Best performance out of photoshop

[OpticalMedia]

I read every now and again technical jargon on how to setup ones computer to get the most out of Photoshop. I would like to learn how to do this though I have no clue how to go about doing this. I read about stripped arrays (RAID) and this and that. Perhaps someone could give me a little push in the right direction? mybe I should upgrade my internal drive? get another external drive?

I am using a PC
 
-CPU Type Intel Pentium 4 661, 3600 MHz (18 x 200)
-Motherboard Name Intel Tappen D945GTP
- 4X1GB cards of (DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM)
-Video card PCI-E 1.0 x16 port #2   In Use @ x16  (Sapphire Radeon X300 SE Video Adapter)
-storage -INTERNAL Manufacturer Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160811 Rotational Speed   7200 RPM Drive #1 - ST3160811AS (149 GB) Buffer 8 MB and for some reason its broken into


 
Partition   Partition Type   Drive   Start Offset   Partition Length
#1 (Active)   NTFS   C:   0 MB                           139996 MB

and

Partition   Partition Type   Drive   Start Offset   Partition Length
#2                   NTFS   D:     139996 MB           12621 MB
 
My EXTERNAL drive is Western Digital My Book Studio Edition 500GB (http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1678)

All my RAW images as well as a constant update of my computer are stored on this external drive. When editing/processing my images I use Bridge and pick my images up through this external drive. The external drive is connected to my computer via USB. My operating system XP home is situated on the Active C: drive and their is nothing on the D: drive.

So With my setup What could I do to improve the Photoshop efficiency? Bear in mind I have not touched any CS4 default settings under preferences so if you could also inform how to point CS4 at a certain drive to use as scratch etc......

mike

[Paul Sumi]

I'm assuming 32 bit XP so you are maxed out on RAM.  One of your best bets is adding another fast internal HDD to use as a scratch drive for PhotoShop.  Don't use your D: partition for scratch.

In the menu (am assuming it's the same as CS3):  Edit / Preferences / Performance.  Set the scratch drive.

Paul

[OpticalMedia]

I'm assuming 32 bit XP so you are maxed out on RAM.  One of your best bets is adding another fast internal HDD to use as a scratch drive for PhotoShop.  Don't use your D: partition for scratch.

In the menu (am assuming it's the same as CS3):  Edit / Preferences / Performance.  Set the scratch drive.

Paul

Hi paul,

Yes its XP 32 bit. Should I join my D: drive partition back to C: drive? its only 12.6 GB.

What about a scratch on my 500 GB external? What about a RAID of the two drives?

And what Is considered a FAST internal HDD?

[Sheldon N]

To be honest, your computer is pretty old. I wouldn't put money into upgrading the internal components, that would just be throwing good money after bad.  

I'd lean towards spending a little Christmas money on getting a newer computer. Look for a moderately fast dual core or quad core processor (2.5 - 3 GHz), Windows 7, 4-8GB of RAM, and two internal SATA hard drives. Shouldn't be too hard to find for $500-750.

[Paul Sumi]

To be honest, your computer is pretty old. I wouldn't put money into upgrading the internal components, that would just be throwing good money after bad.

Man has a point, but price might be higher, especially if you have to throw in a new monitor.

Paul

[OpticalMedia]

Man has a point, but price might be higher, especially if you have to throw in a new monitor.

Paul

True, it is old. I am waiting for the new Macbook Pro's to come out to purchase. I am just eager to know in the meantime whats the best I could do with my setup? I do not want to spend more than $200.

So once again, Is it best to scratch to my external where i keep my RAW images? Whats the story with RAID array? Would it be a viable option in my case?

[bill t.]

So once again, Is it best to scratch to my external where i keep my RAW images? Whats the story with RAID array? Would it be a viable option in my case?

The external USB drive is slower than an internal drive, best not to use it for a scratch disk as it will drag down system performance compared to an internal drive.  If  you're only thinking in the short term, spend about $70-$80 for a 300gb or 500gb internal drive, make that your scratch disc and don't worry too much about also storing camera files there when the need arises.

IMHO a raid system can still be entirely taken down by various hardware and software failures.  I think a conscientious backup regimen on two ore more discs that are not always attached is more secure.

What you have is really not a bad system for working on files up to around the 200mb range, a Macbook might not do any better.

