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Author Topic: SSD enough?  (Read 7129 times)

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« on: April 25, 2018, 04:49 »
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As a real non-tekkie, please can somebody say whether 256 or 512 SSD alone ie no 'normal' memory will run PS CC, Topaz, Office etc ok? It sounds so little.....
I'm happy to keep all photo files etc on external hard drives.
Advice MUCH appreciated!
Ta...in anticipation....!


SpaceStockFootage

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« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2018, 05:20 »
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Those should work fine. After nearly a year my total hard-rive usage (excluding assets, videos, images, music - as they're going to vary considerably by person, and you said you're going to store most of them on an external hard-rive anyway) comes to 145GB.

So that's my OS, all my programs and whatever else gets clogged up in the pipes over the years. And I have Ae, Pr, Ps, Ai, a bunch of other CC programs, Office, C4D etc. 

« Reply #2 on: April 25, 2018, 06:56 »
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Great! Thank so much! :)))
Have a nice day!!!

« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2018, 09:25 »
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256 is more than enough, as long as you keep your files on external drives.
I would also recommend a second ssd (it can be smaller) to be used as scratch drive for photoshop and improve its performance.

« Reply #4 on: April 25, 2018, 10:13 »
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If only I knew what a scratch drive is, how to locate one and where to put it (so to speak!)......!  :-[

« Reply #5 on: April 25, 2018, 11:25 »
+1
If only I knew what a scratch drive is, how to locate one and where to put it (so to speak!)......!  :-[

A scratch disk is any external or internal drive or drive partition with free memory. By default, Photoshop uses the hard drive on which the operating system is installed as the primary scratch disk. You can tweak scratch disk settings in the Preferences > Scratch Disks section.

Check this article:
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-photoshop-cc-performance.html

« Reply #6 on: April 25, 2018, 13:31 »
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"normal" memory will be faster than an SSD, so you will get a bigger performance boost from that, but if you are maxed out on memory then an SSD will provide a big boost. On my computer maxed out with 4GB of memory I noticed a performance improvement with huge files when my HD failed and I got an SSD. Also if you turn off everything else but the programs you are using that will help. Make sure the scratch disk is set to use the SSD - having a second SSD that isn't your main disk set up as the main scratch disk will help too. Depending on your setup you might be able to use an external thumb drive for caching files called "speedboost" or something like that - although if you have an SSD I don't think there is any benefit to that.

« Reply #7 on: April 25, 2018, 15:10 »
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I lived with a 240G SSD Win 8.1 for a few years with PS LR office and quite a lot of other sw. During last winter I added a second 480G SSD because my LR catalog of over 300,000 images was taking more than 140GB. SSD will deteriorate faster if they are too full of never changing data (i.e. sw).
Now I moved the LR catalog and PS scratch files on the new SSD and I feel like I can manage 500k more images. Of course image files and LR catalog backups are on an external NAS which takes care of automatic daily backups.
Two SSD actually are faster than a single one if you put OS scratch files on one and sw scratch files on the other.

« Reply #8 on: April 26, 2018, 04:41 »
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As a real non-tekkie, please can somebody say whether 256 or 512 SSD alone ie no 'normal' memory will run PS CC, Topaz, Office etc ok? It sounds so little.....
I'm happy to keep all photo files etc on external hard drives.
Advice MUCH appreciated!
Ta...in anticipation....!

I have all the possibly needed software for photography, video and all other daily stuff on 120GB SSD with some 20GB free. 256GB should be enough, by the time it's not enough you'll be probably looking at interface upgrade anyway.

« Reply #9 on: April 26, 2018, 13:02 »
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OK, thanks. My head is spinning a bit but I THINK that was useful....!
At least I have more of a clue!
:)

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #10 on: April 27, 2018, 08:37 »
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OK, thanks. My head is spinning a bit but I THINK that was useful....!
At least I have more of a clue!
:)

If all that wasn't enough, you can gain speed by setting up two SSD drives as RAID drives. I think the gain is roughly double the speed of one drive.

« Reply #11 on: April 28, 2018, 01:09 »
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Ta and I am sure you mean well, but I'm struggling with the concept of a scratch disc. I fear RAID (whatever it is)(please don't tell me unless I really need to know) just boggles my mind.
Where on earth do you guys learn this stuff? (Rhetorical question - I do not want to learn this stuff).
I use a computer in the same way I drive a car. What happens under the bonnet is of no interest to me so long as it goes....! Oops! :o


« Reply #12 on: April 29, 2018, 16:07 »
+3
When normal memory is full the computer switches to using a scratch disk. Thus more normal memory is best. Instead of storing data in memory (like the photoshop data for a big image for instance, it writes it to the scratch disk and then retrieves it from there when it needs it again). This goes a whole lot faster with an SSD that is a different disk than the one the operating system and programs are on because it can use it without the 2 data transfers getting in the way of each other. I learn these things when something isn't working right and I research it online usually until I figure out how to fix it or at least work around it. I wouldn't worry about raid scratch disks unless you are doing massive video editing.


 

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