New computer on the way, need advice!

[Eric F.]

Decided that I would get a new computer to dedicate to digital photography, ordered it today:)

Now that the deed is done I have to make sure that I set it up correctly. So I figured that there would be plently of experts out there who would glady share their viewpoints.

What I have coming is a 2.4gig, 1 gig ram, 30gig hard drive. I will be putting in another 80gig hard drive when it arrives. The operating system will be XP home (thought I would give it a try as this was the only way I could get it at special price, if I don't like I will reload 2000 later)

Questions are,
#1. I know how to put the hd in, but do I set jumpers as master or slave?
#2 Should I load PS7 on the same hd with the OS or on the 2nd HD? Maybe this should be asked in a more general way, like "How is the best way to setup and use 2 harddrives on a system when using Printshop 7?"
#3 I noticed in another thread that their was talk about FAT vs NTSB. ??? What the ...... "I'm a digital camera junkie Jim, not a doctor" :p (trekees will like that pun)
#4 Anything else you would like to educate me on would be appreciated. As stated, this computer will only do digital imaging so I want to make it as neat as possible.

Thanks in advance your suggestions.

[Wildman]

I would avoid NTFS (NT File Sytem) unless you really need extra security. I converted my old computer to NTFS and had some compatibility problems with a few programs. I started all over with FAT32 and it has worked fine ever since.

You might consider using the extra hard drive (D:) for just data with applications all on the C: drive. This will greatly facilitate backing up your data. Make D: the slave... actually, I think XP will solve this for you automatically.

XP is very stable... I think you'll like it.

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Eric,

I don't agree with Wildman about FAT vs NTFS. NTFS is much more reliable and more efficient with large volumes. Since you say this PC will only be used for digital imaging, I assume that you have no legacy software that might get upset by NTFS.

Personally, unless your new HD will not arrive for some time, I would wait until that arrives before totally configuring your set-up. I would set up the drives like this (drive letters apart from C are not relevant):

40 gb:

Drive C: 8 gb system drive with OS only and stuff that insists on going on C.

D: 8gb applications drive with Photoshop and any other software

E: 24gb for data and would have the 2nd Photoshop scratch disk here

80 gb:

F: 8 gb scratch drive. I would configure the pagefile to use this volume and have a fixed size file to avoid fragmentation. I would aim all the temp system and Internet files to this drive. I would have the first Photoshop scratch disk here.

G: 72gb data drive. I have a 120gb drive on my system. I played around with different configurations, but came back to having the space in one lump. It's just more flexible that way.

I'd be very careful installing the HD, if you are not 100% certain. (Read standard "not my fault" disclaimer here :) ). I think, if you are putting the second drive on the same controller it should be set up as slave.

Another trick I always use is naming CD/DVD drives. You can allocate any drive letter you want. Before installing software I would change the letter of the CD/DVD drive to Z. This avoids them changing, if you decide to reconfigure the drive set-up and is less hassle when re-installing updating software. On my system I have:

Z: CD rom came with PC
Y: External CD writer (added at system set-up)
X: DVD-RAM (added much later)

Regards,

[gdstaples]

1. Install 80gig as slave on same controller (IDE 1 probably) as your C: drive. If you have DVD or CDRW, keep them on seperate controller (IDE2) - don't have them on same IDE controller as hard drives - will slow down your system.

2. Make sure both drives are 7200RPM drives. This makes a HUGE performance difference on smaller drives like the 30 and 80 gig drives. If you get above 160MB it isn't quite as important.

3. Install all programs on C: drive and use larger drives for storage/data etc. Make sure you have an extra 2-GIG for virtual drive. Make sure your fastest drive is setup as your C: drive. If all drives are fast 7200RPM don't worry about speed.

4. NTFS is much more reliable and a TON faster than FAT or FAT32. I dissagree with Wildman and have been using both Win2K and WinXP for quite a while for digital imaging.

5. Set your virtual memory (in performance options) to a static size for both initial and maximum. If the vm file is static it improves performance up to 25%.

6. If you haven't already done so pick yourself up a TI4200 graphics card with 128MB of DDR RAM. I just purchased one for my AMD 2600+ system for $134 on www.pricewatch.com. It paints an 80MB file instantly in 1024X768 resolution.

Any other questions just ask.

Duncan

[lord.hypnos]

gdstaples wrote:
6. If you haven't already done so pick yourself up a TI4200 graphics card with 128MB of DDR RAM. I just purchased one for my AMD 2600+ system for $134 on www.pricewatch.com. It paints an 80MB file instantly in 1024X768 resolution.


The amount of RAM used in 2D apps/games is not nearly that used in 3D apps/games. If you are running your monitor at 1600x1200 and 32 bit color, that's 1600x1200x32 = 61,440,000 bits. 61,440,000 bits/(8bits/byte)/(1024bytes/kilobyte)/(1024kilobytes/megabyte) is 7.3MB. Having 128MB of video memory only benefits you when you have many and/or large textures in games.

You could save your money (to spend on RAM) and get a cheaper video card (cheaper, not cheap). If you don't play games, you don't need the lastest and greatest video card. Newer ATI cards outperform nVIDIA cards at the same price point so you might want to consider an ATI 8500 or newer model.

FYI: I also own a Ti4200 128MB

As for HDD recommendations you should check out the Western Digital Special Edition drives. You can compare their performance with other drives at http://www.storagereview.com/