SSD questions with lightroom (yeah i've searched...)

I am currently using a wd green 1tb drive (super slow) and have an i7 920/asus p6t build. I'm looking to get my computer running a little faster, and I especially want to see a performance increase in the following areas (1 is by far most important)

1. lightroom thumbnail load times/zooming in on a photo time
2. boot time
3. load time of applications
4. photoshop and dreamweaver, just improve their response time
5. would also like solidworks to run quickly

How do I get all this to happen? What do I need to have on the SSD and what can be kept on the wd green drive (which I'll use to hold photos, music, movies, etc)? How much of a pain is it having two drives like this?

So in my c:\ directory I've got...
program files: 22.6gb
program files x86: 10.5gb
windows: 16.3gb
program data: 2.46gb

For a total of about 52gb. Obviously I want a bit of expandability, but this should pretty much be everything I'll ever have installed. What size SSD should I be looking at? Was hoping to go with the OCZ Vertex 2 60gb, but I should probably be looking at at least 80gb correct? And if I want lightroom to run quickly do I need to include the lightroom files (thumbnail cache) on the SSD as well? How does this actually work with regards to lightroom?

Also on a related note, is there anyway I could do this without wrecking my current install? I have a ton of applications on this install, and I've kept it very clean. Would love to somehow migrate this (the applications) over to the SSD if possible. I could install windows on the SSD as well, then try to merge the applications over... but I don't think this is really possible. Correct?

Looking at this drive btw: http://www.newegg.com …SlickDeals-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA

slappy sam wrote in post #11721721
1. lightroom thumbnail load times/zooming in on a photo time
2. boot time
3. load time of applications
4. photoshop and dreamweaver, just improve their response time
5. would also like solidworks to run quickly

For these to happen the files involved need to be on the SSD. You can put the photos from your latest shoot on the SSD then migrate them to the green after your'e done editing.

You're probably missing your hiberfile/pagefile, which should both be disabled when using an SSD.

Yep. With lightroom installed on the SSD and all the files it's accessing on it too it'll be fast.

No. I don't think there's any way to do this (well) short of a fresh install.

Sp1207 wrote in post #11721785
For these to happen the files involved need to be on the SSD. You can put the photos from your latest shoot on the SSD then migrate them to the green after your'e done editing.

Hm, honestly this just seems like kind of a hassle actually. I think having to move files back and forth from the SSD would get to annoy me after a while. Could see it if I'm editing 1k+ photos/shoot but its more like 200 so whatever...

Thank you very much for answering all my questions, I think I will wait a year or so and re-evaluate then.

You have a excellent fast processor for the tasks. If you go SSD and plan to put all your OS AND program files on it you will need a large SSD, at least 128GB or even better a 256GB -- getting expensive fast.
Would you consider updating your mobo to obtain 6Gb/s SATA3 connectors? If so, you could put your OS on the SSD and put your programs on a 6Gb/s SATA3 drive to gain program operating speed.
I built using a 128GB SSD for OS only (Win 7 and virtual XP), a 1TB 6Gb/s HDD for programs and misc downloads, and a 2GB 6Gb/s HDD for photo storage. So far I have been very pleased with the response time of the computer in all operations.

slappy sam wrote in post #11721946
Hm, honestly this just seems like kind of a hassle actually. I think having to move files back and forth from the SSD would get to annoy me after a while. Could see it if I'm editing 1k+ photos/shoot but its more like 200 so whatever...

Thank you very much for answering all my questions, I think I will wait a year or so and re-evaluate then.

You really go back and reedit your photos enough for it to be a hassle? I would probably never move a file back after I moved it to my storage drive. And it's a one-time transfer per shoot once I have my edited jpegs/tiffs as the raws just go somewhere for backup.

Also, you'll be waiting far longer than a year for SSDs to be useful for general storage as:

1. They're progressing at roughly halfing the price/GB every two years.
2. Storage applications like your music or photo library don't care about latency and will be much better served by 2-3TB+ hard drives for the forseeable future.

Good points above. I guess I don't edit old photos very much. Just seems like it could be a pain. Maybe the reason I'm editing photos from a shoot thats a few weeks old is because I didn't get around to edit it since it kinda lags a lot...

I feel like I'm wasting my proc by not having an SSD. Maybe I'll grab an 80gb ocz...

Don't really want to purchase a new mobo though, that's a definite. Will wait till my cpu becomes a bit more outdated for that.

Also, according to what I've read the read/write speed on my wd green is about 70MB/s, whereas the SSDs are ~250, but I thought I would be getting a more significant speed increase, is there something I'm missing?

My setup

OS on one SSD, Lightroom on another SSD, 2 120GB SSD in RAID 0, a bunch of mirrored 2TB HDs.

I copy my files from my CF Card to the Mirrored Drives (master storage), I then copy to my SSD array where I work on them. When done, the finished JPEGs go back to another set of mirrored HDs.

In short the SSD Raid 0 array is my working drive for photo and video editing.