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Archive 2015 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best...

  
 
architect7
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


So I have an editing bay that I built a few years ago with:
i7-4770k CPU
Asus Sabertooth Z87 motherboard
32gb ddr3 1600mhz dual channel RAM (my mobo cannot use quad channel )

My current hard drive setup:
Samsung 840 Pro 256gb SSD for OS and applications
4x1tb Western Digital black in RAID10 (which is a bad idea since they spin down and take forever to spin back up so I am converting these back to non-RAID and then combining them via storage spaces in Windows 8.1)
Samsung 850 EVO 256gb I am installing tonight for testing only as PS scratch disk and Lightroom cache
Thecus N5550 NAS with 4x3tb WD Red in RAID6. Originally I wanted to store all photos on this NAS and work directly from it in PS/LR. At 90mb/s transfer rate between my desktop via D-Link gigabit switch it is very fast for a NAS and easily fast enough for MOST cameras' RAW files. But not the D810 RAWs, if I import a new series of images and want to quickly check focus/exposure/content of a few hundred photos it can be pretty slow.

Even with internal transfers using the WD Black RAID10 array fully spun up I am getting 145mb/s...again, very fast real world numbers vs. impossible factory specs but again, not fast enough to efficiently manage D810 RAW images.

So my question is, what are others doing for HDD solutions to improve D810/D800 RAW file handling? External USB 3.0 SSD? USB 3.0 card reader with high speed SD card? Thanks in advance!



Jun 12, 2015 at 12:30 AM
mysh
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


I have an imac with a 512gb SSD and 2 usb 3.0 3TB HDD attached. The externals are not SSD just 7200rpm.

I import on my 512gb ssd and do my initial editing on there. Once I go over them and do editing I will move them over to the externals. I normally keep them on my main drive for a couple months or until my 512gb gets down to around 150gb whatever comes first.

I have no issue with this setup and don't feel the need for anything more. It is slow moving my photos from the main drive to the externals but its not really an issue for me. Normally in the couple months they live on my main drive i have done most the editing. If I need to edit something once its on the external its normally minor and I deal with it.

I should add my imac is 1 1/2 years old and I really have no lags. I typically have open PS6, LR5, firefox and something like ptgui or NXD open. Everything runs smoothly.



Jun 12, 2015 at 12:40 AM
JimFox
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


So D750 users don't count? Since you seem to be after the fastest setup out there, couldn't some guy shooting just a D3 still have a fast computer setup?

I shoot with a D800E and a D810, I think I am too embarrassed to list my specs. But here goes, it's nothing fancy, I am just using some middle of the road i5 processor with USB 2.0 and I am pretty sure a 5400rpm HDD. And it works great. If it takes 45 mins to download a 32gb card it's fine, I just play WoW on my other computer while it's downloading.

And yeah, processing my photos in CS6 isn't speed lighting, but I guess it gives me time to think about my landscapes while the progression bar moves from left to right. In the end, I think my photos look pretty decent and at least for me, that's the most important part.

Jim



Jun 12, 2015 at 02:06 AM
architect7
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


mysh wrote:
I have an imac with a 512gb SSD and 2 usb 3.0 3TB HDD attached. The externals are not SSD just 7200rpm.

I import on my 512gb ssd and do my initial editing on there. Once I go over them and do editing I will move them over to the externals. I normally keep them on my main drive for a couple months or until my 512gb gets down to around 150gb whatever comes first.

I have no issue with this setup and don't feel the need for anything more. It is slow moving my photos from the main drive to
...Show more

That's the approach I was thinking about taking, something like a Sandisk Extreme Pro 480gb or 960gb drive for short term and then use Windows Storage Spaces or Crashplan to move older content to my NAS. That is also what my hardware expert friend recommended and he manages high speed storage for one of the biggest cancer research organizations in the world which is an industry with crazy data processing requirements. I am just not 100% crazy about buying another drive when I already have the four WD blacks but they are aso getting long in the tooth and I am sure my RAID10 config for them has not contributed to longevity.

JimFox wrote:
So D750 users don't count? Since you seem to be after the fastest setup out there, couldn't some guy shooting just a D3 still have a fast computer setup?

