User profile for user: lkrrh3
lkrrh3 Author
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Will a SSD on an imac improve performance beyond start up/using multiple programs?

I am having a hard time determining if adding a SSD to the imac and having a 1tb drive will be a good configuration for me. Is it worth the extra money to have a SSD? My main programs that I use are the Adobe suite, photoshop, indesign, illustrator, after effects, etc.


I cannot find a solid answer as to whether or not there is a large performace improvement from using a SSD with a HDD or just using a 2tb HDD? (With any configuration i will be getting 16gb of RAM - is the amount of RAM more important when it comes to programs like those?)


I dont really care about waiting an extra 30 sec or a min for my computer to start up or to open a program. What else are the advantages to a SSD? or is that it?


Example, will the rendering of a large (5gb) image in photoshop take about the same amount of time? What about the speed when an image that large is saved?


I have read that continuous writing of data isn't sped up when using a SSD for some reason but I didn't really understand why? Any thoughts on that one?

iMac

Posted on Jan 3, 2012 6:24 AM

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User profile for user: rkaufmann87
rkaufmann87
User level: Level 10
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Jan 3, 2012 6:38 AM in response to lkrrh3

SSD's are dramatically faster than HD's. If startup and shutdown speed are important to you then a SSD will be dramatically faster. This included startup of the machine and app and file startup. Here are 2 YouTube videos that will give you an idea:



Machine Startup


59 App's Startup


If you decide to get a Mac with a SSD and HD use the SSD for installing OS X, all apps, and files you access frequently. For archiving use the HD. It's really not much difficult than that.

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User profile for user: lkrrh3
lkrrh3 Author
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Jan 3, 2012 6:57 AM in response to rkaufmann87

I dont care about the speed of starting up a machine or an app, I just want to know if it will help when I am actually running the program and doing some large image render. Currently it takes me about 15 minutes to save a large file (5gb) in photoshop to my HDD, I'm using a MBP 1.83 GHz Core Duo with 2GB DDR2 SDRAM.


Will the SSD make it run faster? Do I have to save the file being rendered on the SSD to see the improvement and then move it over to my HDD afterwards?

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User profile for user: rkaufmann87
rkaufmann87
User level: Level 10
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Jan 3, 2012 7:01 AM in response to lkrrh3

I just want to know if it will help when I am actually running the program and doing some large image render.

No the SSD won't help there. However because renderings are very CPU intensive you would benefit by getting an i7 machine, currently the fastest CPU available in an iMac. Also it would be to your benefit to max out the RAM to 16GB however do not get the RAM from Apple. Purchase the RAM from reputable suppliers such as www.macsales.com (OWC) or Crucial. This won't affect the warranty, is very easy to install and will save a considerable amount of money.

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User profile for user: lkrrh3
lkrrh3 Author
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Jan 3, 2012 7:12 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Okay, thanks, that does help!


I plan on getting the i7 processor and want to max out my RAM. On the apple store the RAM section has three options: 2x2gb, 2x4gb, and 4x4gb. Do I need to have the third option in order to get 4 slots for RAM sticks? Or are all 4 slots available even on the 2x4gb model, and apple only installs two, 4gb sticks?


I would love to upgrade my RAM separate but didn't know if the computer would come with the 4 slots to install into, or if it would only have two slots.

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Will a SSD on an imac improve performance beyond start up/using multiple programs?

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