5400RPM Internal/7200RPM External. Conflict?

[ClaireEast]

Sorry if a similar thread already exists. My Search Function doesnt seem to be working.

In the studio we have a Desk Top PC that has an internal Hard Drive with 7,200RPM Spindle spin. We work SONAR 6 Producers Edition and the other editing and recording programs off the External Hardrive, that is also a 7200RPM. We try to leave the internal hard drive just for the computers own functions.

I have a Laptop PC with a 5400RPM Internal hard drive, I have SONAR 6 and the other programs on it, but I am curious about whether snatching the External Studio drive and taking it onto the Lap Top for travel editing and what not will cause any complications.

Maybe this is a complete non issue, or maybe its a big issue. I don't really know. Usually I try to keep all the computers in the same tech range, but not this time.

Any help would be appreciated. Help or even eduated guesses.

Thanks Alot,

-Claire

[Seafroggys]

wow, 5400, haven't seen those in desktops for along time.

I don't know how 5400 RPM will run with audio software. I know 7200 RPM is pretty good for audio production.

[ClaireEast]

the 5400 is in the laptop. Not the desktop.

[Seafroggys]

i know.

they're still standard Laptop speeds, but I'm not normally around laptops. I'm just saying i haven't seen a 5400 RPM HD in a long time, because all I have/had were desktops.

[ClaireEast]

lol. Cool.

I gave up, decided not to risk it, and ordered a Laptop today with all the specifications I need. Can't hurt to walk around with a Personal and a Studio laptop, can it?

I avoid desktops as much as possible, I've developed a symbiotic relationship with my tiny, compact, mini keyboard and touchpad.

Thanks for the input though!

-Claire

[pitchfork]

Good thing you did as well 5400rpm has been know to give a good chunk of latency.

[Moseph]

For the future: 5400 rpm is considered sub-par for audio streaming. However, an external drive (either USB 2.0 or Firewire) which spins at 7200 rpm should offer no particular problems for your computer, provided it has the processing power/RAM and possibly the cache to handle all of the work in the pipeline.

I've done streaming with my laptop to an external hard drive via USB 2.0 and that's never been a problem.

It is not recommended that you run your software from the same hard drive you stream your audio. It tends to cause hardware burnout.

[Seafroggys]

so for a recording rig, you want a small harddrive for like, Windows and the DAW (Sonar, ProTools, etc.) and a big harddrive to store all the audio?

[Moseph]

so for a recording rig, you want a small harddrive for like, Windows and the DAW (Sonar, ProTools, etc.) and a big harddrive to store all the audio?

That's what is recommended. If you have a particularly fast hard drive, you can usually get away with just the one (provided it is large enough), but for laptops especially, an additonal external is the way to go. Hard drives are cheap enough these days to justify it pretty easily.

[Seafroggys]

would a 10,000 RPM HD be overkill? I've been considering if its worth the extra cost to go that route.

[Moseph]

would a 10,000 RPM HD be overkill? I've been considering if its worth the extra cost to go that route.

I don't know about overkill, but you also need to be sure you're purchasing a quality hard drive. Higher RPMs can lead to burnouts. This isn't a problem with a quality hard drive, however.

I've done 18 channels of I/O at 24-bit and 44.1 kHz on a 7200 RPM hard drive without any issue, if that helps.

[the_only_singer]

I avoid desktops as much as possible, I've developed a symbiotic relationship with my tiny, compact, mini keyboard and touchpad.

-Claire

Weird. I don't think I have ever met anyone that prefers using a laptop vs desktop for recording purposes. I prefer desktops for everything I do. And I can say that I DEFINATELY don't prefer a touchpad over a mouse.


I would like to get an i-RAM for my recording computer. Using it basically just for the OS. It helps your computer run much faster without the bottleneck of standard hard drives with movable parts.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-51784544344753709&q=i-ram&hl=en

[Knifeboy]

would a 10,000 RPM HD be overkill? I've been considering if its worth the extra cost to go that route.


If it's external, I'm pretty sure it would be overkill.
If it isn't, I'd say the more speed the better :p

[pitchfork]

15000 rpm scsi hdds aren't that expensive

[Seafroggys]

Yeah, but Scsi is......well, Scsi. IDE all the way :thumb:

[cadencethefire]

get a mac, enough said

[the_only_singer]

get a mac, enough said

Fanboy much? Honestly, PCs do extremely well with recording.

