Installing Logic/ Hard Drive Options

[Dante310]

Hey guys, I'm new to logic and I'm wondering if some people could offer me advice on installation. I will buy a new external drive if necessary but I'm trying to save that money for other production gear if I don't need it so here goes...

 

I am about to install logic 7.2, and I have a 17 Inch Mac book pro (Dual core 2.17 ghz, 1 gig ram, 120 gig 5400 rpm HD). I also have a 7200 rpm external, however it is USB, not firewire. now, I should have known to get a 7200 internal when I bought this comp, but I didn't, so here's what i'm trying to figure out.

 

1) Are either of the drives I have fast enough to run logic and my plugins off of, or do i need a 7200 firewire? I do hip hop production, usually rewiring reason, and I'll be doing my drums in a single VST using the Guru AU by FXPansion. For the time being, like while I have this setup, I will not be doing live recording or tracking of vocals.

 

2) Lets say that setup is good enough. I am going to do a clean install of OS X and a full defrag before I install, and always keep at least 30% of my logic drive empty. Should I install logic and my plugins on my internal, and use the external as a scratch drive? Should I do it vice versa? I ask because I've heard using the same drive as scratch and read drive will destroy an HD much quicker than normal.

 

3) if i do need a 7200 firewire external, again, should I just install logic on my main HD, and install my sounds/plugins on the external, or what? Which disk should I use as my scratch disk?

 

Sorry for the long post...thanks!!

[ballpein]

Conventional wisdom is to install software / plugs on the system drive, and go external for your audio. Most of the disk i/o will be reading audio, therefore keep that stuff on the faster drive, seperate from your system / software drive. This is the setup I've always used for video editing.