2 Mac Pro Questions

[Scrappy]

@ work, I have the MacPro quad core x 2 - 4 GB ram - running leopard.
My 1st question/problem is: is there a way to fix the constant writing to disc? If I am in photoshop & create a new layer/mask, sometimes doing nothing, I get the color wheel of death for 5 minutes! I opened the activity monitor & its writing to disc. sometimes @ 69MB/sec, but sometimes only @ 200k/sec, but it locks up the program until its done. Panther never gave me this problem.

#2. I might turn this MAC into a server & get a single core pro for myself.
Would these HD's work in the New MAC Pros?
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

thx!

 

[louishen]

2 they should both be SATA drives

1. You have enough RAM, but if that is being a pain, consider ramping back the undos and history in prefs if you don't think you need them too much

 

[Scrappy]

so, just needs to be SATA. got it
thx!
my ps is set up how I like it. I just dont know what when its writing such little data it locks up. I was hoping leopard problems would be resolved by now.

 

[bryphotoguy]

The HD will work fine.
I don't know about the Photoshop issue. How large is the file you're trying to write? I haven't had any problems with with Photoshop/ Leopard. No lockups whatsoever.

 

[Scrappy]

sometimes they are over a gig. depends on the project.

 

[bryphotoguy]

hmmm.... Maybe you're running out of RAM and that's why the computer is constantly writing to the HD. This process will put any computer to a standstill.
Go to preferences in Photoshop and make sure you allocate as much RAM to the app as you can.
1GB files? Why so large??

 

[louishen]

Photoshop has a slider in preferences, you might up that to 90% (I think 50% is the default)

Even that will not use your full 4 gig, since photoshop is a 32 bit app, it can only see a max of 2 gig of ram, so setting the slider way up will still leave 2 gig for the system and other apps

So at the moment, your photoshop is probably using 1 gig, and we will all have to wait until Adobe makes a 64 bit version to leverage all the RAM we put in machines nowadays

 

[Scrappy]

yeah, i did all that. I guess its just the way it is...maybe Ill try to get 8 gigs.
The reason for the large file size is I design movie posters & outdoor campaigns. So some files need to be 27x40" @ 300 DPI & its usually all photos. So, thats just the way it is after all the adjustment layers...

On a side note, the office has an old G4 running as a server
(Model Number M8493) I cant find any info on the MAX storage capacity for this mac. We need more space then whats avail. Im new at this job & im trying to get this place running like a real studio. So, if you guys have any suggestions on servers, please let me know. Thx so much!

edit. found out it can only take a 128 gb hd....
any way to get around this?

 

[hooyeah123]

maybe, rename the files with different versions and flattening the layers after a bunch of adjustments.

 

[Scrappy]

unfortunately, there are constant adjustments, so flattening of the layers isnt an option for working psd files.

 

[bryphotoguy]

Adding more RAM won't help the situation. Photoshop CS3 will only recognize 3GB. Unless you're running more apps that are stealing RAM, you really won't see a benefit to adding more.
Way around the 128GB limit the IDE ports allow on the board is to buy a PCI adapter. It will have either the SATA or IDE connections for you to run the HD's through that. You could toss 4- 1TB HD in the G4 that way. I would assume data won't transfer very fast seeing it will all be going through one PCI connection.

 

[Scrappy]

Ahh, thx.
Im not sure what to do. but that is an option. if it was 1 server, we would just buy it, but we need 2, since we have 2 outdated offices..

 

[bryphotoguy]

You could probably also buy a couple of external FireWire hard drives. I wouldn't recommend USB seeing all G4 towers only support USB1.1. FW will allow some faster transfers. I saw 500Gb externals on newegg.com for $100. I ordered a 1TB external (1x1TB) from work for my PS3 and it's less than $200.

 

[Scrappy]

Thanks for all your suggestions. Being this is for work & it would be ideal to have all data backed up, I might go with this:
http://www.drobo.com/Products/Index.html

ty!

 

[bryphotoguy]

Get the new Drobo. The older version only supports USB. The chip in there is real slow. The USB actual speeds in the new one are faster. The new one also supports FireWire.

 

[evonzz]

In the posts above, bryphotoguy says PS can only see 3GB of RAM, but louishen says 2GB. Any verification about what is the real figure?

So really either way, with PS and maybe LR and / or Bridge running, anything over 4-6GB of RAM is a bit redundant?

 

[bryphotoguy]

In the posts above, bryphotoguy says PS can only see 3GB of RAM, but louishen says 2GB. Any verification about what is the real figure?

So really either way, with PS and maybe LR and / or Bridge running, anything over 4-6GB of RAM is a bit redundant?

It's 3GB. It says somewhere on the Adobe site. 32 bit apps/ OS' can handle 3GB, not 2GB like Louishen.