Solid State Drives

[racher]

I'm interested in purchasing a new MacBook Pro for use with Resolume. I'm wondering if the solid state drive option offered (256 GB) would be faster than the standard 7200 rpm hard drives? I'm aware that SSDs aren't as fast at writing as HHDs, but it seems that they're speed in playback would be an asset when used with Resolume. Thoughts?

-Brian

[DrMazoola]

Just bumping this up. Anyone experimented with this since mid-April?

Maz

[gpvillamil]

Yes, it is much much faster. It comes from two things: first, the linear read speed is faster (on newer SSDs, up to 2x the speed of an HD), and second, the seek times are orders of magnitude smaller than a hard drive.

So in a situation where you are playing multiple large video clips simultaneously, the performance of the SSD will be dramatically better. (What slows things down is the constant seeking back and forth to the various different video files.)

Also, it is a lot less sensitive to vibration. (As in, not at all)

[digital:snot]

i can not speak to the particular SSD drive apple has chosen.
when it comes to SSD there is no straight shot answer to: "is SSD better than 7200rm whatever drive"
there is a lot to research as the technology evolves... MANY people have been burned spending a premium on a drastically under-performing variation of SSD tech. i read a TON of reviews about many SSD drives till i settled on the x25-m.

i can tell you my experience with the intel x25-M MLC:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820167005

i have an old asus g1s - 3gb ram - 2.19ghz processor - 256mb geforce 8600M GT videocard.

it came with vista... ...on a 7200 rpm HD.

i was wanting to push content on 3 screens with a matrox Triplehead2go with dxv encoded files from 640x480 up to 1920x480... the output was simply not possible with the current system... in a "hail-mary" attempt to revive this laptop i bought the 80gig intel x25-M SSD for $320...

i threw winxpPRO on it and it as a night and day difference... when i add a couple effects it slows it down to 40fps ( but for my use, i don't use video effects, just trigger clips on different screens across 4 layers:
layer 1: 1920x480 across 3 screens
layer 2: 640x 480 on right screen
layer 3: 1280x480 across left and middle screen (assigned A on crossfade)
layer 4: 1280x480 across left and middle screen (assigned B on crossfade)

90% of the time i am running 60fps while utilizing video on 3 of those layers.

when it comes to the intel x25-M SSD drive.... it was the best investment for clip playback. (keep in mind, the os, program and content are all on the SSD drive...) (not to mention winxp cold boots in 25 seconds to a completely loaded tray... fastest i have ever seen from nothing to everything)

it took a modest 3-year-old laptop and juiced it into an insanely powerful res ave machine that will suit my application for a good year or 2.

so depending on what SSD drive apple uses, it could be one of the best investments you make.

[edwin]

Sounds wicked!
Also having your system boot up so fast must be great.
We just ordered the ''OCZ Vertex Series SATA SSD 60GB' for a project, we are curious what the performance will be. It seems like the Intel one you have and this OCZ one are the best (fastest) you can get at the moment.

[gradek]

I have been thinking about this as a solution as well. I'm thinking about going for an express card SSD.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820161325

FileMate SolidGO claims some pretty fast speeds:

Sequential Access - Read up to 115MB/s
Sequential Access - Write up to 65MB/s

from my understanding many express cards like this only function as a fancy USB HD that sits in the express slot.

Here is what the advantage of the Filemate according to Wintec:

All ExpressCard connectors use either USB 2.0 communications, or a faster communication called PCI-Express (PCI-E, for short). Our 32 GB and 64 GB (non-Ultra) ExpressCard SSD, and all other ExpressCard SSDs on the market , use the slower USB 2.0 communications. The 24 GB and 48 GB ExpressCard Ultra SSDs are the only ones on the market that use the faster PCI-E interface, which makes it 3x faster than the competition!

could be a great way to speed up performance without having to lugg around a big HD or RAID.

[GeeEs]

@digital:snot

Thanks for this comprehensive info, looks really promising! Have to get one for sure!

@gradek

The speeds you mention for that Express Card SSD "are still not that fast" , I see the difference between USB2 and e-sata connection in this Express Card variation but when I look around in the shops here you can almost double those speeds with a SATA SSD (for almost same price/GB)

- (Newegg) 48 GB Express Card SSD: read 115 MB/s - write 65 MB/s ($161,69)

- (Alternate.nl) 60 GB OCZ sata SSD: read 220 MB/s - write 125 MB/s (€199,00)

[gradek]

@GeeEs

Its true, not as fast as SATA drives. But theoretically should be faster then the 5400 or 7200 speed clunker most of use have in our laptops.

[gpvillamil]

I just put in two Corsair 256GB SSDs in my VJ machine (for another application). It is a laptop with Core 2 Duo at 2.9Ghz.

With all the clips playing off one of the drives, I can playback 8 layers at 640 x 480 at 60fps. By 10 layers It drops down slightly to 55fps. CPU utilization hovers around 44%. (By comparison, with the older drive I started to see frame rates dropping as soon as 4 layers were playing.)

With clips playing off both drives, I have reached up 14 layers at 640 x 480 at 60fps. CPU utilization is not even at 55%. Beyond this I can not tell what is happening with fps because the fps counter has fallen off the bottom of the screen. (Bart & Edwin: please make it possible to arbitrarily resize the layer vs control areas... the little resize handle appears, but doesn't seem to do anything...

I would have to say this is the single most impactful upgrade I have ever made to a computer in terms of performance.

[digital:snot]

i should append that the system performance i referenced earlier in this post was after I checked the system preference: "Disable global effects & blend modes"

when i un-check that option my video cards weakness really shines through and i average an unusable 25 to 45 fps... but i have no reason to believe it is the SSD. It only makes sense that it is the fault of the GPU...
just thought i should qualify my specs...