Internal/External storage and setup for music recording

Hello everybody,

I would like to know if somebody can help me for optimum setup for recording with my laptop. I recording 14 simultaneous tracks via FireWire. The most important when recording, it’s the write speed and the burst transfert. For music, the system and apps don’t need to open faster.

But, I use also my laptop for Internet and Office. In this case, it’s the system and apps that need to open faster.

My laptop is a Dell XPS m1330, 4Gb, 7200rpm hard drive.

Usualy, for music with a desktop computer, it’s recommanded to have some hard drives like:

1 for system and apps,
1 for page file,
1 for recording.

I use 4 internals + 1 firewire external with my desktop computer.

But for a laptop, do you think I can improve anything with this kind of setup?:

Idea 1 : Internal 7200rpm for system & apps + external eSata for recording
Idea 2 : ExpressCard SSD for system & apps + internal 32Gb SSD for recording
Idea 3 : Internal 32Gb SSD for system & apps + external eSata for recording
Idea 4 : USB for system (portable), ExpressCard SSD for apps, +internal 32Gb SSD for recording.
Idea 5 : replace 7200rpm by 10 000rpm internal hard drive.

After recording, I will transfert data on my desktop computer.

Your suggestion are welcome!

 

IMO if you're adding internal get an internal 320GB WD scorpio 5400RPM to give you size, speed, and portability benefits (as fast as many/most 7200RPM drives), but if you only have one drive the 7200RPM drive would be fine, save money and buy bigger externals, now then an external LARGE eSATA or FireWire drive for data dumping (don't bother recording directly to drive unless you absolutely have to, but get eSata or Firewire in case you do [less latency issues, higher througput and lower CPU overhead])

Really for what you're using it for large amounts of good quick space is best, and an SSD is probably not a high priority, and expresscard 8GB is probably OK value for battery saving situations, but for the actual recording situation it doesn't offer much IMO.

That's my view from the video/photo editing side of the room. My audio editing is limited, but fast capture and delivery (for mixing) and large storage would seem to be your primary needs.

 

Before loading your system with all the I/O overhead, you may want to start with laptop plus firewire and max data stream through your recording software. Any hiccups, dropouts?

A forum of like software users can save you a lot of time as well. IMHO, I prefer the KISS procedures.