I am a longtime Aperture user and am finally consolidating many years of photos in a referenced library. I am up to 75,000 photos over the past 10 years. My Masters weigh in at 400 GB and my Aperture Library file is 80 GB.
Performance was acceptable with library containing one year worth of photos but this consolidated library seems to be killing my setup!
I find that my current setup is not quite up to the task from a speed standpoint so I am soliciting hardware recommendations for an ideal Aperture setup.
Here is what I have now -
15” MacBook Pro Mid-2010 wi 2.6 Ghz i7, Apple 256 SSD, and a WD Blue 1 TB in the internal optical bay via an OWC Datadoubler bracket. The 2010 MacBook Pro is dual core that can hyperthread to act like 4 cores. It does not have Thunderbolt but it does have Firewire 800. It has USB 2. It has 8 GB RAM which I believe is the max.
I run in 2 display mode. The MacBook screen is high def and matte option. My external display is a 10 year old Apple 24” Cinema Display which still runs well.
The Aperture library file sits on the WD Blue 1 TB inside the MacBook Pro. It references Masters that sit on a FW800 WD MyBook – which is two 3 TB WD Green's hardware raided together.
I have access to a FW 800 Drobo S but I fear that would make things even slower. I also have access to a WD Thunderbolt RAID but this MacBook Pro lacks Thunderbolt so it cannot use it.
It is the disk operations that seem the slowest now that the library has gotten so large.
I am not sure what the best way to speed things up is.
I am tempted by the MacBook Pro 15” retina for the Thunderbolt and quad core processor and better video card. Not to mention the super high definition screen for display. The retina gets pricey and lacks internal storage options. But is this the best set up going?
a 27” Quad Core iMac is also an option though I would wait for the ivy bridge model.
Less expensive options include replacing the Apple internal SSD on the 2010 MacBook Pro with a Sandforce model from MacSales.
I have just started to look at other Thunderbolt raid setups from Promise etc.
I appreciate the value of a mobile set up.
What is the best bang for the buck upgrade to make Aperture sing with large referenced libraries? Thanks. – Joe
For ANY resource intensive app, like Aperture 3, you are limited by your lowest common denominator … in this case the external FW800 drive that holds your images. My hardware use is of a similar setup, all images are housed on two four-drive FW800 towers …
While upgrading the drive internally in your computer could make some tasks quicker … as long as you have a bottle neck getting image data from the external drives, you likely won’t see much improvement in performance overall, though you should see some dramatic improvement in responsiveness when Aperture is reading/writing data to the library itself … Upgrading to an SSD may very well be worth the cost and effort … but it won’t add any speed or efficiency when accessing images on your external drive.
Regardless what apps you choose to use as long as you have to pass data through the FW800 port you likely won’t see any improvement in loading images or reading/writing data to the external FW800 drives no matter what computer you have the external drive attached to …
At this time there is no easy or inexpensive manner to reach the goal maximum access for external storage … of course, Thunderbolt seems the most promising options, but it comes at a cost … on both ends of the equation … so alleviating the situation will take some time and/or investment.
What I am going to do is muddle through in the short term with FW800 setup (I am planning on buying a new iMac in the fall followed by a new laptop in the spring of 21013) then as more computers become available with Thunderbolt capability, the after market options will grow likewise and open up some more oportunities … I know there will be times when I will hope for more horsepower … after seeing the explosion of FW400 options that became available a couple of years after introduction, I think holding off for right now may be prudent …
Thanks Butch.
I do feel like there is a lot of life in the 2010 MacBook Pro but Aperture does make it slow.
You are confirming my suspicion that i/o is at the root of my problem.
One short term solution I am considering is a dual RAID set up from MacSales called the Guardian Maximus. It is a redundant RAID 1 - mirrored. It not only has Firewire 800 connectivity but also USB 3 which is faster when I and if upgrade to a Mac that has that port.
In the short term though, my guess is it would be no faster than my RAID 1 WD MyBook so why bother?
My problem with the MBP Retina pricing is that if you want an SSD larger than 256, the starting price point is the higher end model at $2799. By the time you add 16 GB RAM to the 512 SSD, you are pushing $3000. And then over $3000 with Applecare which seems wise on such a user un-repairable machine. Add to that first generation woes that come along with any completely new design.
I think I should just save to get a Mac with Thunderbolt though such as the Retina MBP. An Ivy Bridge based iMac would make things interesting if it ever comes out as I could use that as my main iron and only use the laptop in the field from time to time.
I did a few test runs on a WD Thunderbolt RAID and my wife’s i7 MacBook Air with Thunderbolt and things were much snappier.
