I have a windows dual core, 6gb ram, box that runs LR 2.3 reasonably well (providing I use shortcuts) . My question is that I have multiple SATA drives current set-up is as follows;

C: Operating System/LR Program files/LR Catalog

E: All image files

F: Windows swap file and CS3/Qimage Cache files

I'm interested to hear from others who have experimented splitting things up to improve LR performance. Is it worth having the LR catalog on a separate drive?

Thanks in advance

Dale

I don't think that Lightroom is too demanding on hard drive performance, at least not for normal catalog browsing functions. I think if you start a batch export of huge TIF files then the write speed might matter, but otherwise Lightroom just doesn't have to move much data. I would imagine that a drive with faster seek/access times might speed up catalog browsing slightly.

I set up my computer like this:

C Drive (150GB Velociraptor) - O/S, Paging File, Programs
D Drive (2 x 640GB RAID 0 Array) - Lightroom Catalog and a partition for PS CS4 scratch disk
E Drive (1TB Drive) - Image storage

I recently made the transition from a single drive to a RAID 0 striped array for the D drive, and I didn't notice any real improvement in Lightroom for the catalog functions. I did notice a large improvement in CS4 scratch disk performance though.

I would say that you're on the right track with your HD setup (as long as none of the drives are too close to being full). You've got enough RAM for Lightroom, so the only thing that would really help speed up the system is more CPU cores and faster clock speed. Lightroom really chews on the CPU cores when doing things like the local adjustment brushes, gradient tool, and rendering images or previews.

Hi,

I would use dedicated hard drives each task, such as Scratch disk, Swap Disk and keep image file/catalog on a Mirror RAID 1 (min 2 disks) or RAID 10 (Stripe and Mirror 4 disks).

Depending on the amount of ram you have, you will find that with 8gb or more that windows will generally not need to access the Swap file as much. Not saying it does not access it!. but keeping scratch and swap separate is a good idea

Henrik

I always use multiple hard drives for different groups of images. Some are eSATA, some are Firewire800. I even use network drives. I find by creating smaller libraries on each drive for each group of images, Lightroom is much faster. The one caveat is that a library for a network drive has to reside on your local hard drive. For that, I've created a separate folder for misc. Lightroom libraries. For me, at least, it's crazy to have a million images in one Lightroom library. For me, this way, each job, each project, has it's own Lightroom set of files. For instance, on one drive I keep all my portfolio images. On another, I have all my images from Ireland, on another all other travel related images. I use an SSD drive for my swap drive.

When I set up a new PC some 18 months ago, I ran some simple tests with the LR catalog on a separate disk, and did not experience any difference. My library at the time had some 20.000 images.

Based on my experience I opted for a fast HD with OS and programs on the outer 40 GB and a second partition for the LR catalogs. Nothing else on that disk.


Christopher

Hi Christopher,

it sounds like your test may have been a little too simple, but if it works for you great. Could you give us some more information on how you tested?

Henrik