15000 rpm scsi hdds aren't that expensive

SCSI is really not going to be a good solution for the common user. SATA is definately the way to go. And even better yet, the solidstate RAM drive I mention above that uses the SATA interface.

Yeah, but Scsi is......well, Scsi. IDE all the way

No, no, no. Although I have mentioned the i-RAM drive a couple times. That is an expensive solution. I real solution is definately the WD Raptor. Giving the advantage of the higher transfer rates of SATA and the faster speed.

[Seafroggys]

IDE is the standard for Hard drives, dude.

[the_only_singer]

IDE is the standard for Hard drives, dude.

Not near as much these days. SATA is very quickly becoming the standard. I don't have any computers that still use IDE, except for cd/dvd drives of course. Most people who build computers these days will use SATA, this also includes companies who build proprietary systems since there is a performance increase without it being much more expensive.

[pitchfork]

Yeah I use sata, problem with sata is its a pain in the *** to fix if you get a system error.

[Seafroggys]

my new computer it almost a year old, I'm sure it uses IDE (I built it, after all).

But your right about SATA. I always forget about it.

[the_only_singer]

Yeah I use sata, problem with sata is its a pain in the *** to fix if you get a system error.

:confused: Not sure I am following here. What sort of system error are we talking about. I have never had any issues with sata.

[El-Ahrairah]

It is not recommended that you run your software from the same hard drive you stream your audio. It tends to cause hardware burnout.

Really? I thought the programm was loaded to the RAM and executed from there, so having audio source files and the program on the same disk wouldn't really matter. Just like a computer game that is loading 3D models/textures from the hard drive on runtime. I may be wrong though.

[The Haitian]

Not near as much these days. SATA is very quickly becoming the standard. I don't have any computers that still use IDE, except for cd/dvd drives of course. Most people who build computers these days will use SATA, this also includes companies who build proprietary systems since there is a performance increase without it being much more expensive.

Yep. SATA is also less messy to install without the mammoth ribbon cables. Better airflow and easy raid solutions.

[cadencethefire]

Not near as much these days. SATA is very quickly becoming the standard. I don't have any computers that still use IDE, except for cd/dvd drives of course. Most people who build computers these days will use SATA, this also includes companies who build proprietary systems since there is a performance increase without it being much more expensive.

IDE is also ATA but it's not serial, the difference between a SATA drive and an ATA drive is the burst read/write speed which is only about 50 megs a second.

ATA (IDE): 100 megs a second

SATA: 150 megs a second

i'm not a fanboy, in fact i have a PC which i prefer to use, but for RECORDING or editing media mac processors (not the intel macs) have different sets of assembly code called instruction sets. The instruction sets of g4 and g5 processors are far more streamlined and than the p4. that and macs come STANDARD with sata drives

so again, get a mac, Enough said.

[The Haitian]

IDE is also ATA but it's not serial, the difference between a SATA drive and an ATA drive is the burst read/write speed which is only about 50 megs a second.

ATA (IDE): 100 megs a second

SATA: 150 megs a second

i'm not a fanboy, in fact i have a PC which i prefer to use, but for RECORDING or editing media mac processors (not the intel macs) have different sets of assembly code called instruction sets. The instruction sets of g4 and g5 processors are far more streamlined and than the p4. that and macs come STANDARD with sata drives

so again, get a mac, Enough said.

Personally I couldn't see myself using anything other than a pc for recording and editing. Maybe you just weren't using the right software or an obsolete machine but I am more than happy with mine.

IDE is more commonly known as PATA or Parallel ATA now that SATA has been out so as to prevent confusion. And yes it is 150 MB/s if you use first gen 1.5Gb/s. The SATA 3 Gb/s has 300 MB/s and eventually they will have 6 GB/s for 600MB/s burst speed. SCSI also has 320 MB/s. But then again burst speed isn't reached very often so it doesn't really matter too much. You also don't have to set the Master / Slave jumper on the hard drives when you use SATA. Alot of the new OEM PCs also come with SATA standard but I prefer to build my own computers.

[the_only_singer]

IDE is also ATA but it's not serial, the difference between a SATA drive and an ATA drive is the burst read/write speed which is only about 50 megs a second.

