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Author Topic: Setting up new MacPro  (Read 5580 times)

Schwenny

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Setting up new MacPro
« on: January 18, 2008, 10:14:39 am »

I just ordered the new MacPro Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core), right now I have an old G5 so I'm really looking forward to this. My problem now is that I'm not to sure how much RAM I need to use Photoshop & Lightroom, I'm thinking of buying it from OWC.

And then is the harddrive question, I can put in a total of 4 if I understand it right, what's the best ones to get, how should I configure them. RAID?

I read a few months ago here how Jeff Schewe had set up his system but I can't find it now. That was before 10,5 when the system can make back-ups for you automatically to an external harddrive.

How should I set up my system so Photoshop & Lightroom runs the best?

Is there anything else I have to think about?

Regards,
Håkan
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mdijb

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Setting up new MacPro
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2008, 07:18:25 pm »

I would suggest looking at the Drobo external storage device.  I have used one for six months and find it painless and easy to use.  They just announced a net work version.  Checkout the item at  http://www.datarobotics.com/  It does everything automatically and you do not even to think about a complicated raid system--that is it's real value reason for the cost above just a group of drives

MDIJB
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Per Ofverbeck

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Setting up new MacPro
« Reply #2 on: January 19, 2008, 08:08:45 am »

Quote
I just ordered the new MacPro Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core), right now I have an old G5 so I'm really looking forward to this. My problem now is that I'm not to sure how much RAM I need to use Photoshop & Lightroom, I'm thinking of buying it from OWC.

And then is the harddrive question, I can put in a total of 4 if I understand it right, what's the best ones to get, how should I configure them. RAID?

I read a few months ago here how Jeff Schewe had set up his system but I can't find it now. That was before 10,5 when the system can make back-ups for you automatically to an external harddrive.

How should I set up my system so Photoshop & Lightroom runs the best?

Is there anything else I have to think about?

Regards,
Håkan
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Hej, Håkan,

Here are a couple of web sites I found helpful when configuring my MP 2x2.66 last August; suppose they´re not so far off with the new ones either:

[a href=\"http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/intel/macpro/]http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/rev...s/intel/macpro/[/url]

http://diglloyd.com/diglloyd/free/MacPro/memory.html

FWIW, I bought the minimum, 2x512MB config from AppleStore and then added 6 pc of 1 GB Kingston DIMM (bought from InWarehouse, if you´re in Sweden).  These have the heavy-duty heatsinks needed, and work perfectly.

My total of 7 GB is plenty, even for Photoshop.  Almost the only time i have pageouts to VM is when recording live TV from my EyeTV.

My HD´s are all ordinary 7200RPM, 16MB cache units, mainly Samsung SpinPoints.  I don´t have a dedicated scratch disc (or partition) set up; I was contemplating a 10000RPM Raptor for that if necessary, but it works well without it so far (I seldom scan, so I handle very few of those 250MB monster files...).

I suggest starting with a moderate setup, then adding things when they prove necessary (I started with 5 GB total RAM, but too many pageouts for my liking.  The extra 2 GB fixed it).
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Chris_Brown

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Setting up new MacPro
« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2008, 09:43:40 am »

As of today, Photoshop on a Mac only addresses 3 GB of RAM. So, if you run only PS, 4 GB of RAM will  work. However, if you want to run multiple apps, install at least 8 GB RAM.

As posted here, Photoshop will eventually be re-written as a 64-bit app. Then it will take full advantage of as much RAM as you can afford/install.

For configuring the internal drives, it's personal and the combinations are endless. If you work on huge PS files (1 GB or more) then having a drive dedicated as scratch is a good asset. That leaves two drives for you to customize.

If you're thinking of striping them for faster I/O, think hard before you go that route. It's great for video I/O but I don't think it's necessary for PS file I/O.

As for hard drive backup, I've been using these RAID 1 drives with great success.
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Schewe

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Setting up new MacPro
« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2008, 01:26:47 pm »

Quote
I read a few months ago here how Jeff Schewe had set up his system but I can't find it now. That was before 10,5 when the system can make back-ups for you automatically to an external harddrive.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=167957\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


I have a MacPro tower with 16 gigs of ram. I run Photoshop with the VMBuffering plug-in installed that allows Photoshop to cache scratch disk data to the system free memory. I also run Photoshop with 90% allocated. It run really, really fast. (even Michel was impressed when we were taping here at my studio this week).

I also have 4 internal 750G drives. The main boot drive is on a single drive...the scratch disk and work images are on separate partitions on a 3 drive internal striped array. Given the fact that striped arrays are more risky, I do nightly backups of the main image partition to external mirrored arrays-which means that everything new on the internal array is also copied nightly to a pair of external drives. I use Retrospect for doing the backups.
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jerryrock

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Setting up new MacPro
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2008, 01:33:01 pm »

Quote
As of today, Photoshop on a Mac only addresses 3 GB of RAM. So, if you run only PS, 4 GB of RAM will  work. However, if you want to run multiple apps, install at least 8 GB RAM.