I need to stick with my own iron though to keep domestic tranquility, though!
:-)
Do you really need an SSD larger than 256GB? … My main workstation is a late 2006 24” iMac that still has it’s original 250GB HD installed … and is only a touch over half full … similarly, my late 2007 15” MBP has the stock 160GB drive and is likewise only using about half the data storage … the iTunes library on that unit is much smaller accounting for the difference … I have Photoshop, Lightroom, InDesign, Media Pro and Aperture installed on both, as well as all the iLife and iWork apps … plus about a dozen other apps over and above the normal system install … and still have not used much space on the startup drives …
If the bulk of your images, videos and other large files are stored on external drives, the startup drive size can be much smaller than you might think you need … for myself, If I had a larger startup drive … I’d likely only clutter it up with stuff I don’t really need …
Butch - the Library file for the referenced masters I have right now is 90 GB so that makes things kind of tight on the SSD if the SSD is only 256.
Hey Joe,
I’m not good with tech talk at all and I know the MBP Retina is really expensive, but the top end comes with a 512 SSD and in Australia it’s only $600 to get it up to 768 SSD.
Now to me that is a major bargain as I went to get a 128GB CF card for my new camera and they are over $1500 US!!!! For a SanDisk, but I need a UDMA 7 100MB/s_128GB for video for my D800.
Also I’ve been working referenced with a LaCie Little Big Disk. I bought the 2TB one when it hit the market mid to late last year and I had nothing but trouble with it. When I took my mac in to have the hard drive replaced, they replaced the LaCie as well, and quietly said something like here you go, just take this revamped model. I was buying the 6TB Little Big Disk at the time, so there must have been a problem with them. To be honest, there isn’t really much difference time wise working referenced from this 6TB LaCie. It’s nowhere near as noisy as the 2TB’s fan which is still in the box, but it’s quite noisy when it’s reading and writing but it just fly’s along. I can’t complain but I wish there were more options available at the time. I have to admit that the 6TB has been flawless.
Wow Paul - that is a pricey card!
What do you guys think of a thunderbolt iMac versus a retina MacBook pro as a main aperture machine?
Well - I cleared off the ssd enough to hold the library on the ssd. I had 60 GB of Iphone, ipad and idevice backups that I moved off there via symbolic link.
My next step is to trim the iTunes content on the second internal hd ( 1 Tb) in the optical bay so I can fit the masters on there. Masters right now are 400 GB.
I’ll have to get religious about backing up the masters if I leave them on the laptop. Maybe via chronosync or time machine?
At least this will cut down on the fw800 bottleneck I am getting with masters on the external hard disk.
I am sure I would love to double my i7 cores from 2 to 4, my ram to 16 gb, quadruple my pixels and send external storage throughput sky high with a retina MacBook pro!
You are right though, if I can get more time out of my investment in the 2010 MacBook pro, that would be a good thing.
Joe …
Another space saver I discovered was I recently took the time during a slow week and did a clone of my startup drive … then I reformatted the startup drive and re-installed the OS from scratch, then manually re-installed all my apps … eliminating all the legacy apps that I acquired over recent years that I no longer use, or seldom used … then also manually moved over only the appropriate preference files and Application Support files that I needed … ignoring the files in both regards I no longer needed … keep in mind, you need to hang onto that clone copy … or your Time Machine copy for some time until you are satisfied you no longer need that source to make sure everything is up to speed on the new install …
You can’t do this by using Migration Assistant because unfortunately, it’s an all or nothing deal … you can’t select only the items the app should move over … I didn’t want to include all the erroneous files that have been piggybacking the past several OS updates …
In the end, I freed up over 40GB of drive space by excluding all the files I no longer needed …
If you plan on upgrading to Mountain Lion, that may be a good opportunity to do that …
On disk storage: I’m not going to use a portable with less than 750GB of storage from here on out. It doesn’t need to be all SSD, but I would like around 100GB as a minimum to be solid state. Currently, my main Mac is a late 2011 MacBook Pro 13”. I’ve got a 120GB SSD and a 750GB HD, and I’ve got some room left there. I’ve also got 16GB of RAM. My Mac preforms pretty darn well for Aperture (my library is on the HD, with the rest of my Users folder) and I’m generally happy with this, but will probably be getting a Mac Pro soon, if nothing else so that I can use 3 monitors at once.
I keep all the ‘recent’ images on my drive in my Mac and reference the originals on my Drobo, which isn’t terribly fast, but because I don’t need to access them as much isn’t a huge deal.
For most image editing, I honestly don’t think the disk makes as much of a difference. If you have really large files, and have large projects, and tend to flip through images very quickly, you’ll definitely see some benefit to quick storage.
