Adding hard drive

J
Posted By
Jerry
Apr 10, 2005
Views
380
Replies
11
Status
Closed
I have a PIII with only 16GB hard drive. I’d like to add more but am not sure what’s best. Internal, external, speed? I’m also interested in speeding up working with large PS files, 35mb files that quickly get huge when I work with layers.

If I get an external it seems like I could use that when I eventually upgrade to a new computer. I have a USB 2.0 hub on my computer. Does that provide adequate speed if PS needs to write to a scratch disk?

Any recommendations on drives?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jerry

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T
Tacit
Apr 10, 2005
In article <hLf6e.14101$>,
Jerry wrote:

I have a PIII with only 16GB hard drive. I’d like to add more but am not sure what’s best. Internal, external, speed? I’m also interested in speeding up working with large PS files, 35mb files that quickly get huge when I work with layers.

If you’re most concerned with speed, you could probably do with a new computer; the computer you have is painfully slow by modern standards.

In any event, you will get better performance from an internal than an external hard drive. Your computer is old enough it is likely equipped with USB 1, which is extremely slow; imagine Photoshop using a floppy disk for a scratch disk and you’ll get the idea. An internal drive will also be less expensive, and can be moved to your new computer when you replace your existing machine.


Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
H
harrylimey
Apr 10, 2005
"Jerry" wrote in message
I have a PIII with only 16GB hard drive. I’d like to add more but am not sure what’s best. Internal, external, speed? I’m also interested in speeding up working with large PS files, 35mb files that quickly get huge when I work with layers.

If I get an external it seems like I could use that when I eventually upgrade to a new computer. I have a USB 2.0 hub on my computer. Does that provide adequate speed if PS needs to write to a scratch disk?
Any recommendations on drives?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jerry

I decided to add an extra internal hard drive last year and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was!!
I have Windows XP and was able to partition the new drive in to 3 sections, one is left exclusively for the scratch disk, – Go for it!! unless you take Tacit’s advice and do a complete upgrade!

Harry
R
Roy
Apr 10, 2005
"Jerry" wrote in message
I have a PIII with only 16GB hard drive. I’d like to add more but am not sure what’s best. Internal, external, speed? I’m also interested in speeding up working with large PS files, 35mb files that quickly get huge when I work with layers.

If I get an external it seems like I could use that when I eventually upgrade to a new computer. I have a USB 2.0 hub on my computer. Does that provide adequate speed if PS needs to write to a scratch disk?
Any recommendations on drives?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jerry

Yes. Put in a new Hard Drive. They are very cheap at the moment. Ask at the shop if it will run on an old machine, and be prepared for them telling you that your P111 is prehistoric, but don’t take offence because there are still a lot of them in every day use. I think you will be able to use a 7200 rev HD which is a little faster than the 5000 rev which is probably what you have.

It is actually very easy to do, just ensure that the Data Cable and the Power Cable are put in in the same orientation as they were on the original Drive. The Data Cable will have a stripe (often red) along one edge. Remember, if you change the drive you will need to reinstall everything.

Roy G
PB
Peter Brenner
Apr 11, 2005
Roy :

Yes. Put in a new Hard Drive. They are very cheap at the moment. Ask at the
shop if it will run on an old machine, and be prepared for them telling you
that your P111 is prehistoric, but don’t take offence because there are still a lot of them in every day use. I think you will be able to use a 7200
rev HD which is a little faster than the 5000 rev which is probably what you
have.

It is actually very easy to do, just ensure that the Data Cable and the Power Cable are put in in the same orientation as they were on the original
Drive. The Data Cable will have a stripe (often red) along one edge. Remember, if you change the drive you will need to reinstall everything.
Roy G

You have to know, that any older (eg. PIII) Computers not able to handle large (more than 64/128GB) Harddisks with their buildin IDE-Controller. Please look at PCs manufactor internetpage search for the last BIOS and checkup the HD-limitation-problem. One other way is to plug in a PCI-IDE-controllercard with own BIOS on it. They are able to handle this "big" harddisks…

Sorry for broken English! 😉

Peter

‘Immer noch hängen viele HiFi-Freunde an der Nadel.’, Harald Schmidt Reply only to NG. http://highend4d.de.vu PGP-ID: 0x20F2B775
BH
Bill Hilton
Apr 11, 2005
If I get an external it seems like I could use that when I eventually upgrade to a new computer. I have a USB 2.0 hub on my computer. Does that provide adequate speed if PS needs to write to a scratch disk?

I ran some tests a year or so ago assigning a USB 2 external and a Firewire external as my scratch disk and both were slower than leaving the scratch on C drive. YMMV since you have an older, slow system, but that’s what I measured. Fastest was a second internal drive, 2nd fastest using C drive, Firewire was 3rd, USB 4th.

Any recommendations on drives?

I would get another internal drive and use it for scratch and my data, then when you get a new computer you can just unplug it and put it in the new computer and you’ll already have access to your old data. You’ll already know how to do this after installing it in the one you currently have. I’d also say get an external USB 2 drive and use it as a backup … you can get 80 – 120 GB externals pretty cheap these days at Fry’s etc.

Bill
J
Jerry
Apr 11, 2005
Jerry wrote:
I have a PIII with only 16GB hard drive. I’d like to add more but am not sure what’s best. Internal, external, speed? I’m also interested in speeding up working with large PS files, 35mb files that quickly get huge when I work with layers.

Okay, so it looks like a new computer is the fix. I just spent $60 today on some extra memory to bring it from 394mb to the max of 512. I had to buy a 256 since there are only 2 slots, currently with a 256 and a 128. Will that give an appreciable increase in speed?

Maybe I should cancel the order and put the money toward a new computer. What’s the current recommendation for a PC that will handle working with Photoshop files containing layers that make the file size over 100mb?

