How to Speed Up Your Solid-State Drive

with its cache on a cheap 16GB usb3.0 memory stick.
Moving the cache and reloading the organ took about 15 minutes.

Moving the cache should not take more than ten seconds. Click-<delete file>- Click- <rename file>-done.

If it takes 15 minutes to load an Organ Cache of no more than 16 Gb of size, you must have an exceptionally slow system. Or maybe a bad RAM module?

To engrssc

There are three organs I use but its difficult for me to tell what is going on because HW
is pretty secretive about what it is doing.

The usb3 drive has six files in Config0-OrganCaches varying from 26MB to 1.5GB they each have
a name Dnnnnnn.Cache_Hauptwerk_hbb where I assume nnnnnn is the organ.

Total memory consumed is 4.28GB.

To OrganoPleno

I don't think you know what you are talking about.

csw900

its difficult for me to tell what is going on...
six files in Config0-OrganCaches varying from 26MB to 1.5GB... where I assume nnnnnn is the organ.

So it takes you 15 minutes to load an Organ whose cache file is no greater than 1.5 Gb?
Does anybody else have this problem?

I don't think you know what you are talking about.

That's fine with me. Have a nice day

I'd be interested in the difference (load time) between using the memory stick as compared to using an internal SSD (for the cache(s) that is. The difference between using a HDD and a memory stick is no doubt due to the HDD's scan speed.

Rgds,
Ed

Hi Ed

I believe an ordinary hard disk can read at around 30 to 40MB/s.

I have not researched SSD's but a Google search should find some figures - I leave that
to you. I suspect they are quite a lot faster than usb3 because they can read direct to memory
using direct memory access (DMA).

From what I have recently discovered usb3 memory sticks normally read between
100 and 140 MB/s. USB3.1 sticks are coming soon which I think may be up to twice as fast.

I have never actually measured the organ load times so my comparison is not
scientific, just my impression that the usb3 loads in about half the time.

The figures I have quoted above are real life figures not the ideal (imaginary) ones that
manfacturers may quote.

In case Organo Pleno has caused any confusion it takes only a few seconds to load the organs
each one takes a different time. I apologise if I caused him any offence by my earlier remark.

csw900

[mdyde]

There are three organs I use but its difficult for me to tell what is going on because HW
is pretty secretive about what it is doing.

Hello csw900,

Actually, I would say that Hauptwerk is very verbose -- its activity log ('Help | View activity log') shows detailed timing statistics, file locations, etc.

I do not really want to reinstall Hauptwerk every time I move my cache. I am pretty
confident the path will be in one of the configuration files and can be edited. I have
just had a quick look and various paths are listed but not the one I need.

The 'Installation: background information | Planning installation locations' section in the Hauptwerk user guide covers disk placement of components (pages 18-19 in the current v4.2.1 version).

Please don't try to edit/hack Hauptwerk's configuration files manually. Doing so is highly likely to break your Hauptwerk installation at some point in the future (e.g. when you next run Hauptwerk's installer). If you want to change installation locations, use the method Iain quoted from the user guide ('Changing installation locations' on page 25).

I believe an ordinary hard disk can read at around 30 to 40MB/s.

I have not researched SSD's but a Google search should find some figures - I leave that
to you. I suspect they are quite a lot faster than usb3 because they can read direct to memory
using direct memory access (DMA).

From what I have recently discovered usb3 memory sticks normally read between
100 and 140 MB/s. USB3.1 sticks are coming soon which I think may be up to twice as fast.

I have never actually measured the organ load times so my comparison is not
scientific, just my impression that the usb3 loads in about half the time.

In my experience, high-performance 10,000 RPM hard-drives often manage 70-110 MB/s when loading organs from cache. SSD performance benchmarks have been provided by people in lots of previous posts, but are typically in the range 250 - 1000 MB/s (depending on SSD model). E.g.:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14624&p=113639#p113137

Most Hauptwerk users use 500+ GB SSDs these days for performance (organ loading times) and to allow sufficient size for a reasonable number of sample sets. (Modern sample sets tend to be large, to take advantage of current technology.)

These documents (linked to from the 'Support | Requirements' section of the website) have more detailed information on hardware/storage:

https://www.hauptwerk.com/clientuploads/documentation/PDF/HauptwerkBackgroundTechnicalInfoOnComputerHardware.pdf
https://www.hauptwerk.com/clientuploads/documentation/PDF/HauptwerkPrerequisites.pdf

Martin

I do not have one of those super high speed hard disks, mine is relatively slow by comparison.
That explains why the usb3 installation made the organs load more quickly.

I regarded the usb3 installation as experimental to find out the capabilities of usb3 -- in fact
its not that great -- about the same speed as your super fast hard disk.

The reason it took 15 minutes to move my cache to the usb3 memory stick is because I used
the "installation" method in the handbook. I would expect the next version of HW to have a less
time consuming method of doing something that many users may on occasion need. However
it did work well and I learned a bit more about HW.

If the organs load from the cache (as I am told) then I do not believe that keeping large volumes of
sample sets on an SSD would make the organs load faster. The only benefit would be when
the cache failed and the cache had to be reconstructed from scratch.

I have nothing against SSD's when used for the purposes described in the postings above because
"wearout" failure is caused by repeated writing to the SSD, repeated reading does not wear it out.

csw900

If the organs load from the cache (as I am told) then I do not believe that keeping large volumes of
sample sets on an SSD would make the organs load faster. The only benefit would be when
the cache failed and the cache had to be reconstructed from scratch.
csw900

I'm confused by this remark as we normally load only the cache on the SSD making one path change during the HW install. There is obviously a very significant gain in loading speed. This has been documented over and over but I will add my own experience using a single Samsung - 950 Pro 512GB m2 Solid State Drive. I can load the full Goerlitz sample set configured to 71 GB in approximately 2 minutes and 20 sec for an average throughput in excess of 500MB/sec. With my conventional WD red drive it took over 10 minutes. I'd like to know the exact time but am not about to reinstall HW or relocate a cache just to get the exact figure.

In my own case I run the OS on the SSD like many people do and try to mitigate some of the wear and tear by pointing as much disk activity as possible to the conventional hard drive. I wouldn't do this on my primary computer, the Mac mini, though it needs the speed boost more than the Hauptwerk PC.

I think he is saying that storing the caches on the SSD makes sense.
But storing the sample sets and their data ALSO on the SSD doesn't make sense because it would necessitate a much bigger SSD and it would only speed up the initial cache of each organ, or if an organ had to be recached (which normally isn't necessary).

Thanks telemanr

That is what I was trying to say.

csw900