The processor does make a difference, but currently, I think it’s going to be worth more to consider things like graphics cards and RAM because pretty much all the Intel processors Apple is shipping are good for high power tasks. -They’re fast. Moving from Dual to Quad cores will make a good difference if you multitask. RAM is definitely a great advantage to have because in terms of caching and loading photos you can longer before your RAM gets full, and having 16GB is a great deal right now!
On the subject of retina or not:
Here’s something to consider: At $220 or $400 more, the Retina is *cheaper* than upgrading a base 15” MBP to 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD which total $600 in upgrades.
If you like upgrading a Mac on your own, I might just go for the regular 15” MBP. Then I’d put in a 120GB or 256GB SSD for under $200, and 16GB of RAM for under $150. I’d also ditch the optical drive, which is around $70 to get a reliable HDD bracket. I might also upgrade to the 2.7Ghz i7 processor simply because it has a larger cache, but that’s a minor upgrade. And I’m a fan of the 1680x1050 antiglare display.
That said: The retina display is beautiful. It won’t make Aperture better, but it will be a pleasure to look at. The chassis is super thin and it’s lighter by a pound, which is definitely worth something if you travel. Dual Thunderbolt and HDMI means that it can drive 3 external displays, and will be very expandable as a desktop in the future. (A few external thunderbolt graphics cards already exist!) Be aware that if you have any firewire devices it’s still a little while before Apple releases it’s adapter, and you’ll also need an adapter for ethernet if you want it. If you buy the retina display Mac you’d want to upgrade from Apple because right now there’s no external upgrades.
So…I’ve kind of skirted around the graphics card issue. A desktop Mac is going to be best, but an iMac won’t be worlds better than a MBP because it still has a mobile graphics card. (However, you can upgrade the 27” iMac to 2GB of VRAM which I think would be worthwhile.)
I’m looking for more power in my current setup, and here’s what I’m thinking about doing.
Background: I’m currently a college student, so money is limited, but I’m working a ton right now… :) I’m a CS major, do tons of photography and a decent amount of work in Final Cut.
I’m considering a Mac Pro right now. (Yes, Quad Core to save some money). They’re $1900 refurbished right now, or I can probably get a used on for about $14-1500. I can upgrade a Mac Pro for years, including the processor and graphics cards. I’ve got 3 external displays which could be used, so that’s not of much concern. RAM could be upgraded in stages up to 64GB. And if I need data throughput I could (in theory) RAID 7 SSDs which is mind boggling. If I need to, I can put two and maybe even a 3rd graphics card.
I don’t know if I’m going to pull the trigger or wait it out for sure just yet, because it’s quite a bit for a computer, but if I buy something, it will be a Mac Pro.
Joe … I’m a working pro so I need both a desktop (actually I have 2 iMacs) and a laptop for location work … If you don’t need the mobility of a laptop, I think you would be very happy with an iMac …
The Retina display of the new 15” MBP is very enticing … but it really isn’t a necessity … the other hardware factors are of more interest to me … though for a very reasonable investment you could buy a MBP refurb with Thunderbolt and save enough to cover the purchase an SSD drive to upgrade it …
Don’t be leery of buying from the Apple refurb store … all the units are indistinguishable from new, have a full Apple warranty and are eligible for Apple Care, though, you won’t have any build to order options … you are limited by what they have on-hand … availability for items can change hourly … so be sure to check often until you see what you want. Also, since the Retina MBP is so new, we may not see any units there for awhile …
My last several hardware purchases came from there … and all have served me well …
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac
Hi Joe, just my 2 cents.
I have some 40000 photos (700GB) in referenced library which is 45GB. It used to be 80GB but I recently deleted the Previews and Thumbnails and had Aperture regenerate both (I dropped the Preview quality from 12 to 10) and this shrunk the Aperture Library.
I have an iMac with 256GB SSD and 2TB HDD. The Aperture library (and the whole OSX) is on the SSD while the originals reside on the HDD. It’s as snappy as it gets. I do have 16GB or RAM but I think the biggest speed factor is the SDD.
If I was in your situation, I would organize all my originals (and make certain they are properly double backed up), then back up the current Aperture Library, trash the Previews and Thumbnails and have Aperture regenerate them all.
You will most likely see drop in size and thus could place the Aperture Library on your SSD. I do not know what else you have on it, but 256SSD (as you mentioned) is a lot for programs and other stuff. Is it an option to make more room on your SSD? That way, you will not have to spend any money at the moment. Just some computer time to regenerate the Previews and Thumbnails.