SSD's make a huge difference in playing back large templates because they allow you to use much pre-load buffer sizes in Kontakt (streaming from disk instead of loading everything into RAM). The key parameter is the random seek time - SSD's are far faster than HDD's there. The sequential read times that everyone quotes are less important for sample playback because you are reading a large number of individually small samples, a much different scenario than working with multi GB HD video files that tend to be primarily sequential reads. Especially if you are using any EWQL libraries since PLAY is very unoptimized for read performance.

32GB on a LGA 1155 (Sandy/Ivy Bridge) or LGA 1150 (Haswell) based system (which max out at 32 GB) goes a very long way with SSD's. Once you have worked with an SSD based sample playback system, you will never want to go back to HDD's. The Crucial M500 and Samsung 840 disks are pretty reasonable these days. You can get a 250 GB Samsung 840 for $175 from Amazon. There is a lot of discussion on the web about the write longevity of the TLC Samsung 840, but in a sample drive that is 99% reads, it is absolutely no problem.

FYI, the i7-3770 is an Ivy Bridge CPU, the i7-4770 is Haswell (Intel's latest generation). One advantage of Haswell is that the chipset supports 6 SATA III ports as opposed to SB/IB which supports only 2 SATA III ports and 4 SATA II ports.

The 840 (non pro) is fine for samples. The pro version has a bit better read performance, a lot better write performance and much better write endurance at a substantially higher cost. Since sample drives are read-only other than occasional updates/installs, the regular 840 is by far a better value. Also bear in mind that multiple drives provide more independent channels of I/O, e.g. I would prefer 2 250 GB drives than a single 500 GB. Don't go below 250 - the smaller models (at least on the Samsung) have inferior performance and write endurance to the larger ones. 

This one reason I prefer the Haswell platform - more SATA III ports. As your sample library grows you will need 3 or 4 SSD's. Also make sure whatever case you get has room for at least 6 drives. 

Hello danybab, 

1) Launch Vienna Ensemble PRO SERVER (32 and/or 64 bit) on your computers. On Windows (and if you are a Mac-user): Click the "START" button => "All programs" => "Vienna Ensemble PRO SERVER"

2) Start your sequencer. 

3) Insert "Vienna Ensemble PRO" as a plug-in in your sequencer => the SERVER INTERFACE will open (this CONNECTS to your SERVERs, which are outside of your sequencer). 

4) Connect to the available instances. 

Of course you need a working ethernet connection if you are connecting 2 computers. 

Best, 

Paul