Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
So thought I would add what is going on in my computer world these days. I took a loss to my older laptop due to a fall at a Dallas Airport and destroyed the screen and top half of the laptop. So a new laptop was ordered and I went with a 15 inch 2.66 I7 core laptop with anti- glare screen. Now with this size and model I lost my e-sata strategy that I had due to Apples insane idea of using a SD reader installed instead ( BAD move on Apples part ). Obviously they did not realize a 30 dollar card adapter inside is a better move and giving US options on e-sata connections. Now I could have went with a 17 but with travel just not easy to deal with at least for me.
So now with computer in hand I customized it with 8gb of ram. A 200gb OWC SSD enterprise drive http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/SSDMXRE200/
which are highly rated and provides great reliability and also one of the fastest drives around. Let's not forget some of it's key features listed here
The Mercury Extreme SSD line features industry leading SandForce® DuraClass Technologies:
DuraWrite™ extends the endurance of your Solid State Drive (SSD).
Intelligent Block Management & Wear Leveling automatically distributes data evenly across the entire SSD.
Intelligent Read Disturb Management spreads the active read/write across the flash components eliminating data corruption caused by constant use.
Intelligent “Recycling” for advanced free space management gradually re-writes data across the SSD over time to ensure data never gets corrupted.
RAISE™ (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) protects the data on your drive similar to having a RAID setup.
Best-in-Class ECC Protection for longest data retention and drive life.
I put this drive in the optical bay area with a bracket i had from my previous unit but you can get as Jack just did a MCE bracket http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/...t_Code=OBSXGB-UNB&Category_Code=STORHDOPTIBAY
Than i put in a Seagate 7200 500gb drive in the hard drive area to retain sensor movement mechanism in place on MBP plus it has rubber rings for reduction in vibration.
On the SSD I made this the OS and with 200gb it gives me plenty of space to temporarily work my raws files from than move off to the spinning drive after processing. This gives you the fastest reads/writes from the SSD to process. Now in C1 alone with the I core 7 processor I picked up a 30 percent increase in speed with raw processing. Now that may not seem like much but EACH 16 bit Raw file I save 11 seconds in processing time than multiply that by a couple hundred images and time saved adds up . Not only that you can hit deadlines faster and everything else in life faster. LOL
The spinning drive I partitioned into 3 and put 75 gbs alone just for a OS backup which is very nice the laptop has two OS on it without resorting to a external drive. If all goes to hell in a hand basket you can save yourself by booting off the backup. The other partitions are for storage of raw files and processed files . So now when downloading your cards you can have raws on the OS drive and Raws on the spinning drive and this eliminates carrying a external drive when traveling. The third partition is for graphics and everyday stuff. Obviously you can do more or less partitions on the spinning drive depending on need.
For me by putting in a large 500gb spinning drive on the laptop itself eliminated the need for e-sata and a external drive which I lost in this purchase without the express card slot but it also contains everything I need when i hit the road without carrying a external backup. I took that old 3.5 external drive and have it hanging off the back end of the Drobo and everything I do I just copy there as backup to the Drobo which gets everything I do also. Than when that external is full just store it and replace with another 1gb drive . This way i have two backups for storage.
Being a MBP for everything I do speed is critical and having stuff in various places really helps you. I do have a external DVD drive for burning disks and such but that need for a internal CD drive is never been a issue even on the road. But you can save your optical drive put it in a enclosure and take it with you if needed and for a limited time with the MCE purchase you get a free external case for the optical.
So now with computer in hand I customized it with 8gb of ram. A 200gb OWC SSD enterprise drive http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/SSDMXRE200/
which are highly rated and provides great reliability and also one of the fastest drives around. Let's not forget some of it's key features listed here
The Mercury Extreme SSD line features industry leading SandForce® DuraClass Technologies:
DuraWrite™ extends the endurance of your Solid State Drive (SSD).
Intelligent Block Management & Wear Leveling automatically distributes data evenly across the entire SSD.
Intelligent Read Disturb Management spreads the active read/write across the flash components eliminating data corruption caused by constant use.
Intelligent “Recycling” for advanced free space management gradually re-writes data across the SSD over time to ensure data never gets corrupted.
RAISE™ (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) protects the data on your drive similar to having a RAID setup.
Best-in-Class ECC Protection for longest data retention and drive life.
I put this drive in the optical bay area with a bracket i had from my previous unit but you can get as Jack just did a MCE bracket http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/...t_Code=OBSXGB-UNB&Category_Code=STORHDOPTIBAY
Than i put in a Seagate 7200 500gb drive in the hard drive area to retain sensor movement mechanism in place on MBP plus it has rubber rings for reduction in vibration.
On the SSD I made this the OS and with 200gb it gives me plenty of space to temporarily work my raws files from than move off to the spinning drive after processing. This gives you the fastest reads/writes from the SSD to process. Now in C1 alone with the I core 7 processor I picked up a 30 percent increase in speed with raw processing. Now that may not seem like much but EACH 16 bit Raw file I save 11 seconds in processing time than multiply that by a couple hundred images and time saved adds up . Not only that you can hit deadlines faster and everything else in life faster. LOL
The spinning drive I partitioned into 3 and put 75 gbs alone just for a OS backup which is very nice the laptop has two OS on it without resorting to a external drive. If all goes to hell in a hand basket you can save yourself by booting off the backup. The other partitions are for storage of raw files and processed files . So now when downloading your cards you can have raws on the OS drive and Raws on the spinning drive and this eliminates carrying a external drive when traveling. The third partition is for graphics and everyday stuff. Obviously you can do more or less partitions on the spinning drive depending on need.
For me by putting in a large 500gb spinning drive on the laptop itself eliminated the need for e-sata and a external drive which I lost in this purchase without the express card slot but it also contains everything I need when i hit the road without carrying a external backup. I took that old 3.5 external drive and have it hanging off the back end of the Drobo and everything I do I just copy there as backup to the Drobo which gets everything I do also. Than when that external is full just store it and replace with another 1gb drive . This way i have two backups for storage.
Being a MBP for everything I do speed is critical and having stuff in various places really helps you. I do have a external DVD drive for burning disks and such but that need for a internal CD drive is never been a issue even on the road. But you can save your optical drive put it in a enclosure and take it with you if needed and for a limited time with the MCE purchase you get a free external case for the optical.