Have you made the move to SSD hard drive?

[wideangle]

Who has made the move to having SSD as their boot drive and if so does this component improve performance in photo editing applications? Or do other things such as the CPU and amount of RAM have a larger bearing on how photo applications operate?

[ricktas]

yes and yes. Start up time is massively improved, I can push the on button and have lightroom and photoshop open and ready to go in under 60 seconds. but I am using 24gb ram and a 5ghz processor as well. SSD's are designed to be written to once and ready from repeatedly, so put your main programs on the SSD and have you files on a HDD.

[Lance B]

Yes and definitely yes! My SSD is super fast and doesn't slow down even when your SS drive is quite full. Like Rick says, put all your main programs on the SSD and all your files on HDD's. Best thing I ever did was to go SSD!

[Kym]

SSD for the system drive and a pair or 2TB mirrored disks to store the photos!

[Epoc]

The move to SSD is amazing. My Win 7 laptop boots up in 20 seconds and PS opens in 3!! Never had so much performance increase for such a small outlay in 20 years of computing. :)

[wideangle]

yes and yes. Start up time is massively improved, I can push the on button and have lightroom and photoshop open and ready to go in under 60 seconds. but I am using 24gb ram and a 5ghz processor as well. SSD's are designed to be written to once and ready from repeatedly, so put your main programs on the SSD and have you files on a HDD.

Where do store the information such as scratch disks or things like Lightroom preview files etc, on the SSD?

[Kym]

Put your scratch data on the magnetic disks!
Also move your pagefile to the magnetic disk.
Just keep OS + software on the SSD.
Try and keep your SSD not more than 70% full as well.

Why? They have a limited (relatively) life in terms of write cycles.
http://www.storagesearch.com/ssdmyths-endurance.html
http://lifehacker.com/5802838/how-to-maximize-the-life-of-your-ssd
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive

[Janene]

I have one at work (where I do a lot of my editing) and thankfully I work in IT, so we are on top of latest technology. I love it, and am in the process of updating my home machine with one aswell. CS5 opens almost instantly and the boot time is just incredible. a HUGE fan.

[Cage]

I'm hovering now the prices have become more realistic.

Any 'must haves' or 'steer clear of's' to be aware of.

[wideangle]

Put your scratch data on the magnetic disks!
Also move your pagefile to the magnetic disk.
Just keep OS + software on the SSD.
Try and keep your SSD not more than 70% full as well.

Why? They have a limited (relatively) life in terms of write cycles.
http://www.storagesearch.com/ssdmyths-endurance.html
http://lifehacker.com/5802838/how-to-maximize-the-life-of-your-ssd
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive


Why do you put all "other data" on a magnetic disk as opposed to SSD? Would it be even more effective to have 3 drives: SSD for OS/Software + Magnetic HDD for image files + Another Magnetic HDD for scratch disc etc?

[ricktas]

Where do store the information such as scratch disks or things like Lightroom preview files etc, on the SSD?

Your scratch disc should ALWAYS be a different disc to your program and files storate disk. This is the recommended way by adobe. I have my SSD, and 2 x HDD in my PC, an external HDD and my NAS backup attached at all times. So PS is on the SSD, my working copy of my photos are on one HDD and the second HDD is my scratch disc (and holds a backup of my 1st HDD and my SSD). The external HDD holds another backup of my SSD and files, and the NAS is a 5 HDD array with a backup of everything. I then have another HDD that is stored at friends with another copy of all my files.

[Wayne]

I have made the switch, when I got the new Macbook Pro Retina for Christmas. I haven't even opened it yet though..:(

[wideangle]

Your scratch disc should ALWAYS be a different disc to your program and files storate disk. This is the recommended way by adobe. I have my SSD, and 2 x HDD in my PC, an external HDD and my NAS backup attached at all times. So PS is on the SSD, my working copy of my photos are on one HDD and the second HDD is my scratch disc (and holds a backup of my 1st HDD and my SSD). The external HDD holds another backup of my SSD and files, and the NAS is a 5 HDD array with a backup of everything. I then have another HDD that is stored at friends with another copy of all my files.

Interesting, so you can also store other data on the HDD along with the scratch disc without effecting performance? Do you also store Lightroom preview data etc on the scratch HDD? How big would you recommend the HDD be for storing scratch data be?

[Rattus79]

Since no one else has said it, I will.

SSD's are fantastic for Gaming!!

My FPS's had a decided increase when I installed mine.

Unlike Rick, I've only got 16 gig of ram though and a 4.8 gig processor (overclock from 3.2 gig)

[bladesp2]

I have my programs and OS on an ssd vertex 4 it’s amazing the speed difference . As stated above write cycles are limited so best to keep magnetic hds for storage and scratch disks .I don’t believe a page file is even needed with a ssd as its faster at retrieving ,also I don’t use the recycle bin on my ssd, that’s ok because I store everything on other drives so when it gets deleted it’s on those drives not taking up space on the ssd .It was very easy to set up using Acronis true image no need to reinstall all programs .I have a ssd 256GB , 3 by 2TB hdds, 2TB WD my book and a 4TB NAS backup all running smoothly and faster since the ssd .I have lots of music HD video and photos so space it utilized. It’s the way of the future we just need larger for cheaper !

[ricktas]

Interesting, so you can also store other data on the HDD along with the scratch disc without effecting performance? Do you also store Lightroom preview data etc on the scratch HDD? How big would you recommend the HDD be for storing scratch data be?

yes, it is about read/write. If you are not using the disk for other things at the same time. The issue occurs when you are reading the image files from the drive, writting the scratch stuff to the same drive, playing some music from the same drive. It all slows down the read/write times. As long as you are not accessing the scratch disk for other stuff, it leaves it to do its job.

[Sifor]

Nothing like a 13 second boot (9 second shutdown) on my Asus ultrabook; from pressing power button to a ready desktop... SSDs are win.

I also have an SSD for my main PC for boot + key programmes - have 1 TB for storage and 500GB for important backup.

[Kym]

Why do you put all "other data" on a magnetic disk as opposed to SSD? Would it be even more effective to have 3 drives: SSD for OS/Software + Magnetic HDD for image files + Another Magnetic HDD for scratch disc etc?

You can, I just made a basic suggestion.
For a really fast setup have a 2nd SSD just for scratch.


Backup is still critical! See: http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showlibrary.php?title=Technology:Backup_and_Recovery

[wideangle]

Can other programs that use background data like photoshop scratch such as Lightroom be put on the same HDD ?