My theory on Photoshop workstations it you need 3 controllers and a series of RAID hard drives for each one: (1) Windows OS, Windows swap drive and application programs (2) PS swap drive and (3) image data. That way you eliminate both disk read/write head and controller contention. The Windows OS can load and swap on its own controller and hard drive(s). Photoshop can read / write image files on a dedicated controller and set of hard drives and at the same time, read/write to its swap drive. With this design in mind, I recently built my new workstation. Below are the specs.
Processor
- Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
- 12 gig memory
- I wasn't too worried about the CPU. PS workstations are mainly data constained if the RAID controllers are off chip
Motherboard
ASUS P6T WS PRO LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Core i7
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131357)
3 RAID controllers:
- SAS with 2 SAS connectors
- SATA with 6 SATA connectors
- eSATA with 2 eSATA connectors
Case & SATA backplane combo
Athena Power Case CA-SWH01BH8
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811192058
Has 2 SAS/SATA black planes each with 4 hot swap SATA/SAS bays
Very neat case with 8 hot sway bays you access from the front
Hard Drives
8 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb
Very fast and cheap, see Tomshardware performance charts
Max Read -> http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...s/h2benchw-3.12-Max-Read-Throughput,1009.html
Max Write -> http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/.../h2benchw-3.12-Max-Write-Throughput,1012.html
Configuration
SAS Controller with two 500MB Samsung drives
- Each drive with 2 partitions, inner partitions 100MB and outer partition 400MB
- Inner partitions (which are much faster, read/write head has less distance to travel) RAIDed together RAID 0 for O/S, O/S swap drives and programs
- Outer partitions RAIDed together with RAID 1 for slow static data
- RAID 0 with the O/S delivers 160mb/s throughput performance
- RAID 1 for slow static data delivers 83mb/2 throughput
- See http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/raid-matrix-charts/Maximum-Read-Transfer-Rate,223.html
eSATA Controller with two 500MB Samsung internal drives
- eSATA to SATA cables so I can use internal drives with the eSATA connectors
- Each drive with 2 partitions, inner partitions 100MB and outer partition 400MB
- Inner partitions RAIDed together with RAID 0 for the PS swap drive
- Outer partitions RAIDed together with RAID 1 for slow static data
- RAID 0 with the O/S delivers 160mb/s throughput performance
- RAID 1 for slow static data delivers 83mb/2 throughput
SATA Controller with four 500MB Samsung drives
- All 4 drives RAIDed together with RAID 5
- Estimated 260mb/s throughput
Storage capacity
200MB RAID 0 for O/S and programs (drive back up with Norton Ghost so if one of the drives dies, can blow back down the image without reinstalling everything)
950MB RAID 1 for slow static or small data files (raw files, word / excel files)
1.5TB RAID 5 for my photoshop files
Total cost including graphics card and CPU heat sink / fan => $1850
Processor
- Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
- 12 gig memory
- I wasn't too worried about the CPU. PS workstations are mainly data constained if the RAID controllers are off chip
Motherboard
ASUS P6T WS PRO LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Core i7
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131357)
3 RAID controllers:
- SAS with 2 SAS connectors
- SATA with 6 SATA connectors
- eSATA with 2 eSATA connectors
Case & SATA backplane combo
Athena Power Case CA-SWH01BH8
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811192058
Has 2 SAS/SATA black planes each with 4 hot swap SATA/SAS bays
Very neat case with 8 hot sway bays you access from the front
Hard Drives
8 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb
Very fast and cheap, see Tomshardware performance charts
Max Read -> http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...s/h2benchw-3.12-Max-Read-Throughput,1009.html
Max Write -> http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/.../h2benchw-3.12-Max-Write-Throughput,1012.html
Configuration
SAS Controller with two 500MB Samsung drives
- Each drive with 2 partitions, inner partitions 100MB and outer partition 400MB
- Inner partitions (which are much faster, read/write head has less distance to travel) RAIDed together RAID 0 for O/S, O/S swap drives and programs
- Outer partitions RAIDed together with RAID 1 for slow static data
- RAID 0 with the O/S delivers 160mb/s throughput performance
- RAID 1 for slow static data delivers 83mb/2 throughput
- See http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/raid-matrix-charts/Maximum-Read-Transfer-Rate,223.html
eSATA Controller with two 500MB Samsung internal drives
- eSATA to SATA cables so I can use internal drives with the eSATA connectors
- Each drive with 2 partitions, inner partitions 100MB and outer partition 400MB
- Inner partitions RAIDed together with RAID 0 for the PS swap drive
- Outer partitions RAIDed together with RAID 1 for slow static data
- RAID 0 with the O/S delivers 160mb/s throughput performance
- RAID 1 for slow static data delivers 83mb/2 throughput
SATA Controller with four 500MB Samsung drives
- All 4 drives RAIDed together with RAID 5
- Estimated 260mb/s throughput
Storage capacity
200MB RAID 0 for O/S and programs (drive back up with Norton Ghost so if one of the drives dies, can blow back down the image without reinstalling everything)
950MB RAID 1 for slow static or small data files (raw files, word / excel files)
1.5TB RAID 5 for my photoshop files
Total cost including graphics card and CPU heat sink / fan => $1850