I got Synology DS918+ with 4x 4TB Seagate IronWolf drives running at SHR (dynamic RAID5 essentially) some time ago,
one of best purchases in long time I did btw, if anyone needs NAS, that model is best for price/performance/features imo,

maybe not explicitly written in my original post, but I really ask for pure workstation drives setup, drives internally plugged via SATAIII, running when rig is on; no long-time backup to be considered as permanently plugged in of course ;)

 

Very important when using RAID

 

The only thing I can add is you only need a second SSD if you want to put in your more demanding sample-based stuff (some Kontakt libs being the classic example)

 

Drives are about the most boring thing to buy. On a budget, one SSD, all the rest big SATA.

Seems like overdoing it a bit, no? :D

 

True. The spare disk can be purchased later though when the price eases

 

That's why it's called overprovisioning. In my case overoverprovisioning ;)
Maybe it's a bit overdone but on the other hand a big SSD is quite an investment and I always try to be on the safer side.
Let's check it back in five or six years and see wich SSDs are dead. I don't trust the vendors. They like to sell us new SSDs every few years.
When I see the alledged MTBFs of HDDs and the statistics about real life dead drives... Yep, I don't trust the vendors

 

I think he was talking about the years of life you told.

 

On SSD I placed
* OS
* Apps (DAWs)
* Plugins aaand
* Plugin presets

I experienced a much faster start of REAPER when placing (A LOT of) plugin presets on SSD, especially with u-he plugins, which seems to be scanned on each start. I double checked it with DiskMon by Sysinternals (company bought by Microsoft some years ago) - they are scanned. So I cut the start time of Reaper from 30-45s down to 5s.
I got tenthousands of presets, so it depends on your library. Furthermore, the presets are light on disk space so it doesn't matter

 

SSD internal / NAS for storage, but do get all your int. drives SSD! You'll be laughing mate!
>>

 

@bigboobs
you can turn off the scan at startup if needed

 

Interesting, I still think it's over kill for the average user.

 

Yes, but that hasn't been the question.
Title is: "Optimal disk setup for audio workstation", no budget.

The scotsman seems to be quite poor, only 2 sq. meters of monitors

 

Last edited: Aug 3, 2018

True Then, no budget.
I did not get the feeling scotsman was poor. He sold his mic for bug $ and purchased a cheaper one.

 

It kinda depends on what you're doing with your audio workstation.

Like... If you're mastering, you need not much HD space. If you're mixing, you need far more space. If you're doing all that, you need even more space.

And If you're Hans Zimmer, you need a whole HD factory. [Seriously, a nice BIG RAID 5 or 6 NAS]

Having said that, I think your setup is [probably] just fine, @tzzsmk.

p.s. To the person who's blindly trusting SSDs and distrusting HDDs... I wish you good luck. When your SSD fails, and it will, you're gonna be visiting the Golden Gate bridge, and no... not to watch the sunset...

 

Last edited: Aug 3, 2018

not with todays SDD prices and the results are day from night compared to mechanical drives ... stripe 2 SSD drives into one and; light speed. (case in point why I posted the vid.)

 

Hey I don't trust SSDs either. No way, was only kidding with the hundereds of years they will stay alive. That was a three sets of the data Samsung Magician gives me, laughable of course.
I'm using two syncing 24TB NASes at home in two different buildings to be almost sure to have my valuable business and private data available tomorrow.

But kidding aside. ATM I trust SSDs more than HDDs indeed. Over the last three years I lost 4 HDDs (desktop type) and no SSD (Samsung Evo) bought around the same time.


P.S.: When my SSDs fail I can't afford to visit Golden Gate Bridge

 

Last edited: Aug 4, 2018

I've just installed a Dell Equalogic SAN with SAS disks in my loft. Hardware refresh at work was the kind donor of this beast

 

Wow really nice. I installed many of these. VMware runs like a beast on it.

 

Last edited: Aug 5, 2018

Samsung EVO SSD have proven long lifespan and the PRO line is 2 times more.
The newer models, SATA 860 EVO/PRO and NVMe M.2 970 EVO/PRO, have longer
lifespan than the older models.
Check https://3dnews.ru/938764/page-3.html


For 1000 years data storage M-Disk
https://www.pcworld.com/article/293...ewed-your-data-good-for-a-thousand-years.html

 

With SSDs, it isn't important how long their lifespan is. What's important is how they die, and they will, and they do, abruptly and when you least expect it . It's like one day you have your life, and the other you don't. They just stop working. You have to make regular backups with SSDs especially. HDDs mostly die gracefully. As in, when they start showing bad sectors, you notice something weird in SMART data, then you usually have quite a while to make a backup of the data. I've encountered a lot of dead HDs during my time as a computer maintenance guy, and most of the HDDs could be saved somehow, I mean the data on them. In many cases they could even be used afterwards for storing some unimportant data.
SSD when it dies is dead and buried. All the advantage you get from an SSD is speed [and silence I like that]. That's why I'm careful with using SSDs. I only use them and recommend them for a system drive, with regular backups. One of my clients lost some of his hard work because we didn't make a backup of his SSD. I will never forgive myself for that. But thankfully, it was a system SSD with only a bit of his work. He keeps all the important data on HDDs that I tested beforehand. I never put a new HD in any computer without testing them properly first. If a HD can be filled fully without a problem, and works for a couple of weeks without a problem showing up in its SMART data, then it is 99% sure for usage, for the next 3-5 years.
The problem is, people don't do these kinds of tests with HDs... You should. Sometimes you can get a replacement HD just for showing them [the store] bad SMART data.

 

Last edited: Aug 5, 2018