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davidb
24-Nov-2008, 21:59
Is 2GB enough to run photoshop and/or light room 2 ?

Lachlan 717
24-Nov-2008, 22:50
All depends on a) file size you're working with, b) what else you're running at the time.

I run PS CS3 with 2GB RAM, and it works well enough. Some of the big files (300Mb+) slow it right down, as does HDR on 5+ images.

I try not to have anything else running...

Mind you, if you can spring to 4GB RAM, future-proof yourself a bit!!!

Lachlan.

davidb
24-Nov-2008, 23:05
The mini maxes out at 2gb

Eric James
24-Nov-2008, 23:37
I work with 600MB files in PS CS3 on a laptop with a little over 1GB RAM using the Guide File approach outlined here:

http://www.westcoastimaging.com/wci/page/info/photoshoptip/podcast_guidefile.html

bernal
24-Nov-2008, 23:42
2GB of RAM is very limited. You need to take into consideration that the OS uses part of that memory, too. Another problem with the Mac Mini is that you can't install a separate hard drive to use as Photoshop scratch disk. Once you start working with big enough layered files, you run out of memory pretty quick.

bernal

Greg Lockrey
25-Nov-2008, 00:05
I work with 600MB files in PS CS3 on a laptop with a little over 1GB RAM using the Guide File approach outlined here:

http://www.westcoastimaging.com/wci/page/info/photoshoptip/podcast_guidefile.html

Slick! Thanks for the info.

Lachlan 717
25-Nov-2008, 00:19
Another problem with the Mac Mini is that you can't install a separate hard drive to use as Photoshop scratch disk. Once you start working with big enough layered files, you run out of memory pretty quick.

bernal

Do you know if you can use the "Time Capsule" instead?

bernal
25-Nov-2008, 10:45
Do you know if you can use the "Time Capsule" instead?

You cannot use Time Capsule as a Photoshop scratch disk. Time Capsule is a wireless hard drive that was designed to work with Time Machine as a backup solution. To effectively use a separate hard drive as a scratch disk, it must be directly connected to the logic board.

bernal

Lenny Eiger
25-Nov-2008, 11:11
Is 2GB enough to run photoshop and/or light room 2 ?

It depends on what you are doing. If you are shooting with a digital camera and the file sizes are less than 100 megs, sure. I like the other side of the spectrum where file sizes are quite large. Even so, if you want to power up to a PhotoShop machine (and if you want to use it for anything else) I recommend about 8 Gigs of RAM.

Lenny

John Whitley
25-Nov-2008, 18:21
Another problem with the Mac Mini is that you can't install a separate hard drive to use as Photoshop scratch disk.

You can't add an internal drive, but on a Mac Mini why would you want to? For a Mini or a laptop, setup an external Firewire hard drive as the Photoshop scratch disk. There are even external drive enclosures that smartly match the Mini's styling, if you care about such things. ;)

Paul H
26-Nov-2008, 02:17
The mini maxes out at 2gb

2GB is the official max quoted by Apple.

However, it actually maxes out at 3GB. You have the choice of installing either 1GB + 2GB modules, or two 2GB modules. You still only get 3GB with the two twos, but you get a theoretical speed increase due to them being a matched pair. The difference is hower, negligible. Get the RAM from a reputable 3rd party, rather than from Apple.

A mini with 3GB will work fine, within reason. You obviously don't want a multi-layer 3200dpi 4x5 scan to work on.....

An external Firewire drive can be used as a scratch disk - I used to do this with an older Windows laptop, and it did provide a noticeable performance improvement over just using the internal drive. I'd stick to Firewire rather than a USB2 drive, as the interface is more efficient (even though its "speed" is slightly slower than USB2).

You may however want to check out an Apple refurb unit - you may find the total cost for a refurbished iMac is not far off the Mini.

bernal
26-Nov-2008, 10:31
You can't add an internal drive, but on a Mac Mini why would you want to? For a Mini or a laptop, setup an external Firewire hard drive as the Photoshop scratch disk. There are even external drive enclosures that smartly match the Mini's styling, if you care about such things. ;)


Hi John,

What I mean is, if you have a system that maxes out at 2GB of RAM, you would certainly improve performance by adding a dedicated separate hard drive for Photoshop to temporarily swap files when it runs out of memory. You can't do this with the Mac Mini, so it's better to just leave it at its default settings with the scratch disk being the bootable drive.

Depending on file size and layer count, your system could slow down pretty quickly. Using an external firewire or USB drive as scratch disk is not the best solution for it will also slow Photoshop performance.

bernal

Donald Miller
26-Nov-2008, 11:04
It depends on what you are doing. If you are shooting with a digital camera and the file sizes are less than 100 megs, sure. I like the other side of the spectrum where file sizes are quite large. Even so, if you want to power up to a PhotoShop machine (and if you want to use it for anything else) I recommend about 8 Gigs of RAM.

Lenny

I agree, two gigs are very limited. I have that installed on two of my machines. My new machine I built up with 12 gigs of ram.

Ken Lee
26-Nov-2008, 11:29
I tried using a USB thumb drive as a scratch disk on my Powerbook G4 with 2 GB RAM.

I thought it might be fast, because there's no moving parts, it being just flash memory... Wrong !

It was so slow, it was painful. It was better to just let the machine use its own hard disk.

As the earlier posters suggested, the easiest solution - and the one with Zero cost - is to follow the "Guide File" approach.

bernal
26-Nov-2008, 12:16
Talking about memory, I have two brand-new Samsung 1GB DDR2 PC2-5300 667MHz DIMM modules for the early 2008 MacBook and MacBook Pro. I'll be happy to send them to anyone who really needs them for free. PM me if you need them. U.S. only...sorry.

bernal

g.lancia
28-Nov-2008, 16:06
I am using CS3 on a laptop with XP and 512 MB of RAM. It works. When I need more power, I use my desktop with 1.7 GB of RAM and 3 hard disks, two of which are 11 years old 18GB SCSI hot swap ones. That one works even with huge files. But of course I fine tuned my computers for maximum efficiency, deleting parts of the OS I would not use.

Eric James
5-Jan-2009, 14:07
Rumors are circulating about the pending announcement of a new (4GB) Mac Mini:

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/01/04/macworld-san-francisco-2009-rumor-roundup/