The best external drive/specs for Komplete libraries - in your experience?

BassAddict · 2024-12-06T15:35:28+00:00

There was an error rendering this rich post.

Hey all, sorry for the long post but I want to get this right.

I use a MBP - a 2019 i9 with 32GB RAM, a 1TB SSD and 4 x Thunderbolt 3 ports (USB-C). It's still great at running Logic Pro with my small but beloved collection of NI goodies (Battery 4, Monark, Sanner XT and a few others).

As a new Komplete 15 CE owner, I now have more sounds than I can (or care to) store internally, so I'm going to be running the content from an external drive.

I was wondering if I could gather some recommendations on the best specs for a drive for this task? I'm an experienced IT professional, but I've not really come across this specific use case before. I'm not afraid to spend a reasonable amount (maybe up to £300/€360) as I want to avoid performance issues, but I also don't want to spend more than I really need to.

As a temporary measure, I have a large chunk of the content stored on a spare 1TB WD Blue SSD connected via SATA to USB-A then to a USB-A to USB-C to one of the MBP ports. Obviously not utilising Thunderbolt here and as you can see, the speeds are pretty pathetic:

However, I am quite surprised as to how well this temporary setup is performing. Loading a large Kontact instrument such as Choir Omnia takes 10 - 15 seconds, then around 5 seconds to load a preset from there on.

Regardless of this, I'm still going to need a new drive of at least 2TB so I might as well put the effort into speed vs cost to get the best experience. The problem is choosing the best one for my usage.

The main question is, do I go for standard USB-C drive where top speeds would likely be limited by my MBP's USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, something like the Samsung T9 or even the Kingston XS2000 2TB? Or go the extra mile on a limited choice of Thunderbolt 3 drives like the LaCie Rugged Mini or even a Thunderbolt 3 NVMe enclosure like the SABRENT M.2 Thunderbolt NVMe Enclosure with my choice or NVMe drive installed. Sorry, as forum n00b I can't post links just yet.

Given that my temporary WD Blue does an arguably reasonable job speed-wise, it's difficult to decide on the best approach here.

Also, ideally I would like to be able to fit this to the MBP lid when in use on occasion. There are plenty of little 'pockets' you can fit to the outer lid to hold SSDs etc - all things considered here such as heat generated etc. The Kingston XS2000 could excel here.

I'm interested to hear from anyone who has had to walk this path and how you've gotten on?

Cheers 😎

Find more posts tagged with

Komplete Ultimate

Komplete

Comments

eandrew

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/199184#Comment_199184

I've watched the vids on the upgrade and I feel confident enough about the guy's skills in reverse engineering the storage to make it compatible. Luke Miani who has opened up many Silicon Mac's has given me more than enough confidence in being ok with going through with it when the drives become available next year. I've owned 3 MBP's prior to my Mac Studio and I've only needed to go to the Apple store twice with them in the 10+ years of ownership. (knock on wood) Making music is how I make my living so if something goes wrong I will write it off and upgrade to a M4 Mac Studio… not that I wish something bad to happen but it will easily justify me upgrading lol

Thusis

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/198993#Comment_198993

I have an X10 as well. Mac cant make use of the USB Gen 3.2 2x2. So you wont get 20gbit only 10gbit. So money on the X10 is wasted for Macs, at laest at the moment. 10gbit drives are cheaper…

D-One

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/221768#Comment_221768

Oh wow. Thunderbolt 5 is quite expensive and I dont think there's any benefit for Audio but would love to see some comparisons.

I went with an Acasis Thunderbolt 3 enclosure (60$) + WB Black NVME SSD, the speed is half of yours but still insane VS the typical samsung plug-and-play drives most people recommend and 100x faster than old spinning external HD's. I think this is the best bang-for-buck for a multi-purpose drive, moving 100GB in like 2min is insane already.

Testing the above VS my other normal USB 3 10Gbps (1GB/s) cheap enclosures (25/30$) I didn't notice any significant difference using samples, loading heavy Kontakt instruments, etc. Maybe for orchestral templates when people use 80 instances of Kontakt it might add up.

BassAddict

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/196034#Comment_196034

Sounds good. Just hope that Apple don't aquire your favourite DAW, forcing you into their ~~prison~~ walled garden forevermore! 😂

PS. I've tried all the other DAWs but Logic and always will be my safe space and MacOS is just so reliable ☺️

Vocalpoint

"PS. I've tried all the other DAWs but Logic and always will be my safe space and MacOS is just so reliable"

Just as I cannot part with Studio One, the ultra stable reliability/expandability and of course - the price - of my Windows based custom DAWs.

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/39618/the-best-external-drive-specs-for-komplete-libraries-in-your-experience

There have been more discussions here in the forum with respect to external drives for Mac and discussing all of this to some extend is a bit like discussing religion.

Short version 1 : make this Google search and read the pages that it returns as search result.

