External vs Internal HD

[Kayaker72]

An update here, but I have been doing #2 with an external SSD. As I already owned a 1 TB external SSD, it was a cheap and easy way to test an option. I have come across a few reviews online that do advise against using external SSDs as your primary work storage, and it has been working....but....

A sign of an older machine, my 256 GB SSD is filling up and my CPU is revving up all the time. I've tried identifying programs using the most CPU and, ironically, it seems to be WD software. I cleared those programs, but it is still happening. This made me look pretty hard at building a new desktop, but...pandemic...most reasonable to good GPUs and the higher end CPUs are out of stock. I could get a good CPU, but not the CPUs I would necessarily have targeted (I did find a mid level Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5s, but, looking at speed tests, if I am going to build a machine again I would probably want a higher level Ryzen 7 or 9).

To shorten what really is a long story, next I am going to do something along the lines that David recommended, buy a new SSD for software and my current year of photos and then a single large HDD to store everything else. Of course, I will keep the external HD as a back up and create backups that are offsite.


The longer story...looking into it and modern laptops out perform my older desktop despite the updates I have made over the years. I was actively considering replacing my desktop with a laptop to the point where it made my Christmas list (we had a delayed Christmas as my wife had COVID over the holidays). And, low and behold, a version of what I requested ended up under the Christmas tree and I am now the proud owner of an Asus ROG Zephyrus R14.

Why do I still need a desktop? As I discussed replacing the desktop with my new laptop I learned that the desktop was the family computer (she primarily uses a Microsoft Surface) and she wanted access to it when I start traveling again. So, a desktop stays.

Next item, it sure seems like there are some shenanigans out there right now on Amazon and laptops. On my Christmas list, I provided minimum specs like a 1 TB or greater SSD and 16 GB or greater RAM that would result in a mid- to upper level model of the laptop. Well, all the specs are correct, but it looks like a 3rd party company (Amazing TopDeal) bought the lower end Zephyrus G14 and swapped in a new SSD and RAM because the actual model number for the laptop I have should have 512 TB SSD and 8 GB RAM. While the swapped out components are working great, what was lost with this swap out including this unit having the Ryzen 7, lower level GPU (RTX 1650) and the lower end display vs a Ryzen 9, RTX 2060 and a higher end display. It is still a really nice computer. The Ryzen 7 is actually just fine and the display is still an IPS unit...just not as nice as the higher end models. As for the GPU, I would like the ability to do 4k videos even though I shoot FHD videos usually and only sometimes edit them.

Just getting the warning out there about the 3rd party sellers on Amazon.

But, for fun, this led me to do some benchmarking of my new laptop vs my older desktop. In general, looking at userbenchmark for each machine, PassMark and BenchMark 20 comparisons, I am thinking:

CPU. Even though my older AMD FX-8350 is 4.0 GHz, and the newer AMD Ryzen 7 4800HS is base clock of 2.9 GHz, the newer Ryzen single core performance is ~1.7-2x faster than the FX-8350. Multi-core performance it is ~3x faster. Then, looking at benchmarks for current desktops, single core performance is ~2.5-3x faster and multi-core performance is 7-9x faster (not including "enterprise" level CPUs like a AMD Threadripper). This is assuming I can convert points or score to speed, but I saw where others were doing this, so I am going with it.

GPU. Even the new base level GPU is still a bit faster than my "old" GPU. I quote the "old" as I updated it ~3-4 years ago when I updated my monitor. But the RTX 1050ti is just a bit slower than the RTX 1650 mobile in the new laptop. Newer high end GPUs seem to be 2-4x faster than either. I doubt I need an elite GPU, but I would want a good one.

RAM. DDR4 3200 on the new laptop checked in at 30.7 to 36 GB/sec in tests. The DDR3 1666 sticks on my current desktop checked in at 14.3-16.9 GB/sec. So the new RAM is ~2x faster. It was nice to see the 3200/1666 ratings actually did correspond to measured speed quite well. LR is taxing the 16 GB RAM in the laptop, using ~85-90%.

SSD: The M.2 PCIe SSD on the Asus checked in at 1.1 to 1.5 GB/sec (1,350 MB/sec avg). On my desktop the SDD was 250 MB/sec, the two WD Black HDs from 2010 were 72 and 94 MB/sec and WD Black from 2013 was 75 MB/sec.

In terms of my use, which has been primarily LR. The speed difference is noticeable. Scrolling images, there is still a slight delay, but the images are rendered as sharp much faster. Then, editing changes are now essentially instantaneous vs a slight lag. I am still deciding my new work flow, but for large sets of images, I can easily see culling them on the laptop before doing final edits on the desktop with the benefit of the much larger and higher end screen.

Looking at the DDR4 vs DDR5 for RAM, the projections I saw that DDR5 might start being released later in 2021, but wider market acceptance really wasn't projected until 2022 or even 2023. It seems like DDR5 will approximately double the RAM speed and also increase capacity.

But, without a GPU really available, I will make a few last tweaks to my current desktop and let it go for another little while. I can see building a new desktop as soon as the GPUs/CPUs I would want are available.