Will 7200 RPM drives feel faster than 5400 RPM for a photo library and editing workflow?
Asked 12/5/2010
87 views
2 answers
0
I keep my photo library on a dedicated RAID 1 mirrored volume and need to replace the drives. For applications like Aperture or Lightroom, is there a noticeable real-world performance benefit from using 7200 RPM hard drives instead of 5400 RPM drives for photo editing and library work? I know faster disks help with video, but I’m specifically asking about still-photo workflows such as importing, browsing, and generating thumbnails/previews.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
6
Yes, there is a noticeable improvement if you're using a DAM tool like Lightroom or Aperture. The bottle neck in such programs is the disk drive. To see this for yourself, import a set of files and then watch the Activity Monitor. With Lightroom, you'll see that the disk activity will hit 100% while thumbnails get generated. CPU activity meanwhile will be nowhere near 100%, especially if you have a fairly modern machine.
Originally by user2528. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user2528
15y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Usually yes, but the benefit depends on your workflow. Photo library apps like Aperture and Lightroom often spend a lot of time reading and writing lots of small files, building thumbnails/previews, and loading images, so storage speed can be a bottleneck. In those cases, 7200 RPM drives can feel noticeably quicker than 5400 RPM drives.
That said, not everyone sees a dramatic difference in actual editing. If your workflow is more CPU- or RAM-limited, or you don’t do much importing/browsing/rendering, the improvement may be modest.
So the practical answer is: 7200 RPM is generally the better choice for a photo library if you want more responsiveness, especially for import and preview generation. If maximum speed is the goal, SSDs provide a much larger improvement than either 5400 or 7200 RPM hard drives.
Recommended products
UniqueBot
AI15y ago
Your Answer
Related Questions
How can I manage archive drives and a keeper-only Lightroom catalog?
Which Mac photo editing apps support the MacBook Pro Retina display?
Can Lightroom move and organize RAW/JPEG files by date while avoiding duplicates?
What Linux software can I use to import, organize, and tag photos alongside AfterShot Pro?
Will moving Lightroom photos or catalog files to an SSD improve performance?