Anyone suggest a good desktop rig for photography?
- Thread starter Overlord4101
- Start date
you don't feel the performance increase because your scratch disk is residing on the same HDD as your other apps/files. A scratch disk should be on it's own, that means you allocate a disk or a disk array as scratch disk.
Correct. i used to use a RAMDISK as a scratch disk. That was fun.
Nowadays I use a different drive (2x500GB in RAID0)
I..see. not sure what's the reason, thought just seperate from O/S can alr, but i guess i thought wrong haha.
Well I can't afford to get another 500gb or 500x2gb as of yet, so it'll have to wait:bsmilie:
Wait. Can i instead reinstall my O/S on my 1TB, then use my 160gb entirely as scratch disk. Will that make it faster?
it is best to use a different drive from ur os drive because the paging file in ur os drive.
can u install ur cs on the 1tb and use tat as a scratch drive instead? don't have to reinstall os since its more troublesome.
not true. ssd doesn't work alot better than a fast hdd when u talk abt scratch disk in terms of value. i rather raid 0 2 raptors anyday. random write is not a strength of the ssd unfortunately.
hmm..the whole 1tb as scratch drive?? ahh cannot cause 200+gb used already.
But as of now cs is not installed on the 1tb, but scratch disk is on 1tb (30gb partition).
I forgot to mention that the 30gb ...well I assigned lightroom to use that as cache too. . . Bad idea?
i mean assigning the scratch disk as the 1tb. it won't use up 1tb as the scratch disk. treat it as extra ram during editing.
sorry ah flipfreak, still abit confused. ok heres the thing: my 1tb is split into:
100gb - System (to be used in e future)
30gb - Scratch disk (both LR and PS)
remaining - Data
do u mean: not have partitions in the 1tb and assign it as scratch disk?
or: increase the space for scratch disk?
sry ah, just clarifying...haha
basically, get a decent current processor, have separate drives for OS/program and Photoshop scratch, and stuff as much RAM as you can afford into the system...
for graphics card, anything that supports OpenGL 3 should be good, which is probably every current available card...
while multiple cores are not really useful in day to day stuff, some filters do use them, and Adobe Camera RAW seems to be able to use all the cores to process RAW files, with each core handling a RAW file in parallel; useful if you batch process multiple RAW files... get a quad core processor just to be safe if it doesn't blow your budget, but RAM should take priority in your budget...
SSDs for program drive will allow you to boot up your comp faster and load Photoshop faster... that's it... how useful that is depends on your preference and your budget... I do run my OS and programs from a OCZ Vertex, and Photoshop loads up in like <~3s even from a cold start...
the scratch drive should be on a separate drive to your OS/program drive... separate physical drive, not separate partition... having the scratch on a separate partition but on the same physical drive as your OS/program drive will not help...
you don't have to have a separate, isolated drive that you use solely for scratch... you do not have to set the space limit for Photoshop scratch, Photoshop will just have a temporary file written there as and when Photoshop loads up... you can store other stuff on this drive, but if you save your image files to the same drive as your scratch drive, saving will be slower (even if the files are saved to a different partition of the same physical drive as your scratch drive)...
WD Velociraptors are good, whether individual drives or RAID 0... nobody will stop you if you go for SSD RAID 0 though :bsmilie:... or if you have so much RAM that Photoshop is unlikely to use everything up, then you can do like Rashkae suggested and set some RAM up as a RAMdisk for ultimate scratch drive performance... but it's best not to do this unless your files in a typical Photoshop situation are running at >~90% efficiency or you'll just be taking usable RAM from Photoshop...
bottom line: more RAM helps...
for graphics card, anything that supports OpenGL 3 should be good, which is probably every current available card...
while multiple cores are not really useful in day to day stuff, some filters do use them, and Adobe Camera RAW seems to be able to use all the cores to process RAW files, with each core handling a RAW file in parallel; useful if you batch process multiple RAW files... get a quad core processor just to be safe if it doesn't blow your budget, but RAM should take priority in your budget...
SSDs for program drive will allow you to boot up your comp faster and load Photoshop faster... that's it... how useful that is depends on your preference and your budget... I do run my OS and programs from a OCZ Vertex, and Photoshop loads up in like <~3s even from a cold start...
the scratch drive should be on a separate drive to your OS/program drive... separate physical drive, not separate partition... having the scratch on a separate partition but on the same physical drive as your OS/program drive will not help...
you don't have to have a separate, isolated drive that you use solely for scratch... you do not have to set the space limit for Photoshop scratch, Photoshop will just have a temporary file written there as and when Photoshop loads up... you can store other stuff on this drive, but if you save your image files to the same drive as your scratch drive, saving will be slower (even if the files are saved to a different partition of the same physical drive as your scratch drive)...
WD Velociraptors are good, whether individual drives or RAID 0... nobody will stop you if you go for SSD RAID 0 though :bsmilie:... or if you have so much RAM that Photoshop is unlikely to use everything up, then you can do like Rashkae suggested and set some RAM up as a RAMdisk for ultimate scratch drive performance... but it's best not to do this unless your files in a typical Photoshop situation are running at >~90% efficiency or you'll just be taking usable RAM from Photoshop...
bottom line: more RAM helps...
i just bought a new PC for my work, i do a lot of work at photoshop
i7-960
GigbyteX58-UD7
12GB ram HyperX PC3 2000MHz CL9
OCZ 60GB Vertex 2 x 2 (Raid 0)- OS
WD 2TB (CB) x 8 (Raid 5)- Storage
Sapphire HD5870 x 2 (Cross Fire)
What did you think?
i7-960
GigbyteX58-UD7
12GB ram HyperX PC3 2000MHz CL9
OCZ 60GB Vertex 2 x 2 (Raid 0)- OS
WD 2TB (CB) x 8 (Raid 5)- Storage
Sapphire HD5870 x 2 (Cross Fire)
What did you think?
haha. u already bought it so too late for regrets. great rig. must have cost a bomb.
crossfire won't help in photoshop. the rest sounds great. raid 0 for the ssd quite hardcore right? considering u sacrificing trim for speed.
how much did it cost u? 5k?
Override2Zion
Senior Member
I think a Quad Core Processor (i5/i7), lots of RAM, lots of HDD space would suffice.
Unless you do lots of batch processing, run automated actions or use lots of complex filters, you will barely notice the difference using a high end system. Proficiency in photoshop and knowledge of shortcuts/short keys would probably make more difference in speed during editing.
I was on an old Intel Extreme X6800 C2D @ 3.2GHz till I upgraded recently to a i5-760 Quad @ 4Ghz now, both running with two HD5870 in crossfire mode and I barely feel any difference in normal operations like levels, exposure adjustment, sharpening, etc. Photoshop uses minimal hardware video acceleration. Investing more on a processor and ram would make more sense. Get a 24" or larger LCD screen, ease your eyes during editing.
Unless you do lots of batch processing, run automated actions or use lots of complex filters, you will barely notice the difference using a high end system. Proficiency in photoshop and knowledge of shortcuts/short keys would probably make more difference in speed during editing.
I was on an old Intel Extreme X6800 C2D @ 3.2GHz till I upgraded recently to a i5-760 Quad @ 4Ghz now, both running with two HD5870 in crossfire mode and I barely feel any difference in normal operations like levels, exposure adjustment, sharpening, etc. Photoshop uses minimal hardware video acceleration. Investing more on a processor and ram would make more sense. Get a 24" or larger LCD screen, ease your eyes during editing.
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If possible, get a good monitor with calibrated profile. I feel that display is an important part of photography.. or any graphic editing, yet only 1 post mentioned about getting a good monitor.
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