I shoot with a D800E and a D810, I think I am too embarrassed to list my specs. But here goes, it's nothing fancy, I am just using some middle of the road i5 processor with USB 2.0 and I am pretty sure a 5400rpm HDD. And it works great. If it takes 45 mins to download a 32gb card it's fine, I just play WoW on my other computer while it's
...Show more

I would imagine D750 RAWs could pose a problem for some systems but when I rented a D750 recently, the image size just happened to be within what my workstation could handle without any hanging. You sound far more patient than I; I have been downright spoiled with the ability to import a full 128gb card in a matter of minutes thanks to USB 3.0 and UDMA7 compact flash.



Jun 12, 2015 at 02:28 AM
mysh
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


I have seen some good deals on 1TB SSD drives lately and if I was to buy something now it would likely be a 1tb but definitely get atleast a 480GB or more. They fill up fast with a D800/810.

I think you will be happy with this type of setup. I almost never get lag or loading in PS6 or LR5. In PS6 only time I see loading is when I do a large pano or transform, and even then it's a few seconds. LR5 still takes a second or 2 when zooming into 100% to display the image sharpness but otherwise no issues.

Having the images edited on the same drive as the OS and photo programs makes a big difference. Also make sure to always keep 25% of drive free and I try to stay over 40%. Only time I had some issues was when I let my 512gb slip under 100GB free.

architect7 wrote:
That's the approach I was thinking about taking, something like a Sandisk Extreme Pro 480gb or 960gb drive for short term and then use Windows Storage Spaces or Crashplan to move older content to my NAS. That is also what my hardware expert friend recommended and he manages high speed storage for one of the biggest cancer research organizations in the world which is an industry with crazy data processing requirements. I am just not 100% crazy about buying another drive when I already have the four WD blacks but they are aso getting long in the tooth and I
...Show more




Jun 12, 2015 at 02:54 AM
Celbrett
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


Do you lose the LR edits on the raw file when you move them over?



mysh wrote:
I have an imac with a 512gb SSD and 2 usb 3.0 3TB HDD attached. The externals are not SSD just 7200rpm.

I import on my 512gb ssd and do my initial editing on there. Once I go over them and do editing I will move them over to the externals. I normally keep them on my main drive for a couple months or until my 512gb gets down to around 150gb whatever comes first.

I have no issue with this setup and don't feel the need for anything more. It is slow moving my photos from the main drive to
...Show more




Jun 12, 2015 at 07:56 AM
twistacatz
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


mysh wrote:
I have an imac with a 512gb SSD and 2 usb 3.0 3TB HDD attached. The externals are not SSD just 7200rpm.

I import on my 512gb ssd and do my initial editing on there. Once I go over them and do editing I will move them over to the externals. I normally keep them on my main drive for a couple months or until my 512gb gets down to around 150gb whatever comes first.

I have no issue with this setup and don't feel the need for anything more. It is slow moving my photos from the main drive to
...Show more

I do something similar. I work off an iMac as well that has a 256GB SSD system drive and a 1TB 7200RPM mechanical drive. I have a 10Gb network between my computer and my storage array. Within my storage array I have a pool of four SSD's that are used for a number of things but also my picture dump. This pool is connected to my iMac via iSCSI so it just shows up as an hard drive to the Mac. After I'm done with my edits in DXO Optics and Photoshop I move the picture set over to a larger more redundant disk pool for long term storage.

For backup purposes my pictures are replicated to a smaller server that I have in my home office. I also replicate my pictures to my brothers house over the net for off site storage.



Jun 12, 2015 at 08:11 AM
jancohen
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


architect7 wrote:
I have been downright spoiled with the ability to import a full 128gb card in a matter of minutes thanks to USB 3.0 and UDMA7 compact flash.


I too could be considered hindered by my older, usb2 computer setup. Then, some of us date back decades to a time when photo processing was counted in revolutions per minute instead of mbits/second.




Jun 12, 2015 at 08:11 AM
mysh
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


No you don't lose any info in LR. I move by dates and then just remap in LR so LR knows the new location of those files. It keeps all edit info but you have to let LR know where to find them again.
I do the move in finder, there might be a better way to do it directly in LR but i got used to this way.


mysh wrote:
I have an imac with a 512gb SSD and 2 usb 3.0 3TB HDD attached. The externals are not SSD just 7200rpm.

