The SSD up grade. (replacing the Harddrive)

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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The SSD up grade. (replacing the Harddrive)

So I read the article that was posted yesterday about installing a Solid State Disk. I understand that the demonstration was done on an Apple, however I have a couple of questions about doin this to a PC.

First thing though… if there is another thread on here that explains this, it would be greatly appreciated to be directed to the proper thread.

Ok here we go.. What exactly am I doin to the PC? Am I taking out the hard drive? (can I take out the hard drive?) I know that I do the mod by taking out the optical drive. (thats the CD/DVDRW right?) By doin this how is it making my PC faster?

I am curious; if taking out the optical drive, and replacing it with the SSD makes the PC faster, then why not do the same with the actual hard drive?

Once the mod is complete. How difficult is it to replace my software ie.. Windows and Traktor.

And last.. Is it worth it? Should I just buy a new laptop? I looked into the prices of SSD’s and I found, for 400 I can purchase the SSD (not the best one…but still.) a new hard drive that pushes 10,000 rpm (only 130 Gigs tho) and through the help of the Techtools family, I can rule the world.

But still… I found comps with some powerful processers. 2.5GHz for 500. So what should I do? I dont have any clue on what the processor really does. I just understand that, faster is better.

I currently have an HP DV5 that has 2.00 GHz processor speed and 2 gigs of RAM. My hardrive is about half full (All tracks are on external) But it runs real loud. Traktor seems to crash when ever it wants to, or its slow. I use a VCI 100 (firmware upgrade to 1.3) and a Kontrol X1. My VCI’s left deck dont work (Might have Flashed it wrong) but my X1 works perfectly. If i run the software through my internal sound card of my laptop and just mix through my head phones, the software runs really good. However, If i use my external sound card, then the latency is horrible. So playing a party is unwise at this point.

So all these issues I have with my gear… can they be solved by installing these Solid State Disks?

Thanks my people. Any help would be much appreciated.

Here is a mix for ya. Using the VCI 100 and the Kontrol X1.

https://soundcloud.com/tomii_4play/dropsinabucket

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i dont think popping an SSD into your PC will fix your hardware issues

running an ssd for the OS will speed that Mofo up like nothing else, but you still should have a HDD (cause appearantly after so many read/writes on an SSD you lose data)

rather than buying a whole new laptop(unless its a mac in that case i say ditch the pc :stuck_out_tongue:), id update your HP with a 60 gb SSD for the OS and programs then beef up your HDD with a decent size/speed

that should stop your crashes – and as for the hardware, re install all that and reflash the firmware to the vci (idk how you live with only using one side… your a saint)

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Seems like there are a bunch of issues you need to fix before you worry about a Solid State Drive. That might fix some problems, but it surely isn’t going to fix the major ones.

As far as swapping the drives on a PC, it’s not that hard. Transferring the info can be a pain in the ass but it’s definitely do-able.

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lmao I do have issue’s. but ive gone through every tread on here. and the only thing i can think of is, I need to flash my VCI again, ditch the ghetto vestax sound card and get an NI Audio 2, then do something about the comp.

I saw the article and figured, instead of getting anew comp i could give this a go. One i get the new SSD and a new Harddrive, how can I transfer my data from my old harddrive to the new one?

What is the RPM speed for? and the GHz? If i have 2.00GHz already and the traktor pro calls for 1.5GHz, Im sure the X1 and the VCI along with the sound card eat up the processing power. So is 2.00GHz sufficient ? Will the solid state disk add to the processing power?

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What sound card do you have? What are your latency settings? As far as I know Traktor should run at least okay on it. What about the left deck won’t work? Does the jog wheel not respond?

The SSD won’t hurt but it won’t fix all your problems, especially seeing how 130 gigs ain’t that much storage (I currently have over 1075 gigs on my lappy). This sounds more like a soundcard/controller problem than a hard drive speed problem.

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Not sure what is up with my VCI. I have gone through thread after thread to try and fix it. My left deck dose not respond. it will respond to pitch bend but then it freezes. I have adjusted the sensitivity settings, used different TSI files and installed loopB.

this has been goin on for over a year now and the only thing I can think of is. One send it to Techtools to have them look at it or re-flash the vci. I called techtools yesterday and they pretty much suggested the samething. I have one of the original VCI’s and I upgraded the Firmware myself.

I would like faster comp and it seems like my comp should be sufficient but the hardware issue is killin me! Cant afford another controller and I really dont want one. Using the VCI at 60% and still rockin it…shit! this thing is a beast. I just want the full potential and dont no how to get there.

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But it’s just the jog wheel, right?

Do you still have the upgrade kit to flash it?

Check what you’re latency settings are for your soundcard. If it’s working fine on the internal soundcard then I would be almost 100% positive it’s an issue with the soundcard itself.

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If you have the external HDD plugged in via USB, and the VCI300, AND the X1, then the mobo will most likely run out of USB bandwidth, hence causing the latency. Having all your tracks on your internal HDD could solve this. SSD’s are much faster than a normal HDD, but as Traktor doesnt use much power to run, once its loaded it should be fine, and it doesnt use much CPU power either, so the SSD would only reduce the loading time of the songs into Traktor, but as you load them from your external HDD, it would seem 1000000 times faster!

So first point of call should be load all your songs onto your internal HDD, then ditch the external. Also, close everything down on your PC apart from traktor, including WIFI etc as that will drain the CPU.

