Hybrid SSD or large SSD

LPC-6 · 13 Sep 2012

I currently keep all of my photos on an external drive, but have been getting tired of walking around the flat with both my laptop and external drive.

I'm considering going to a hybrid SSD like the momentus XT, but have read poor reviews on them, the alternate is a larger SSD (240GB vs current 120GB) but they are a bit expensive.

What do you guys use? I have about 100GB in pictures right now, but see this expanding more and more as I have recently started shooting in RAW.

I'd love to get a new laptop with 2 hard drive docks (asus U500 maybe?)

neil_g · 13 Sep 2012

some laptops you can remove the optical drive and replace it with a hard drive in a caddy..

if possible SSD and a larger capacity HD may be the way forward.

arad85 · 13 Sep 2012

Keep the current year on the laptop, put everything else on the external.

We have a 256G SSD in our laptop. Everything else is on the network.

Russ77 · 13 Sep 2012

Got to the point where I can't house my entire 470GB collection on my 500GB laptop HDD so........

My entire collection is backed up onto 2 separate 2TB HDDs and around 70% of the collection is also backed up on to a 1TB portable drive.

Just under 300GB sits on my laptop and I tend to age off older stuff as and when I need to.

For instance, last seasons Rugby/Cricket RAW files are no longer on my laptop but are backed up to 3 other locations :wink:

If I REALLY need them I just need to hook up an external HDD.

For the sake of the inconvenience of having to carry an external HDD around with you, I don't think it's worth the extra expense of a bigger SSD or new laptop...... unless you just want a good excuse to upgrade

LPC-6 · 13 Sep 2012

neil_g said:
some laptops you can remove the optical drive and replace it with a hard drive in a caddy..

if possible SSD and a larger capacity HD may be the way forward.

That's a really good call actually, I will look into that, thanks!

LPC-6 · 13 Sep 2012

Russ77 said:
For the sake of the inconvenience of having to carry an external HDD around with you, I don't think it's worth the extra expense of a bigger SSD or new laptop...... unless you just want a good excuse to upgrade

Part of it is that one day I'm going to drop my external drive while walking from the bedroom to the living room and vice versa... had a few close calls, lol

LPC-6 · 13 Sep 2012

arad85 said:
Keep the current year on the laptop, put everything else on the external.

We have a 256G SSD in our laptop. Everything else is on the network.

I have my LR sorted by continent -> country -> city, so that isn't really an option

LPC-6 · 13 Sep 2012

LPC-6 said:
That's a really good call actually, I will look into that, thanks!

Turns out I have a caddy lying around that didn't fit my old laptop but fits this one just fine.

You've made my day... fitted in an old 120gb hdd to test it out, works fine. Now it's time to buy a large HDD and I'm on my way.

tdodd · 7 Oct 2012

LPC-6 said:
I currently keep all of my photos on an external drive, but have been getting tired of walking around the flat with both my laptop and external drive.

I'm considering going to a hybrid SSD like the momentus XT, but have read poor reviews on them, the alternate is a larger SSD (240GB vs current 120GB) but they are a bit expensive.

What do you guys use? I have about 100GB in pictures right now, but see this expanding more and more as I have recently started shooting in RAW.

I'd love to get a new laptop with 2 hard drive docks (asus U500 maybe?)

I've obviously not read the same reviews as you. This one seems to give a very fair assessment of the pros and cons....

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/momentus-xt-750gb-review,3223.html

Conclusion here - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/momentus-xt-750gb-review,3223-8.html

FWIW I installed a 750GB Momentus XT a week ago. It's quiet as spinning drives go and seems to work OK. I'm sure it's not a patch on a proper SSD, but at under £100 I wouldn't expect it to be. However, I'm not sure the six year old hardware in the rest of the laptop really merits a more expensive solution. It's inadequate processor power that's crippling my machine for Lightroom, not disk IO. The new HDD may shave a few seconds off some activities, but when it takes 12-13 seconds to move from one raw file to the next in the Develop module and wait for it to fully render at 100% it's not disk IO that's holding things back. It's horsepower. An SSD would be a complete waste of money for my current machine.

My next machine will almost certainly have a full SSD, but I wouldn't want anything under 512GB so it's going to cost. The U500 does look very interesting. I'm looking forward to its release and the reviews.

nulk · 7 Oct 2012

I use a 256SSD in the laptop for processing my photos, once complete they are stored on 2TB NAS drive which works perfectly for me. No carrying involved!

tdodd · 8 Oct 2012

Samsung 830 256GB basic kit is currently £116.99 at Amazon (not the marketplace). Prices can fluctuate quickly but this seems an awesome price right now.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007BBQQ04/ref=nosim/?tag=hotukdeals-21

Here's the price history at Amazon....

http://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/Samsung-256GB-SATA-6GBPS-Basic/product/B007BBQQ04

EDIT : Well I got my order in this morning at £116.99 but already the price has shot back up to £140ish, so I'm afraid the bargain offer is already over. I did say prices can fluctuate fast. :-(

EDIT 2 : Will be featuring on Amazon Lightning Deals today at 13:00. Lightning Deal price will be revealed then - http://www.amazon.co.uk/deals-offer...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=329250567&pf_rd_i=468294

Back down to £116.99 in the Lightning Deals....