I import on my 512gb ssd and do my initial editing on there. Once I go over them and do editing I will move them over to the externals. I normally keep them on my main drive for a couple months or until my 512gb gets down to around 150gb whatever comes first.

I have no issue with this setup and don't feel the need for anything more. It is slow moving my photos from the main drive to
...Show more
Celbrett wrote:
Do you lose the LR edits on the raw file when you move them over?





Jun 12, 2015 at 09:57 AM
Mark_L
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


Why are you are so focused on HDs? Most of the performance in LR and PS isn't that HD related.


Jun 12, 2015 at 11:27 AM
aut0maticdan
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


I work on an 3-drive SSD RAID0 array inside a Pegasus J4 with overflow going onto a drobo both via Thunderbolt. Its stupid fast. Backup goes to a generic 16TB array and a Pegasus R6 which are attached to a mac mini across the room.

I share the same gear with Final Cut Pro.



Jun 12, 2015 at 11:35 AM
sjms
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


have you made sure your 840 is fully firmware updated. the are well known to slow down and an acknowledged issue with samsung though it has been awhile.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8550/samsung-acknowledges-the-ssd-840-evo-read-performance-bug-fix-is-on-the-way

i would use the 850 as your primary drive and the 840 as your scratch (i haven't bothered to go this route. the 850 is a substantially better unit. just clone it out and see.

i just threw a 850 1TB in my laptop and parted it to 2 drives.

i have a 5 2TB reds in my Drobo 5D and a 120GB MSATA hot data cache hanging off of a USB3 cable.

Edited on Jun 12, 2015 at 05:32 PM · View previous versions



Jun 12, 2015 at 11:42 AM
architect7
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


jancohen wrote:
I too could be considered hindered by my older, usb2 computer setup. Then, some of us date back decades to a time when photo processing was counted in revolutions per minute instead of mbits/second.



Times have definitely changed Growing up in Idaho I sometimes had to wait a week or more for slide film to be developed, especially anything that required special handling (usually sent out to a trusted developer in Seattle). And of course there were the b+w darkroom days, I still miss the smell of Dektol

Mark_L wrote:
Why are you are so focused on HDs? Most of the performance in LR and PS isn't that HD related.


The performance issues I am seeing are with image loading, sometimes it takes forever to load an image to full size and then 100% zoom takes even longer. To me this seems very HDD related but happy to hear what else I should be looking at. Editing and export are very fast and not an issue for me in this specific situation.

aut0maticdan wrote:
I work on an 3-drive SSD RAID0 array inside a Pegasus J4 with overflow going onto a drobo both via Thunderbolt. Its stupid fast. Backup goes to a generic 16TB array and a Pegasus R6 which are attached to a mac mini across the room.

I share the same gear with Final Cut Pro.


Now you're speaking my language I completely forgot about Thunderbolt as an option, thanks for the ideas! Are you connected to the R6 via optical?

sjms wrote:
have you made sure your 840 is fully firmware updated. the are well known to slow down and an acknowledged issue with samsung though it has bee awhile.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8550/samsung-acknowledges-the-ssd-840-evo-read-performance-bug-fix-is-on-the-way

i would use the 850 as your primary drive and the 840 as your scratch (i haven't bothered to go this route. the 850 is a substantially better unit. just clone it out and see.

i just threw a 850 1TB in my laptop and parted it to 2 drives.

i have a 5 2TB reds in my Drobo 5D and a 120GB MSATA hot data cache hanging off of a USB3 cable.


Thanks for the 840 firmware idea, I haven't touched it since installation roughly 3 years ago so I am sure that is causing issues. Good to know about the 850 performance vs. the 840 Pro. How do you like the 120GB MSATA on USB 3.0 as your hot data cache? From what I've read it seems like an inexpensive but effective way to boost performance.


Thanks to everyone for your ideas!



Jun 12, 2015 at 12:03 PM
Christian H
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


MacBook Pro. Maybe 3 years old?


Jun 12, 2015 at 12:07 PM
Dpedraza
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


My imac not 100% of the processor atm it's quad core 24gb ram 256gb ssd and 1tb standard hd. Video and graphics not sure atm. Whatever came stock with the comp.

