SEARCH
diglloydTools™
ARTICLES & REVIEWS
Everything
View by Date
LAPTOPS
Apple 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max
World’s fastest laptop, beats nearly all desktops.
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Overview
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Testing Notes
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Memory Bandwidth
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: SHA512 Hashing Speed
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Maven Build Java App
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: SSD Speed vs Transfer Size
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: IntegrityChecker Java, Verify
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Adobe Camera Raw Enhance Details
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Assemble Panorama
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: diglloyd Adobe Photoshop Benchmarks
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Photoshop Filters
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Real World Photoshop: Make Multi-Res Image Series
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Lightroom Import/Export
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Sony A7R IV)
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Nikon D850)
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (PhaseOne IQ4)
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Fujifilm GFX100)
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Zerene Stacker Focus Stacking
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Image Scaling, Topaz Gigapixel AI
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Reliability
- 2022 MacBook Pro M2 Max: Recommended Models and Accessories
Apple 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max
Trouncing Intel-based laptops and desktops alike.
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Overview
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Memory Bandwidth
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: SHA512 Hashing Speed
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Maven Build Java App
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Java Web Server Startup
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: SSD Speed vs Transfer Size
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: IntegrityChecker Java, Verify
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Adobe Camera Raw Enhance Details
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Assemble Panorama
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: diglloyd Adobe Photoshop Benchmarks
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Photoshop Filters
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Real World Photoshop: Make Multi-Res Image Series
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Lightroom Import/Export
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Sony A7R IV)
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Nikon D850)
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (PhaseOne IQ4)
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Fujifilm GFX100)
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Convert RAW Files to JPEG, Iridient Developer
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Zerene Stacker Focus Stacking
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Helicon Focus
- 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Recommended Models and Accessories
Apple MacBook Pro Retina 16-inch (October 2019)
Desktop Class Performance, memory, SSD.
- 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch: Sustained CPU Usage vs Performance
- 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch: Memory Bandwidth
- 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch: SSD Speed with Large Sustained Transfers
- 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch: SSD Speed vs Transfer Size
- 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch: diglloyd Adobe Photoshop Benchmarks
- 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch: Photoshop Filters
- 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch: Real World Photoshop: Make Multi-Res Image Series
- 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch: IntegrityChecker Verify
- 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Sony A7R III)
- 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Nikon D850)
- 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Canon 5DS R)
- 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Hasselblad X1D)
- 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Fujifilm GFX)
- Capture One 20: Export to JPEG (Phase One IQ4)
- 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch: Focus Stacking with Zerene Stacker, 28 X 45-Megapixel Nikon D850 TIF
- Configuring the 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch as as Desktop Replacement
Apple MacBook Pro Retina (July 2018)
Vastly improved performance over 2017 model, 6 CPU Cores.
- 2018 MacBook Pro: Sustained CPU Usage vs Performance
- 2018 MacBook Pro: Memory Bandwidth
- 2018 MacBook Pro: SSD Speed with Large Sustained Transfers
- 2018 MacBook Pro: SSD Speed vs Transfer Size
- 2018 MacBook Pro: diglloyd Adobe Photoshop Benchmarks
- 2018 MacBook Pro: Photoshop Filters
- 2018 MacBook Pro: Real World Photoshop: Make Multi-Res Image Series
- 2018 MacBook Pro: IntegrityChecker Verify
- 2018 MacBook Pro: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Sony A7R III)
- 2018 MacBook Pro: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Nikon D850)
- 2018 MacBook Pro: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Canon 5DS R)
- 2018 MacBook Pro: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Hasselblad X1D)
- 2018 MacBook Pro: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Fujifilm GFX)
- 2018 MacBook Pro: Focus Stacking with Helicon Focus, 28 X 45-Megapixel Nikon D850 TIF
- 2018 MacBook Pro: Focus Stacking with Zerene Stacker, 28 X 45-Megapixel Nikon D850 TIF
- 2018 MacBook Pro: Video Presentation: Configuring the 2018 MacBook Pro as as Desktop Replacement
Apple MacBook Pro Retina (June 2017)
Improved performance over 2016 model.
