Topic: Scratch disk for laptop (Read 2472 times)

Gellman · « **on:** January 14, 2009, 01:41:12 pm »

Can anyone recommend what are the fastest, most reliable configurations for using an external drive as a scratch disk on a laptop computer? I'm interested in purchasing either a new MBP or possibly a Lenovo Thinkpad W700 or Sony AW series.

Also, while I realize that even the best laptops are not as fast as the best desktop computers, I am hoping to begin using a laptop as my primary computer, with an external monitor, such as a NEC 2690. My current computer is a five year old Dell Pentium 4 with 2 GB RAM. Will today's high end laptops with 64 bit OS, Core Duo processors (or whatever) and 4 GB RAM be much faster than my old desktop?

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies.

John

John.Murray · « **Reply #1 on:** January 14, 2009, 04:47:32 pm »

I can't imagine an external drive used as a scratch disk being any better using either USB or Firewire. Unless you have an eSata port - you would probably best upgrade to a faster (7200rpm) drive - as most notebooks come with 5400 or even 4500rpm drives.

If you are looking to a new laptop -I'd reccomend going Vista 64bit for your O/S as it's natively able to address RAM beyond 3GB. Both Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2 run as 64bit applications under Vista 64.

Gellman · « **Reply #2 on:** January 14, 2009, 09:06:28 pm »

Yes, I was planning on Vista 64 O/S with 4 GB RAM, as well as getting a 7200 rpm hard drive. I am leaning heavily towards a MBP and adding Vista. But the MacBook only has one hard drive. So I am wondering if it's best to use the internal hard drive as scratch disk, which Adobe says is a no-no, or to use an external drive. Firewire 800 is available, but I would need to get an Express Card 34 to add an eSata port. Even then, I don't know how fast the add-on eSata port would be compared to one that is built in. Of course, you can't get one built in.

I probably should have posted this on the Computers and Peripherals board, but it's too late now.

John.Murray · « **Reply #3 on:** January 14, 2009, 11:44:25 pm »

The new MBP's are nice - but I find the 15' 4gb limitation dissapointing & I'm done lugging arounnd 17". I'm quite impressed with some of the newer stuff Dell is doing:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/produ...;l=en&s=bsd

I just wish *everyone* else would get the power connector that Macbooks use; having to spend $200 to replace a soldered PS connector, or worse, and entire mainboard is just ridiculous . . . .

Gellman · « **Reply #4 on:** January 16, 2009, 01:53:18 am »

I think I found the definitive answer.

Speeding up Photoshop with an External Drive by Ctein appeared in The Online Photographer.

Anyone interested may view it HERE.

johnchoy · « **Reply #5 on:** January 17, 2009, 01:31:14 am »

My impression and experience for the MBP 15inch 4 G ram was just so so and not reliable when I was using an Esata express card with an external raid 1 Hdd setup.

Images download were fast but corrupted in mac OSX while it was OK in windows xp (bootcamp). However, it crashed often in xp that I had to uninstall and then reinstall the card drv. I just wish the MBP has its own esata port.

Besides, speed is not fast compare to my desktop which is 16 G ram quad core intel. Perhaps I was expecting too much on the MBP. I was rather disappointed that it can't handle large volume heavy duty task as compare to my desktop. It just failed from my recent assignment: 30G ids mk3 images daily, extracting raw to jpg for further HDR panorama stiching. without wall power, the battery on the road last less than 3 hrs .......... My opinion, for serious work, u can't rely on MBP

Author Topic: Scratch disk for laptop (Read 2472 times)