Again, thanks in advance for your advice.
Jerry
R
Roy
Apr 11, 2005
"Jerry" wrote in message
Jerry wrote:
I have a PIII with only 16GB hard drive. I’d like to add more but am not sure what’s best. Internal, external, speed? I’m also interested in speeding up working with large PS files, 35mb files that quickly get huge when I work with layers.

Okay, so it looks like a new computer is the fix. I just spent $60 today on some extra memory to bring it from 394mb to the max of 512. I had to buy a 256 since there are only 2 slots, currently with a 256 and a 128. Will that give an appreciable increase in speed?

Maybe I should cancel the order and put the money toward a new computer. What’s the current recommendation for a PC that will handle working with Photoshop files containing layers that make the file size over 100mb?
Again, thanks in advance for your advice.
Jerry

Hi there.

I have been having another think about your set up.

Changing your Hard Drive is not going to improve your situation very much, unless you are running out of Storage Space.

Using a 2nd Hard Drive as a Scratch disc won’t help the speed all that much either. I think I read somewhere, that the size of the Temp File created by Ps on the Scratch Disc, is related to the amount of Ram on the system.

Upping your Ram by 128 to (2 x 256), will help a bit, but won’t make a dramatic difference. If you could have doubled it, the extra speed would be more apparent.

Perhaps you should save your money, towards a new machine.

For the size of files you are working on you, the minimum you need is one with a processor speed of at least 2000Mhz, and 1000Mb DDR Ram, and a 7200 rev 80 Gb Hard Drive. You can get them a lot faster, and more expensive, but the above will do just fine. Lower end "Off the Shelf" machines may match up to Processor Speed and HD size, but will probably only have 128 or 256 Ram. Just ask for the Ram to be upped. For Ps purposes the amount of Ram is more important than the Processor Speed.

Roy G

Roy G
H
Hecate
Apr 11, 2005
On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 04:18:46 GMT, Jerry wrote:

Okay, so it looks like a new computer is the fix. I just spent $60 today on some extra memory to bring it from 394mb to the max of 512. I had to buy a 256 since there are only 2 slots, currently with a 256 and a 128. Will that give an appreciable increase in speed?

Maybe I should cancel the order and put the money toward a new computer. What’s the current recommendation for a PC that will handle working with Photoshop files containing layers that make the file size over 100mb?
Assuming price/performance concerns you <g> then any machine with an Athlon 64 in it will be unbelievably faster than what you have at the moment and will last you for a fair number of years. Just make sure you get two hard disks in it (preferably SATA), and at least 1Gb of RAM.



Hecate – The Real One

Fashion: Buying things you don’t need, with money
you don’t have, to impress people you don’t like…
J
Jerry
Apr 12, 2005
Okay, so it looks like a new computer is the fix.

Assuming price/performance concerns you <g> then any machine with an Athlon 64 in it will be unbelievably faster than what you have at the moment and will last you for a fair number of years. Just make sure you get two hard disks in it (preferably SATA), and at least 1Gb of RAM.

I checked with Dell and they have a P4 630 with HT Technology (3GHz, 800 FSB). I can get up to 4GB of ram but the price for that is extravagant. It comes with 1GB at 400MHz. Boosting it to 2GB is $310 more or $350 more at 533MHz.

Is this worth the extra $300+ here? Will I see a difference between 400 and 533MHz?

It also comes with a 160GB serial ATA HD with Native Command Queuing, whatever that is. I’d have to install a second HD myself as that’s not an option with this model direct from Dell. Also has dual DVD drives all for about $1,400.

Is this a good system for PS? Thanks again,
Jerry
H
Hecate
Apr 12, 2005
On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 04:22:45 GMT, Jerry wrote:

Okay, so it looks like a new computer is the fix.

Assuming price/performance concerns you <g> then any machine with an Athlon 64 in it will be unbelievably faster than what you have at the moment and will last you for a fair number of years. Just make sure you get two hard disks in it (preferably SATA), and at least 1Gb of RAM.

I checked with Dell and they have a P4 630 with HT Technology (3GHz, 800 FSB). I can get up to 4GB of ram but the price for that is extravagant. It comes with 1GB at 400MHz. Boosting it to 2GB is $310 more or $350 more at 533MHz.

Is this worth the extra $300+ here? Will I see a difference between 400 and 533MHz?

It also comes with a 160GB serial ATA HD with Native Command Queuing, whatever that is. I’d have to install a second HD myself as that’s not an option with this model direct from Dell. Also has dual DVD drives all for about $1,400.

Is this a good system for PS? Thanks again,

I’m in the UK, not the US, but personally I wouldn’t buy from Dell because they insist on using the more expensive Intel chips when you could buy a better machine with an AMD for the same price (and, the Intel chips use Hyperthreading which slows Photoshop down). Plus, the AMD based machine is likely to be 64 bit ready, whilst the Pentium isn’t.



Hecate – The Real One

Fashion: Buying things you don’t need, with money
you don’t have, to impress people you don’t like…
J
Jerry
Apr 13, 2005
Hecate wrote:

I checked with Dell and they have a P4 630 with HT Technology (3GHz, 800 FSB). I can get up to 4GB of ram but the price for that is extravagant. It comes with 1GB at 400MHz. Boosting it to 2GB is $310 more or $350 more at 533MHz.

Is this a good system for PS? Thanks again,

I’m in the UK, not the US, but personally I wouldn’t buy from Dell because they insist on using the more expensive Intel chips when you could buy a better machine with an AMD for the same price (and, the Intel chips use Hyperthreading which slows Photoshop down). Plus, the AMD based machine is likely to be 64 bit ready, whilst the Pentium isn’t.

I’ll have to look into that option. Thanks for the tip.

Jerry

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