G5 to Dell: faster with external drive or gigabit?

[jorwex]

I have a G5 tower that I'll be using photoshop on and I want to get its files to a Dell Poweredge server to burn to DVD-R while (ideally) doing more photoshopping on the G5.

Would it be faster/better to save files to the dell from the g5 with a gigabit switch that I already happen to have, or save files on the g5 to a few external drives and then move it to the dell and burn it from there?

Aside from the inconvenience of moving the external drive from the apple to the dell or the initial woes it'd take to get them networked, would it be faster to use the external drive (ive got only usb on the dell--would have to get a firewire card if that'd be a faster solution) or the gigabit network?

Thanks!

 

[Mday]

Originally posted by: jorwex
I have a G5 tower that I'll be using photoshop on and I want to get its files to a Dell Poweredge server to burn to DVD-R while (ideally) doing more photoshopping on the G5.

Would it be faster/better to save files to the dell from the g5 with a gigabit switch that I already happen to have, or save files on the g5 to a few external drives and then move it to the dell and burn it from there?

Aside from the inconvenience of moving the external drive from the apple to the dell or the initial woes it'd take to get them networked, would it be faster to use the external drive (ive got only usb on the dell--would have to get a firewire card if that'd be a faster solution) or the gigabit network?

Thanks!

network. you'll be moving the files effectively 2x if you go through the external drive. of course, if you have multiple, you can write to the other on the g5 while reading from one on the dell. you may want to use one set up for use on the dell first, not sure how windows (server or otherwise) would handle a raw drive formatted by the g5.
how many files are we talking here?

incidentally, if all you want to do is burn on to dvd, why dont you just get a burner for the g5?

 

[jorwex]

i was afraid it would be too much to edit & save huge tiff files with photoshop and burn at the same time on the g5. althought it is one of those dual core ones, so it might be alright?

anyone know if it'd be too much for the g5?

(ps--lots of files--anywhere from a few gigs to 75 gigs)

 

[ottothecow]

How much RAM is on the G5 (thats probobly what is going to get hit the hardest when photoshopping huge files and burning DVDs.

If you have the server, why not let the server be a backup host...sync your images to the server and burn incremental backups (or use a pair of harddrives and take one home for an on and off site backup)

 

[jorwex]

the g5 has 8 gigs of ram

does that change any of your recommendations? Thanks

 

[skyking]

I'd still construct a network solution. It can be automated, and does not rely on messing with cables, drives and such. It is a real pain to keep track of what is where with two machines and an external drive or drives to keep straight. It reminds me of a shell game!