external hard drive for vts

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MindzEye

Sicc OG
#1
Nov 4, 2004
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#1
can I use an external HD to run vst instruments? or should I install an additional internal HD? I have HalionSE which Im totally new to but i think this with the vst's is to much for my HD. If an external is possible what can be recommended. Thanks
 
BOOBOO619

BOOBOO619

Sicc OG
#2
Apr 26, 2006
4,496
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#2
Should definitely work, but your internal harddrive that's directly connected to the motherboard is most likely faster and more efficient. With the external, the data has to travel through either the USB/Firewire cable (which is slower I belive than serial ATA internal HD connection) and through the USB/Firewire interface of the computer, then to the main motherboard. Interal HD just seems more direct, what I'm trying to say. External HD seems like it takes more routes to get the information to the computer and I'm thinking that might create problems with latency which is bad for audio creation. I personally wouldn't run any application in realtime off my External, I just store and backup data files, no system files or other program files. Occasionally I'll run music files or movie files, but that's about it. If your going to run VSTs off your External that means you gotta install your software to your external, I don't know about that. :ermm:

Someone else here probably knows more than me. I'm just assuming, but I do think I'm making a valid point.
 
S

Sick Wid It

Sicc OG
#3
Apr 25, 2002
2,207
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#3
Externals work fine and you shouldn't notice any less performance unless you're using a real shitty drive. Even harddrives that are plugged directly to the mainboard send data through a cable and bus/interface.
 
Carnage187

Carnage187

Sicc OG
#8
Sep 24, 2005
1,389
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soundcloud.com
#8
In the end it all depends on your ram really, the stuff from your external harddrive will just get sent to your random access memory. So applications won't actually run from your external hd (or internal) they'll just be stored into your ram when you use them. So you'll probably want to get some extra ram too. HDs help with storage space, and in some cases inter-transfers of data are faster with faster HDs. Don't quote me on this though.
 
S

Sick Wid It

Sicc OG
#9
Apr 25, 2002
2,207
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#9
My only recommendation is something that has a harddrive at least 7200rpm and preferrably 16MB cache. If I were going to buy a new external, I'd buy the external case and put a Seagate drive in it.

About the ram.. Ram is a part of the picture just like your harddrives, cpu, power supply, and everything else. If you run out of ram then it will just swap from harddrive but with 1GB+ of good ram being so cheap these days, .....
 
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