USB stick verses SSD - what's the difference?

[beesonthewhatnow]

I want to acquire a storage device to store music on for DJing (it will plug into a controller). A 1TB USB 3 stick can be found for less than £20 nowadays, yet a similar sized SSD is around £100.

So - what's the difference? I'm happy to pay the extra if it means greater speed/reliability etc, but if it's not worth it for what I need then obviously will save my cash...

 

[skyscraper101]

It's mainly about speed and durability. From here

An SSD is a great choice if you're all about speed. SSDs have comparable storage space to a USB flash drive. This makes them an excellent choice for storing operating systems and software.

Keep in mind that by getting an external SSD, you'll be paying considerably more money than you would for your average USB flash drive. But the durability and speed of an SSD compensate for the price tag.

Overall, a USB flash drive offers the most flexibility, has the same storage abilities, and offers a variety of affordable options. For many people, a flash drive provides more than enough to get the job done.

 

[two sheds]

Worth getting at least two flash drives if you decide on usb.

 

[editor]

Always have a back up because it's not unusual for USB sticks to randomly decide not to play nice.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Always have a back up because it's not unusual for USB sticks to randomly decide not to play nice.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking - two different make/models to maximise the chance of one always working, hence looking at the possibility of the cheaper options...

 

[Brayfart]

I want to acquire a storage device to store music on for DJing (it will plug into a controller). A 1TB USB 3 stick can be found for less than £20 nowadays, yet a similar sized SSD is around £100.

So - what's the difference? I'm happy to pay the extra if it means greater speed/reliability etc, but if it's not worth it for what I need then obviously will save my cash...

Read all the reviews on a 1tb usb stick at that price. It's probably a smaller one that will show up as 1tb on your system but not hold more than 128gb or so. A reliable one will be similarly priced to the micro SD.

 

[Fez909]

Definitely get 2 or more USB sticks over SSD for DJing for the redundency Editor mentioned.

If you were using it for something that required more use, like a streaming server or whatever, then I'd go SSD.

Also, there's a good chance you'll lose these when DJing out, so best to go with the cheaper option, IMO.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

All useful info, thanks

 

[editor]

All useful info, thanks

Do you actually need 1TB storage? Even if you saving at the highest possible file size, you'll still be in the hundreds of thousands of tracks.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Do you actually need 1TB storage? Even if you saving at the highest possible file size, you'll still be in the hundreds of thousands of tracks.

Probably not, but I'm generally of the mind that as storage is so cheap nowadays then I may as well future proof myself.

 

[two sheds]

You'll need 2 TB and a Musk brain implant for that

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I'd imagine the seek times on an SSD would make for a much nicer experience, but I'm not a DJ, so don't know how much this actually matters.

Assuming it's plugged into a USB 3 port the transfer times when moving a lot of data will be much faster as well.

 

[editor]

Probably not, but I'm generally of the mind that as storage is so cheap nowadays then I may as well future proof myself.

By the time you've filled up 1TB of music storage I'd imagine there'd be a whole new format in town.

My recommendation: buy loads of smaller capacity drives - 128GB is still fucking vast - and have plenty of back ups.

 

[Chz]

"USB3" is fairly meaningless. It can mean any of half a dozen different maximum transfer rates, and even then it doesn't provide any sort of guarantee of the speed of the flash storage backing it. Which at £20 for a TB isn't going to be very good.

Is it still probably fast enough for DJ stuff? Oh heck yeah. Even uncompressed 96KHz, 24-bit sound barely scratches the transfer capacity of USB2. But you'd expect a proper SSD to be one or two orders of magnitude faster than that.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

I have several external SSDs that are fast enough to run software/games from. A bit overkill maybe for Djing though.

 

[Sasaferrato]

I want to acquire a storage device to store music on for DJing (it will plug into a controller). A 1TB USB 3 stick can be found for less than £20 nowadays, yet a similar sized SSD is around £100.

So - what's the difference? I'm happy to pay the extra if it means greater speed/reliability etc, but if it's not worth it for what I need then obviously will save my cash...

A 1Tb stick for £20.00 will say it has 1Tb of space, but when you try and put data on, it will top out at less than 32Gb.

A 1Tb stick from a reputable brand is circa £50.00.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

A 1Tb stick for £20.00 will say it has 1Tb of space, but when you try and put data on, it will top out at less than 32Gb.

A 1Tb stick from a reputable brand is circa £50.00.

Fair point, I missed that. Anything that cheap is a fake.

 

[Chz]

I just took that at face value, but yeah. You can get 512GB from a reliable make/vendor for £30-ish, but not a TB. Unless you believe in the AliExpress 2TB USB sticks for £3.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I mean what could go wrong. It's from Amazon?

 

[danski]

San Disk Extreme are at the top end, I believe

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Right. So I’m thinking of getting a 1TB Sandisk SSD to hold my main database/files, then getting a couple of 128GB sticks that I can then move tunes in and out of as per set requirements.

That sound sensible?

 

[editor]

Right. So I’m thinking of getting a 1TB Sandisk SSD to hold my main database/files, then getting a couple of 128GB sticks that I can then move tunes in and out of as per set requirements.

That sound sensible?

I still think a 1TB SSD is total overkill. Just about every DJ I've seen just uses USB sticks of various sizes.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

San Disk Extreme are at the top end, I believe

There’s the Extreme and the Extreme pro. I use the Extreme which can transfer a gigabyte of data a second. The pro can double that.

 

[editor]

There’s the Extreme and the Extreme pro. I use the Extreme which can transfer a gigabyte of data a second. The pro can double that.

You certainly won't be needing those speed for DJing!

 

[Magnus McGinty]

You certainly won't be needing those speed for DJing!

Yeah I agree. Massively OTT.

 

[spitfire]

I still think a 1TB SSD is total overkill. Just about every DJ I've seen just uses USB sticks of various sizes.

Yebbut SSD goes up to 11.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I still think a 1TB SSD is total overkill. Just about every DJ I've seen just uses USB sticks of various sizes.

It will have other stuff on for work (video based), so I'm fairly sure I'll find the space useful.