p.1 #1 · Computer harddrive question with Lightroom/CS3
Having just installed Lightroom and CS3 on my Dell E510 computer - Pentium 4, 1 gig of Slow RAM, 140GB hard drive.
I had most of my photos stored on my computers hard drive and was quickly running out of room so purchased an external drive and moved all my photos to that drive (250GB). That external drive is almost full now so here is my line of thinking to hopefully add a bit of speed to my workflow and backup
I just bought a 2nd external drive (500 gigs/7200) - not the fastest drive so I was thinking about installing a 2nd internal HD (300GB SATA HD) where I would import and store all my new photos and do all my processing work from this drive and use the external as backup only. Also removing my current 1G of RAM and replacing it with 2 - 1 G of faster RAM.
Will this have much of an effect on processing speed at all?
p.1 #2 · Computer harddrive question with Lightroom/CS3
So, basically you're asking two questions here.
1) Best way to backup/archive photos.
2) Will increased RAM make for faster photo processing.
1= Basically you have a two choices. Either store images on hard drives or DVDs. Hard drives are nice because you have relatively quick access to the photo, but they have their drawbacks such as having to cable all these things together. DVDs work well because singly they are very compact, but to do a complete backup of a 250gb drive with DVDs would require about 60 regular DVDs or 30 double layer DVDs. And then you'd need to index the shots somehow to make them easy to find. Archiving photos is what I see as one of the drawback to shooting digital. You need to come up with a system that works for you to make it as easy as possible to retrieve your photos.
2=Yes. More RAM is always better. Newer software is always more capable than older software, but it also requires more RAM processor speed, etc. More is best.
p.1 #4 · Computer harddrive question with Lightroom/CS3
MichaelKirk wrote:
. Also removing my current 1G of RAM and replacing it with 2 - 1 G of faster RAM.
Just add more RAM. You can buy "faster" RAM but it is going to run at the speed the CPU needs it to run at. For instance, I have a core2duo E6600 that runs ram at 533mhz. If I put in 800mhz RAM, the CPU will still run the memory at 533mhz. If you plan on overclocking, then you get faster RAM, but otherwise you waste your money replacing what you already have.
And look into the Hitachi Deskstar 7K500 drives. They have a 250 gig for $70 that benchmarks really well. Also the Seagate 7200.10 or 7200.11 are very nice as well.
p.1 #5 · Computer harddrive question with Lightroom/CS3
dan727 wrote:
Just add more RAM. You can buy "faster" RAM but it is going to run at the speed the CPU needs it to run at. For instance, I have a core2duo E6600 that runs ram at 533mhz. If I put in 800mhz RAM, the CPU will still run the memory at 533mhz. If you plan on overclocking, then you get faster RAM, but otherwise you waste your money replacing what you already have.
The E6600 support RAM upto speeds of 1066Mhz.
What speed your RAM runs on depends on your motherboard (and most boards support upto 800Mhz), you'll just need to find a setting in your BIOS that'll set your RAM to run at 533/667/800
p.1 #6 · Computer harddrive question with Lightroom/CS3
Anish wrote:
The E6600 support RAM upto speeds of 1066Mhz.
What speed your RAM runs on depends on your motherboard (and most boards support upto 800Mhz), you'll just need to find a setting in your BIOS that'll set your RAM to run at 533/667/800
Listen OP, if you want a stable system ignore this. Not that it is even possible on a Dell. As I mention with my motherboard, I do have the option to run RAM at 800mhz. But in real world performance the CPU will not output more data. Then you get into messing with RAM dividers and actually decreasing performance in some instances.
Go with the internal drive and plan on adding more RAM (but call Dell first and get the proper RAM for your PC). Even though you may feel better about getting faster ram, your motherboard may not even support it as many times the faster the speed the more voltage is required for the RAM. Many motherboards from OEMs like Dell only support one voltage.
It shows that you have 4 RAM slots and 2 ATA slots. They are cheap enough now that you could put in 4x1gb Ram chips.
Use the recommended RAM speed. If you go to Crucial.com, they have a calculator that will tell you exactly what Ram to buy.
Having the second internal deive will work and you could actually use the second drive as a scratch disk for Photoshop which would speed up Photoshop. I do not use lightroom so I cannot offer advise on that program.
p.1 #9 · Computer harddrive question with Lightroom/CS3
I thought that 4gigs of RAM was a waste in Photoshop, unless you are running a 64 bit operating system. If this is the case, you may need to upgrade your OS to get the most from the RAM.
p.1 #10 · Computer harddrive question with Lightroom/CS3
anything over 4 gigs is a waste unless yer using 64bit os.
But going from 1 gig of ram to 4 gigs he will definitely see some improvements.
for some reason people have a tough time grasping the fact that even though cs3 can at most use 3gigs on a 32bit os, there other things that need memory also like the actuall os needs memory. Then if yer running more then one program at a time what ever yer running needs memory also.
