New computer spec, light room and SSD's.

Messages
4,367
Name
Dave
Edit My Images
Yes
I've broken the piggy bank and i'm pretty much set to get a new computer.
I'll be building one from scratch, fortunately i have a mate who is very clued up when it comes to these things who can help me out.

He has suggested that for speedy editing, and particularly batch processing, fast discs are the order of the day.
The suggestion he has come up with is to use an external solid state drive (he has a few kicking about that i can have) to import the photos to, do the editing on and export the final shots. Then move them over to normal internal hard drives when finished with.

The only issue i can see is when using lightroom this will play havoc with the cataloguing of albums. I have not been using lightroom for long so don't know it inside out, is this possibly something that could be worked around?
 
That sounds like a good plan, but my have the SSD as an external drive? Wouldn't internal be even faster? That way you could install the OS/Lightroom on it too?
 
Yeah. What sort of interface was he suggesting you use for this external SSD? And what make are these drives he just happens to have laying around? Sounds like he may be trying to make some dough from some naff gear.

Get an Intel X-25M (the 34nm G2 version) - either 80GB or, if you can afford it, 160 GB. Stick that in as an internal drive with the OS, Program Files and Lightroom Catalog. With the 160 GB version you can also use it for working images.

Install a second large (1TB or better) HDD as well. It doesn't need to be super-fast because it's going to store images that have already been worked on and other data (music files, etc.) that don't need to be accessed at high speed. When you move images from the SSd to the HDD make sure you do it from within Lightroom - then it'll know the images are in a different place and change its catalog accordingly.

Make sure you have an eSATA port and get an eSATA dock. Then get a second 3.5" 1 TB drive and use that for backup. A second drive can be swapped in and stored off-site for a near-totally secure system.
 
That sounds like a good plan, but my have the SSD as an external drive? Wouldn't internal be even faster? That way you could install the OS/Lightroom on it too?
External 30gb SSD drive is free, internal i have to pay for. :lol:

Yeah. What sort of interface was he suggesting you use for this external SSD? And what make are these drives he just happens to have laying around? Sounds like he may be trying to make some dough from some naff gear.

Get an Intel X-25M (the 34nm G2 version) - either 80GB or, if you can afford it, 160 GB. Stick that in as an internal drive with the OS, Program Files and Lightroom Catalog. With the 160 GB version you can also use it for working images.

Install a second large (1TB or better) HDD as well. It doesn't need to be super-fast because it's going to store images that have already been worked on and other data (music files, etc.) that don't need to be accessed at high speed. When you move images from the SSd to the HDD make sure you do it from within Lightroom - then it'll know the images are in a different place and change its catalog accordingly.

Make sure you have an eSATA port and get an eSATA dock. Then get a second 3.5" 1 TB drive and use that for backup. A second drive can be swapped in and stored off-site for a near-totally secure system.

Not sure about interface, i'll mention it to him and see what he suggests.
I think he ends up with a lot of new kit that get purchased for testing purposes to see if they are worth implementing on a larger scale.

Thanks for the advice. :)
 
Ahh, fair enough then, as above the interface may negate the speed boost from the SSD...
 
SSD for booting & running LR/PS are fantastic, I am still amazed at the speed increase
 
Back
Top