SSD's in laptop for Lightroom?
- Started
- Last post
- 12 Responses
- vaxorcist
Has anyone here switched out their laptop's normal 5400 RPM Hard Drive for an SSD and noticed a huge improvement in Lightroom, specifically switching from one image to the next when you're tweeking a few hundred images?
The hassle of the swtich, moving OS, apps,etc is more of a concern for me than the cost... I figure it will take most of a day to make sure it all works, so I'm asking for anyone's personal experience...
- raf0
I have a recent MB Air 1.7, upgraded the original Samsung SSD to a twice as fast 6G SSD from OWC and I can see an improvement.
It's still not instant though, I still get to see "Rendering: Larger Preview" for a second while browsing photos.From what I gather, Lightroom likes not only fast drives but also lots of RAM and fast processors (for rendering previews). I haven't compared mine with a faster computer though.
If anything... get a 6G SSD if your computer supports it, it really is faster.
- thanks for the link! Not all SSD's are the same....vaxorcist
- 23kon0
I've got an SSD in my thinkpad.
It's like lightning when starting up or opening applications.
I use this computer for music production and not design etc so can't comment on performance in photoshop/lightroom or similar.
I'd assume it would be a LOT faster though.Bump up the RAM too like Raf said.
- akiersky0
I got one of these for my 5 year old MPB:
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Mo…
It's a combo SSD and HDD, a 4GB solid chunk and 500GB reg. The drive has a chip that watches what you are reading and writing more frequently and puts those things on the Solid State part. So the more often you use it the faster it will do the things you do frequently.
I noticed a huge difference right away, it boots in about 20 seconds, programs load very fast and seems to help in all the noticeable ways. It provides a great size to speed to price ratio. When I was installing everything, I rebooted lots, between every instal to ensure my boot time stayed fast. Then I would open and close programs I use a lot (chrome, itunes, adium etc...) to get those files on the ssd part too.
Admittedly it isn't going to be always as fast as a pure ssd, but I wanted lots of space and didn't want to have to cary a external drive around. For pure speedyness, and especially if you have a desktop or don't have lots of local files, an ssd is going to be the best bet.
For lightroom, the biggest performance hits happen when viewing new images, where it must look at and cache thumbnails of all the images. This performance would be greatly increased with a ssd. I agree with raf, that lots of ram will make a big difference too. Hard drive and ram are generally the two best upgrades you can do for your computer.
- I had Momentus XT in MB Pro. Surely not as fast as SSD but speed bump was very noticeable and it's cheap.raf
- Be careful not to buy a Seagate with G-Force (ASG at the end of the model number.) -->nb
- I put one in my MBP and it melted my ribbon cable. The G-Force conflicts with OSX's shock protection.nb
- Did not know that, actually always paid a few € more to get ASG version.raf
- vaxorcist0
@akiersky that looks interesting... and affordable.... and clone-able from my current HD, so the hassle factor goes down too, as many SSD's are too small to simply clone an existing laptop hard drive.
- raf0
- akrok0
i switched to owc, but a 3G. as my mbp is a tad old-ish.
starts under 20 sec. don't have lightroom, though. so can't comment on that. hah.
- ArmandoEstrada0
got one as my main drive in MacPro Tower (Corsair). Best investment I have ever made. Go for it.
- craigatkinson0
I've been looking at upgrading. I have i7 2.6 Dual MBP with 8GB and it's v slow sometimes. I usually have chrome open with 15 tabs, lightroom and indesign, mail etc. Chrome / any browser and lightroom is crazy for my mac. I'd get an imac but need the portability. Looked at the new MBP with 16GB but its 3k, crazy. Might look at a pc, out of touch with them.
- deathboy0
a ssd with a proper sataIII setup will be a ton faster. just make sure you have a compatible and the best controller for your ssd. those vertex3 are around 500 MB read/write vs a shitty 5400 probably at 50MB
- Amicus0
Anyone use an SSD via Thunderbolt?
Could you feasibly bootup and run your apps that way?
- tOki0
^
Only if the SSD is thunderbolt spec (and it'd prob run a little slow), you have to remember that the bus on the motherboard is designed for instant unfettered transfer at gigabytes a second, anything coming externally has a lot more travelling to do. So for the OS it may or may not be ok depending what you're doing - apps on the other hand as long as they aren't games should be fine, once it's loaded in ram you're all good to go :)
- raf0
@craigatkinson
Here's a list of maximum RAM support in Macs:
http://everymac.com/systems/by_c…
Yours is maxed out at 8GB if it's a Core 2 Duo.Worry not. Depending on your budget, you can put a SSD or a hybrid drive into your mac. It will feel like a new computer.
I presume you have a 500GB hard drive? Do you want to retain this size or will you be ok with 240GB?