Critique my Setup – suggestions please!!!

MK
Posted By
Mark_Kishel
Feb 17, 2009
Views
714
Replies
22
Status
Closed
Hi all. I’m new to this forum and hopefully some of you can help me. We have a photography business and recently bought a new custom built PC. It has the following specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo (Extreme Performance) Platform
• Asus P5KC Core 2 Quad/ Intel P35/ DDR3+DDR2/ CrossFire/ A&GbE/ ATX Motherboard • Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9300 2.5GHz 1333MHz 6MB LGA775 EM64T CPU, Retail • Antec Sonata III 500W Quiet Super Mini Tower Case (Piano Black) • 4GB (2x2GB) PC6400 DDR2 800 Dual Channel
• Samsung HD753LJ 750GB SATA2 7200rpm 32MB Hard Drive
• Lite-On LH-20A1H-185 LightScribe 20X DVD+/-RW Drive (Black), Bulk w/o Software…(2) • 1,44 3.5 Floppy INT Black
• EVGA nVidia GeForce 8600GT 512MB 2DVI/HDTV PCI-Express Video Card • Integrated 8-Channel Audio Controller
• 10/100BASE-T On board Fast Ethernet LAN Controller (Build On Motheboard) • Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit, (1-Pack DVD), OEM

We also have a USB 2.0 Seagate external harddrive that we keep most of our photos stored on. We move them to the harddrive before working on them. We are using Photoshop CS3 adn would like to make the program as fast as possible. I have read that having a second hard drive dedicated as a scratch disk will help immensely. My question is this. What type of drive should I buy? Also, I have a Maxtor DiamondMax 21 200GB UDMA/100 7200RPM 8MB IDE Hard Drive I may be able to use as my scratch disk (not sure if connections will work with this motherboard though). Would I see any significant performance boost by using this IDE drive as my scratch disk or would I better better off sticking with my current internal hardrive stated above? I’m not against buying a good second hard drive but don’t want to if this IDE drive will work. If a second drive is recommended, what do you guys recommend given my current setup?
I would like to setup the machine with Raid drives and all that, but I don’t know enough about how to do that I don’t think.
Any suggestions? Also, one last quick thing, I sometimes get the scratch disk full error and sometimes CS3 just crashes. It also is slow sometimes. Please help. Thanks everyone!!!!!!
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BL
Bob Levine
Feb 17, 2009
Go to 8 gigs of RAM and Vista 64.

Bob
GK
Geoff_K_Jackson
Feb 17, 2009
You are correct in saying that a second hard drive will improve performance in Photoshop. My advice would be to not use the spare ide drive that you have but buy a SATA drive of similar specs to your main harddrive.
Don’t see many new PC’s with floppy disc drives these days! Geoff.
MK
Mark_Kishel
Feb 18, 2009
Do you suggest anything else in addition to getting a Sata drive? How big a drive do I need?

As much as I would love to switch to vista 64, your talkign about a significant investment. I did however ask for a motherboard when my cpu was being built that can handle both vista 32 and 64…so I have that covered. However, I don’t feel like shelling out a ton of $$$$ on PS 64, Lightroom 64, vista 64, and any other program that is currently 32 bit on my cpu. That seems like alot bigger investment than I’m ready to make. ALso, I doubt all the bugs are worked out of 64 bit software as of right now. I ordered a floppy disk drive just to have it as I find they don’t scratch as easy as CD’s…lol. Also, they are just big enough to hold important docs such as password lists and stuff.
Thanks again and I welcome any other suggestions from anyone else as I’m new to the technical/cpu aspect of photoshop. Thanks!
BL
Bob Levine
Feb 18, 2009
The Adobe products that are 64 bit ship with the 32 bit versions….YOU GET BOTH!

Bob
GK
Geoff_K_Jackson
Feb 18, 2009
Like I said, a hard drive of similar specs to the on that you have will be OK. I assume that you will be working on files from digital cameras, if so your specs should be ample.

Another thing to consider is a back-up system. You say you keep all your photos on an external USB drive then move them to the HD before working on them. Where are they stored when finished? Might they be needed again for reprints and so on? If that drive breaks down you could lose a lot of work! I have images archived to an external HD but I also back them up to 2 copies of DVD’s which are kept in different locations to cover all eventualities. I’ve got stuff going back years, I started off with floppies, then zip discs, then CD, now DVD.
MK
Mark_Kishel
Feb 18, 2009
Robert, thats good news. At least I have a backup plan when the files get too large. If we were shooting with a D3X or something or medium format, we may have more need for the extra power of the 64 bit system. But just using a D700, I think we should be okay.
We do have our pics backed up to DVD’s as well. Should I look at getting 10K rpm or stick with 7200 rpm? Do I really need 750GB or will less suffice? Also, I have read about people having drives for swaps, scratch disks and all kinds of other stuff. Is that really necessary or a bit excessive?
MK
Mark_Kishel
Feb 18, 2009
also, any reason why I shouldn’t use SCSI or is a cable issue on my mobo? As stated, this is all kind of new to me so excuse me if I’m asking stupid question…lol
S
stevent
Feb 18, 2009
Well, I won’t recommend most of what I would have said (seeing as though you’ve already bought the machine), so I’ll recommend you get a second Sata as scratch, same specs as the internal (but doesn’t have to be 750gb).

