External hard drive for Macbook / Abelton

[MrVegas]

Does anyone use an external solid state drive like the LaCie 1TB (model number STHR1000800)? My Macbook Pro is about 4 years old and I want a really good solid state drive to store virtual instruments, possibly Omnisphere, etc.

It would probably be better to have 2TB but I can't find one with the same speed specs as the LaCie model I'm talking about. Anybody got some advice on this?

[Dr Mike Metlay]

I use 1 TB drives, internal and external, all the time for this sort of thing. In my experience it's rarely necessary to shell out for a specially built LaCie or other ruggedized drive unless you really do enjoy throwing your tech around. Since I have access to a MicroCenter, I just go in and buy a naked Samsung EVO SSD in the appropriate size and an empty enclosure so I can build my own. About the only thing you want to be sure to get is USB 3.0 or USB 3.1/USB-C connectivity, for the fastest possible data transfer rate.

 

At this precise moment in time, the prevailing wisdom (which is a combination of 10% hard data and 90% squishy feelings) is that SSDs beyond 1 TB aren't a good investment yet. There are larger ones, but they're much more costly per Megabyte and not as proven to be reliable.

 

mike

 

[Docbop]

You're only going to be as fast as the port you're plugging the drive into. So you need to factor port speed in so that slower 2TB drive might perform as well as the 1TB drive. So the super fast SSD might be slower because it's causing lots of wait states with the drive and the OS.

[KuruPrionz]

I have a Samsung Portable SSD T5 running USB 3 with my 2014 MacBook Pro. It's 1tb.

 

I haven't used it for your application but I have noticed that moving files from the laptop to the hard drive (and vice versa) is very swift and painless.

It is also tiny and runs cool, I like it.

[midinut]

I have two LaCie 'Rugged' drives that are Thunderbolt and haven"t had any issues with either one ever. (Knock on wood)

[Stokely]

I have a Samsung T5, 500 GB. I actually have two but one is on an xbox

 

It makes a humongous difference with longer loads, especially with my older computer than has a 5400 built-in drive. I use Garritan CFX lite for piano and my loading time went from 3-4 minutes to 5-10 seconds.

[KenElevenShadows]

Does anyone use an external solid state drive like the LaCie 1TB (model number STHR1000800)? My Macbook Pro is about 4 years old and I want a really good solid state drive to store virtual instruments, possibly Omnisphere, etc.

It would probably be better to have 2TB but I can't find one with the same speed specs as the LaCie model I'm talking about. Anybody got some advice on this?

 

I use a couple of StarTech HD "toasters" and simply pop HDs in and out of them as needed. The extra HDs that are not in the "toaster" are kept in a Pelican-type case that is waterproof and has foam enclosures. These are kept off-site. I also back up to the "cloud". As Mike Metlay pointed out, this is considerably less expensive than purchasing individual HDs with rugged enclosures. Furthermore, from my personal experience (so note that this is a small sample size based on my experience as well as those of some of my friends), unless you purchase something like Glyph, it's often the exterior enclosure that fails before the HD.

 

I hope this helps.

 

[The Real MC]

I have two LaCie 'Rugged' drives that are Thunderbolt and haven"t had any issues with either one ever. (Knock on wood)

 

I tried to order one from OWC a month ago and they are no longer available. I have Logic Pro on a MacBook Pro and would like to store the instrument library on an external Thunderbolt or USB3 SSD. Not many options out there, will check out the Samsung.

 

[Reezekeys]

Of course it depends on your workflow but for most things, you don't actually need screaming NVMe speeds to stream audio. Any decent SSD and a USB3 or better connection and you should be good. I've bought bare OCZ 2.5" SSDs and put them in inexpensive Inatek USB3 cases with UASP. Over the last few years they've been flawless.(I know, I shouldn't have typed that just now!).

[analogika]

Two Samsung T5 drives here, 1TB and 2TB.

 

Tiny, fast, cool, and not too expensive.

 

Did I mention tiny?

[uhoh7]

Two Samsung T5 drives here, 1TB and 2TB.

 

Tiny, fast, cool, and not too expensive.

 

Did I mention tiny?

 

Very good call there, I don't think these can be beat at the moment. I was going to suggest an option of grabbing a bare 1tb ssd (about 100 for a little older one) and a 7 dollar usb adapter, but yours is better.

 

Link Below:

T5 Drive

[MrVegas]

Thanks for all the great feedback.

 

Can anyone recommend a high-end WIndows laptop for music production and live performance? I have a 2015 Macbook Pro and I'm thinking of switching to Windows because (a) I'm using Ableton, and (b) new Macbooks, while really good, are very expensive. Plus I'm not very good at working in a Mac environment (iOS).