Partitioning-Let the Battle Begin!

[Bearmann]

Ok, here is my question. I'm setting up a new computer with 3 hard drives primarily for use with Photoshop CS4, 64 bit. In the past it was recommended to partition one of the non-system drives for dedicated use of the Photoshop scratch disk. Lately I've read that the hard drive controllers are much more intelligent now, and that partitioning the drive actully slows it down. So which is it? Partition or no partition?

Thanks!

Barry

 

[Blain]

Partitioning has always slowed down a system IF data is being moved & accessed from more than one partition at a time.
Partitions and speed are all about how the partitions are used.

 

[JASTECH]

Bearmann, Please read this thread http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2294059&enterthread=y

Thanks, JASTECH

 

[Bearmann]

Thanks Blain and JASTECH. I read that thread and it was interesting, though some concerned RAID which I am not doing. It did refer back to this article which I had read previoulsy:
http://www.adobepress.com/arti...asp?p=1247538&seqNum=3

which states:

"If you store the Photoshop scratch file on a disk where you want to store other files, it's best for the Photoshop scratch file to be in its own partition that contains no other files and doesn't contain the operating system swap file. If the Photoshop scratch file is mixed with other files, that volume may become fragmented and slow Photoshop. A dedicated partition is much easier to maintain. If you need to defragment it, simply reinitialize the partition (erasing everything inside the partition)?you don't need to run a fancy disk optimizer."

So do you agree that I should partition the 3rd disk containing the Photshop scratch file? By the way, I'll have 12 GB of RAM, so it may be moot.

 

[Nothinman]

So do you agree that I should partition the 3rd disk containing the Photshop scratch file? By the way, I'll have 12 GB of RAM, so it may be moot.

As long as photoshop can actually use all or most of that 12G then yea, it's pretty pointless to worry about it.

 

[Billb2]

Next fastest/slowest CPU:
Speed Difference...
<--------------------------------------------------------------------->

Next fastest/slowest GPU:
Speed Difference...
<--------------------------------------------------------------------->

Partition/No partition:
Speed Difference...
<->

 

[techmanc]

All the speed tests in the world dont compare to real world usage. I am running hard disks of all sizes and ages and basically for most peoples needs I dont worry about size of partitons as far as far as performance goes. The one obvious difference between speed is always using the newest SATA/IDE interface for the fastest performance. I using partitions from 20gb to 1.5tb

 

[rob25]

Bearmann:

Bearmann, Please read this thread http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2294059&enterthread=y

If you go throgh this a bit more carefully we flog the subject to death.
With 12 gb of ram from all Ive been investigating I would not wory too much about the scratch disk, in the other thread "elconejito" told us how to measure how much scratch u are using. If you are not interested in raid then maybe a good option would be to partition about 30 gb of the first part of a dirve & dedicate it to scratch,Leave the os,apps & swap on one disk & photos on another.

 

[Bearmann]

OK, I'm going to quit worrying about it

Thank you all for your replies!