[raider]

Hi,

I am currently using photoshop elements 7 on my celeron dua core box with 1GB of ram. After cataloging some 4000 photos, i can feel that it is really slowing down a fair bit and I cannot stop wondering what would be the recommended PC specification for PSE.

Do I need a super duper latest PC to run PSE well or is it wise for me to upgrade the processor to a faster one or perhaps just up the ram to 4GB or something.

Feedback appreciated.

Thanks
raider

[ducdao]

When it comes to image processing, get as much RAM as possible. Windows 32-bit only recognizes up to 3G though. RAM is really cheap these days so try to upgrade RAM and buy a faster HD at 7200RPM.

I would at least upgrade to 2G of RAM as starter.

[rhodopsin]

The speed bottleneck here is narrowest at the hard disk; a faster hard disk will improve performance more than any other component. A larger capacity disk drive has more space per area, i.e. more data is closer to the read/write heads, for faster access. Read/write performance is limited by the drive interface, for example, SATA flavors are MUCH faster than IDE.

Depending on uncompressed image size from your camera or scanner, 1GB RAM can be tight. Adding RAM can speed up image PP considerably. Check Taskmanager or si for the amount of RAM in use while a large image is open in PE.

PE managing nearly 20,0000 5D1 images runs slowly but usably on my 1.7MHz Pentium Thinkpad with IDE 80GB disk and 4GB RAM. The slowest operations involve file management and image format conversions; both are limited by IDE throughput and isk drive speed. Editing large 1.2GB scans, however, is reasonably fast given the 4GB RAM capacity.

[Kaufeetime]

I don't know enough about computers to answer your specific question. If you feel the 4,000 pictures are responsible for a slow computer, my answer is to place all pictures on an multiple external hard drives. Plug into a USP and retrieve your pictures. I don't purchase large memory storage devices, I'm afraid of loosing or acquiring a bad card and all my pictures/files are gone. Remember the old saying “don't put all your eggs in one basket”.

[raider]

Maybe I should give a bit of info regarding my pc.

It has a windows experience index of 2.7 (running windows 7)

Processor = 4.4
Memory = 4.5
Graphics = 2.7
Gaming graphics = 3.2
Primary hard disk = 5.7

so what should i improve first? I guess the more straightforward improvement is to bump it up to 2GB ram, but will this be good enuf?

[ducdao]

Maybe I should give a bit of info regarding my pc.

It has a windows experience index of 2.7 (running windows 7)

Processor = 4.4
Memory = 4.5
Graphics = 2.7
Gaming graphics = 3.2
Primary hard disk = 5.7

so what should i improve first? I guess the more straightforward improvement is to bump it up to 2GB ram, but will this be good enuf?

If you run Win7 64-bit then bump it to 4G of RAM. You should see a huge improvement. Upgrading graphic card will not incur considerable improvement unless you do 3D modeling.

[photolady95]

If it's not a laptop you should/could install a separate harddrive to compensate for scratch disk/s. Most Adobe products, need a separate disk for the scratch disk and work better for having it there.

I agree with the upping of the memory, and agree about the graphics card also. If you are not playing high end games, it doesn't matter that the graphics card is low on the experience scale.

[song_hm]

After cataloging some 4000 photos, i can feel that it is really slowing down a fair bit and I cannot stop wondering what would be the recommended PC specification for PSE.

Do I need a super duper latest PC to run PSE well or is it wise for me to upgrade the processor to a faster one or perhaps just up the ram to 4GB or something.

So slow down is due to reaching 4000 photos, and before then performance was at least acceptable? If so, investigate if there is a PSE catalog caching problem. My CS4 had a similar issue, it turned out to be a corrupted thumbnail cache. All it took to restore performance was to clear the cache.

[raider]

I have got 3 hard drives in the box. I will set the scratch disk on another drive as suggested and examine if i have a cache problem.

In terms of upping the ram, i checked that i have 1 more ram slot. Can i just get a new 2GB ram and get it to work in conjunction with the existing 1GB - to give 3GB in total? I seem to read that this will cause some latency issue (sorry...not too well verse in this kind of stuff)

[raider]

Just out of interest, is my cpu speed good enuf? do i need to upgrade the processor?

What kind of machines are u guys running for photoshop? what is the performance index?

[photolady95]

Your index score doesn't say which computer you have. If we knew that we could tell you if adding a 2gb module was possible.

I'm running my own self built computer and Windows Vista with 4gb ram. All high end parts.

[raider]

My motherboard is a MSI MS-7525 with 2 dimm slots. 1 of which is empty. The manual did not say if both of these dimm slots must only be occupied with dimm ram of the same capacity so i am not sure.

[photolady95]

Did you build this computer or is it a branded computer? I can't find this motherboard on MSI's website and searching brings up an HP computer.

Both slots can be occupied but what I meant was, does the ram have to be only 1gb or can you add a 2gb module. Sometimes mixing 1 and 2gb ram modules can cause problems.

[fazer]

If it's the same board, these are the specs:

Memory

• Two 240-pin DDR2 DIMM sockets
• Supported DIMM types:
  • PC2-5300 (667 MHz)
  • PC2-6400 (800 MHz)
• Supports 2GB DDR2 DIMMs
• Supports up to 4 GB* on 32 bit PCs

2 sticks of 2GB DDR2 Ram and replace the 1 GB in there already $99.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145238

You could also look for a CPU upgrade to a core 2 duo, but you should try the RAM upgrade first.

[photolady95]

fazer, is those specs from the HP site?

I should warn OP that using any other speed ram than whats in the computer can cause the computer to not boot. Being a computer tech, I've seen this happen many times using the wrong size ram. So, if you decide to buy the extra ram, raider, check what speed the original is first.