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Scratch disk - advice needed - Chronicles of a Hereditary Geek [entries|archive|friends|userinfo]
Darth Paradox

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Scratch disk - advice needed [Jun. 6th, 2007|04:59 pm]
Darth Paradox
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We're installing Photoshop and Illustrator on our Mac Pro soon (thanks, Pam!), and I've come to realize that I probably want a scratch disk.

The only disk drives Apple will sell us are 250GB and 500GB, which seems a little excessive for a scratch disk. Apparently Seagate has a 750 GB drive, but that's moving in the wrong direction.

I'm looking for a drive in the 40-100 GB range - preferably something cheap. Is any old desktop disk drive compatible with the Mac Pro? The small amount of information I've found so far implies that a Mac Pro can use any SATA drive you give it...
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Comments:
[User Picture]From: unspeakablevorn
2007-06-07 12:42 am (UTC)
Any old desktop disk drive should work, yes. I have several times added a regular drive - and regular RAM, and some other regular stuff - to my mac.

Vorn
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[User Picture]From: thecrazyfinn
2007-06-07 01:02 am (UTC)
WD Raptor is the way to go, in 36GB form. 10,000RPM is a BIG win for a scratch disk.
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[User Picture]From: darthparadox
2007-06-07 03:17 am (UTC)
Ooh. That is exactly what I need. Thanks for the heads-up.
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[User Picture]From: jewymasta
2007-06-07 02:44 pm (UTC)
Yeah, I agree. Any sort of Cheetah drive is a good way to go for a scratch drive.
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[User Picture]From: wayzgoose
2007-06-08 02:40 am (UTC)
Photoshop is a hog on the Scratch Disk, so I'd go with the 250 or 500 myself. That's why they suggest a scratch instead of using the program drive. I've got a bunch of photoshop files that are way in excess of 50 megs when they've been saved, but to keep the history and profiles all straight, it really wants a bunch of space.

Well, I've got the 750Gb Seagate myself and told PS to screw it and use the system drive. No problem so far.
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[User Picture]From: darthparadox
2007-06-08 07:17 am (UTC)
I didn't figure on needing more than three orders of magnitude in scratch space, so I got the 36 GB one (or it's on the way, anyway.) I'll definitely keep an eye on it to see whether Photoshop is hungry for more space... if it comes to it, I'll get a bigger drive and the 36 GB becomes a data-backup drive.
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