ATA (IDE): 100 megs a second

SATA: 150 megs a second

i'm not a fanboy, in fact i have a PC which i prefer to use, but for RECORDING or editing media mac processors (not the intel macs) have different sets of assembly code called instruction sets. The instruction sets of g4 and g5 processors are far more streamlined and than the p4. that and macs come STANDARD with sata drives

so again, get a mac, Enough said.

I am already aware of the difference between PATA and SATA. And I am completely aware of the differences between Mac and PC. So I am not exactly sure what you are trying to teach me here?

The fact that you are basically saying, "Get a mac, period." is a bit ridiculous in my opinion and that is for many reasons. Mac, for some reason, is viewed as this type of computer that is extremely stable and will never cause you any problems. But I have seen plenty of macs fail under extreme stress. This also includes when my old band was in the studio and we lost a lot of tracks because the computer crashed. And for the general consumer trying to do some home studio type recording the PC is going to be the way to go because not only is it still very good for recording but there is more support for other types of usage, like games, etc. So it will make a good "all around" computer and since I am sure most users on here can't afford a million different computers for different reasons that is the best way to go. I personally don't have a mac right now, want one, but can't afford one at this time. I have 3 boxes running Windows XP, one running Linux SUSE, and one running Linux Debian. So I really don't have a need for a mac, I just want to have it because I am a geek like that.

Honestly though, I have a WEAK machine for my recording PC but it works with absolutely no lag or latency even with 16+ tracks. I built it for, I believe $500 or so.

Using an AMD Sempron64 3200+
Biostar motherboard
1GB Corsair Valueselect memory
250GB SATA Seagate HDD
With a couple cheap video cards for use with my 3 monitors(can't remember what brands off the top of my head)
And an M-audio soundcard

Does a very good job at keeping up, though I will suggest staying away from Biostar I have run into problems with almost everyone I have encountered. The only problem now is my lack of mics and a good mixer. That will all come later though.

[cadencethefire]

I am already aware of the difference between PATA and SATA. And I am completely aware of the differences between Mac and PC. So I am not exactly sure what you are trying to teach me here?

The fact that you are basically saying, "Get a mac, period." is a bit ridiculous in my opinion and that is for many reasons. Mac, for some reason, is viewed as this type of computer that is extremely stable and will never cause you any problems. But I have seen plenty of macs fail under extreme stress. This also includes when my old band was in the studio and we lost a lot of tracks because the computer crashed. And for the general consumer trying to do some home studio type recording the PC is going to be the way to go because not only is it still very good for recording but there is more support for other types of usage, like games, etc. So it will make a good "all around" computer and since I am sure most users on here can't afford a million different computers for different reasons that is the best way to go. I personally don't have a mac right now, want one, but can't afford one at this time. I have 3 boxes running Windows XP, one running Linux SUSE, and one running Linux Debian. So I really don't have a need for a mac, I just want to have it because I am a geek like that.

Honestly though, I have a WEAK machine for my recording PC but it works with absolutely no lag or latency even with 16+ tracks. I built it for, I believe $500 or so.

Using an AMD Sempron64 3200+
Biostar motherboard
1GB Corsair Valueselect memory
250GB SATA Seagate HDD
With a couple cheap video cards for use with my 3 monitors(can't remember what brands off the top of my head)
And an M-audio soundcard

Does a very good job at keeping up, though I will suggest staying away from Biostar I have run into problems with almost everyone I have encountered. The only problem now is my lack of mics and a good mixer. That will all come later though.


i didn't mean to insult you or leave you with the impression that i think you are uneducated, i'm trying to let everyone who's reading this know what i'm talking about as well...

anyways for a recording machine you should have it do only one thing, record. It's not good to use it for other things. my statement get a mac, is because they ARE more stable than a pc, i'm sorry you had a bad experience with one... it's really not the nature of apple.

yeah been there with biostar, they definitely don't build quality hardware. i would suggest abit, they make some pretty stable mobo's and your corsair ram would work well with it. You should eventually get an external recording interface. If you're on a tight budget get a used mbox2 by digidesign and a decent mixer. That's what i use with my band right now until we get the money for an upgrade and it sounds REALLY nice. I could show you some recordings if you like.