SSD Worthwhile for high volume image processing?

hollis_f wrote in post #9397257
Better than fine, it works wonderfully. Pre-SSD it always used to bug me, the amount of time I seemed to spend waiting for PS to open. Now it takes around 2-3 seconds. Still long enough to be a niggle, but about 10% as annoying as it used to be.

Odd... reading off of my 7200 rpm raid 0, only takes maybe 4-5s...

basroil wrote in post #9398235
Odd... reading off of my 7200 rpm raid 0, only takes maybe 4-5s...

And those extra 3 seconds make the whole process 10 times more annoying (annoyance doesn't vary linearly with delay).

basroil wrote in post #9384329
Unless you have an i7 and Windows 7, no point, most HDDs are fast enough. Only when rendering previews with an i7 will the processor render previews faster than the HDD can pull files from the disks. Exporting wise, it'll have little effect.

Might make your system feel faster, but won't help much with something like bridge or LR2

Disagree...

Moved a SSD into my notebook that I take sometimes on to job sites.... huge difference in all aspects in both LR2 and PS.

Also last year moved from raid raptors to a pair of SSD in raid, again a noticable difference in all aspects. I was running Vista and an i7.

hollis_f wrote in post #9398812
And those extra 3 seconds make the whole process 10 times more annoying (annoyance doesn't vary linearly with delay).

I thought you said photoshop takes 3-4 seconds to open, how the hell does that make everything worse?

YP5 Toronto wrote in post #9398839
Disagree...

Moved a SSD into my notebook that I take sometimes on to job sites.... huge difference in all aspects in both LR2 and PS.

Also last year moved from raid raptors to a pair of SSD in raid, again a noticable difference in all aspects. I was running Vista and an i7.

Perhaps it does to you, but I keep all data files on a secondary internal drive (backed up to esata drive), so I would need to first copy those files to a ssd, then process, then move back. Right now I have no issues with slow programs with just the regular raid, mainly because it's all read/write limited by the photo drive.

The most common way to open up any performance has always been to look for the bottleneck
In computing, the storage medium is by far the biggest bottleneck.
One will always gain an overall performance boost when addressing or opening the storage bottleneck.

However, wait.
OCZ is about to field a new generation of Vertex SSD drives with the new SandForce controller,.
These drives will absolutely mop up the floor with any current SSD drives, including the "best" current Intels.
they will be around in March,. however their impact is already being felt with current specials on current gen drives dropping prices. Expect even more price drops when the SandForce Vertex IIs hit the shelves.

^^ what I'm waiting for, too

If they give Sandforce some awesome logo like some Tuskan Raiders on a bantha, I'll buy two.

basroil wrote in post #9399379
I thought you said photoshop takes 3-4 seconds to open

2-3

And the difference with Lightroom, especially backing up the gallery is huge.

basroil wrote in post #9399379
it's all read/write limited by the photo drive.

My SSD has Win7, Program Files, LR Catalog and the images I'm currently working on. When I copy images from the card they go straight to the SSD. When I'm finished working on them I move them across to the HDD. As that's the last thing I do it doesn't take up any of my time - I just go off and do whatever's next (normally read PotN).

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #9399435
The most common way to open up any performance has always been to look for the bottleneck
In computing, the storage medium is by far the biggest bottleneck.
One will always gain an overall performance boost when addressing or opening the storage bottleneck.

However, wait.
OCZ is about to field a new generation of Vertex SSD drives with the new SandForce controller,.
These drives will absolutely mop up the floor with any current SSD drives, including the "best" current Intels.
they will be around in March,. however their impact is already being felt with current specials on current gen drives dropping prices. Expect even more price drops when the SandForce Vertex IIs hit the shelves.

I'm going to wait until a 300GB drive is under $200... Guess I'll be waiting a long time

TheHoff wrote in post #9399440
^^ what I'm waiting for, too

If they give Sandforce some awesome logo like some Tuskan Raiders on a bantha, I'll buy two.

SANDFORCE SSD

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

oh HELL even better. I'd buy 3.

basroil wrote in post #9399379
Perhaps it does to you, but I keep all data files on a secondary internal drive (backed up to esata drive), so I would need to first copy those files to a ssd, then process, then move back. Right now I have no issues with slow programs with just the regular raid, mainly because it's all read/write limited by the photo drive.

I wasnt debating or talking about your work flow... your original statement which I quoted was what I was referencing. Has nothing to do what it "means to me", we are talking about the real life benefits of SSD in the OPs situation.

To claim that you require an i7 and Win7 to take advantage of current SSD benefits is INCORRECT AND MISLEADING TO THOSE READING.

YP5 Toronto wrote in post #9400651
I wasnt debating or talking about your work flow... your original statement which I quoted was what I was referencing. Has nothing to do what it "means to me", we are talking about the real life benefits of SSD in the OPs situation.

To claim that you require an i7 and Win7 to take advantage of current SSD benefits is INCORRECT AND MISLEADING TO THOSE READING.

Not incorrect actually, just conditionally correct. In batch/export processing, you need an i7 to see any benefits (and if you're going with i7, might as well use w7 since it'll support trim). Previews take at most an hour (completely redoing 10k previews), usually two or three minutes. OP's original question (not that you read it at all) is if SSD OR i7 will help more. If exporting is improved by 50% with an i7, and previews improve by 100% with ssd, you'll save the most amount of time with the i7 rather than ssd.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #9399435
OCZ is about to field a new generation of Vertex SSD drives with the new SandForce controller,.
These drives will absolutely mop up the floor with any current SSD drives, including the "best" current Intels.

SSDs using the Sandforce controller get a lot of their speed boost by compressing the data. However, when the data you're moving is already compressed (i.e. most image formats) then they're not mopping any floors.

hollis_f wrote in post #9399452
2-3

And the difference with Lightroom, especially backing up the gallery is huge.

My SSD has Win7, Program Files, LR Catalog and the images I'm currently working on. When I copy images from the card they go straight to the SSD. When I'm finished working on them I move them across to the HDD. As that's the last thing I do it doesn't take up any of my time - I just go off and do whatever's next (normally read PotN).

Then you don't have a HUGE gallery =P Well, unless you are totally loaded. SSD's don't hold that much (a few hundred GB at most)

themadman wrote in post #9403952
Then you don't have a HUGE gallery =P Well, unless you are totally loaded. SSD's don't hold that much (a few hundred GB at most)

My Catalog is 19,000 images and 13 GB. Before the SSD I used to do a backup once a week because it took so long. Now it's just a few seconds I do it every day.

And an SSD doesn't need to hold a lot of data. Mine is 160GB and it has 60GB of that free. As I described earlier, I don't keep everything on the SSD. Images I've finished working on, music, videos and old documents are all stored on an HDD. I don't need to access them quickly so the speed is irrelevant (as long as it's not accessed via USB).