- 2017 MacBook Pro: Display Quality
- 2017 MacBook Pro: Severely Degraded Performance for More than Short Usage
- 2017 MacBook Pro: SSD Peak Speed
- 2017 MacBook Pro: SSD Speed vs Transfer Size
- 2017 MacBook Pro: diglloyd Adobe Photoshop Benchmarks
- 2017 MacBook Pro: Photoshop Filters
- 2017 MacBook Pro: Real World Photoshop: Make Multi-Res Image Series
- 2017 MacBook Pro: Grep (Search)
- 2017 MacBook Pro: IntegrityChecker Verify
- 2017 MacBook Pro: Convert 50-Megapixel RAW Files to JPEG (Adobe Camera Raw)
Apple MacBook Pro Retina (late 2016)
Touchbar, wide gamut, unrivalled SSD.
- 2016 MacBook Pro: Overview
- 2016 MacBook Pro: SSD Performance
- 2016 MacBook Pro: Model Cannot Sustain Performance
- 2016 MacBook Pro: diglloyd Adobe Photoshop Benchmarks
- 2016 MacBook Pro: Photoshop Filters
- 2016 MacBook Pro: Adobe Photoshop Create Size Variants
- 2016 MacBook Pro: Adobe Lightroom Import RAW Files with 1:1 Previews
- 2016 MacBook Pro: IntegrityChecker Verify
- 2016 MacBook Pro: Grep
- 2016 MacBook Pro: Display Color Gamut
Apple 12-Inch MacBook (2016)
An iPad-sized laptop, refreshed.
- 2016 Apple MacBook: Overview
- 2016 Apple MacBook: SSD / Flash Drive Performance
- 2016 Apple MacBook: CPU Utilization during Network File Copying
- 2016 Apple MacBook: Photoshop Speed: Size Variants from 42-Megapixel Images
- 2016 Apple MacBook: Photoshop Benchmarks
- 2016 Apple MacBook: IntegrityChecker Verify Hashes
Apple MacBook Pro Retina (2015)
Evolving the platform with a hyper fast SSD.
- Overview of 2015 Apple MacBook Pro Retina
- Internal Flash Drive / SSD Performance vs Late 2013 MacBook Pro
- Real World Shootout: IntegrityChecker Verify
- Real World Shootout: diglloydHuge Photoshop Benchmark
- Photoshop Speed: diglloydSpeed1 and diglloydMedium Photoshop Benchmarks
- Search Speed (grep)
- Photoshop Speed: Create Size Variants from 36-Megapixel Images
Apple MacBook Pro Retina Quad-Core (Late 2013, 'Crystal Well')
Higher performance Retina model.
Apple 12-Inch MacBook (2015)
An iPad-sized laptop.
Apple MacBook Pro Retina Quad-Core (June 2012)
Apple’s 2012 MacBook Pro Retina Display.
- 2012 MacBook Pro Retina
- Choosing a MacBook Pro Retina Configuration (IMPORTANT!)
- 2012 MBP Retina — Retina Display Scaling
- 2012 MBP Retina — Retina Display Size Comparison
- 2012 MBP Retina — Review Model Configuration
- 2012 MBP Retina — Memory not Upgradeable
- 2012 MBP Retina — Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapter
- 2012 MBP Retina — Apple 500GB SSD Performance
- 2012 MBP Retina — USB3 Performance
- 2012 MBP Retina — Photoshop CS6 Performance
- 2012 MBP Retina — RAW Conversion to JPEG
- 2012 MBP Retina — Memory Bandwidth
- 2012 MBP Retina and Photoshop CS5 / CS6
Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch Quad-Core (June 2012)
Apple’s 2012 MacBook Pro (non Retina).
- 2012 MacBook Pro 15-inch
- 2012 MBP 15-inch — Configuring
- 2012 MBP 15-inch — Review Model Configuration
- 2012 MBP 15-inch — USB3 Performance
- 2012 MBP 15-inch — SATA Performance with Both 6G Ports
- 2012 MBP 15-inch — Photoshop CS6 Performance
- 2012 MBP 15-inch — Photoshop CS6 Speed with Various SSDs
- 2012 MBP 15-inch — Memory Bandwidth
Apple MacBook Pro Quad-Core (February 2011)
A review of Apple’s first quad-core laptop.
- Introduction to the MacBook Pro Quad-Core
- Choosing which MacBook Pro Model
- How and Why I Configured my MacBook Pro
- Thunderbolt on the MacBook Pro
- Configuration As Tested
- Apple’s 128GB Solid State Drive (SSD)
- Mac OS X Support for SSD TRIM
- SATA Performance With OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD
- SSD Performance With Random Data
- MemoryTester SHA1 Performance
- MemoryTester CPU Performance
- MemoryTester Memory Performance
- Results With Photoshop CS5
- RAW Import with Adobe Lightroom 3
- RAW Import with Apple Aperture
- RAW to TIF with Bibble Pro
- RAW to TIF With Canon Digital Photo Professional
- RAW to TIF With PhaseOne Capture One Pro
- RAW to TIF With RAW Developer
- Focus Stacking with Helicon Focus
- Panorama With PTGui Pro 64-Bit
- Image Scaling With PhotoZoom Pro
- Encoding Video with Handbrake
- 2011 MacBook Pro: Will Apple Fix the 6G SATA BUGS?
