Posted by Kent Staubus on December 23, 2006 at 4:48 PM
There's a proverb attributed to Chinese philosopher Lao Tsu (5th c. BC) that goes, "The man who knows enough is enough/Will always have enough."
So, how much DDR2 667 RAM is "enough"? Now that I have the Nikon D80, I do intend to buy CS3. Processor is AMD Athilon 3800+ 64, currently running Windows Media with plan to upgrade to Vista. I figure I need at least a gig, but do I need more than that? Currently only have 512, clearly not enough. Where's a good place to buy it--NewEgg.com?
Kent in SD
Posted by Todd Caudle on December 23, 2006 at 6:03 PM
I don't know how much is enough, but I know 512 ain't.
Two GB will keep things running nicely. Depending upon the version of Vista you get, 512 MB will be barely adequate. 1 GB will be ok, but large files in PS will be slow to react to filters in PS. Also, if you have a second HD, set your PS scratch disk to use that second drive. This will make PS more efficient.
-PB
Posted by Laurel Pauline on December 24, 2006 at 12:31 AM
I recently upgraded my computer to 2gb of ram (windows XP and Dell Inspiron xps, dual (something?) , after much financial soul searching. I am very pleased that I did so. Priorly (with only 512 of ram) everything was running like molasses. Afterwards I was back to normal.
I have a question regarding the use of external hard drives for scratch discs. I have been told that external hard drives fail because of heat and because of editing on the drive . Someone told me that I should bring files off of the external hard drive and onto my C drive for editing to preserve the external hard drive. Does setting an external hard drive as the scratch disc count as editing on the hard drive. It seems to me that it would. I look forward to input from persons with more hardware operating understanding than I have.
If you are using any drive for a scratch disk it will be heavily used during PS editing. The purpose of the scratch disk is act like a swap file so that your computer's physical RAM is not overly committed to PS.
According to my somewhat limited research, a high quality and well ventilated drive, whether external or internal will work. An internal HD connected directly to the (SATA) controller will provide the best performance. Given that you're using a laptop, an external drive is your only option, I think.
I have 2GB and Intel Core 2 Duo processor...it works really well with the 8 megapixel files of my 20D. I might upgrade to 4GB next year if I'll buy the next 1 series Canon.
Posted by Jim Zipp on December 24, 2006 at 8:50 AM
Kent, I've always had good luck and good prices with http://www.crucial.com/
Posted by Richard Ennis on December 24, 2006 at 9:04 AM
You can get CS2 to utilize more than 2GB of RAM. Here is a quote from another website on how to do it. Of course, you must have more than 2GB of RAM in your machine to do this. I made the change to my system and it works great!
"A big thank you to Larry Burk who posted links to Microsoft's knowledge base that leads us to a very effective fix to the 2GB memory problem in Photoshop for systems that become unstable or cannot load the boot kernel of Windows with the /3GB switch enabled.
READ THE FOLLOWING COMPLETELY BEFORE ATTEMPTING THIS FIX!!!
By adding the following to the boot.ini file: /userva=2800 /3GB
This temporarily gives the OS an extra 200MB of RAM for address space during boot-up. This problem effects primarily systems with graphics cards that have 128KB or more onboard RAM and other devices that require address space.
So the last line in your BOOOT.INI file should look like this:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn /userva=2800 /3GB
(note only add what is in bold - DO NOT change anything else even if it looks different than the line above)
If 2800 still causes your system to have problems, boot in safe mode and lower it to 2700 then 2600, etc until it works. My system is heavily loaded so I suspect that 2800 will fix the problem for 95% of those having problems.
PhotoShop will now see 100% of the RAM minus what the OS reserves. "
If you are going to try the fix noted above, make a backup copy of your Boot.ini file. I would also create a restore point before making any changes. It is also a good idea to have your Windoze CD handy so that you can access the repair console if Windoze fails to start.
Discussion
8 repliesSo, how much DDR2 667 RAM is "enough"? Now that I have the Nikon D80, I do intend to buy CS3. Processor is AMD Athilon 3800+ 64, currently running Windows Media with plan to upgrade to Vista. I figure I need at least a gig, but do I need more than that? Currently only have 512, clearly not enough. Where's a good place to buy it--NewEgg.com?
Kent in SD
Two GB will keep things running nicely. Depending upon the version of Vista you get, 512 MB will be barely adequate. 1 GB will be ok, but large files in PS will be slow to react to filters in PS. Also, if you have a second HD, set your PS scratch disk to use that second drive. This will make PS more efficient.
-PB
I have a question regarding the use of external hard drives for scratch discs. I have been told that external hard drives fail because of heat and because of editing on the drive . Someone told me that I should bring files off of the external hard drive and onto my C drive for editing to preserve the external hard drive. Does setting an external hard drive as the scratch disc count as editing on the hard drive. It seems to me that it would. I look forward to input from persons with more hardware operating understanding than I have.
Laurel
If you are using any drive for a scratch disk it will be heavily used during PS editing. The purpose of the scratch disk is act like a swap file so that your computer's physical RAM is not overly committed to PS.
According to my somewhat limited research, a high quality and well ventilated drive, whether external or internal will work. An internal HD connected directly to the (SATA) controller will provide the best performance. Given that you're using a laptop, an external drive is your only option, I think.
-PB
"A big thank you to Larry Burk who posted links to Microsoft's knowledge base that leads us to a very effective fix to the 2GB memory problem in Photoshop for systems that become unstable or cannot load the boot kernel of Windows with the /3GB switch enabled.
READ THE FOLLOWING COMPLETELY BEFORE ATTEMPTING THIS FIX!!!
By adding the following to the boot.ini file:
/userva=2800 /3GB
This temporarily gives the OS an extra 200MB of RAM for address space during boot-up. This problem effects primarily systems with graphics cards that have 128KB or more onboard RAM and other devices that require address space.
So the last line in your BOOOT.INI file should look like this:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn /userva=2800 /3GB
(note only add what is in bold - DO NOT change anything else even if it looks different than the line above)
If 2800 still causes your system to have problems, boot in safe mode and lower it to 2700 then 2600, etc until it works. My system is heavily loaded so I suspect that 2800 will fix the problem for 95% of those having problems.
PhotoShop will now see 100% of the RAM minus what the OS reserves. "
-PB