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    Photoshop CS2 Performance Question...

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Paragon83, Dec 27, 2006.

  1. Paragon83

    Paragon83 Newbie

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    I have decided on the laptop I am going to get but I haven't decided on a hard drive configuration. I could get a single hard drive of 100gb at 7200rpm or I could go with a dual hard drive of 160gb (two 80gb drives) at 5400rpm. I could even go with a dual hard drive of 200gb (two 100gb drives) at 5400rpm. My question is which would be the better configuration for the best Photoshop CS2 performance? I have read that having a second hard drive to use as a scratch disk for Photoshop is good for performance, that's why I've been thinking about a dual drive. Any suggestions and input would be greatly appreciated.
     
    Paragon83, Dec 27, 2006
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  2. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

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    The only aspect of your CS2 performance that the hard drive will affect are the saving/loading parts. The actual performance (editing, applying filters, and so on) is dependent on the CPU and RAM.

    How much hard drive space do you need? If you don't need more than 100GB, then I would say go for the single 100GB 7,200RPM model. It's the fastest hard drive on the market at the moment.
     
    Charles P. Jefferies, Dec 27, 2006
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  3. Nicolas41390

    Nicolas41390 Notebook Consultant

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    Dual HDD only makes a difference with audio/ video editing or encoding. Because it can rip from on drive and write to another. You could go with the single 100gb drive and add another in a RAID 1 configuration to backup all your data. If you need the space, then a 5400rpm drive will work, but it won't boot up as fast as the 7200rpm drive will.
     
    Nicolas41390, Dec 27, 2006
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  4. JaySmuv

    JaySmuv Notebook Guru

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    The other two posters answered the question quite well, but I still figured I'd chime in.

    I have two 80 GB drives and Photoshop CS runs fine on that set up. I haven't opened any huge (print media) files yet, but most everything else loads pretty quickly.

    I know previous version of Photoshop would complain if you had the scratch disk on the same drive as you had the program installed. I have never had any problems with keeping the scratch disk on the same drive, but you'd think they put those warnings there for a reason. ;)
     
    JaySmuv, Dec 27, 2006
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  5. count_schemula

    count_schemula Notebook Deity

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    You will rarely use the scratch disk unless you routinely work with very large images.

    If you are not always doing billboards or full page magazine ads, you will not have a problem.

    1 hard drive and 2GB ram is a pretty strong Photoshop computer.
     
    count_schemula, Dec 27, 2006
    #5