SP3 for Lightroom/Photoshop & viewing NEF files?

[annchez]

I'm an owner of a SP1 (i5 4GB RAM 128GB SSD) since day 1 and I love it though there are small annoyances that are fixed on the SP3 which is mainly why I want to upgrade. I usually don't hesitate to just get the most expensive model but reviews/complaints about the i7 model are making me second-guess myself.

I mostly use my SP1 for browsing, regularly 2-3 Chrome windows open with 10-15 tabs each (bad habit, I know). After a while it would start to lag, then I would close all the tabs I don't need and it'll be fine again. Other than that, the only other time I would notice it being slow is when I view NEF files taken from my Nikon DSLR.

No lag when editing on Lightroom or Photoshop though... so I was going to get the i5/128GB because I figured it's enough now anyway. Then I realized that I might not have had that problem because SP1 is so small that I probably have only used Lightroom or Photoshop about 5 times and no more than 15 minutes each time. On my previous laptop, I used to use Lightroom for hours at a time.

So then I thought with only $300 more I can get 256GB SSD and 8GB RAM which would be better for Lightroom and also a nice addition because I find the lack of space on my SP1 a lot of hassle. Then the same for the next model, then I'm back at the i7/512GB.

Opinions/recommendations please? I've read through all other similar threads but I figured it would be more helpful to hear some for my specific use case. I know that generally the bigger the better but which would be the best value for the price?

Thanks!

 

[Peter England]

Hi, I went through the same thought processes as you and I've ended up with an i7 Pro 3 256mb coming at the end of next week (UK).

I'm a Nikon photographer too and found the 4gb ram Pro 2 to also get slower on loading large raw files and with many Chrome tabs. This is mainly down to the max available ram.

The 8gb ram version of either i5 or i7 should be much better though. I've gone for the i7 simply because I get a student discount (my son is at school) and cashback via quidco so the cost is less than the rrp of an i5.

I'll report back when I've got mine all set up with Creative Cloud for Photographers (which is currently on offer in the UK until the end of August).

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[anon(7901790)]

I have the i5/128 with 4GB RAM and I use a Canon EOS-6D (full frame), and I haven't had any problems with Lightroom running smoothly, even with 20MB CR2 RAW files.

I still use my desktop which is older, but has 2x1TB drives in RAID 1 with 8GB RAM for most of my photography work. Even though my SP3 is faster than my desktop, I'm hesitant to move to my SP3 entirely, primarily because my main Lightroom catalog is HUGE (over 100,000 images) and I also do some video work. I guess if I swapped out my 64GB microSD for a 128GB one, that would solve space issues for my Lightroom catalog.

All of my photos are stored on a 8TB ReadyNAS NV+. It would be nice if Lightroom would allow me to keep my catalog on the NAS as well.

I guess I should just try using my SP3 solely for a while and see if I have any problems.

 

[Peter England]

I'm using a usb 3.0 hard drive that contains my catalogue and images which I sync to my NAS. This way I always have my source images with me and can easily and quickly move to another PC.

I tried using the catalogue on a network drive but it was much slower than usb 3.0 and not that practical.

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[Adam_ation]

I have the i5/256/8, runs lightroom and photoshop like a dream! i cant imagine the i7 will make much of a difference - Adam

 

[markyjns]

Same I've got the i5/256/8 and photoshop CC runs buttery smooth

 

[photobriangray]

Using Capture NX2 to edit NEF from D700, D3 and V1. Batch processing has been faster on my i5 256/8 than my retired six core AMD system.

 

[mylumia928]

I have an i5/128/4 and it runs PhotoShop with NEF files great

 

[JamesPTao]

I have the i5/256/8, runs lightroom and photoshop like a dream! i cant imagine the i7 will make much of a difference - Adam

How does it handle large raw files in lightroom?

 

[stephen_az]

I have the SP3 i5 8GB 256 model and process anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple thousand NEF files in any given month. Other than the clumsy pen implementation in LR, the process is flawless and smooth. The pen nuisances, however, apply to any touch device - it is an Adobe problem. As it stands, I would see no need to go with the i7. The i5 with 8GB of RAM runs quite fast and very efficiently. In addition, contrary to all of the threads claiming SP3 overheats when doing things that are processor intensive, I just defined what I do in LR and PS and it has never overheated. It will get a bit warm but there is not performance impact. Adobe coding is an inefficient mess prone to taxing processors so it should heat up. That there is no lag nor throttling is a good demonstration of performance.

With all that said, I would not recommend the 128 GB storage option. Nikon NEF files will fill a drive very quickly and you really should not rely upon inserting a 128GB MicroSDXC card to make up the difference. People, including me, have had mixed success getting the SanDisk 128GB card to even work consistently. I have also found all MicroSDXC cards to be temperamental and more subject to failure than their larger siblings. Risky option for any files, which can become a near requirement with 128GB limited storage capacity SSD and big files. FWIW, I use a 64GB card for local storage access of essentials but let everything archive to OneDrive as secure backup.

 

[anon(7901790)]

I'm using a usb 3.0 hard drive that contains my catalogue and images which I sync to my NAS. This way I always have my source images with me and can easily and quickly move to another PC.

I tried using the catalogue on a network drive but it was much slower than usb 3.0 and not that practical.

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How big is the USB 3.0 drive? How do you sync the USB drive with the NAS? Like I said, my source images are on an 8TB NAS in X-RAID (RAID 5) config which gives me 5.3 TB of usable storage; of that I've used 2.35 TB of space. Because Lightroom does not allow me to store the catalog file on a network drive, I store it on my desktop's hard drive. Unfortunately, Adobe has no plans to support multi-user catalogs like Extensis Portfolio does.

 

[stephen_az]

As a bit of a qualifier to my own response, I just noticed someone referred to LR as being "buttery smooth" on SP3. I must admit that whenever I see that my first response is to wonder what the [insert the expletive of your choice] that even means. In this case though, and I stress this is not about SP3 but rather LR in general, the only way anyone could consider it to be buttery smooth is if they like their butter frozen or with a side of road gravel. Again, that is not about SP3, on which LR is actually rather responsive.

LR, however, is still a typical piece of Adobe programming, complete with questionable and clumsy coding that they fix, patch, or screw up further in updates. This fronts an inefficient database structure which has been criticized since Version 1.0. It is also barely optimized for high resolution screens even in Version 5.X and not at all for screen draw/redraw performance. LR is a source of various performance bottlenecks to some degree on any machine; this includes modern loaded desktops with i7 and Xeon processors. Anyone who thinks they will have amazing productivity boosts with LR on SP3 will be disappointed. It is efficient and somewhat faster than on comparable spec laptops but is still LR. Take it for what it is worth....

 

[Peter England]

How big is the USB 3.0 drive? How do you sync the USB drive with the NAS? Like I said, my source images are on an 8TB NAS in X-RAID (RAID 5) config which gives me 5.3 TB of usable storage; of that I've used 2.35 TB of space. Because Lightroom does not allow me to store the catalog file on a network drive, I store it on my desktop's hard drive. Unfortunately, Adobe has no plans to support multi-user catalogs like Extensis Portfolio does.

It is only a 1TB drive, my photos amount to just less than 500mb as I'm pretty ruthless with deleting images I don't want or won't use as part of my workflow.

I had previously been using the Microsoft synctoy app to sync to the NAS, but I've now found an opensource app called freefilesync ... http://sourceforge.net/projects/freefilesync/

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