Interesting Mac Pro goodie...

[Jack]

Just saw this review for an interesting little Mac Pro goodie: http://www.barefeats.com/hard108.html

And then started thinking about how cool would that be with a pair of SSD drives in RAID 0 as a dedicated scratch drive??? The new Patriot 64G SATA2 SSD drives are actually somewhat affordable at around $200 each, and RAID-able (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220342), so might be an interesting set up. Still pricey at over $500 total for all the hardware, but should scream...

Thoughts?

 

[etrigan63]

The Patriot drives have been reported to lag with large files, so that may have an effect on the potential usefulness for PS scratch files. You may want to wait and see what the Intel SSD drives bring to the market. Your idea is very intriguing. I wonder if it is possible to relocate the Mac's swap space to that drive?

 

[Jack]

Hi Carlos:

For sure one wants a fast disk with no lag.

You can select/change your main swap disk using some terminal code in OSX: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050601094611565

 

[etrigan63]

I read through the entire thread and it does not work with the swap file on a separate drive (the drive may not come online fast enough and the OS puts the swapfile back to the original location - that may or may not be an issue with SSDs). The hint is marked Tiger only so no promises for Leopard and on. Still should run like gangbusters for a PS scratch file assuming the drives used have no large file issues.

 

[Terry]

Well, while I'm not looking for a scratch disk for working on my lowly small 12mp files, $200 for a 64gb SSD gives me GREAT hope that the MacBook Air will get an upgrade this week when Apple does a notebook refresh. I will be traveling fairly often for the next several months and saving weight with an Air is quite appealing. Will also make travel cross country more appealing with American's Wifi in flight service.....although battery life will then be my next thing to complain about.