What is the best way to use a SSD for Photoshop/photo editing?

[essessdee]

Computer hardware newbie here: I do a significant amount of photo editing work and for a very long time I've experienced Photoshop, Bridge and Photomatix crashing constantly (usually due to insufficient RAM) or just generally taking forever (Bridge took forever to load the thumbnail/preview extractions in a folder full of images, Photoshop took forever to save images and Photomatix took ages to load/merge a set of bracketed photos). Here are the typical error messages I'd get: http://pastebin.com/J9byczse

As a professional photographer, constantly running into that sort of thing is quite aggravating, so to hopefully avoid ever having to deal with that again I invested in a new custom built computer. It's Windows 7 Professional 64 bit with 32GB of RAM and a 240GB SSD; I'm using the 240GB SSD as my boot drive/OS, all of my programs are installed there, and the page file. My photos and data are stored on several HDDs. I have yet to install any of my photo editing software (Photoshop CS6 Extended, Lightroom, Photomatix etc) to the new computer yet since I'd like some advice first.

My basic question is this: what is the best way to take advantage of the SSD (and the computer in general) when it comes to my photo editing software?

Specifically...

1. If I have a folder of photos I'm working on, should I move it to the SSD and then work on them from there in order to take advantage of the speed of the SSD? Would this make any difference in terms of speed if the photos are located on the SSD vs. an internal/external HDD?

2. Most of what I've read online seems to recommend two separate SSDs, one for installing/booting the apps and one for cache/scratch. Does it matter if I use my 240GB SSD for both?

3. This is a fairly new computer and the SSD is already almost half full (102GB used, 120GB free) *WITHOUT* any of my photo editing software installed yet. I'm concerned about how fast that remaining 120 GB may fill up. As it fills up will I lose the speed advantage of the SSD vs. a regular HDD?

4. Sort of similar to #3, but should I bother moving any of my other non-photo editing programs/caches off of the SSD to a HDD and would there be any major difference in the speed/lifespan of the SSD if I did so? It's mostly Firefox and Chrome and their caches that I'm concerned may be a problem if they remain on the SSD.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Guest]

Answer #1: You don't need to move your working folder to the SSD since when you read the graphic it should be loaded into RAM anyway. It probably won't make much difference.

Answer #2: SSD for OS and Apps, HD for Data and Page file/Scratch. Some people will argue that you don't even need a page file with more than 6GB of RAM, but I'd leave it be for compatibility so Windows or the one App that wants a page file won't complain. Moving the page file and scratch to hard drive should free up a bit of space on your SSD also.

Answer #3: Some SSD's that don't have dedicated cells for moving data around will slow down if you use more than 80% of your total space. So keep your SSD utilization under 80% and you should be golden.

Answer #4: You shouldn't need to move off any applications unless you are concerned about space conservation. As I said in Answer #2, you should move your page file and scratch folders to the hard drive. Other than that, it shouldn't matter. I turn off web history on my browser so I don't worry about temporary internet cache. My internet connection is fast enough to not notice any difference with or without a web cache.

 

[Dereck47]

1. If I have a folder of photos I'm working on, should I move it to the SSD and then work on them from there in order to take advantage of the speed of the SSD? Would this make any difference in terms of speed if the photos are located on the SSD vs. an internal/external HDD?

Yes, keep a folder of your current photos on your SSD. When you're done with that particular project then cut & paste the photos to your HDD to reclaim space on your SSD.
All photos that you're not currently working on should reside on your HDDs.

2. Most of what I've read online seems to recommend two separate SSDs, one for installing/booting the apps and one for cache/scratch. Does it matter if I use my 240GB SSD for both?

No, it doesn't matter; just create a folder called C:\Temp or C:\Scratch, and have your software point to that folder.

3. This is a fairly new computer and the SSD is already almost half full (102GB used, 120GB free) *WITHOUT* any of my photo editing software installed yet. I'm concerned about how fast that remaining 120 GB may fill up. As it fills up will I lose the speed advantage of the SSD vs. a regular HDD?

Most SSDs lose Read/Write speed when more than 90% full. But it will still be faster than a regular HDD.
If you have not purchased your SSD already you might want to look at getting the OCZ Vector. The Vector maintains performance very well when nearly full. Read this for additional info: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/58083-ocz-vector-256gb-ssd-review-11.html

4. Sort of similar to #3, but should I bother moving any of my other non-photo editing programs/caches off of the SSD to a HDD and would there be any major difference in the speed/lifespan of the SSD if I did so? It's mostly Firefox and Chrome and their caches that I'm concerned may be a problem if they remain on the SSD.

You don't have to worry about drive longevity with current generation SSDs.
Keep your browser caches on your SSD; it will have minimal impact on your drive's longevity.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

If you have a desktop computer with 32GB of memory, then use 16GB of the memory as a ramdisk. It will work wonders for photo editing, especially rendering processes. Here is a link to a recent article about setting up a ramdisk that also discusses photo editing:

http://www.bjorn3d.com/2013/01/ramdisks-maximizing-high-capacity-ram/#.UVJDVCfn_uo