Short version 2 : Quote reffahcs November 2023 :
I would strongly advise against using SSDs ie SATA, and encourage you to look at NVMe storage utilizing a Thunderbolt 4 enclosure to ensure you get the full 40Gbps transfer rate.
Short answer, if you have 4TB internal storage then use it. External TB4 enclosure w/ NVMe is next best. External SATA SSD/USB would be my last choice.
I have all of my NI/Arturia stuff on an external NVMe drive in a TB4 enclosure.

Selected discussion : New Computer Migration + SSD?

Other random examples of discussions :

Which location would be better for the native instruments library, internal or external?

External SSD recommendation

External hard drive on Mac

Mac Studio SSD

My own thoughts on this (and this is just a general observation, I am sharing thoughts, I don't want to start a separate discussion on that) : Also then these discussions are very often taken without consideration to the exact computer and setup in question. Questions of what speed can be expected with respect to certain ports also rely on the exact design of the computer in question with respect to which resources the port are sharing with which other internal parts but also it depends on what else is attached externally to the particular port. I know very little about all of this , but I know enough to point to that it is also something that ought to be taken into consideration. I recently assembled a PC that has more NVME drives and I had to get re-acquainted with PCI-E lanes and resource sharing on a whole new level where the drive PCI-E version , which means a lot since speed has doubled for each new generation, then suddenly were off set by that the actual 'could be expected drive speed' come to depend on which internal port it were attached to. But it ought to suffice to say that the number of PCI-E lanes depend on CPU and computer motherboard chips set and the rest on the particular design of the motherboard. Next after that is the design of the chip set of the peripherals where applicable. and for externally attached then any external resource sharing should be taken into consideration

victorp.sg

@BassAddict, just remember to reformat the T7 as GUID-APFS format—plain APFS will do; no need to be encrypted.

Jojo123

I'm on an 2019 i9 iMac 40GB ram 500GB Internal. I have 2 T7s one of which is for NI K14 UCE. For what I do, I haven't had, and still dont have any problems at all with the T7.

BassAddict

Quick update - I've been living with the (tiny) T7 for a few days now and I'm happy to report that it has exceeded my expectations.

Some of the larger instruments can take around 20 seconds to load and a couple of seconds to load new presets - this is plenty fast enough. I'm sure a Thunderbolt setup would be comparable with the onboard NVMe, but at twice the cost it simply isn't worth it, for me anyway.

Very happy, thanks all for your contribution.

Cheers 😎

Master of Madness

Another proud happy owner of the Samsung T7 (my third one actually). I currently have a 2Tb hanging off of my Mac Mini M2 Pro, which only has a (more cost effective) 1Tb internal SSD. All of my sound files & photographs (I'm a pro photographer too) are on it. Works great! I actually just finished traveling full time for 2+ years, exploring and photographing the country while living in a big shiny Airstream. What a blast, visiting 39 states, 14 states multiple times. I had a T7 as my main boot up HD on my 13" MacBook Air too for my "Mini Travel Studio" too, with a different view out our big windows every couple days while composing. Oh yeah, I tend to ADD ramble sometimes.

D-One

As far as having something very fast without going overkill for the sake of it I also recommend an NVME + a 10 Gbps enclosure, no reason nowadays to go with any SATA/600MB/s solution IMO.

You get 2TB NVME for about 100$ + 20$ for the enclosure if you're aiming for something cheap. 10Gbps (1.25 GB/s) is plenty fast. USB4 enclosures + PCIe4 NVME's are way faster but also more expensive and it's almost too fast, gets hot… really hot, so enclosures also tend to be bigger and sometimes even have fans… For Audio this is overkill.

Where I am from a 2TB Samsung T7 costs +- as much as a 4TB NVME, so it's way more expensive (2x the price for the same storage) but also easier since you dont need to pick a drive+enclosure… For those who care about nuances and bang-for-buck picking your NVME is a +, for others it might just complicate things and it's better to go with T7 and similar options as an "it just works" solution.

I've noticed some enclosures have outdated firmware that prevents them from working with specific NVME's, in my case WD Blue/Black — The only way to update the firmware is thru a Windows PC (or virtualized), some brands like Orico provide firmware update apps while with others you kind of have to scavenge the web and take chances… depends on the model but this is the biggest disadvantage with the NVME+Enclosure approach… Ask me how I know:

eandrew

For those that have M/Silicon Macs the internal storage can be upgraded next year.. Google Polysoft

Vocalpoint

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/199179#Comment_199179

Will be curious to see how many take a chance opening their Mac’s up.

Then how many are ok with completely voiding their warranty.

And finally those that change drives to and then have issues afterward and cannot get any help from anyone including Apple.

D-One

Mac's dont have a "warranty void if open" sticker AFAIK, that's illegal anyway…

Only a few modern Mac's have removable drives, the M4 Mini, and the Studio… I got a Mini M2 pro, I'd do it in a heartbeat if possible…

Theres people out there (such as polysoft.fr) developing 3rd party SDD's that are even better than apples, with things such as overvoltage protection… if my mac was eligible I'd do it for myself and to support their company… It's allegedly safer than the original one.

Kymeia

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/221769#Comment_221769

Thanks yes I realised that myself in the end so went with this (which uses Thunderbolt)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DB188MBH?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1

Quick links

Unanswered questions