thus, they can't be damaged by vibrations. When you play music frequently near bass coffins (subs), vibrations caused by them can slowly damage your drive. Also when the bass coffins are really close to you vibrations can cause the drive to enter self protection mode (drive retracts it's reading head to park position to avoid damaging the drive surface) which can cause extremely high DPC latency and cuts in the sound. Physical drive damage and failure chances increase exponentially in this case.
2) SSD's in general draw less power and in a more constant manner, while mechanical drives can have power spikes when they spin up their surface and move the head to seek tracks. This is not critical for desktops, but it's critical for laptops and especially MAC's when using an external drive. MAC's don't offer too many USB ports these days and most users have to use USB hubs to connect all the peripheral devices they need. High power draw caused by a mechanical drive can cause disconnections (or any kind of other weird issues) on one or all devices connected to the hub. Of course things are better if the hub has it's own PSU, which means it can provide all the power the devices need to operate, but unfortunately not so many users use powered hubs.
So, the main reasons to switch from a mechanical drive over an SSD for media files storage is not really about performance increase. To be honest the performance increase will be beary noticeable, since reading a 10-20 MB file from the drive won't result in a human noticeable time difference between an SSD and a mechanical HDD.
发表时间 Tue 10 Mar 20 @ 11:08 am
PhantomDeejay
locodog wrote :
Yes it is worth it for boot up time alone.
I think he's talking about external drive, not OS (system) drive.
For OS drive, these days it should be considered a crime for a DJ-ing laptop not to operate the OS from an SSD.
发表时间 Tue 10 Mar 20 @ 11:13 am