Lighten up your OS: An operating system just for post processing

mkz · 10-20-2009, 11:07 PM

I have 2 computers.

A desktop and a laptop.

Since I do all my post processing work at home I would like to recreate my desktop into a full fledged post processing studio. I don't want any useless OS services, processes or programs to be running simultaneously during post processing - not even internet. The desktop will be used strictly for post processing only. Tell me what you guys think of this setup:

Windows XP 64-bit (fresh install, apply all updates and install necessary drivers)
Remove all extra windows software that I will not be using
Stop all windows services that I will never be using
Terminal will be local only - no internet

(at this point the installed OS should be pretty light around 300-400 mb)

Install Lightroom & Photoshop (64-bit)

My question is, can this setup can be the ultimate studio having a high end P4 processor with 4 gb of ram? Or, do you think Lightroom really needs the power of dual-core (can it even efficiently distribute processes over both or 4 cores??)

Let me know what you think...

Mike

flippedgazelle · 10-20-2009, 11:50 PM

Originally Posted by mkz

I have 2 computers.

A desktop and a laptop.

Since I do all my post processing work at home I would like to recreate my desktop into a full fledged post processing studio. I don't want any useless OS services, processes or programs to be running simultaneously during post processing - not even internet. The desktop will be used strictly for post processing only. Tell me what you guys think of this setup:

Windows XP 64-bit (fresh install, apply all updates and install necessary drivers)
Remove all extra windows software that I will not be using
Stop all windows services that I will never be using
Terminal will be local only - no internet

(at this point the installed OS should be pretty light around 300-400 mb)

Install Lightroom & Photoshop (64-bit)

My question is, can this setup can be the ultimate studio having a high end P4 processor with 4 gb of ram? Or, do you think Lightroom really needs the power of dual-core (can it even efficiently distribute processes over both or 4 cores??)

Let me know what you think...

Mike

Nothin' "ultimate" about the P4, sorry. Adobe products make good use of dual cores, and even somewhat of quads.

bobD · 10-21-2009, 01:35 AM

If you want to try something quick and different here is a link to a download of an OS that runs from a cd.
You can download it, burn it and try it all free, without making any changes to your existing set-up.

The Puppy Artists Workshop | Puppy Linux

Note that you must be able to boot from a cd for this to work.
Note 2... when you log out of the cd system you will be asked if you want to save your configuration. Select 'Do not save' and nothing is written to disc.

Linux users might want to try this one. It is quick and surprisingly featured for a puppy derivative. Note the system requirements.

p0opstlnksal0t · 10-21-2009, 08:34 AM

google "xp tweaks" you will want to make sure you have the latest microsoft updates, and service packs installed. p4 is retarded nowadays, your better off with a cheap amd x2 or x3

pb_red · 10-21-2009, 01:12 PM

as others have said, a p4 is old but you have to figure out where the bottlenecks are.

from my personal observations on a vista ultimate x64 box the bottleneck is by and large disk. the cpu spikes when applying presets and doing stuff in the development module so if you spend a lot of time there you should get a good perf boost with a faster cpu (and perhaps more ram).

however, lightroom does a TON of reading and writing to/from the disk so if you have a lightning fast quad core-i7 and a decent amount of ram and a slow disk you will still be sitting there waiting for those operations to complete.

maybe one of these days i'll get around to taking a perf trace and do some analysis but until then what i have are general observations...

p0opstlnksal0t · 10-21-2009, 01:15 PM

btw make sure whatever processor you get, its 64bit compatible

Gooshin · 10-21-2009, 01:24 PM

if all you want to do is use lightroom and photoshop, invest heavily into ram, Vista 64 can take up to 128..

if your Mobo can take 4gig chips, stick 4 in there and there you go, wont have to worry about your operating system slowing anything down...

p0opstlnksal0t · 10-21-2009, 01:35 PM

Originally Posted by Gooshin

if all you want to do is use lightroom and photoshop, invest heavily into ram, Vista 64 can take up to 128..

if your Mobo can take 4gig chips, stick 4 in there and there you go, wont have to worry about your operating system slowing anything down...

4gb sticks are pricey, and for someone asking about a p4 chip, he may be on a pretty tight budget... why not windows 7 64bit??? ive been running it over a year now, and im in love with it.

Gooshin · 10-21-2009, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by p0opstlnksal0t

4gb sticks are pricey, and for someone asking about a p4 chip, he may be on a pretty tight budget... why not windows 7 64bit??? ive been running it over a year now, and im in love with it.

or that

p4 chip.. ohh god..

*joeyc* · 10-21-2009, 01:43 PM

Hi Mike - I'm actually a long time Mac user that built my own PC over the summer. The main reason for the switch was cost. I could get much more for my money as I wanted a dedicated desktop for photo work. I think you'll miss having the Internet, but I can appreciate keeping everything else to a minimum. Personally I would go with Win7. I love using it - even more than OS X. I'd skip the XP. I beleive Win7 makes better use of the RAM and multiple cores (I could be wrong) and yes, you do need a dual core. Quad is probably overkill, but a single core won't cut it with PS and Lightroom.

