I am recording the audio tracs using an analog mixer and multi-trac
recorder (hope to one day up grade to digital) and using the pc for
post-recording processing (Adobe Audition).
 Thanks to all replies (very enlightening). I believe I'll let this
bit of technology be for now and look at using 10,000rpm SATAs in my
build.

 -Phil-

On 2/18/09, Steve Lachman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Phil - Yet another "boogyman" exists in your machine construction: the mere
> fact that audio-oriented machines, i.e. DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations)
> need to be *as quiet as possible* (of course if you plan to locate the
> computer in another room with only the OI/UI in the recording area it's not
> such a factor, but still...).  SSDs "no moving parts" operation seems ideal;
> the caveat: write times to SSDs generally suck, and the point another lister
> made of the fact that SSDs can only be written to so many times
> (currently).  A possibility there is to run your OS and DAW app from the
> SSD, while "recording" on a remotely (another room) located hard drive (or
> in a "silenced" enclosure).  This is way feasible with the application of
> ethernet.  Regards, Steve
>
> On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 10:07 AM, Dean Kukral <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> SSD's are not really "hard drives" but a form of memory such as compact
>> flash.  As such, they can be accessed and written to much
>> faster than regular hard drives because of the decreased latency (seek
>> time
>> to find the spot on the rotating disk to read or write).
>> But, like compact flash, they have a limited number of times that they can
>> be written to the same spot without failure.  (Hundred
>> thousand times or more - I don't know about the latest technology.)
>>  Manufacturers have a way of moving the written areas around
>> (not too unlike a screen saver), so that one lonely spot does not fail
>> earlier than the rest.  You are still limited to a much
>> smaller number of writes compared to a hard drive.  I am sorry, but I
>> can't
>> give you more engineering details - this is just a
>> touch-and-go on the topic, as my knowledge is limited.
>>
>> So, for a  SSD to be useful, it should be used to store information that
>> is
>> not frequently overwritten.  I think that storing
>> operating system information would be ideal, because I would think that it
>> would be relatively permanent.  However, there may be
>> small parts that are written over thousands of times a day - you would
>> have
>> to ask Microsoft.  :)   It might be better used to store
>> large volumes of things such as photographs, music, and video.  For
>> example, an iPod might be a good place for using SSD to store
>> the recorded material.
>>
>> I hope this helps a little to make you understand the problems associated
>> with SSD.  BTW, regular dynamic memory such as that used
>> in ram does not suffer from these restrictions (at least the problems
>> require orders of magnitude more accesses), so that RAM
>> failure is usually caused by something else.
>>
>> Dean Kukral
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Phillip Williams" <[log in to unmask]>
>>
>>
>> Hello Listers,
>>  I've been looking at the varieties of hard drives and am amazed at
>> the difference in price per memory space of the solid state drives.
>> I'm wondering if any of you have experience with them and what are the
>> advantages to these drives vs. disc drives.
>>
>>  Would it be beneficial to use one say, for an operating system
>> partion or for programs
>> and mix it with a less expensive disc drive for larger files? Or are
>> the benefits lessened by combining the two types?
>>
>>  System I'm collecting parts for is based on a dual-core intel with a
>> 1gig memory video card for gaming, video and music editing and
>> production, some 3-D rendering, animation and auto-cad.
>>
>>  Interested in your opinions,
>> -Phil Williams-
>>
>>                   Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
>>               articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
>>                          http://freepctech.com
>>
>
>                   Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
>                articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
>                           http://freepctech.com
>

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