Optimise my laptop for 4x5 scanning (epsonscan/vuescan) and CS5 editing

**l2oBiN** · 1-Nov-2011, 15:59

I have a 3year old mac laptop that sometimes seems to take forever to edit images, open large images and in general work with 2400ppi 4x5 scans. I would like to fully optimise this laptop and the operating software for this purpose. Could you please advise me of the necessary steps? below are my hardware details. I am running Lion on it.

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz

Hitachi HTS542525K9SA00:

Capacity: 250.06 GB (250,059,350,016 bytes)
Model: Hitachi HTS542525K9SA00
Revision: BBFAC3GP
Capacity: 249.2 GB (249,199,591,424 bytes)
Available: 54.55 GB (54,547,599,360 bytes)

**Ed Kelsey** · 1-Nov-2011, 16:01

I'd bump the RAM to 8 gb and put in a bigger hard drive. SSD if you can afford it.

**EOTS** · 1-Nov-2011, 16:05

I would go straight to 16GB...
Also editing 4x5 scans (mostly 2000dpi), and 8GB led to a lot of swapping when you are using multiple layers etc...

Regards,

**sanking** · 1-Nov-2011, 19:33

Originally Posted by l2oBiN

I would like to fully optimise this laptop and the operating software for this purpose. Could you please advise me of the necessary steps? below are my hardware details. I am running Lion on it.

1. Upgrade your Macbook Pro to the maximum amount of RAM, which is 6 gb for your machine.

2. Clear your hard drive of all unnecessary files.

3. Make sure you are running CS5 in 64 bit. I believe your 4,1 Macbook Pro allows this.

4. Close other applications when using CS5.

Changing out the hard drive to a 128 or 256 SSD drive would speed things up, but that would be a fairly expensive upgrade.

Sandy

**Kirk Gittings** · 1-Nov-2011, 20:09

IME it will still be a bit slow. PS CS5 is a bloated memory hog. Some tools like history brush etc. will choke and run slow. A fast FW 400 or 800 exterior scratch drive will help.

My 64 bit PC core 2 quad with a fast dedicated scratch drive and 8GB ram screams compared to my similar 2011 64 bit MBP (4 gigs but other wise similar to above).

**John Rodriguez** · 1-Nov-2011, 20:22

Try making all of your adjustments on smaller copies of your scans and then just copy you adjustment layers over when you're done. It's much faster.

http://www.westcoastimaging.com/wci/...guidefile.html

As far as system optimization for PS, you can setup a scratch drive and update your RAM. However, if you use the workflow above you may not need to.

**sanking** · 1-Nov-2011, 20:41

Originally Posted by Kirk Gittings

My 64 bit PC core 2 quad with a fast dedicated scratch drive and 8GB ram screams compared to my similar 2011 64 bit MBP (4 gigs but other wise similar to above).

Upgrade your Macbook Pro to 8 gb and give it a fighting chance! Comparing a computer with 4 gb to one with 8 gb is apple to oranges, all else equal.

Sandy

**l2oBiN** · 1-Nov-2011, 23:26

Thank you for your suggestions thus far. I believe the maximum ram for my version of MacBook pro is 4gb. Also, will the fw800 drive help a lot? Isnt it still quite slow? I was once looking into getting a pcmi card slot thing to connect esata drive to the computer. Anyone know about this? I am wondering whether buying a new laptop altogether would be better?

**Corran** · 2-Nov-2011, 01:04

I use an Express card Firewire adapter on my netbook to get connectivity to some audio devices, I assume you can get the same on your computer for eSata, or maybe even USB3 now. Any of the faster connections coupled with a fast hard drive will work great. PCI/Express cards have a lot of speed, compared to USB/FW.

I'm not sure what others are doing but my quad core with 4gb of RAM works just fine for editing huge scans. It slows down a little if I don't give it time between several processes, but that's it.

**John Rodriguez** · 2-Nov-2011, 05:50

Originally Posted by l2oBiN

Thank you for your suggestions thus far. I believe the maximum ram for my version of MacBook pro is 4gb. Also, will the fw800 drive help a lot? Isnt it still quite slow? I was once looking into getting a pcmi card slot thing to connect esata drive to the computer. Anyone know about this? I am wondering whether buying a new laptop altogether would be better?

- A FW800 scratch drive will help a little, not a lot. A eSATA drive would be a more dramatic improvement, however you'll void your Apple warranty adding it.

- I'm working on 800 MB + scans on a Mac Book w/ 4GB just fine. My scratch disk is setup on my internal drive and I'm using two externals setup in a Raid1 config to store image files.

- If you want to speed up your existing system without voiding your warranty try using an external disk to store your files, then partition your internal HD to create a drive just for PS to use.

- Beyond this, the new Macs have Thunderbolt. While there's not a lot of peripherals available using it yet, it's fast enough to give external drives internal read/write speed. Buy one of the new Mac Book Pros with an SSD internal drive then add on external drives for scratch and for saving files.