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ahhhh you needz to learn yourself some computer tech. it looks like you are getting all mixed up with GHZ and RPM and SSD and optical drives…A SSD does not usually “replace” your optical (CD) drive. You have one hard drive in your laptop which more than likely spins at 5400 RPM’s…this is typical for laptops for power saving reasons and cost. a 7200 RPM hard drive is pretty much the standard and has been for years so even upgrading to a regular 7200 RPM will make a difference over a 5400 RPM one. A hard drive contains platters which hold your data and the RPM is how fast the motor inside spins those platters which then correlates to how fast you can read/write data off of them including response time.

Now your software (traktor, itunes…etc) along with your operating system (windows, mac…etc) is stored on your internal hard drive. When/if you decide to upgrade your hard drive to say a SSD you will remove your current hard drive and replace it with the SSD… BUT…all of your data including your operating system is stored on that internal hard drive…you will need to completely re-install windows! AHHH

You will need to have a windows installation CD to perform this operation and since you have a external hard drive you can use that to backup ALL of your data before you go forth with adding in the SSD. “Data” as in pictures, movies, audio files, traktor settings…keep in mind you will have to re-install all of the applications you previously had on your computer all over again and if you have special settings configured inside each application, you will loose that unless you back them up somehow. I wont get into how to backup application specific settings as that varies from app to app.

Also, what operating system are you currently running (windows 7? 32 bit or 64 bit?) and better yet what type of laptop are we talking about here? upgrading RAM also has a big impact on your performance too. Don’t bother looking at upgrading your CPU on that thing, it should be ample enough to run traktor.

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I got a vestax vai-40 for the external soundcard. I’m running vista intel(R) core™2 duo. D drive is 1.81 GB free of 11.1 GB and my C drive is 123GB free of 221GB

Do store all my tracks on a external. I had the idea that Keeping tracks on my comp would slow my computer down. I have over 500 gigs of music. So im sure you tellin me to store the tracks that I no i have the possibility of playing.

LMAO and yes my friends I am completely computer dumb!

Hell guys! I just want my stuff to finally run proper. If I dont need to do anything to my comp then great! I dont want a new controller but the left deck issue is killing me! Also I think I will purchase a Audio 2.

I know we are off thread here…but its my thread I guess lol. But like said. I have been on techtools for years now. I know how to search threads for proper info. But I just cant find anything that helps fix my VCI issue. And really thats the biggest issue.

I cant take this out of my house and expect to play a crowd knowing that my comp, soundcard or VCI has the possibility of going out on me. So i’ll go to best buy and get the proper wire to Re-Flash the VCI

Now the issue I had before is the serial to USB didnt work so I used serial to serial. Is that still the way to do the flash? Will a serial to HDMI work?

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Re your left jog.. I had a problem with the right jog (sounds simular to your’s) where the pitch bend would work , but when in scratch mode , it would barely respond to touch and when it did, it lagged and hesitated - basically it was useless.

Here is what i did to get it working 100%

-lubed the shaft (where the finger/touch sensor wire) makes contact with some Deoxit as well as lightly .. and i mean lightly , blew out anything that might have been on the optical reader / eye where the disc passes through. These two things seems to have did it.

Now , before doing that i was playing with the sensitivity pots in the back. I went from min to max in very small increments until I broke the pot.. whoops! I now have stronger onces installed.

Also, these are seriously SIMPLE inside .. swap things around such as optical reader .

That is my best advise.

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Ill give that a shot! what kinda lube did you use? thanks.

So to get back on the thread topic.

What is the purpose of the SSD installation? Does it add to the processing power? Will it help the response when I have multiple controllers attached via USB? I know traktor doesnt take much to run but utilizing the Soundcard, two controllers and a 500GB external harddrive all connected via USB; does that pull away from the overall processing power? and will a SSD help that?

And with this comp being 5 years old along with it sounding really loud once i start the program. I know im doing something wrong. So what can I do to help this.

I read the streamlining your PC article, I have read over VCI left deck Issue threads. I have tried to implement some of the ideas into getting my hardware to run properly.

Cant afford a new comp or new controller. Nor do i want to replace the VCI. I love this controller. But man Im so tired of all the issues

thanks guys!!!

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The SSD just allows the computer as a whole to run more “snappy” and files which are stored on the SSD load up much faster than they would if they were on say your external. but it does not free up any processes and from what it looks like it will not fix or solve any of your problems you have been describing. Like others have said for a start I would move the music you plan on spinning with to the internal hard drive and forget about the SSD until you get the controller issues sorted out.

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How does one split The 2 drives? Obviously it’s best to have your programs running on same drives the os and then all the big files on the big hd or ami wrong

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Good call Homie! LOL now if i can only get the issues fixed. You all have been a great help.

So quick question… do we still need to do serial to serial when flashing or is there another way? ie… serial to usb or serial to hdmi

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what do you mean split the 2 drives? if you have 2 objects then they are already split..in 2 lol and yes that is usually good practice to keep the OS and application installation files on one drive then all of your personal file on another. If you mean split 1 hard drive then that is accomplished by creating partitions on the drive where the OS will see it has 2 (or more) separate drives.

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One thing to note, while Apple’s still have the “lossy” SSD compatibility, Windows 7 doesn’t have the loss after “so many read/writes” because it uses different storage tech. It’s not a dealbreaker for this by any means, but it also means that potentially a windows SSD will be stronger, longer, than a Mac SSD.

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Not to hijack this thread, but has anyone done this in their macbooks? replaced the HD with an ssd and a bigger HD?

im really thinkin of going about it and didnt wanna start a new thread… any info/advice relating to the article that was posted on the main page would be sweet.

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One word of advice/warning regarding SSDs;

Please be aware that these babies have a limited writing-operations on them. Once you hit that, you will not be able to (over)write any longer.
This is one of the reasons why Solid State is not used, or should not be used, in professional environments.

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youwhatnow tekki? can you elaborate or give a link?