I went with the AMD 7750 Kuma which is mildly overclocked to 2.9 with 4gb RAM. I may very well add 4GB more RAM - just haven't decided if it's needed and if I would see any gains. I use Lightroom and PSE almost exclusively. Performance is wonderful, especially with a fast boot drive. Mine is a Western Digital Black 7200/32mb cache drive. At $75 for 640gb, it is an excellent value.

When it's all said and done, I built my machine for under $500. Is it the latest and greatest - hardly. Does exceed my needs - maybe. Is it a wonderful value - absolutely.

I'd get a good motherboard, a dual core processor, 4GB RAM, and a fast boot drive. Everything is not needed for your purposes.

Originally Posted by mkz

I have 2 computers.

A desktop and a laptop.

Since I do all my post processing work at home I would like to recreate my desktop into a full fledged post processing studio. I don't want any useless OS services, processes or programs to be running simultaneously during post processing - not even internet. The desktop will be used strictly for post processing only. Tell me what you guys think of this setup:

Windows XP 64-bit (fresh install, apply all updates and install necessary drivers)
Remove all extra windows software that I will not be using
Stop all windows services that I will never be using
Terminal will be local only - no internet

(at this point the installed OS should be pretty light around 300-400 mb)

Install Lightroom & Photoshop (64-bit)

My question is, can this setup can be the ultimate studio having a high end P4 processor with 4 gb of ram? Or, do you think Lightroom really needs the power of dual-core (can it even efficiently distribute processes over both or 4 cores??)

Let me know what you think...

Mike

p0opstlnksal0t · 10-21-2009, 01:51 PM

for the money id opt for a amd rig as it can be peiced together pretty cheap.

another thing, if you want your triple channel ram to run in triple channel mode, it needs to be put in multiples of 3, and installed in the right slots... otherwise it will run in dual channel mode.... bandwidth in triple channel is quite a bit faster than dual channel

mkz · 10-21-2009, 01:54 PM

Hey guys,

Thanks for the replies. I was wrong when I said I can put 64-bit on a P4 Processor that probably won't work. So at least dual core athlon or core duo.

The reason why I want to stray away from windows 7 is because it idles at around 600 - 900 mb of ram. When xp will idle at around 300 mb of ram. I don't need all those fancy visualizations of windows 7 but I can turn them off and switch to classic mode.

I think that windows 7 makes processes more efficient by giving 2 cpus a proportional amount of work. And I think I can say the same thing about Adobe Photoshop CS4 64-bit.

Talk to me a bit more about hard drives and the importance of having a large buffer and high rpm access speeds. Will I see significant performance enhancements??

jsherman999 · 10-21-2009, 02:13 PM

How much overhead are you going to save by not having some form of IP stack running? It just makes it so convenient to download patches, new camera profiles, etc if you can get to the internet from your PP workstation.

*joeyc* · 10-21-2009, 02:15 PM

Mike - it sounds like you're on the right track with your thinking below. Hard drives are tough in that the prices vary quite a bit. Budget not a concern? Buy a SSD for OS and aps. They're pricy, but speed is great. With me, volume size and speed were a concern, but so was price. 7200rpm/32mb cache seemed to provide the best performance for the dollar. To me, it is almost 'real time' as I have little or no lag with applications or accessing files/photos.

Originally Posted by mkz

Hey guys,

Thanks for the replies. I was wrong when I said I can put 64-bit on a P4 Processor that probably won't work. So at least dual core athlon or core duo.

The reason why I want to stray away from windows 7 is because it idles at around 600 - 900 mb of ram. When xp will idle at around 300 mb of ram. I don't need all those fancy visualizations of windows 7 but I can turn them off and switch to classic mode.

I think that windows 7 makes processes more efficient by giving 2 cpus a proportional amount of work. And I think I can say the same thing about Adobe Photoshop CS4 64-bit.

Talk to me a bit more about hard drives and the importance of having a large buffer and high rpm access speeds. Will I see significant performance enhancements??

pb_red · 10-21-2009, 02:23 PM

win7, while using a bit more resources (such as ram, which is cheap), will make more efficient use of your hardware (assuming you "teak" it by turning off services and scheduled tasks you don't need).

there's been a TON of work done on making better use of multiple processors, tweaking of caching, much better use of disk, and so on.

again, if you spend a lot of time in the development module you will want a faster cpu and more ram because a lot of that stuff is done in memory. however, once you start making changes to your photo lightroom will "save" those changes to disk. so there go a lot of disk writes. also, when working with collections lighroom will read from disk and load some data into ram but it will only do so much. so even if you have 128GB of ram i seriously doubt that lightroom will use much of it. for the most part it will be going back to to the disk to read in picture files and all the metadata that goes along with them.

i say all this because on my "older" core 2 duo with 4gb ram i see the disk access light on a LOT (and i can hear it too) while working in lightroom.

so ideally you would get the fastest disk(s) you can given your budget. higher rpm is better. bigger buffer is better. raid has benefits and i considered it while putting together my box but went against it due to price, not-good-enough perf benefits, and a serious dependancy on the raid controller. (what happens if the controller dies? you can't rebuild the raid and your data is gone.)

lastly, you will want internet access for help/downloads/updates/etc

the amount of resources this will take up will hardly be noticeable.