6 Replies Latest reply: Oct 16, 2011 5:12 PM by John Blaustein RSS

    SSD and CS5

    Heirloom Bob Community Member

      I am considering a performance upgrade on my Windows 7 machine, to a SSD. I plan to put Windows 7 on the drive along with CS5, InDesign and Lighroom. Is this the route to go to maximize performance of this software? I plan to use my current C Drive (HDD) as my scratch disk and will continue with my photo library on my cuurent C  Drive as well. Have I planned this out properly?


      Bob

        • 1. Re: SSD and CS5
          Noel Carboni Community Member

          It sounds as though you have the right idea (separate OS and data drives).

           

          However, make sure you get a BIG SSD drive (512 GB to 1 TB).  Don't skimp, or you'll forever be fighting your system to make space available - something that's frustrating, and error-prone.  Windows 7 WILL grow to fill anything smaller over time.

           

          If you don't want to pay the price for the expensive big SSD, consider instead getting several high quality spinning drives and building a RAID array.  I presently use two 1 TB Western Digital RE4 drives in a RAID 0 arrangement and it both screams through work as well as having 2 TB total space (of which I have used 900 GB).  I also have another, separate spinning drive for scratch, video storage, etc.

           

          -Noel

          • 2. Re: SSD and CS5
            John Blaustein Community Member

            Bob,

             

            Noel is far more of an expert here than I am, but I recently built a new system with an SSD so I thought I'd add my thoughts.

             

            First of all, you might find Ian Lyons' article on SSDs of interest -- Ian is an Adobe beta tester and LR expert:

            http://www.computer-darkroom.com/blog/will-an-ssd-improve-adobe-lightroom-performance/

             

            My new system:

            ASUS motherboard

            Intel i7-2600K

            16GBB RAM

            Intel 120GB SSD (C: drive)

            2 -- WD 640GB SATA III HD (D: and E:)

             

            On my SSD C: drive, I have Windows 7 Home Premium, PS CS5, LR, Dreamweaver, Spyder3Elite, Open Office, Quicken, Windows Live Mail and lots of other stuff like iTunes (and lots of music), Skype, FileZilla, etc.  I also have my LR catalog on C: for fast access.  With all of this on the 120GB SSD C: drive, I still have 45GB of free space.  Of course, all of my image data is on the D: drive.  I use E: for scratch and backing up the data on D:.  The system is lightning fast.  Windows boots in about 40 seconds (but Spyder takes longer to load the monitor profiles).  PS and LR open in just a few seconds.  In LR, I build 1:1 previews on import, so moving around in LR is a delight -- fast, fast, fast.

             

            My D: and E: drives are relatively small by today's standards, but that's because I use external drives for backing up all of my commercial work that I expect to never look at again and only keep current and/or important work on the D: drive.  You might prefer to use larger drives for D: (and E: if you have one).

             

            As usual around here, others may disagree with my strategy, but it's working well for me.

             

            John

            • 3. Re: SSD and CS5
              Noel Carboni Community Member

              Your experience is very welcome here, John.

               

              Something that's gone unsaid...  How long do you expect to use your system before upgrading to an even newer one?  Several years?  I usually try to build my workstations high-end so that they'll be viable for 3+ years (I used to target 5, but that's unreasonable the way technology is moving today).  I will definitely consider SSD for the next one (probably multiples in a RAID for super high performance).

               

              And of course your long-term drive usage will depend on how you use your system.  I do software development and run my business with my system as well as doing Photoshop work.  Just watch out for your WinSxS folder growing and growing.  I hear Windows 8 is going to have better management capabilities in this area to help keep the bloat from overwhelming users.

               

              For what it's worth, I just characterized what's on my C: drive, and if all I did was move my astronomy and general photography image data onto a separate drive, and emptied my recycle bin, I'd have only between 400 and 500 GB on there.  Windows itself is taking up 19 GB.  So maybe my doom and gloom numbers above were a bit on the large side.

               

              -Noel

              • 4. Re: SSD and CS5
                John Blaustein Community Member

                "Your experience is very welcome here, John."

                 

                Thanks, Noel!

                 

                Like you, I aim to have my system last 3+ years, and for that past two systems, that's been about right.  Each time I build a new system, I think, "wow, this is fast.  I can't imagine needing more."  Ha!  Then three years go by and I want more speed.

                 

                For my work as a photographer, the system I described is working perfectly... even with the relatively smalll SSD C: drive.  We all have such different needs and priorities.

                 

                John

                • 5. Re: SSD and CS5
                  Heirloom Bob Community Member

                  Great info everyone.

                   

                  Here's my plan. 120 GB SSD and I will put Windows 7 64 Bit, Lightroom, InDesign and Photoshop CS5 on it for now. Based on the comments here, I should have room for much more than that but that's the start.

                  My current C Drive is a 2 TB HDD that I will continue to use as a scratch disk as well as photo and catalogue storage. I have a 2 TB external I use to backup everything on the C Drive. Is my thinking sound?

                   

                  Bob

                  • 6. Re: SSD and CS5
                    John Blaustein Community Member

                    Bob,

                     

                    Yes, that sounds right to me.  I'll add the following:

                     

                    1)  If it were my system, I'd backup all the data that's currently on your C: (HDD), then I'd reformat that drive and put all the data back onto it.  That will become your D: drive after you install Windows 7 and all your apps on the new C: (SSD) drive.  In other words, once the SSD is your C: drive, there is no reason to keep the current Windows installation on the HDD (D: after the changeover).  I like to keep things clean and simple, so getting rid of the old Windows installation appeals to me, as does reformatting rather than simply deleting the old Windows folders.

                     

                    2)  While you will of course keep all of your image files (and other data) on D: along with your scratch files, you might want to consider keeping your LR catalog on C: because the SSD is so fast.  I refer again to Ian's article:

                    http://www.computer-darkroom.com/blog/will-an-ssd-improve-adobe-lightroom-performance/

                     

                    3)  You say, "I have a 2 TB external I use to backup everything on the C Drive."  In your new configuration, you'll use the external drive to backup the data on your D: drive.  I personally see no reason to backup Windows and applications since they need to be reinstalled anyway in the event you need to start over.  The exception to that is that I would of course backup any configuration files, things like PS and LR presets, etc. that happen to be on the C: drive.

                     

                    Have fun.... you'll love how fast the SSD is!

                     

                    John