Is this readwrite speed enough for loading sample libraries from ssd?

[SwingToTheVibe]

Hi guys, so Im kinda new with having ssd and recently bought a T7 Shield SSD. I have a 2023 Mac Mini M2 Pro and just formatted the ssd to APFS with GUID Partition Map (I will only use it on this Apple device). Then I tested the speed with Blackmagic and the result was 863 write speed and 713 read speed. Actually I expected more than that since Samsung advertise 1050MB per s. Anyway I know its common to not get the full speed but... is the speed Im getting enough to load my sample libraries and read them from this ssd without issues?

Click to read more...

 

[MartinH.]

is the speed Im getting enough to load my sample libraries and read them from this ssd without issues?

Yes!

 

[Jeremy Spencer]

That is plenty! My SSD’s are connected to USB 3 on my Mac and it’s fast enough.

 

[Justin L. Franks]

Absolutely.

I have a T7 Shield connected via USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) to my iMac. Speeds are on par with yours.
I also have Thunderbolt drives that are significantly faster in benchmarks, but actual load times for sample libraries are only just a tiny bit quicker.

 

[jbuhler]

Absolutely.

I have a T7 Shield connected via USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) to my iMac. Speeds are on par with yours.
I also have Thunderbolt drives that are significantly faster in benchmarks, but actual load times for sample libraries are only just a tiny bit quicker.

Mostly i agree with this but moving from USB3 to Thunderbolt improved my template load at startup from 10 minutes to about 3. The difference with individual libraries seems insignificant but collectively it makes a difference. Also libraries running through TB require a smaller preload buffer meaning they load faster and need less RAM.

 

[Jeremy Spencer]

Mostly i agree with this but moving from USB3 to Thunderbolt improved my template load at startup from 10 minutes to about 3. The difference with individual libraries seems insignificant but collectively it makes a difference. Also libraries running through TB require a smaller preload buffer meaning they load faster and need less RAM.

Great info. Are you using your drives on a Thunderbolt port of some sort? I’ve been contemplating getting a port/hub for my 2020 iMac.

 

[robgb]

Hi guys, so Im kinda new with having ssd and recently bought a T7 Shield SSD. I have a 2023 Mac Mini M2 Pro and just formatted the ssd to APFS with GUID Partition Map (I will only use it on this Apple device). Then I tested the speed with Blackmagic and the result was 863 write speed and 713 read speed. Actually I expected more than that since Samsung advertise 1050MB per s. Anyway I know its common to not get the full speed but... is the speed Im getting enough to load my sample libraries and read them from this ssd without issues?

That's plenty fast. The drives I have only go to about 350. No issues.

 

[jbuhler]

Great info. Are you using your drives on a Thunderbolt port of some sort? I’ve been contemplating getting a port/hub for my 2020 iMac.

I have a Studio Ultra, and my SSDs vary between NVMes and SATAs. The Ultra has 6 TB4 ports but I have a mix of TB3 and TB2 enclosures. So 2 4TB NVMes running in a dual enclosure over TB3. Then 4 SATA SSDs of various sizes in a TB3 enclosure. And 4 more SATA SSDs in a TB2 enclosure. I also have 5 additional SATA SSDs running through USB3.

So way too many drives, but it allows me to see the differences in performance very readily.

I can run the Kontakt libraries on the NVMes with the minimum preload buffer of 6kB. The SATAs on Thunderbolt whether 3 or 4 run at 12kB. The SATAs on USB3 require 18kB.

But once libraries are loaded everything runs as expected. So the gains come almost entirely from the reduced load times and the reduced RAM requirements of the faster drive. The speed is not really needed for the streaming itself, at least not at the template sizes I’m using, though I had hints on my old machine where I was using more USB3 drives that I could saturate those ports if I called too many samples at the same time from the same USB3 port. I often had to increase the preload buffer or put libraries commonly used together on different USB ports.