# MacBook + Thunderbolt External Hard Drive



## Alan Maughan (Nov 26, 2011)

Guys,

Im looking for any information I can get on using the new LeCie Little Big Disc with my MacBook Pro 13"

I find LR too slow when making my initial assessments ( I do render previews but again it means waiting for them to load) and also when I go to 1:1 to check sharpness it takes about 3-5 seconds to render. When Ive 1000 images it makes for a lot of dead time. After speaking with the guy in the mac store it appears that this thunderbolt disc is about 8 times faster than my internal hard drive.

I already store all my images externally so this looks to be the way to go?


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## b_gossweiler (Nov 26, 2011)

Alan,

There are a few components involved when going to 1:1 view without having 1:1 rendered before, which can be the constraining factors in your system:

Reading your original image
CPU involved to render an 1:1 view
Reading/Writing to the previews folder
Reading/Writing to the ACR cache
Reading/Writing to the LR catalog
Depending on where these components are located, the constraining factor might not be your Thunderbolt disk.

Beat


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## Alan Maughan (Nov 26, 2011)

Thanks for the info Beat, how then will I find where the bottle neck is?


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## Victoria Bampton (Nov 26, 2011)

Hi Alan, ok, couple more questions for you:

1.  Is this slowness in the Library or Develop module?
2.  What size previews are you pre-rendering?
2.  Have you pre-rendered the 1:1 previews?
3.  Where's the catalog stored?  Internal or external?
4.  What drive connection are your image files stored on?


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## b_gossweiler (Nov 27, 2011)

And as an additional question:
Where is your ACR-Cache stored, and how big is it (see Preferences, File Handling tab).

Beat


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## edgley (Nov 30, 2011)

I am guessing that the MBP has only a 5400 RPM disc.
These are very slow and must be causing a problem, if an SSD is not an option then consider getting  a 7200 RPM disc in there.
If you have less than 4GB RAM then also consider sticking more in it, Crucial is a good place to get it from.


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## Kiwigeoff (Dec 31, 2011)

Ok, any feedback/input on my new system arriving this week:
MBP with 750BG 7200rpm drive and Promise Pegasus 12TB Thunderbolt array (faster the SSD's). Particularly interested in Raid setup for maximum security.


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## Stuy (Jan 3, 2012)

Kiwigeoff said:


> Ok, any feedback/input on my new system arriving this week:
> MBP with 750BG 7200rpm drive and Promise Pegasus 12TB Thunderbolt array (faster the SSD's). Particularly interested in Raid setup for maximum security.



Thats what I want!

Now i'm getting very jealous, and am going to sit in the corner and sulk.:blush:

When you get the Pegasus, let us know how it goes please.


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