configuring new macpro

MN
Posted By
Michael_N_Wolff
Oct 30, 2008
Views
319
Replies
3
Status
Closed
I bought a new macpro. It has two 3.2 GHz Quad-core intel Xeo The memory is16GB (4x4GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
Hard Drive Bay1 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/
Hard Drive Bay2 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb
Hard Drive Bay3 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb

I have backup and storage with a LaCie triple big 1 TB external harddrive.

I am wondering how best to configure it for running photoshop? I also want to run illustrator and indesign and zbrush.

Should one bay be for the OS?

Should the 2nd bay be for software like photoshop, illustrator and the rest of creative suite? Can I put zbrush on this bay as well and applications like microsoft office?

Should the 3rd bay be for photoshop’s scratchdisk? Can I also put illustrator’s scratch disk on this same bay? If I do should I partician the bay?

Anyway I am not sure how to configure and would like to know your thoughts on achieving a professional set-up. Thanks.
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WG
Welles_Goodrich
Oct 31, 2008
Michael,

It really depends on just what your anticipated use is going to be. I’d be inclined to use one drive for your system, applications and home folder. I haven’t seen much need to separate the home folder and for Adobe apps they really want to be installed in the default Applications folder created when your system is installed. Lots of other apps ‘look’ for a default location in the Applications folder and you have issues trying to get too cute with customization.

I’d partition your second drive and use the first partition for a scratch disk. Depending on the size of your normal image files 200GB is probably plenty of scratch disk. Yes you can assign both Illustrator and Photoshop to use the same scratch disk space. I’d use the rest of the second drive for storage, especially movies and music files which inhale disk space and keeping them off your primary drive is a good idea. You can use the third internal drive as a back up until you find a need for it.

Right now, unless you are planning on doing video editing, sound editing or you are a professional photographer and shoot hundreds of raw files in a session, you have more drive space that you will need in the foreseeable future.
MN
Michael_N_Wolff
Oct 31, 2008
Thanks Welles for the advice. It sounds like a good set up.

I wondering if I have to partition the second drive now or whether I can do this later with out losing anything? I think for now I will just be using the second drive for scratch disk and will store all my files on the third drive as I have a LaCie 1TB 2big Triple external drive for back-up.
WG
Welles_Goodrich
Oct 31, 2008
There are utilities which support partitioning after the fact but I’m not sure I trust them anyway. However if you are just going to use the second drive as a scratch disk to start it won’t matter, you could partition it anytime. When you do, just make sure the scratch partition is the first as that is on the fastest read/write sectors.

Remember scratch files are only temporary so you won’t lose anything of value if you partition later.

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