Help Again - Drives Configuration

[Marcosmg]

Hi Again fellows

Since I’ve decide to keep my existing mac pro 1.1, I’ll be trying to optmize it the best as I can with what I already have.
My questions is: I have an OWC 120 GB as my boot drive only, my user folder resides on a WD velocipraptor 600GB 10000 rpm drive and all the media stored on the two other bays 2TB each.
I have an extra intel intel X25-M 80GB SSD that is not in been used.
Would it be a better idea to move the OWC 120 as my home folder only and make the intel X25 80GB as boot drive?
I could also make the WD velociprator as a scratch drive maybe.


Thanks one more time

 

[Honumaui]

any particular programs you use a ton ?

what the main focus of the machine

 

[Marcosmg]

Mostly Aperture, Lightroom, Imovie, Idvd, CS5, Fusion.

Thanks

 

[hoxley]

i thought (no experience myself) that having your user account folder on a non-boot drive could lead to problems - some software auto installs to the user folder.

 

[Honumaui]

I make a living with PS and LR so can shed light on those

the thing about LR is to get the cache on SSD
the X-25 has good read speed which will help with LR cache the write speeds are slow compared to some other SSD based on sandforce (like your OWC) but the write for LR does not matter its all about the seek latency and read speed

now PS ? the write matters their when you hit it ! if you hit the scratch ? so the X-25 will be better than the mechanical drives but not as good as some others and not sure how old the X25 is ?

if it were me I would keep the OWC as my boot
set the X-25 as my LR cache

setting your Library for Aperture ? I have not tested much but the Library can get big so that would depend on the size etc.. so I think I would just keep that on a regular HDD

if you have your normal PS files on your 2 TB drives and your raptor just sits their ! meaning your photos are not on your raptor then I might say set that as your scratch drive for PS
if you set your X-25 as your scratch not sure if it will kill it quicker ? so for the small boost you gain I would not bother

depending on whats in your home folder that has to be on the raptor ? I might say put that stuff on the 2 TB drives and keep your aperture library and your PS scratch on your raptor
I might even say partition the raptor with a outer of around 50 gigs and use that for my PS scratch then in pref check a second drive in case that fills up

their are a few ways to configure your setup for sure these are some thoughts based on PS and LR and Aperture

 

[Marcosmg]

The intel 80GB is about 8 months old. I understand that the OWC is faster and bigger. Leaving the intel as boot only I would think it'd be better because the mac doesn't support trim, so nothing gets written an erased on this drive no?
Making the 120GB OWC as a home folder (only 30GB for holme folder) things would be written and erased more, and since it has the sandforce comptroller I think it would be better, making the proper maintenance on it's own, as opposed the intel.
My music folder would reside in one the 2TB along with data, mail folder etc. Photos on the WD Velocipetor. On the OWC just the user, Aperture and LR library.
Am I wrong to thinking that way?

Best regards to all

 

[Honumaui]

I would ask how much you use LR ?

if the X-25 is cache it can be erased and refreshed easy

your boot still gets changes with the swap/virt memory daily

if you dont have that much in your home folder ? I like my boot super lean
all my data on data drive and cache/scratch dedicated to its own

OWC boot
X-25 cache/scratch
raptor Aperture library also set as second scratch in PS pref might say keep your LR catalog on their whatever else fits ? not sure how many image files you have ? just remember to not fill it past %60 or you will take a big hit on performance

 

[Marcosmg]

i Nonumaui,

I use Aperture more than LR and between both libraries are about 40GB for now.
I didn’t know that the swap and virtual memory happen on the boot system (boot drive),
I thought it was on the home users folder.
If that’s the case, are you sugesting to leave my boot (system only) on the OWC,
Home folder (user folder) on the X-25 an move Aperture, LR, Mail and Music libraries out of the home folder to the WD Velociraptor (600GB)? Those are the libraries that take most of the space.
If I go that route I’ll end up with 30GB GB (System) on the OWC (90GB unused), 40GB on the X-25 (40 used).
When you say to leave the X-25 as a cache/scratch you’re saying the home user?

Thanks again and sorry if I’m making this a big confused topic as well as my bad English.

 

[Transporteur]

Personally, I'd use the X25 as boot and the OWC as cache/scratch drive.

Reading speed wise, the X25 and Sandforce based drives are pretty similar, and the OS itself doesn't write that much to the drive, given that you've got sufficient RAM.