Hi everyone,
I"m trying to get my head around a few things and I'm sure there are people out there with much greater knowledge than me. So please help, if you can... My descriptions may be oversimplified, but as mentioned I'm trying to get things straight.
So here are the scenarios:
1.
I have only one very fast ssd which contains:
- OS
- DAW
- Plugins
- Samples
- Recorded Audio files (DAW projects)
2.
I have a very fast ssd which contains:
- OS
- DAW
- Plugins
- Samples
+
I have another (maybe a bit slower) ssd which contains
- Recorded Audio files (DAW projects)

3.
I have a very fast ssd which contains:
- OS
- DAW
- Plugins
+
I have another (maybe a bit slower) ssd which contains
- Samples
+
I have another (maybe a bit slower) ssd which contains
- Recorded Audio files (DAW projects)

I know that scenario nr.3 is the "ideal" solution that people used to tell me to do, but I still have questions.
- Do I gain anything by recording onto a separate drive?
What I mean is, whenver I record an audio track, there is a "write" process happening. Is that correct?
But once the audio file is recorded, the whole thing "turns around" and whenever I play it back, it is a "read" process. So there is no more writing. Is this also correct?
- When I play back the already recorded audio files, where are they stored/read from? Are the read directly from the drive, or rather from the drive into RAM first, just like the samples for virtual instruments? If the audio files are also stored in the RAM, are they ever "unloaded"? If yes, when? Only when I hit save on the project or close the DAW?
- What happens in terms of background processes when I keep pressing play/stop (like when I"m listening back to a certain part of my song?)
- Why do the weird freezing things/crashes/click and pops mostly happen when jumping around in a project while it"s playing back?
- Do I gain anything by recording onto a separate ssd, or could I use a (separate) HDD for that?

Mac users (and maybe PC laptop users)! How do you use your storage devices, when you only have (quite often) very limited internal storage space/ internal storage quantity?

Well, I think I could have made this comment mcuh shorter by simply asking: Where are the possible bottlenecks in a computer config and how best to avoid them?

These are good questions, but not easy to answer. I think it is difficult to make a general conclusion about this, because there are so many factors that come into play. Different motherboards handle disk i/o and caching differently. Amount of RAM is also important. If you have plenty of memory, then most of the executable code should be cached and i/o bottlenecks avoided.

A fast motherboard, one or two fast Drives and plenty of RAM is probably a good strategy.

When you move and restart the playhead in a project, it may create a lot of CPU activity and possibly additional disk accesses. Often plug-in parameters are refreshed when playback restarts, with lots of plug-ins, this could result in a CPU hit. Reading many tracks of audio to and from disk shouldn't be too onerous on a modern system. Editing high resolution video is much more demanding.