Super Slow Daz ("SSD") and SSD (Solid State Drives)

[Notiusweb]

Just a quick question, did anyone ever switch their Content Library location to a SSD from a standard Drive and see speed improvement on the search & content folder functionality within the Daz app itself?
I'm hoping this could be the case, but wondering. If I do a search it can plod sometimes, and sometimes when I go to search the Poser content folders it takes a couple seconds before it unbranches and shows content within sub folders (Poser Formats>My Libraries>Camera, Figures, Hair, etc...).
Thanks

[itou31]

Hi Notiusweb,
Did you moved to SSD or not ?
I've seen improvement in smart content, displayed faster, and when loading a character too.
I just test in search and seems quick but I didn't use it much when library was on HDD.
Oh, and I come from a raid0 (x3 HHD) to a 1To SSD.

[Hydra]

I moved from SSD (1 TB raid 10) to a Western Digital Red because my SSD was getting full. Speed is slower on regular hard drives. But for me the annoying issue is that the drives have to spin up if they've spun down. (Why spin down you ask? My PC is super quiet. The loudest thing it is the idle hard drives, and they were the quietest I could find.)

I don't use smart content and the like, but I'm planning to start using it at a rudimentary level. I currently only access the content directories directly, and they are fine, (super fast on SSD).

[Notiusweb]

A 2 terabyte solid-state drive goes now between $700 US to $1000 US. if it's just a touch faster then it's probably not worth it but if it snapped instantly, like a 1 minute search turned into a 10 second search, then Hmmmmmmm! Might just do it...

I do some music production and I use the Native Instruments Kontakt sample engine...some of the gigabyte size libraries on a solid-state drive will load in like 10 seconds, whereas a regular hard drive that same load time could be about two minutes....so it's a pretty dramatic difference in that case.

[Hydra]

Well... I haven't noticed too much better or slower. If you check... Octane will load the textures into the video card once unless you force a reload. So... really this is about Daz. I only find it marginally better with SSDs. My drive is Raid 10, so it can move 1 GB a second. Its fast.

[SiliconAya]

I've had my content folder on a SSD for years and content library searches are close to instant, I searched for chair and got 327 results in about 1s, searching for skin returned 714 results over about 3s.
I don't use smart content etc and DIM says I have 1255 packages installed.
However, isn't it just searching the content database, not the content directory? In which case you could just move the database to a SSD? I'm quite possibly wrong though.

[Notiusweb]

I've had my content folder on a SSD for years and content library searches are close to instant, I searched for chair and got 327 results in about 1s, searching for skin returned 714 results over about 3s.
I don't use smart content etc and DIM says I have 1255 packages installed.
However, isn't it just searching the content database, not the content directory? In which case you could just move the database to a SSD? I'm quite possibly wrong though.

Thanks for posting the timing, I am able to run a plausible comparison. I did a search of chair as well and it fell within the same time-rate as you. If your 'skin' one had also come back in about 1s, I would have suspected a greater speed difference, but I seem to be getting a ~270-300 per second result as well when I do searches. Thanks for running that

Well... I haven't noticed too much better or slower. If you check... Octane will load the textures into the video card once unless you force a reload. So... really this is about Daz. I only find it marginally better with SSDs. My drive is Raid 10, so it can move 1 GB a second. Its fast.

Thanks. I guess we are essentially matching the speed of SSD then, as far as a Daz content library search is concerned.

[linvanchene]

Can only reconfirm what was already mentioned...

However, isn't it just searching the content database, not the content directory? In which case you could just move the database to a SSD? I'm quite possibly wrong though.

The PostgreSQL database is located under

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D\cms

-> As long as you are only worried about the speed of search results it does not matter if your content is located on a SSD or a HDD as long as the CMS location is on the SSD.

I never tested how much faster the content actually loads into the scene IF I would add it to C drive as well.
There are to many content & project files to fit them all on "just" 1 or 2 TB SSD.


Update / Edit:

Side Note: longevity of SSD

Working with computer graphics software seems to rely on a high frequency of saving and deleting data in the cache.

I wonder how noticeable the shorter life span of SSD caused by this might be?

As far as longevity, while it is true that SSDs wear out over time (each cell in a flash memory bank can be written and erased a limited number of times), thanks to TRIM command technology that dynamically optimizes these read/write cycles, you're more likely to discard the system for obsolescence (after six years or so) before you start running into read/write errors with an SSD.

If you're really worried, there are several tools that monitor the S.M.A.R.T. status of your hard drive or SSD, and will let you know if you're approaching the drive's rated end of life.

The possible exceptions are high-end multimedia users like video editors who read and write data constantly, but those users will need the larger capacities of hard drives anyway. Hard drives will eventually wear out from constant use as well, since they use physical recording methods. Longevity is a wash when it's separated from travel and ruggedness concerns.

source:
http://uk.pcmag.com/storage-devices-rev ... difference

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[Notiusweb]

That would be interesting if the speed was based off if the CMS file location. I have content on a regular HD, but my CMS file is on a SSD. Maybe that was why I am seeing the same speed as those with content on a SSD, assuming their CMS is also on a SSD.

One thing I noticed now is opening up the Poser content folders is fast once you have opened it once. Almost like you have to break it in. But another thing is I found that if I run a search, for example when I do the search for 'chair', after it is done, any folder I access snaps open quickly, like a search has broken it all in. Kind of analogous to when you go to a pool and the water is cold, but then once you go in, you are used to it and can go right in. Maybe this is due to the drive not spinning and then spinning? One of the Daz-oddities.

[linvanchene]

That would be interesting if the speed was based off if the CMS file location. I have content on a regular HD, but my CMS file is on a SSD. Maybe that was why I am seeing the same speed as those with content on a SSD, assuming their CMS is also on a SSD.

One thing I noticed now is opening up the Poser content folders is fast once you have opened it once. Almost like you have to break it in. But another thing is I found that if I run a search, for example when I do the search for 'chair', after it is done, any folder I access snaps open quickly, like a search has broken it all in. Kind of analogous to when you go to a pool and the water is cold, but then once you go in, you are used to it and can go right in. Maybe this is due to the drive not spinning and then spinning? One of the Daz-oddities.

I also noticed that when you do similar searches each follow up search is faster.

My guess was that some search related information may be stored in the CMS database cache for quicker reuse.