Use the external as storage and get an enclosure for the IDE (a few quid) and use that as a backup for the storage.
Plenty of free backup software out there – I use Cobian.

Also backup to Optical media and store offsite if you can.
JJ
John Joslin
Feb 18, 2009
Forget SCSI.
MK
Mark_Kishel
Feb 18, 2009
Thanks Josh. Still wondering if I should stick with 7200 or try and get a 10K drive. Any reason why I wouldn’t want a 10K drive? If I wanted to do the RAID thingie, would I be able to do that on drives with two different RPM’s? I know practically nothing about Raid so excuse my ignorance!
BL
Bob Levine
Feb 18, 2009
Mark,

Even if you don’t go to CS4 you’d still benefit with 64 bit and 8 gigs of RAM. That’s a lot of extra RAM to go around with multiple apps open and it won’t cost you very much at all. RAM is dirt cheap these days.

Bob
F
Freeagent
Feb 18, 2009
If I wanted to do the RAID thingie, would I be able to do that on drives with two different RPM’s?

Probably, but you’d lose the speed – it would just be cached on the faster drive.

The recommendation is always to use identical drives for RAID0.

A much better use of two drives is one system and one scratch/image files. Partition the latter so that scratch is the first partition, and put your images on the second.
MK
Mark_Kishel
Feb 18, 2009
Freeagent, from what your saying, it sounds like I need a decent size 2nd harddrive if I will be storing images on there. I’m assuming it would just need to store images I’m working on though…
Would I see a huge difference between 7200 and 10k Rpm for the 2nd drive that will be the scratch disk? how about 16mb vs 32 cache?
I would like to keep the 2nd drive somewhere below $200.00 if possible. Suggestions for a drive? I have Sata2 connections…

Bob,
I think 64 bit is the way to go once Windows 7 comes out. I"m not really sure I trust the stability of Vista enough to move up to 64 bit. I already have enough problems with 32 bit…. The good thing is my Mobo supports both which is great….
BL
Bob Levine
Feb 18, 2009
Well, you asked for feedback and you got it. I think you’re making a mistake putting together a rig like that and going 32 bit Vista.

Bob
MK
Mark_Kishel
Feb 18, 2009
How does this look? Any problems you see with this? Do you think it will work with Sata2 connections? Not sure because it just says SATA…not sure of the difference.

< http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136 296>

Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (bare drive) – OEM
$159.99 after rebate.
MK
Mark_Kishel
Feb 18, 2009
Bob,
I can always switch later can’t I or would I need to buy all new components?
MK
Mark_Kishel
Feb 18, 2009
Bob,
The more I read about Vista 64, the more it seems like you may be right, this may be a good move. My question is, do I run the risk of lots of programs not working? Also, I have no idea of what is involved in moving to a 64 bit system. Do I have to uninstall and reinstall everything? Does MS provide an update service to keep me from haivng to totally reinstall everything? Will all my components above give me problems…are compoenets built specificalaly for 32 bit systems? Sorry for the barrage of questions Bob, but you now have me thinking this may be a good idea…
JJ
John Joslin
Feb 18, 2009
I had misgivings about moving to Vista. I only did it for the benefit of 64-bit Photoshop. However, not only do all my 32-bit applications and peripherals work but also, after the shock of the new wore off, have grown to like it and its improvements over clunky old XP.
MK
Mark_Kishel
Feb 18, 2009
Is photoshop 64 bit available for CS3? I have CS3 and haven’t found anywhere that it says it is…

I am really starting to think 64 bit may be the way to go…I just want to make sure LIghtroom, Photoshop, and also, all my hardware including possibly a new raptor 10k hard drive work….
BL
Bob Levine
Feb 18, 2009
CS3 is 32 bit only but everything works just fine save for a couple of very minor things. No welcome screen in Dreamweaver comes to mind.

But there’s no quick way to 64 bit from 32. Just create the system using the 64 bit version of Vista and off you go.

If you have very old peripheral you might have some driver issues. The only thing I had to replace was an 8 year old scanner.

Bob
MK
Mark_Kishel
Feb 18, 2009
Great! Thanks to Bob and everyone on here. I think I will be getting the Raptor 10k drive I mentioned above. I will try this as my scratch disk for awhile and see how that works out. If I still want more power, I will probably load up Vista 64 Ultimate on the new 10k drive and test it out first. If everything goes smoothly, not sure what I would do next.
not sure if I should even buy a 10k raptor as a second drive or just get a 7200 if I’m eventually going to vista 64…will my upgrade to vista and ps 64bit give me all the power I could ever want?
If i should get the 10k raptor, do I want vista 64 loaded up on that permanently or on my original 7200 hd? Thanks agian for all of your help, I really appreciate it.
MK
Mark_Kishel
Feb 19, 2009
Okay, so here is my final plan. Please give any feedback. Judging from what everyone has said on here and places I ahve read, I don’t need ot have a 10000rpm disk as my scratch.

My plan is:

Get a new HD just like original and use as scratch disk and image storage. Keep OS on current HD

In the future, upgrade to Vista 64 and PS 64.

My question now is, how big of a performance boost is there to have additional 7200 drives for other things like swap drives? Thanks again to everyone for their help.

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