This is basically a question about SSD bandwidth as it relates to music streaming while performing other tasks:
I'm preparing to build a PC that will include at least one Corsair Force MP600 M.2 SSD mounted on a X570 motherboard (very fast). If I use one SSD that is partitioned for system, data and my FLAC music files, will I be able to stream music uninterrupted while the PC is also accessing system and data files? Or should I get two SSDs and dedicate one to music, read-only?
The additional cost of a second SSD would not be all that great, but I'd like to know it would actually be useful.
I'm preparing to build a PC that will include at least one Corsair Force MP600 M.2 SSD mounted on a X570 motherboard (very fast). If I use one SSD that is partitioned for system, data and my FLAC music files, will I be able to stream music uninterrupted while the PC is also accessing system and data files? Or should I get two SSDs and dedicate one to music, read-only?
The additional cost of a second SSD would not be all that great, but I'd like to know it would actually be useful.
You'd be much safer with the music files on a separate physical drive.
If Windows decides to delete everything, or if the system drive is corrupted or fails,
the write protected drive will be intact. Partitioning can also cause various unexpected problems.
If Windows decides to delete everything, or if the system drive is corrupted or fails,
the write protected drive will be intact. Partitioning can also cause various unexpected problems.
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I am afraid it is the OS which controls whether a filesystem is mounted read-only ("write-protected"). There is no hardware switch on the drive switching it to read-only mode (like on some SD cards and old floppy drives).
Partitioning a larger SSD and mounting the filesystem read-only is same as using a different SSD and mounting the filesystem read-only. Both cases need a separate copy disconnected from the computer (offline backup).
Any healthy SSD will happily serve audio files for playback even when heavily loaded. MP600 is NVMe PCI-e v.4 , the motherboard has PCI-e v4 slots, that drive specs are almost 5GB/s continous read/write and 600k ops/s. For comparison - a 192kHz flac has about 0.5MB/s bitrate. Any playback chain will cache at least 100ms of data (much more in reality). The load to the drive will be literally zero. Absolute overkill for audio.
Partitioning a larger SSD and mounting the filesystem read-only is same as using a different SSD and mounting the filesystem read-only. Both cases need a separate copy disconnected from the computer (offline backup).
Any healthy SSD will happily serve audio files for playback even when heavily loaded. MP600 is NVMe PCI-e v.4 , the motherboard has PCI-e v4 slots, that drive specs are almost 5GB/s continous read/write and 600k ops/s. For comparison - a 192kHz flac has about 0.5MB/s bitrate. Any playback chain will cache at least 100ms of data (much more in reality). The load to the drive will be literally zero. Absolute overkill for audio.
My 2 cents, it is not really about bandwidth, but system priority. In most cases, if you read system drives abruptly it might decided to briefly hang other jobs, and you will feel a slight freeze. This is true for windows accessing folders on a local network. And, if folder has a lot of files in them, both PC and streamer will take sometime to read what's in it.
In practice, as music streamers don't really need a lot of bandwidth under steady reading condition, you are safe to use anything, including portable HDDs. There can be some start up delays depending on your streamer cpu and drive type, but network operations kinda all have some.
In practice, as music streamers don't really need a lot of bandwidth under steady reading condition, you are safe to use anything, including portable HDDs. There can be some start up delays depending on your streamer cpu and drive type, but network operations kinda all have some.
Streaming music is utterly irrelevant vs the bandwidth available on an SSD drive. You could play a game, watch a movie, browse the internet and and whole lot more at the same time and still not have to worry about it.
...while windows continues to swap 😉 in the same times whatever the ram quantity (not advised to putt all on the ram) : Windows is made like that.
If you want to be reassured about the perf (but it doesn't matter as said) putt the Windows swap partition on a dedicated SSD unit/disc.
There are also hybrid disc with a little ssd part and the rest with disc. there are also cache on classic disks, common ones are 32 Mo to 256 Mo.
If you want to be reassured about the perf (but it doesn't matter as said) putt the Windows swap partition on a dedicated SSD unit/disc.
There are also hybrid disc with a little ssd part and the rest with disc. there are also cache on classic disks, common ones are 32 Mo to 256 Mo.
3 people have now provided answers that assume the OP plans to install and run Windows. Perhaps a safe assumption sometimes, but not all the time.
Either way, the power and speed of modern PC hardware is several orders of magnitude more than what is required to provide a DAC with a consistent stream of data from a FLAC file. This is even more true when the storage system(s) are solid state. Interruption of the music stream will only occur with extreme use of the system resources for other tasks.
I have to admit that I also made an assumption when I first replied; I assumed this would be a PC which has music playback as a primary function.
If this PC is to be used for numerous tasks (especially very resource intensive tasks such as gaming) then storing the FLAC files on a separate SSD might be advantageous, but the better solution is to not use the PC for all of these tasks simultaneously.
For example, if you plan to do online gaming while capturing/streaming the game video to twitch (or whatever it is called) while simultaneously rendering 3D models, encoding H.265 movies, and running folding@home in the background, and you want your FLAC files streaming to your DAC from the same system so you can crank MegaDeth while your PC heats your entire room... maybe getting a separate drive for your FLAC files is worth the extra money.
Either way, the power and speed of modern PC hardware is several orders of magnitude more than what is required to provide a DAC with a consistent stream of data from a FLAC file. This is even more true when the storage system(s) are solid state. Interruption of the music stream will only occur with extreme use of the system resources for other tasks.
I have to admit that I also made an assumption when I first replied; I assumed this would be a PC which has music playback as a primary function.
If this PC is to be used for numerous tasks (especially very resource intensive tasks such as gaming) then storing the FLAC files on a separate SSD might be advantageous, but the better solution is to not use the PC for all of these tasks simultaneously.
For example, if you plan to do online gaming while capturing/streaming the game video to twitch (or whatever it is called) while simultaneously rendering 3D models, encoding H.265 movies, and running folding@home in the background, and you want your FLAC files streaming to your DAC from the same system so you can crank MegaDeth while your PC heats your entire room... maybe getting a separate drive for your FLAC files is worth the extra money.
The task of reading music data is so ridiculously much slower than anything else the computer is doing so it could be half asleep/dead while still serving the music 🙂
Anyways, there could be (extreme) corner cases where there could be issues. Get one disc. Get another one if you would end up having problem. Chances are that if you indeed got issues it wont help with another disc... There are other common resources in a computer then the disc....
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Anyways, there could be (extreme) corner cases where there could be issues. Get one disc. Get another one if you would end up having problem. Chances are that if you indeed got issues it wont help with another disc... There are other common resources in a computer then the disc....
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