LR4 + SSD = faster?

Hi,

On occasion I've seen LR4.1 slow down quite a bit, but only on some files (such as a pano 5-shot RAW photo). I'm guessing this occasional slow down is due to the disk access to the catalog/preview files. I have a 2nd gen i7 with 6G of RAM so my system should be pretty fast. With 120G SDD drives coming down quite a bit (< $100), I thinking of moving over the catalog/preview to an SSD drive. Has anyone have any experience with this? Thanks.

SSDs make everything faster.

But it doesn't make everything fast. When Lightroom is manipulating A large file, it is limited more by CPU speed and the amount of RAM you have.

6GB is pretty good, but not great. What type of CPU do you have?

I have an 2nd gen i7-2600 (bought around 1.5 years ago). This is a pretty fast CPU. I know that L4.1 can be pretty doggy at times, but I'm wondering if this is because of the disk access.

Well, an SSD certainly isn't going to make things any slower. Some bits of LR's operation will be much faster, other bits may not show a perceptible improvement. But having the OS, apps and LR catalog on an SSD will help.

The Core i7 2600 is a very fast processor, so that's not the problem.

I have been using SSDs exclusively for years, and I always recommend them. 120GB will fill up too quickly; I recommend this 256GB model for $200: http://www.newegg.com …aspx?Item=N82E1​6820227792

And while I was spending money, I'd upgrade to 16GB of RAM for $75: http://www.newegg.com …aspx?Item=N82E1​6820139980

Then you would have pretty much the same system I have, which is very very fast.

But again, it won't make every operation in Lightroom 4.1 fast. But it will make it just about as fast as it can be.

The major speed you will see is the loading times of lightroom when it gets loaded into memory. Once its in memory than the disk is rarely used unless photos or scratch disk is used and all processing and operations will be done with the RAM and CPU. So if you want to get into SSD's.. Put your OS and apps on the primary SSD. Than use another SSD for all your "Current" working photos and as your scratch disk. Once you are done working on the current set of photos offload them to a spinning drive and delete the phots from the SSD.

rcfury wrote in post #14917528
The major speed you will see is the loading times of lightroom when it gets loaded into memory. Once its in memory than the disk is rarely used unless photos or scratch disk is used and all processing and operations will be done with the RAM and CPU.

That's what I thought, until I tested it. I was wrong. LINK


Edit: Wow! I didn't realise that was done almost three years ago. I guess it's possible that LR may do things differently since the days of v2.5?

hollis_f wrote in post #14917874
That's what I thought, until I tested it. I was wrong. LINK

Thanks! This is precisely the user info I wanted to see, and this is what I suspected along - the speed is limited by the disk speed for disk intensive operations (obviously). I believe there's a heck of a lot things going in the background to the catalog and to the preview files than we realize. I notice the disk LED flashes every time I open a new photo. So I'm guessing there an access to the catalog, then to the previews subfolders. And all this stuff is on the disk (though there could be some caching going as well).

Once you own an SSD, you will wonder how you ever lived without one. It speeds your computer up dramatically, and it will cause you to pity those who don't have one.

I upgraded my Late 2011 15in i7 macbook to a 256GB Crucial m4 SSD and 16GB of RAM just last week and the difference is just insane. I was just testing it out the other day and opened up 15 full size .CR2 files in CS6 instantly. Its crazy, no way can I use anything else now.

I'm curious -- my system (running Win7x64) is limited to 8GB of RAM. Do any of you SSD users get great results with only 8GB?

You can always overclock your CPU. That will help as well. Is your CPU the 2600K or a 2600? If its not the K version then you can still overclock is slightly as long as you have a p67, z68, or z77 motherboard. I believe you can overclock it and change the multiplier up to 40 or 42 on the non K CPU. This will achieve a 4.0-4.2Ghz cpu speed. If your on a stock cooler though keep an eye on CPU temps (for this download speedfan or any other monitoring software along with prime95 to test the CPU). An OC will help speed some things up. An SSD is one of the best upgrades for any computer. I replaced all mechanical drives in our computers with SSDs. They are well worth it.

Ratjack wrote in post #14919729
You can always overclock your CPU. That will help as well. Is your CPU the 2600K or a 2600? If its not the K version then you can still overclock is slightly as long as you have a p67, z68, or z77 motherboard. I believe you can overclock it and change the multiplier up to 40 or 42 on the non K CPU. This will achieve a 4.0-4.2Ghz cpu speed. If your on a stock cooler though keep an eye on CPU temps (for this download speedfan or any other monitoring software along with prime95 to test the CPU). An OC will help speed some things up. An SSD is one of the best upgrades for any computer. I replaced all mechanical drives in our computers with SSDs. They are well worth it.

I have the non-K, non-overclock version of the 2nd gen i7. Overclocking is a bit too scary for me (I'll probably toast my PC).

From the all comments, a SSD seems like a good bang for the buck upgrade for about $100. Now the only question is the size - 128G or 256G. If I just port over my catalog and previews, I think 128G is large enough, for now.

hollis_f wrote in post #14917874
That's what I thought, until I tested it. I was wrong. LINK


Edit: Wow! I didn't realise that was done almost three years ago. I guess it's possible that LR may do things differently since the days of v2.5?

I'm sure they are, but I bet the basic database structure is similar. I would hazard a guess that L4.1 is slowing down relative to the older versions is because of the process version (2012) is putting even more stuff into the catalog.

chantu wrote in post #14919807
If I just port over my catalog and previews, I think 128G is large enough, for now.

Which means you should just go ahead and buy the 256GB drive now, as it will save you the time and aggravation of buying later, then moving all of your stuff to it.