configuring new computer for PS scratch disk and memory use

DF
Posted By
David_Freed
Oct 17, 2007
Views
230
Replies
7
Status
Closed
I’m getting ready to buy a new laptop and in looking at options, some companies will partion the hard drive for me.

I’ve read about memory use and scratch disk errors/use in PS, and I’m wondering if one solution is to partion the hard disk (I’m not a computer geek, so–assuming this is a good thing to do–I don’t know if this is something I can do myself?). And are there any other suggestions for freeing up enough memory to keep PS working?

I’m planning to get a fairly fast dual core processor and at least 2 GB of RAM.

Best, David.
Related Tags
computer disk memory new scratch use

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RK
Rob_Keijzer
Oct 17, 2007
David,

There is a very useful pdf presentation made by Adobe engineer Scott Byer. It’s about tuning your system, and shows ways to do it.

<http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2007/10/tuning_photosho.html>

(download the PDF linked to on that page.

Rob
SP
Sid_Phillips
Oct 17, 2007
From a performance standpoint, putting the scratch file on the same drive but a different partition won’t gain you anything. The drive head is still going to alternate between system commands, application coammands, work fiile read/write, and scratch file read/write. For a performance increase you need a separate drive, preferably on a separate controller.

From a practical standpoint, I’ve run PS on single-drive machines for years with no file errors due to having the scratch file on the same disk, and I don’t really notice a performance penalty. If I have a second drive available I always set that to the primary scratch drive, but like I said, I’ve never seen an appreciable difference in performance.
DF
David_Freed
Oct 17, 2007
I’ve noticed with my current computer with 1 MG RAM, that sometimes PS runs really slow or temporarily freezes. Based on what you’ve said, I’m assuming that with 2 MG RAM and dual core processor things should run more smoothly. I’ll also read the resources mentioned above.

Thanks, d.
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Oct 18, 2007
A temporary freeze often occurs when there is memory being swapped to and from disk.
SP
Sid_Phillips
Oct 18, 2007
A fast Core 2 Duo and 2GB of RAM will go far in speeding things up. And make sure you get the fastest/largest laptop drive available for your selection. This should make PS run pretty quick.
DF
David_Freed
Oct 19, 2007
Sid, are you referring to the hard drive? I’m looking at 80 or 120GB, but I think a fast hard drive might be more important than size.

Best, David.
SP
Sid_Phillips
Oct 19, 2007
As I said, the "fastest/largest laptop drive" (hard drive) available for the particular brand/model of computer you decide on. Fastest first, largest second. If you’re going to be producing content on the run then you need lots of storage without having to lug around external drives. So, get the fastest/largest hard drive available.

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