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I'm going to get a new mac with a SSD drive. Do I need an external hard drive for audio files or is it still a advised practice? I'm wondering if the technology of SSD makes it less important to have it separate from the system files drive. thoughts? My project are small, typically recording one track at a time. Thanks

I set up mine with a 1tB internal SSD + 500gB external tbolt SSD for samples/sound sources and later added another 500gB tbolt SSD as my VI library grew. It's worked out great for me.

Should work fine with everything on internal SSD especially smaller projects. Why not try it? You can always add an external drive later.

Definitely DO get a spinner for Time Machine backups though!

Cosmos275 wrote:I'm going to get a new mac with a SSD drive. Do I need an external hard drive for audio files or is it still a advised practice? I'm wondering if the technology of SSD makes it less important to have it separate from the system files drive. thoughts? My project are small, typically recording one track at a time. Thanks

The days of separating libraries onto another drive for better performance are gone. So, the only reason to add another is if you need more space. Use an SSD connected via USB 3 or Thunderbolt Although TB is faster, you need multiples in a RAID array to take advantage of that speed and there will be zero benefit to your applications.

A USB 3 dock is inexpensive and gets the job done. You just drop the drive in. This is a generic picture. You want one that supports USB 3, Thunderbolt or both.

Definitely DO get a spinner for Time Machine backups though!

Absolutely! You can use the same kind of dock for Time Machine or get an Apple Time Capsule tower and connect wirelessly or via ethernet (over short distances of 100' or less, 802.11ac wireless is faster than gigabyte ethernet).

Time Machine will cycle through as many drives as you have hooked up for the use, one each hour. Every Mac in my house backs up to the same three. The desktops use ethernet while the laptops use wireless.

A few more things.

Never have a drive filled to more than 85% capacity.

If you used to optimize or defrag hard drives for any reason, time to stop. It serves no purpose, can shorten the life of an SSD and interferes with Garbage Collection and TRIM, both of which are vital to keeping your SSDs running fast and problem free. Pro apps like TechTool Pro will refuse to optimize an SSD; crapware will go ahead anyway. Don't do it and don't believe any company that says it's ok.

You may read discussion about TRIM and wonder if it applies to you. Ignore it. Only applies to 3rd party SSDs as it is is enabled by default on your new Mac and will apply to any SSDs you hook up (as long as you boot from the internal).

The Samsung 850 EVO series of SSDs has a very good reputation and is available in capacities of 250G – 2T (under $600). The 850 PRO costs more and has a 10 year warranty instead of 5—you will see no real world performance increase, however.

If looking to buy a new spinner (HHD) for Time Machine, the current recommendation is to use the WD Red NAS drives. NAS has no bearing on Time Machine but drives that meet that spec are extra heavy duty and use less power than most other drives. Platter speed is not important in this application but heat and reliability are. A Caviar Black runs way hot. The Red has better bearings, a 3 year warranty vs the Blue 2 year. A 6T Red is less than $250 on Amazon. My friends who recommend the Red work for an HD manufacturer but it's not WD.

Thanks, Mike. Great advice. One question - why would a spinner be better (or essential) for back-ups rather than an SSD? Just curious . . .

oldecuriosity wrote:Thanks, Mike. Great advice. One question - why would a spinner be better (or essential) for back-ups rather than an SSD? Just curious . . .

If your system is small —under 1T, a 2T SSD in a dock will work for around $650. Inside a used low profile Time Capsule with its slower WiFi, around $700. I don't know anyone who can modify the current Time Capsule tower—the right adapter probably doesn't exist. Someday, when large capacity SSDs are inexpensive and readily available, perhaps we'll see them.

Speed is not an issue with Time Machine, however (OK, USB 2 is really slow but not your issue). You can get much greater storage capacity with a spinner. A 2T Red is $90; 3T $109; 4T $148, 6T $234; 8T $325.
https://www.amazon.com/Red-3TB-Hard-Dis ... B008JJLW4M

If you want a really fast WiFi gateway or wish to connect it via ethernet, Get a 3T Time Capsule. Macs have supported 802.11ac since 2013–2014 depending on the model. If you didn't buy AppleCare with your Mac, you can add it up to a year and also include any Apple branded peripherals you buy from an authorized Apple reseller or Apple (this includes the Refurb Store) during that year—if you bought appleCare already, you can still add a Time Capsule to the warranty during that first year at no extra charge. Apple uses a Seagate spinner now but with 3 years AppleCare, it's not the concern it used to be (my 3T Tower turned 3 years last week and is still going strong).

You can save $120 in the refurb store. I don't recommend the 2T version unless you normally have less than 600mB or so to back up. Remember that, the larger the drive, the more can be stored before Apple deletes the oldest backup.

http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/s ... ccessories

mikehalloran wrote:The days of separating libraries onto another drive for better performance are gone. So, the only reason to add another is if you need more space.

this was my main question, thanks for this and all the extensive advice!

So, if you fill up your SSD to 85% are you supposed to stop using it or just delete and carry on ignoring defragging?

I'm going to get a mac mini, which I'm guessing the hard drive can not be replaced. I wonder if using an external would be a good idea to reduce wear and tear on the internal. Thanks!

I want to thank you also, Mike, for an excellent rundown on modern approaches to both regular storage needs and backup approaches. This thread is in my Evernote now!

Terry

Cosmos275 wrote:So, if you fill up your SSD to 85% are you supposed to stop using it or just delete and carry on ignoring defraying?!

As long as Trim is enabled, SSDs will mark cells containing deleted data as available for writing to. As MIke has emphasized DO NOT DEFRAG SSDs. So, yes, delete and carry on.

When you write a file to an SSD, it will be spread out over the drive to even out wear. So not only is defragging unnecessary and potentially harmful, it is useless.