Macbook pro 13" non retina. 16gb ram dual core i7 1tb standard hd. Video/graphics whatever came with it. I'm going to buy an ssd for it shortly.

I haven't had any issues editing on either.



Jun 12, 2015 at 12:31 PM
elkhornsun
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


With the D8xx files becoming a 79MB file when opened in Photoshop I want maximum I/O when moving data around and that means having the drives on the computer bus and not external to the computer. I have a Windows OS tower that holds 3 hard drives and two of them are set as RAID1 so if one fails the other still has all my data.

It is not ideal but then the ideal setup is no longer in production. The now defunct Apple Mac Pro workstation with the Mac OS X were the best for processing large image files and large numbers of files in batch mode. My Mac Pro has a total of 6 hard drives inside and two are in RAID1 and contain my original data files and I have a separate scratch hard drive and a separate output drive and a separate drive with the operating system and application software.

All my files are first copied to a RAID5 NAS and my output files are also archived on the NAS box as well. I currently have 5TB of NAS capacity and plan to expand that to 12TB in the next month. Buying the D800e was the cheap part.

I do not have a hard drive being read to get application instructions and for Photoshop to write the hundreds of temp files as it batch processes and fragments the drive and then have the data for the file being read off the same drive and then processed and written back to the same drive. Regardless of the speed of the bus or the data port (USB 3, Thunderbolt, 1GB Ethernet, etc.), the individual read write speed of the hard drives is what gates performance.

The D8xx camera has increased the amount of data being moved about by 200% and needless to say that has a huge impact on my post processing. When it comes time to replace the tower it will be with another tower that has multiple eSATA ports to which to connect RAID boxes.



Jun 12, 2015 at 01:07 PM
aut0maticdan
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


architect7 wrote:
Now you're speaking my language I completely forgot about Thunderbolt as an option, thanks for the ideas! Are you connected to the R6 via optical?


Mine is 1st generation Thunderbolt. I got it shortly after Apple debuted and Promise dropped the Pegasus line. I wouldn't get too caught up on optical vs copper unless you are going long distances. You aren't likely to squeeze out any additional performance.



Jun 12, 2015 at 01:20 PM
sjms
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


architect7 wrote:
Times have definitely changed Growing up in Idaho I sometimes had to wait a week or more for slide film to be developed, especially anything that required special handling (usually sent out to a trusted developer in Seattle). And of course there were the b+w darkroom days, I still miss the smell of Dektol

The performance issues I am seeing are with image loading, sometimes it takes forever to load an image to full size and then 100% zoom takes even longer. To me this seems very HDD related but happy to hear what else I should be looking
...Show more

it increases the xfr speed and adds a level of security in transfer along with the internal battery in the Drobo




Jun 12, 2015 at 03:35 PM
rioni
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


I store D810 raw images on a 20Tb Linux fileserver w/ SnapRAID and access the server via NFS from my Mac. Photos load very quickly via the 1Gb connection to the file server. I needed to tweak NFS abit for faster loading. Let me know if you go this route and provide the config.



Jun 12, 2015 at 04:30 PM
Aloicious
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · D810/D800 users, what is your computer hard drive configuration for best performance?


I'm suprised you're having so much difficulty with it, I've found that the slowness when opening/viewing the images has more to do with how you're doing it than with the computer speed itself. I've had no problems opening and viewing and editing D800 raw images on my i5, 8GB RAM, 500GB SDD tablet before. but as far as my desktop configuration goes I've got a 6 core 4930k I7, 32GB RAM, Asus rampage black MOBO, 500GB 840SSD primary drive, several 4TB secondary drives, and a 5 disk RAID NAS array for backup and storage.

what process are you using to open view them? here's what I've found to be the quickest: viewing the files for inspection and at 100% in ViewNX2, then when you find the ones you specifically want to work on, open them individually in PS and work on them.

the slowness problems I've seen have all came from a) trying to import the files in bulk, b) using a codec with some sort of third party software for opening/viewing them (the NEF codec used with windows image viewer was especially slow with the d800 files where it was fine with smaller d3s files) after I started doing my inital viewing in the Nikon ViewNX2 software, virtually all the slow opening/viewing problems ceased for me.



Jun 12, 2015 at 05:12 PM
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