SSD for music storage?

[andrewket]

I know there have been posts on this, but a search for "SSD" comes up with no results. Likely more of a failure of the search system...

I'm considering buying an external SSD for audio files rather than upgrading the flash drive in currently using. The advantages to an SSD should be write and to a lesser extend read speeds, and amount of storage. If you frequently pull the drive out and "sync" your library, the increase in write speed may be worth it.

I'd love feedback from those that have done this. Is it worth it? Any problems with the USB ports in the Model S supplying sufficient power?

 

[Todd Burch]

I have an external, non-SSD drive which has worked fine. (I'd expect the SSD to have lower power consumption than a traditional platter HD, right?)

 

[CHG-ON]

There are people who have done this. I am using two 128Gb sticks and the only issue I have had is how long it takes to load the music: forever! Tesla told me that I should remove them before rebooting. So it can be quite a PIA. Not sure if an SSD would have the same issue, but I would think so since the interface needs to read the files in order to populate the music directory. I can't imagine how long a 500Gb SSD would take.

The other thing that I have found is that now I have so much music in the car that it can be really hard to scroll through the lists while driving to find what I want. I haven't figured out a solution to having it all and having it be easy.

 

[MsElectric]

Wish Tesla would add a USB port to the glove box so you can plug an SSD drive there with all the music. With the present setup, it looks horrible to have a USB cable and a USB drive dangling from the exposed USB port when the rest of the interior is so clutter free...

Most of our music is lossless and our music library is about 250GB which necessitates the music to be stored in an SSD. The glove box is really the best place to plug that in and keep it out of sight.

I think you'll find the following post useful:

http://my.teslamotors.com/fr_CA/for...ic-files-model-s-large-hard-drive-flac-format

 

[perkiset]

The problem is not just the thumb drive retrieval speed, it's USB2. So although you'll get quicker performance from an SSD for reads, you'll still be beholden to the speed of the interface. And the SSD will entice you to store a lot more music, which will again take longer to spool up when you install the drive.

All that said, an SSD with 12V power and SATA-to-USB adapter would probably perform more admirably than the generally low-performance, but higher-density USB drives.

 

[Rockster]

I used a 256 gig SSD in a external, bus-powered enclosure for 18 months with no problems. I recently switched to a 128 gig thumb drive, though, because my wife didn't like the enclosure sitting in the console area.

 

[andrewket]

I used a 256 gig SSD in a external, bus-powered enclosure for 18 months with no problems. I recently switched to a 128 gig thumb drive, though, because my wife didn't like the enclosure sitting in the console area.

And has the performance suffered? Did the MS scan your library noticeably faster with the SSD? If no, then I'm just going to buy a larger thumb drive.

 

[Rockster]

I can't say than an initial scan was faster with an SSD. As was observed, a SSD compels one to store more music (in my case, twice as much), so a scan takes longer for that reason alone.

All in all, I'd say the only benefit an SSD offers is capacity, not speed. While a spindle drive could offer more capacity for the same $$, a spindle drive would be noticeably slower. (I used a spindle before I got the SSD.)

 

[supratachophobia]

I use a 256gb Evo840 in a USB 3.0 enclosure. It scans super fast and I don't have to worry about vibration hurting it while driving. Also, plenty of space. Protip: create logical drives on the device so you can have a form of playlists. They will appear as USB 1-4.

Oh, and for all those party poopers, the enclosure plus the SSD do not exceed the rated power coming from the USB port.

 

[Korben]

Nowadays it costs 69 dollars for a 256GB USB key (no need for external 2.5inch enclosure with long cables). Amazon PNY USB. I use this and it works quite well. Even with FLAC it would be challenging to find enough quality music to fill it. If you buy two you would have a half terabyte at your disposal. 256GB seems to be the price breakpoint (the point just before prices go up dramatically).

You can also find a 512 GB 315 dollar drive and a 1TB 700 dollar drive. These are all usb keys vs. SSDs with enclosures and cables.

If you have enough FLAC music to fill a 1TB drive I will be very impressed with your collection and would love to hear what you are doing with it.

 

[wayner]

I agree with Korben - why use an SSD at all as opposed to a USB flash drive?

 

[andrewket]

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to stick with thumb drives. I wish I had thought to look to see if the X had a usb port in the glovebox. I did notice that the phone cradle is using one of the external ports, which is unfortunate and looks bad in my opinion. I use my phone for waze, so I won't be using the cradle anyway.

 

[perkiset]

FLAC?

A 512 would hold most of my library - the stuff I'd actually want in my car anyway. But using the iTunes playlists-to-genre hack posted on this board, it has to store the same tune for as many times as it appears in playlists. So I can get sometimes 5 instances of the same file on the USB. It's a little funky, but having my playlists available is very cool. I'm currently only using 128 PNYs and they are adequate, however slow on the initial upload.

 

[CHG-ON]

I have not yet used this, but it might help your duplication issue. I am about to try it.

http://teslatunes.loci.net/

FLAC?

A 512 would hold most of my library - the stuff I'd actually want in my car anyway. But using the iTunes playlists-to-genre hack posted on this board, it has to store the same tune for as many times as it appears in playlists. So I can get sometimes 5 instances of the same file on the USB. It's a little funky, but having my playlists available is very cool. I'm currently only using 128 PNYs and they are adequate, however slow on the initial upload.

 

[supratachophobia]

I agree with Korben - why use an SSD at all as opposed to a USB flash drive?

USB media can still be flaky, depending on the quality of the chips. And SD/Micro-SD cards are even worse. I've seen them all fail, and more frequently than any hard drive. I'll stick with the SSD; between the speed, capacity, reliability, and vibration benefits, it's superior in every way but cost.