[PeterAit]

I read every now and again technical jargon on how to setup ones computer to get the most out of Photoshop. I would like to learn how to do this though I have no clue how to go about doing this. I read about stripped arrays (RAID) and this and that. Perhaps someone could give me a little push in the right direction? mybe I should upgrade my internal drive? get another external drive?

mike

The best thing, I think, is to upgrade to a 64 bit OS and add more RAM. 32 bit OS do not let programs use more than a couple of gigs (I forget the exact value) but by going to Win7 64 bit you can access all you have. With (say) 12 GB of RAM your disk speeds become less important.

[OpticalMedia]

The external USB drive is slower than an internal drive, best not to use it for a scratch disk as it will drag down system performance compared to an internal drive.  If  you're only thinking in the short term, spend about $70-$80 for a 300gb or 500gb internal drive, make that your scratch disc and don't worry too much about also storing camera files there when the need arises.

IMHO a raid system can still be entirely taken down by various hardware and software failures.  I think a conscientious backup regimen on two ore more discs that are not always attached is more secure.

What you have is really not a bad system for working on files up to around the 200mb range, a Macbook might not do any better.

Well actually my external Drive Has an ESATA 2 port So perhaps if I connected it to my computer via that port it would be as quick as an internal drive? I also read somewhere that one should not store the files you want to access on the drive you want to create a scratch on is this true? What about if I partition my 500GB external and create 2 partitions 450GB dedicated to storing my images and say a 50GB outer layer dedicated scratch? is that an option? or would it be better to just get an internal drive and dedicate that to scratch? and what size would be appropriate?

[Paul Sumi]

Well actually my external Drive Has an ESATA 2 port So perhaps if I connected it to my computer via that port it would be as quick as an internal drive? I also read somewhere that one should not store the files you want to access on the drive you want to create a scratch on is this true? What about if I partition my 500GB external and create 2 partitions 450GB dedicated to storing my images and say a 50GB outer layer dedicated scratch? is that an option? or would it be better to just get an internal drive and dedicate that to scratch? and what size would be appropriate?

You COULD try using your external eSATA drive for scratch to see if it yields any speed increases.  Partitioning is unnecessary, though.

IMO (YMMV, etc), buy a 300-500 GB internal drive and dedicate it as a PS scratch drive.  Save the current external drive purely for file backup.  When you get the new computer you could always repurpose the scratch drive as an additional file backup drive.

Paul

[bill t.]

Yes eSata should be as fast as an internal drive.

I think you want your scratch drive to be on a hard drive that is not the same as the Photoshop file you are working on, and preferably on a different cable connector on the motherboard.  That way there are no traffic jams between the accessing the image file and accessing the scratch disc, since those actions may run concurrently at times.  Just making a scratch partition doesn't help since it can still leave you with a hardware traffic jam.  OTOH Photoshop doesn't normally access your original camera file during post processing, so it can be anywhere without creating traffic jams, including on the scratch disc.

As PeterAit said, the ideal thing is to have a ton of memory which would minimize disc caching, but that would require you to upgrade your op system to 64 bit since 32 bit XP can only reach 3GB at a time, and only if the 3GB switch is set as recommended on the Adobe site.  And in fact there is a lot of stuff on these topics on the Adobe Site.

[OpticalMedia]

You COULD try using your external eSATA drive for scratch to see if it yields any speed increases.  Partitioning is unnecessary, though.

IMO (YMMV, etc), buy a 300-500 GB internal drive and dedicate it as a PS scratch drive.  Save the current external drive purely for file backup.  When you get the new computer you could always repurpose the scratch drive as an additional file backup drive.

Paul

Paul first may i ask what is YMMV? secondly Does the scratch drive have to be that big? does bigger make it more efficient whats a good option speedwise etc? would it not be better to get a another external dedicated scratch drive so that when I do get my new laptop and I use it on that?

Mike

[Justan]

>Paul first may i ask what is YMMV? S

Your Mileage May Vary

> I do not want to spend more than $200.

Given this constraint my recommendations are that you

a) buy an external drive to keep redundant copies of your data. Most never comprehend the value of backups until they’ve lost thousands of fotos and/or other data.

and

b ) a book titled: “Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop's Most Powerful Feature” (it is an excellent book);
or another book to help you learn more about photoshop;

c) go to Adobe and review the following link covering performance with cs3: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/401/kb401088.html

$200 won’t get you much more than a band-aid or 2, so address the most important issues first and let your soon to be new computer provide the suite of performance related issues that you appear to be after.

[jerryrock]

For $179. you can add a 2 TB Seagate Barracuda internal drive. Use this as your primary drive and your current drive as scratch disk/ image file storage. Use the external as back up and don't include it as a scratch drive in Photoshop preferences. This should speed your system up for now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148413