This statement is not quite correct. With a 64bit processor, Photoshop CS3 will utilize up to 8 gigs of ram. It can use 3.7 directly and the rest (as Mr. Schewe stated) as scratch disk space before going to the hard drive.

This Adobe Tech note explains Photoshop CS3 's memory utilization:

http://www.adobe.com/go/kb401089

Jerry
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Gerald J Skrocki

Schwenny

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Setting up new MacPro
« Reply #6 on: January 21, 2008, 05:56:14 am »

I'm looking at OWC website and find they have two different kinds of memory. The Netlist is certified for Mac Pro and the regular OWC is qualified for Mac Pro, there's a big price difference... Is there any other difference?

I've heard different things about hard drives, some people say that there's a difference between different brands for the internal ones. So what brand and speed would be the best? Should I exchange the one I get with the computer with a faster bigger one?

Regards,
Håkan
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budjames

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Setting up new MacPro
« Reply #7 on: January 21, 2008, 07:40:50 am »

Another posted suggested the Drobo drive for backups. A word of caution, I have a friend who owns several Apple retails stores. They started selling the Drobo, but immediately had customer complaints and reliability issues. He said that the support from Drobo was terrible. He ended up buying several units back from customers and he has stopped recommending them.

The other issues with the Drobo is that it is currently USB only. FW 800 is much faster for transferring files so that what I use connected to my MacPro 8-core.

I think it's a neat concept, but he said to stick with my current process which is to create mirror copies of my MacPro internal RAID 0 (2x750GB) drive to an external Iomega Ultra Max 1.5TB FW800 drive using File Synchronization (3rd party utility). I also back up to 3 external 300GB drives that I rotate through my safe deposit box at my bank in order to have duplicate back ups off site.

My MacPro 8-core is configured with 4 drives: 1TB main drive, 2x750GB in RAID 0, and 750GB drive partitioned as a 100GB and 650GB. The 100GB partition is used as my Scratch disk and the 650GB partition is used for SuperDuper back ups of my main drive (1TB that's less than half full). External storage is a Lacie 1.2TB drive for Apple Time Machine and an Iomega Ultra Max 1.5TB FW 800 to for mirror duplicates of my photos and video files stored on my internal RAID.

I have 16 GB RAM running Leopard 10.5.1.

Cheers.

Bud James
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luong

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Setting up new MacPro
« Reply #8 on: January 21, 2008, 02:18:53 pm »

For speed tests by brand of drives, the best resource is barefeats.com

Currently the Seagate 1TB comes on top.

You should probably replace the stock drive. Large drives with same RPM have a higher recording density, which provides faster access. The 10K drives are yet faster. The stock drives provide neither large capacity nor best speed.

For hints on mac configuration, see:
homepage.mac.com/boots911/.Public/PhotoshopAccelerationBasics2.4W.pdf

Personally, based on the above and the diglloyd.com discussion about memory already referenced, I am opting for the following:

memory: 4 x 2GB (1GB modules are slower, as are configs of 2 or 6 modules).

internal drives:
startup raptor 150GB (Western Digital 10K RPM)
scratch RAID 0 2x raptors 150GB
work Seagate 1TB

storage:
external drives with SATA/e-SATA interface through host adaptor.

It would be faster yet to stripe (RAID 0) all drives, but I don't really want to go there.
« Last Edit: January 21, 2008, 02:32:19 pm by luong »
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luong

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Setting up new MacPro
« Reply #9 on: January 21, 2008, 02:20:49 pm »

Regarding the Drobo, I don't see any real advantages over a RAID 5 array. You can build one with SATA/e-SATA connections for much faster transfers.
« Last Edit: January 21, 2008, 02:27:18 pm by luong »
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LA30

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Setting up new MacPro
« Reply #10 on: January 21, 2008, 03:57:49 pm »

Quote
Regarding the Drobo, I don't see any real advantages over a RAID 5 array. You can build one with SATA/e-SATA connections for much faster transfers.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

[a href=\"http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-5pm/]http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-5pm/[/url]


this is very close to the cost of the DROBO, about 540.00 and then you need a card for the macbook pro (about $100).  You can set up the raid 5 and have very very fast speed, up and down.  It doesn't have the fancy lights but do you really need that?  I have the 2 bay and I like it...I ended up getting this for $600.00  http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=85  I felt that I wanted something more than a dumb box for >$500.00 so now I can stream media and get a file from the road via secure ftp.  I still like my FAST sata 2 bay enclosure.  Everyone is different.

Ken
« Last Edit: January 21, 2008, 04:03:28 pm by kenscott30 »
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