What specs makes one SSD better than another for DAW work?

[valis]

Realistically for a boot/OS/Apps drive most of the mainstream SSD's should be more than sufficient and it's just a matter of picking a pricepoint. The main thing I'd be considering past that is RELIABILITY, which would tend to make me avoid a few makers (OCZ) who make offerings targeting a different market than workstation/DAW users who want to be able to get work done reliabily (OCZ targets gamers & 'power' PC users imo).

I think Samsung, Intel, OWC/Macsales & Crucial all have offers that are up to snuff. Samsung is the reliability leader imo, followed closely by Intel then Crucial & Kingston following behind. OWC is using sandforce but they still seem to fare much better than OCZ and other makers who target the bleeding edge at the potential expense of reliability.

Performance wise just check storagereview, anandtech, and maybe tomshardware (I lost interest in toms YEARS ago when he fired staff and changed attribution in his articles, but the coverage & writers are still informative imo). Sequential figures matter more for app launch, boot and recording/sample playback. Random access figures are more applicable to boot/os/app drives.

[JLiRD808]

Thanks valis....all of that is great to know!

I might increase my budget for this but at this point Im looking at these. Almost all Crucials:

Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more!

I know its all relative, but how big SHOULD a boot SSD typically be? Im gonna be on W7 x64 Home, Cubase 6.5, Pro Tools 10.....a bunch of plugins, but no programs are really larger that 5-6gbs right? Sample libraries, documents, project files, backups, etc ALL belong on secondary and third drives. I feel like 128gb's could be enough...but hoping I'm not wrong.

Can I ask how big urs is lol? <--------

[Jeezo]

just choose the most stable and trouble free : Intel then samsung ..not the fastest but plug and forget ///// i own to intel and i'm plan=ing to buy 2 samsung 830 series 512 gb to make a 1TO raid on my laptop : fun !

[BasketCase Audio]

I don't know what it is like currently...

But I based my past purchase on failure rate. Intel had a remarkably lower failure rate than any other SSD manufacturer.
Not that the others were 'bad' by any rate.

[jcschild]

at this point..

Intel, Samsung, Crucial..

the new intel 335 series is faster than the crucial and well its intel.. this is my new recommended..

[JLiRD808]

So the read/write stuff doesn't matter so much?

THANKS!

[jcschild]

yes it matters obviously faster is better
however it depends on use as well
longevtity/fail rate is more important.

as i said 335 series from intel. it has speed/longevity/good warrnty/low fail rate

[Jeezo]

Hi schott

Well the thing is that i see a lot of tests on the web and while the intel isn't the fastest , in real use it shine somtime better

The good thing about samsung also is the fact that they developped they're own controller witch gives them a full control and support with a better indepandance and so quiker reactivity

By the way may i ask you witch one you would take between a crucial and a smasung 512 GB both ?

Also have you already use only one ssd (or 2 in raid) and use it exclusively for all (data and software) ? if yes how does it performed versus 2 dedicated (ssd or ssd +regular)

Because seeing how great they are , i wonder if in some near futur , we will still have to use multiple drives (supposing that the price/gb drop more )

Thks