Ive google searched this and I've come here because the answers were mixed, alot of people saying it wont help, some saying it will, I just want to know if my investment will be worth it. Will the sample loading times change SIGNIFICANTLY? Or will it be negligible for kontakt?

 

dude, what kind of kontakt libraries you're gonna use ? and what kind of ssd are you willing to buy ?

Kontakt Libraries are knowns for their big sizes, and if you use a lot of big libraries, SSD won't be an option for you...

if you're rich that's another story...

i have some recommendation for you, the money you're gonna spend on the SSD, get your self as mush as you can buy from Seagate's 2TB Barracuda' hard drives, fastest HDD i've ever seen...

get yourself 4 them and make RAID with each 2 Drives or if you prefer, use the 4 in RAID, and you will see heaven.

 

Or hell.. Sorry.
But needed to comment. Because begin this year my RAID controller crashed/f***ed up. Divided over 4HD,s.
All data gone.Some bits and bytes divided over the hd left but totally useless. (Yup no back up my mistake... So poeple BACK UP! cant say it enough)
What i have now is my operating system and programs on SSD . And 2 hd,s seperatly, and one just back up drive.

But your question. I was curious to, so i tested it and i didnt got the feeling that it is way more faster, just a little. But not significantly.
And of course i cant look in your wallet, but in my case it was to expensive for that littlebit of speed.
I say go for ssd operating and programs ,and 2 bulk hd,s. In the meantime SSD is getting cheaper and cheaper. Fiction already said it well.
Just my 2 cents. gluck on your search!

 

I'm not going to do a raid but thanks for the suggestion. Thanks guys, the answers pretty much reaffirm I won't really need an ssd for that and it wouldn't be worth it since 1tb ssd's run around $300+. Thanks!

 

I've been working with all kinds of consumer and pro RAID controllers over the years, and what's so entertaining about them is that in fact, RAID arrays seem to fail just as often as single drives do.
Either a bad drive is not recognized as such and the RAID will corrupt itself, or the rebuild process fails at some point, or two drives fail so shortly one after another that the best redundancy algorithm won't help. It's often the firmware of either the controller or the drives.
Also, I have to say that hard drives have really improved in reliability. They do last much longer than, say, 15 years ago, they eat less power, and most don't run as hot as they used to.

 

I´ve made completely different experieces. Since i use a 1 TB Samsung evo for my Kontakt-Libraries, the plug behaviour changed completely. Not only the loading-times, but also (for me more important) the non-crackling with ultra low buffersize (32 samples) makes it a fun to use.
Karl

 

SSD doesn't like read/write operations (forget all advertise saying: "this SSd of 500gb or so is really cool for data etc…" it's pure cash grab. Be aware on that, 'cause it's risky and will crash your lovely SSD sooner.
These SSD are (for now) OS based operations. All data transfer needs (yes, again for now) to be in an HD with 7200 rpm minimum.
What I may suggest, is to buy 2 HDs, with one for Kontakt Libraries( NI Lib + Other Nkr stuff, you see?) and one for User Library (3rd Party libraries). Today, it's better to have multiple data storage than one, data are better distributed. Data transfers are much care by OS, Ram, and curiously plugins...
Cheers

 

absolutely. load times are like 5-10 times faster here than before. love it! i also installed my old 320gb hdd back into the dvd slot with a caddy. ssd all the way -> no turning back.

 

@davea : nowdays (and in the last couple of years actually) the SSD memory cells technology is advanced enough so any SSD will last close to 20 years regardless how much I/O is being applied to the drive. As a buyer, just make sure you're not purchasing the cheapest drive on the market.

 

In my experience, some instruments will load much faster (eg. Shreddage guitar, bass, CineStrings Core for Kontakt, Superior drums, Trilian etc.) and in other cases there's no difference. Unfortunately, the big ones, which were important: Orchestral Tools Berlin Strings, some pianos: Pearl Concert Grand, The Hammersmith Pro. So it depends which instruments you use.

 

I have Hollywood Orchestra on SSD and it loads much faster. So yeah, you should have your libraries on SSD.
Also, with a SSD you can stream from disk and use less RAM.
Another solution less expensive could be an SSHD

SSDs nowadays have more lifetime than HDDs. You'll have to write dozens of TB per day to kill a SSD in 5 years...

 

Since SSDs are expensive and have small capacity compared to HDDs is better to use HDDs. But nobody gets hurt if you put your most exigent library in your system SSD (I do this with Prominy V-Metal). Raid 0 helps but the access time (the main factor when talking about Kontakt libs) doesn't improve. Make sure your Kontakt libs are defragmented and contigous and at the begiining of the HDD.

And hybrid (sshd I guess?) would be interesting. In theory the best compromise, but I don't know how reliable they are.

 

I have my OS and a few of the Kontakt libraries I use regularly on an SSD, speed wise it has made a difference.