possible extreme speed upgrade for photoshop

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Check this out:  Gigabyte i-RAM solid state drive

http://techreport.com/articles.x/9312

This could really help those of us out who are working with >1gig files.  Put two or three of these things in a RAID 0 array, and you might just melt your monitor!  What I like is that this SATA based RAM disc is OS independent: just plug into a PCI slot, hook it to a SATA cable, and set it up as the primary scratch disc on photshop.  Has anyone used one of these?  My search here turned up no related threads.

John

[Kevin W Smith]

Check this out:  Gigabyte i-RAM solid state drive

http://techreport.com/articles.x/9312

This could really help those of us out who are working with >1gig files.  Put two or three of these things in a RAID 0 array, and you might just melt your monitor!  What I like is that this SATA based RAM disc is OS independent: just plug into a PCI slot, hook it to a SATA cable, and set it up as the primary scratch disc on photshop.  Has anyone used one of these?  My search here turned up no related threads.

John
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=137738\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I don't know anything about it other than the review you linked to, but it sounds like a good start. The 4GB limit, throughput speed, and high price is a problem though, but the idea is cool. RAM talks to itself much faster than hard drives can, but if you're only using it as a scratch drive, you're still limited by the speed of the source and OS drives when you open and save your images.

For less money you can get a 15,000 rpm, 73GB+ hard drive that works almost as quickly (if louder), and do more with it.

But when Gigabyte gets the speed and capacity high enough, it could save a lot of time!

BTW, what's the latest on a 64-bit Photoshop, which should make anything like this unnecessary?

[BernardLanguillier]

This has been around for a long time actually. Promising, but the best way to get a speed boost remains more RAM since CS3 will generate dynamically a ram disk for cache if there is enough RAM available in the system.

As far as I am concerned, the performance bottleneck on my system is read access to data (Bridge preview generation, CS3 open of large files,...) and for this the best solution is a very fast SCSI320 external RAID5 unit.

Regards,
Bernard

[tived]

Hi Bernard,

I am thinking of hooking up a HP Mass Storage Array MSA-500, only problem it can only hook up to a HP box, and the one I got is only a dual 3.2Ghz Xeon, however this beast is a 14 disk box which when raid should hit some very high numbers. Will get back with result later.
Currently my server box. But I got the need for speed! ;-) so i'll try anything

Henrik

I think i may even be able to split it up with a second controller!!

[tived]

Check this out:  Gigabyte i-RAM solid state drive

http://techreport.com/articles.x/9312

This could really help those of us out who are working with >1gig files.  Put two or three of these things in a RAID 0 array, and you might just melt your monitor!  What I like is that this SATA based RAM disc is OS independent: just plug into a PCI slot, hook it to a SATA cable, and set it up as the primary scratch disc on photshop.  Has anyone used one of these?  My search here turned up no related threads.

John
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=137738\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Hi John,

Perhaps a handfull of SSD drives may fit the bill!! 5x 64GB SSD RAID 0 ... not even sure if its possible

Henrik

[Gurglamei]

There is actually one test of iRAM that quotes some results on Photoshop use, and it is rather disapointing in my view:
From this test iRAM is only marginally better then a fast hard disk in PS:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/09/07/can...yte/page10.html

It appears that PS itsellf my be the botleneck?

Gigabyte has annonced a version 2 quite some time ago  (Computex Tapiei 2005 if I remember correctly), and we are still waiting.  Possibly due to the recent coming to market of solid state disks for PC??


JMTC

Christopher

[Kevin W Smith]

Hi Bernard,

I am thinking of hooking up a HP Mass Storage Array MSA-500, only problem it can only hook up to a HP box, and the one I got is only a dual 3.2Ghz Xeon, however this beast is a 14 disk box which when raid should hit some very high numbers. Will get back with result later.
Currently my server box. But I got the need for speed! ;-) so i'll try anything

Henrik

I think i may even be able to split it up with a second controller!!
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=138148\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

If you can put 14 drives into that beast, why would you want a proprietary (to HP) external solution? A dual Xeon HP workstation is a full-featured screamer, with the right controller card you should be able to fill it with a big SATA2 RAID setup, plus a small, super fast scratch drive for Photoshop, and loads of registered RAM.

If you want to mirror the data on your workstation for backup, you just need a simple machine with a big case. It doesn't need to be fast, it just needs the capacity, which is easy to add if you choose the right components.

IOW, make your server your workstation, and build up a relatively inexpensive backup box with the same capacity. Doesn't need to be fast, just run the backups overnight.

[tived]

If you can put 14 drives into that beast, why would you want a proprietary (to HP) external solution? A dual Xeon HP workstation is a full-featured screamer, with the right controller card you should be able to fill it with a big SATA2 RAID setup, plus a small, super fast scratch drive for Photoshop, and loads of registered RAM.

If you want to mirror the data on your workstation for backup, you just need a simple machine with a big case. It doesn't need to be fast, it just needs the capacity, which is easy to add if you choose the right components.

IOW, make your server your workstation, and build up a relatively inexpensive backup box with the same capacity. Doesn't need to be fast, just run the backups overnight.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=138358\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

It is not that I want a HP solution, it is a HP solution the MSA will only speak to a HP workstation or server.

good point though

Henrik