I've already bought a 16gb ram kit (currently have 4gb in my early 2011 stock macbook pro), but it hasn't arrived yet so I can't say how it will impact my performance but am expecting light and day since I normally have several gigs of page outs when working with aperture by itself and nothing but frustration when I throw photoshop cs5 into the mix. Does anybody else have experience running Aperture with more then 8gb or upgrading the memory coming form just 4gb? Also I've been thinking of getting a SSD but have heard they are overrated for real day to day pro app use, except for video. But to me right now the cost/space ratio is a bit prohibitive. Come tax time though I was thinking of getting a either a 240gb owc SSD or a 1tb internal old skool hard drive since I could rally use the space. I'm currently running aperture with ≈80gb local library space and about 500 gb on a external as referenced masters. My workflow is keep my current projects on my local drive and then when I get done move the masters to the external. Any thoughts on better organization? Also I shoot with a mix of 5dmk2 and xsi.
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Anybody running Aperture on a SSD or more then 8gb ram?
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I keep a number of Aperture libraries. My primary library (work) is on a 256GB SSD and the performance is phenomenal. My other library (master) is on a 750GB 7200RPM spindle drive (Optibay). My other system details are listed in my signature.
Anyway, the library on the SSD is certainly more responsive, especially when making massive edits (like HUGE panoramas). My CS5 scratch disk is only enabled on the SSD as well.
Overall the SSD was a very good additional to my system. Probably the best upgrade that I've ever made. My next upgrade will be the jump to 16GB of RAM though. When I'm running Aperture and have a number of photos open in CS5 (or a single large panoramic), I'll chew up a ton of RAM.
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Anyway, the library on the SSD is certainly more responsive, especially when making massive edits (like HUGE panoramas). My CS5 scratch disk is only enabled on the SSD as well.
Overall the SSD was a very good additional to my system. Probably the best upgrade that I've ever made. My next upgrade will be the jump to 16GB of RAM though. When I'm running Aperture and have a number of photos open in CS5 (or a single large panoramic), I'll chew up a ton of RAM.
ETA: crimson16, Enable private message on your account.
I keep a number of Aperture libraries. My primary library (work) is on a 256GB SSD and the performance is phenomenal. My other library (master) is on a 750GB 7200RPM spindle drive (Optibay). My other system details are listed in my signature.
Anyway, the library on the SSD is certainly more responsive, especially when making massive edits (like HUGE panoramas). My CS5 scratch disk is only enabled on the SSD as well.
Overall the SSD was a very good additional to my system. Probably the best upgrade that I've ever made. My next upgrade will be the jump to 16GB of RAM though. When I'm running Aperture and have a number of photos open in CS5 (or a single large panoramic), I'll chew up a ton of RAM.
ETA: crimson16, Enable private message on your account.
How is the power consumption with two drives? I've heard good things about going the dual drive route but I often run off battery so power consumption is an issue. Have you ever two standard drives in Raid 0?
I updated from 6GB to 12GB of RAM in my 2009 Nehalem Mac Pro last summer and it made a noticeable improvement. Aperture seems to top out at around 8-10GB of RAM usage so I'm no longer RAM constrained. 16GB is a good choice for Aperture and PS.
I store only my most recent Aperture library on SSD. The older ones go on a fast WD Black HD. It's interesting, but I recently had to go back and do a lot of editing on photos in an old library on the HD, and although it wasn't painful, it was laggy. The time it takes to load images from the thumnail viewer into the main display is noticeably longer. I now want a larger SSD so I have room to pull in an old library along with the existing current library when needed.
Moving to SSD's for my OS/Apps/Library was the best upgrade I've ever made to a computer.
Hope this is helpful.
I store only my most recent Aperture library on SSD. The older ones go on a fast WD Black HD. It's interesting, but I recently had to go back and do a lot of editing on photos in an old library on the HD, and although it wasn't painful, it was laggy. The time it takes to load images from the thumnail viewer into the main display is noticeably longer. I now want a larger SSD so I have room to pull in an old library along with the existing current library when needed.
Moving to SSD's for my OS/Apps/Library was the best upgrade I've ever made to a computer.
Hope this is helpful.
I didn't really notice a difference in battery life but; 1 - I didn't have the system stock for very long (just a few days) and 2 - I don't run my 17" on battery power very often (that's what my MBA is for).
I have dual 500GB 7200 RPM drives running RAID0 in my C2D MBP. Works well. It's nice to have all that storage in a single volume but; 1 - RAID0 is risky, keep good/frequent backups, 2 - It's not as fast as a single SSD and 3 - w/a pair of 7200 RPM drives, running nonstop under load the battery does drain pretty quick.
SSD is your best bet for a primary disk. If you need more storage, Optibay. I was going to run dual SSD (even bought a second 256GB drive) but ended up needing more storage on my secondary volume. Thus, I have a new SSD collecting dust until I find a use for it. I've been very tempted to try an SSD RAID0 but just haven't had the time.
I upgraded to 16 GB RAM a year ago in my Mac Pro and it certainly helped with Aperture's overall performance.
Recently I installed a SSD as a boot drive, the Aperture library being in my home folder and keeping the referenced files on my 2TB RAID 1, I've noticed another big jump in performance. Opening aperture and navigating through the library is very very fast indeed.
I would say that you'll be more than pleased with the RAM for now, it will significantly help Aperture.
Recently I installed a SSD as a boot drive, the Aperture library being in my home folder and keeping the referenced files on my 2TB RAID 1, I've noticed another big jump in performance. Opening aperture and navigating through the library is very very fast indeed.
I would say that you'll be more than pleased with the RAM for now, it will significantly help Aperture.
My Primary
Libray is on my 27" iMac with 16GB of RAM...(Upgraded from 8GB) it's fast, but my MBA with the SSD (256 i7) beats it to bits for speed. However, editing on a 13" screen is a little painful, so most work is done on my MBP 17" or iMac.
The pro has 8GB of ram, and does occasionally slow down....May upgrade that to 16GB too.
Libray is on my 27" iMac with 16GB of RAM...(Upgraded from 8GB) it's fast, but my MBA with the SSD (256 i7) beats it to bits for speed. However, editing on a 13" screen is a little painful, so most work is done on my MBP 17" or iMac.
The pro has 8GB of ram, and does occasionally slow down....May upgrade that to 16GB too.