IDE Internal Drive Or A USB External Drive?

Astral Fridge Magnet · Tue Feb 28, 2006 2:56 pm

Hello,

I have a couple of posts to make today regarding a few issues I would like some feedback on. This one concerns as you see from the title internal or external drives.

I need more space to in particular to store my sample collection and the sound libraries of programs like Kontakt 2, Battery 2 and various other synths and samplers with huge sound libraries.

So what is best? In an internal IDE or external USB? I admittedly would prefer the external option because it is less hassle and I don't have to open up my PC, but I prefer efficiency to less hassle. Seeing that a new drive is to store essentially sound libraries and samples, is real time streaming of audio an issue? If it is then an IDE drive would be better as far as I have read. But is there much difference in speed of transfer of data between an IDE and an external USB drive or is it hardly noticeable?

That was post number 1

Thanks in advance for your response(s).

arela · Post by **arela** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 4:38 pm

Internal
...
I use a NAS (maxtor 300Gb) for Samples and other things i share with other pc's on my LAN.
But i copy the samples i need to my DAW when i need it.

If you use only 1 PC, a USB drive could serve you well.

I guess this was answer #1

petal · Post by **petal** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 5:12 pm

hmm - I wouldn't relly on streaming from an external drive.

If installing an internal HDD in you PC is the only thing that keeps you from choosing this option, I'd say: Get off your lazy butt!

No really - It's not that difficult to install an extra internal HDD, you'll get way more performance from an IDE-HDD than from a USB-drive, and it's the cheapest solution!

Guess thats your second answer to question #1

Astral Fridge Magnet · Tue Feb 28, 2006 5:48 pm

Thanks for your replies so far. But with regard to storing sound libraries and soundsets from instruments on a drive, is the data being streamed in real time, or is it just static data (if you know what I mean)?

I should explain Petal that because of my lack of technical and practical skills with regard to DIY I will admit that an external solution is easier for me to install than opening up my PC and trying to figure out what is what.

Plus I thought that with an external I could transfer the drive to other PCs very conveniently.

Though, as I said before, I prefer efficiency to easy

Post by **garyb** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 6:46 pm

if you prefer efficiency, it's a no-brainer. ide, period. you could even install a swappable drive cage(but not hot-swappable!) to make your drive portable. in any event, you can buy an ide to usb cable for about $20 with a power supply and make any ide drive a usb drive....

usb is kinda flaky, really. for that matter, although it most always works, firewire is kinda flaky, too! ide on the other hand, is a rock(like pci..).

Astral Fridge Magnet · Tue Feb 28, 2006 7:11 pm

Thanks for the replies.

So should I then buy another power supply if I install an IDE drive. At the moment I only have one HD on the PC I am refering to and as far as I know it is either a 450 watt or 500 watt one.
And my apologies for asking but, is there a noticeable difference in speed or is it negligible between IDE and USB?

Excuse me if the questions are annoying and thanks again. You are a very helpful bunch here on Planet Z!!!!!

Post by **garyb** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:27 pm

a good quality power supply is always advisable. 450-500 watts should be plenty.

ide drives are much faster than usb.

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:28 pm

Great Topic,
I seem to have a limitation w/ my two SATA ports. Could I keep my O.S. on the same drive w/VDAT files? If so then I could get a new HDD and still keep my 74 GB raptor for GS3 right? Tell me it's so.

_________________
Jimmy V.

Shit,time is up gotta go to work.

JV

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: scope4live on 2006-02-28 21:30 ]</font>

Post by **garyb** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 12:18 am

well depending on what you do, it'd be fine. i'll bet there's a way to use an ide port(somewhere/way to fit it in the case, maybe a different hd cage...), which would be the happiest solution. a sata card might work just fine, too. it's not like you use a lot of reverbs in scope.

arela · Post by **arela** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 12:54 am

What i was trying to say:
Like petal says: do not relly on streaming from an external drive.
But it is easy and fast to move large amount of data to a external HD. That way you can use the existing HD as a HD for works, and the external as archive.

There are some external S-ATA solutions.
They should be as fast and steady as an internal disc

alfonso · Post by **alfonso** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 2:12 am

If you use samplers like STS that only play from RAM, using an USB (2.0, 1.1 is really slow) drive as storage is perfectly fine, with the advantage that if you load the samples you need for each song in the song's folder on internal HD (I strictly recommend it, so you can resave the sample programs exatly tweaked for the specifical song and if you backup those song folders you have everything you need together, I also save the modulars I use in it, deleting the preset list if I only use one preset), you can most of the times keep the USB drive swiched off.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 2:56 am

there are external drive cases with combined FireWire/USB connectors (doesn't change the price much afaik)

a 'regular' 3.5" drive can become quite hot in a closed box, so either a lot of holes to provide airflow or a nasty fan is required.

as already mentioned: do a proper unmount of the drive under all circumstances (there's an icon in the task bar) - otherwise the content WILL be messed sooner or later (if you just unplug the USB or FW cable)

cheers, Tom

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:15 pm

Well I guess I will get a SATA card, I already have a 4 slot RAID cage w/ a spare HDD copy of each HDD now. It is uneeded as I got this before I used the apps as a precaution which seems to be unnescessary. The little 865 board is so stable, upgrading might bring trouble. So I will fill a slot in my cage w/ a new HDD, w/o O.S. on it. This will be my VDAT HDD.

Thanks For All Replies,

Strength And Honor,

arela · Post by **arela** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 1:57 am

Take a look at this one (the FHD354USS)
http://www.sarotech.com/english/cgi/pd. ... no=10#top2

Use it with USB with a laptop and SATA for your DAW!
USB2.0 (480Mbps) AND SATA (1,5Gbps)