Is good this Hackintosh for photo (Lightroom+PS) work?

[angelo.pampalone]

The hate on the RAM was only because he mentioned that he was on a budget and that he was buying a 16GB SSD to run OS X on.

Getting up to 32GB of RAM with 4 slots is going to be very expensive. The cheapest 8GB stick of RAM is very expensive. 16GB would be much more attainable.

Thought I'd do some more research on this for me and for this board. I found this very helpful document straight from Adobe. RAM is the best bang for your buck in terms of overall Photoshop performance up until 16GB. The reason red flags went up in my head is because people had suggested 8GB. My final recommendation on the matter is 16GB - probably the G.Skill 4x4 kit.

As for 16GB SSD - I'll bet he'd be happy with a 20GB SSD and a Z68 motherboard with SSD caching or just using the SSD as the dedicated Cache drive for Photoshop and Bridge. There is no inexpensive way to have a fast storage drive for the photos. A wedding of RAW photos with a couple 5D Mark II's is 60-80GB. Even if you're not doing it professionally, the pictures add up. Therefore if your goal is to make Photoshop run faster for less money, getting more RAM, a cheaper SSD for caching, and a cheaper video card would be the most effective method. Early recommendations in this forum weren't actually considering how Photoshop worked, they were just about how to build a well-rounded system.

As for what Steam is - it's the best multi-platform game distribution system. Made by Valve, it allows you to download and install game that would normally be on a DVD or Blu-ray. Portal 2 was a good example of a recent game - it's about 10GB.

Thank you for clearing what Steam is. Then steam is not an issue, for games I have a wii.
The SSD was intended to be the drive with OSX and programs on while the 2 1TBdrive the one with storage. I plan to have them raid 1-ed so to have all data (photos) mirrored. But if the perfomance will increase using the ssd as swap disk for PS then I can promote the ssd to that.

Aslo I choose a P67 board, what are the difference with a Z68?

 

[angelo.pampalone]

Definitely if you are using the SSD for caching that would be a different matter (though I had no idea photoshop was that read intensive aside from accessing the photos themselves).

I feel like the best way to get a good amount of speed and storage combined is to do a software RAID 0.

It's portable from one system to another. It's fast. It's great. The only thing is that you have to back up frequently in case one of your drives fails. That can be solved with a RAID 5, but I don't think that software RAID 5s exist in OS X.

I currently run the following (I use aperture, because I find that I get the same results with less time than I do in photoshop, but I understand that it's not nearly as robust. I do like CS 5 a lot).

80GB SSD for OS X, Programs (Logic, Aperture, random Apps)
1TB drive = Users Folder
2 x 1TB drive in a RAID 0 = Music, Photos, Videos, Install Files, Documents, Logic Projects that I am currently working on.
1TB drive = Backup of OS X/Windows 7 Partition (in case I feel like gaming)/Miscellaneous partitions for other purposes

2 x 1.5 External USB 3 HDDs to backup the contents of my RAID 0 or bring media/projects from home to work and back.

It took me a while to get it setup just how I want it, but I'm happy with everything other than the OS drive. I wish I had a 120GB drive for OS X + Programs.

And taking a 4th HD just for swap? can be a solution.. that let me wonder if a traditional HDD can be a good swap drive???

 

[angelo.pampalone]

Oh my! I can't purchase this machine this month!

Unplanned expenses take away a part of the budget set for the machine... :

 

[hankydysplasia]

Thank you for clearing what Steam is. Then steam is not an issue, for games I have a wii.

With your system being capable of playing it, I can't recommend Portal 2 enough, if you play video games at all.

The SSD was intended to be the drive with OSX and programs on while the 2 1TBdrive the one with storage. I plan to have them raid 1-ed so to have all data (photos) mirrored. But if the perfomance will increase using the ssd as swap disk for PS then I can promote the ssd to that.

Back in the days of HDD's, it was necessary to have a separate scratch disk because accessing multiple files at the same time didn't work. With an SSD, you can access a bunch of files at once without much slowdown at all. Therefore, it shouldn't be a problem if you want to use your SSD as your OSX drive with programs and your swap drive and your Photoshop cache drive. If you're looking at cutting money though, you could use a small 20GB one just as a scratch drive. Otherwise get an 80GB or 120GB and use it as both.

The 2 1TB drives in RAID 1 is a good way to do it.

Aslo I choose a P67 board, what are the difference with a Z68?

Z68 board can do SSD caching which means using an SSD drive and HDD combined - the motherboard puts the most used files on the SSD and stores everything else on the other drive, but the OS reads it as 1 drive. Not sure if this is supported on Hackintoshes yet.
Other differences is you can use the onboard video card for video conversion with Quick Sync. As of now, only FaceTime HD in OSX supports it, but the presumption is many other programs will soon. You won't be able to use this with a P67 board. It decreases conversion time 3x.

If you have to wait a month, I would reassess where things are then. Most manufacturers are probably going to discontinue the H67 and P67 lines as Z68 is the best of both of them. Just as of today, P67 have a lot more support from the community since they have been released longer.

 

[angelo.pampalone]

Thank you for clearing what Steam is. Then steam is not an issue, for games I have a wii.

With your system being capable of playing it, I can't recommend Portal 2 enough, if you play video games at all.
[quote="angelo.pampalone":wsskeq5e]The SSD was intended to be the drive with OSX and programs on while the 2 1TBdrive the one with storage. I plan to have them raid 1-ed so to have all data (photos) mirrored. But if the perfomance will increase using the ssd as swap disk for PS then I can promote the ssd to that.

Back in the days of HDD's, it was necessary to have a separate scratch disk because accessing multiple files at the same time didn't work. With an SSD, you can access a bunch of files at once without much slowdown at all. Therefore, it shouldn't be a problem if you want to use your SSD as your OSX drive with programs and your swap drive and your Photoshop cache drive. If you're looking at cutting money though, you could use a small 20GB one just as a scratch drive. Otherwise get an 80GB or 120GB and use it as both.

The 2 1TB drives in RAID 1 is a good way to do it.

Aslo I choose a P67 board, what are the difference with a Z68?

Z68 board can do SSD caching which means using an SSD drive and HDD combined - the motherboard puts the most used files on the SSD and stores everything else on the other drive, but the OS reads it as 1 drive. Not sure if this is supported on Hackintoshes yet.
Other differences is you can use the onboard video card for video conversion with Quick Sync. As of now, only FaceTime HD in OSX supports it, but the presumption is many other programs will soon. You won't be able to use this with a P67 board. It decreases conversion time 3x.

If you have to wait a month, I would reassess where things are then. Most manufacturers are probably going to discontinue the H67 and P67 lines as Z68 is the best of both of them. Just as of today, P67 have a lot more support from the community since they have been released longer.[/quote:wsskeq5e]

Ok, I must a least look at what Portal 2 is.
And definitely I'll go again on the hackintosh build process next month, but I'll wait to have the money in my hands before start a new thread.

BUT I must thank all the peoples that spend some time replying to me, you clarified a lot to me!

Angelo