- Conclusions on 2011 Apple MacBook Pro
2010 MacBook Air for Photographers?
How does the 2010 MacBook Air fare in the context of photography?
Apple MacBook Pro Core i7 (April 2010)
A review of Apple’s first Core i7 laptop.
- Introduction to the MacBook Pro i7
- MacBook Pro i7 Features and Changes
- MacBook Pro i7 Ergonomics and Usability
- MacBook Pro i7 Test Configurations
- MacBook Pro i7 CPU Performance and Memory Speed
- MacBook Pro i7 System Boot and Application Launch
- MacBook Pro i7 SATA performance With Solid State Drives
- MacBook Pro i7 SATA performance With Solid State Drives: BIZARRE
- MacBook Pro i7 Performance with Photoshop CS4
- MacBook Pro i7 Performance with RAW File Processing
- MacBook Pro i7 Software Development Performance (XCode)
- MacBook Pro i7 Recommendations
REVIEWS
OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual USB-C
2-bay storage solution with hardware RAID options
Big Fast Hard Drives
Big Fast Hard Drives, 2021 and Later
Apple Mac Mini (Late 2012)
Apple’s first USB3 MacMini.
Apple iMac 3.4 GHz (Late 2012)
Apple’s fastest Mac as of Jan 2013?
- Late 2012 Apple iMac
- Display Quality and is it a TV?
- Fan Noise and Heat
- iMac Fusion Drive Performance (Single Volume)
- iMac Fusion Drive Performance (Separate SSD / HDD)
- Photoshop CS6 Performance — diglloydSpeed1
- Photoshop CS6 Performance — diglloydMedium
- Photoshop CS6 Performance — diglloydHuge
- Photoshop CS6 Performance — Auto Align Layers
- Photoshop CS6 Performance — XCode Build
- Photoshop CS6 RAW Conversion
MacBook Pro eSATA Cards
A review of eSATA cards for the MacBook Pro.
- MacBook Pro eSATA options with ExpressCard/34 Slot
- MacBook Pro eSATA Test Procedure
- MacBook Pro eSATA with Mercury Extreme SSD
- MacBook Pro eSATA with OWC QX2 RAID-5 Enclosure
- MacBook Pro eSATA with Hitachi 7K2000 2TB Hard Drive
- MacBook Pro eSATA with Voyager Q + Mercury Extreme SSD
- MacBook Pro eSATA with 2TB Guardian Maximus RAID-1 Mirror
- MacBook Pro eSATA vs Firewire 800
- MacBook Pro eSATA Support for S.M.A.R.T. Status
- MacBook Pro eSATA Recommmendations
OWC Portable Dual-Drive RAID-0 or RAID-1 Mini Enclosures
Dual-drive externals for travel or compact backup.
- OWC Dual-drive Enclosures Overview
- OWC Dual-drive Features
- OWC Dual-drive Power Supply Options
- OWC Dual-drive Ergonomics
- Performance on Mac Pro with eSATA
- Performance on Mac Pro with Firewire 800
- Performance on MacBook Pro with eSATA
- Performance on MacBook Pro with Firewire 800
- OWC Dual-drive Conclusions
Drives and Expansion and Various
Reviews of various hardware and software.
- CalDigit PCIe 2-Port USB3 Card for Mac Pro
- NewerTech MAXPower eSATA 6G 2-Port PCIe Card for Mac Pro
- NewerTech MAXPower eSATA 6G 4-Port RAID Controller
- NewerTech MAXPower eSATA 6G + USB3 PCIe Card
- Newer Technology Guardian Maximum 2TB RAID-1 Mirror for Plug and Play Reliability
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro (2011 model)
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro (2012 w/USB3 model)
- OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Mini (2010 model)
- FirmTek U3 USB3 Swappable 2.5-inch Drive Enclosure
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro mini (2011 model)
- OWC Mercury Elite Al-PRO QX2
- Data Robotics Drobo
- NewerTech Voyager Q Drive Dock
- OWC Drive Dock USB-C
- OWC On-The-Go 2.5-inch enclosure
- Sonnet Fusion F2 portable 2-drive RAID
- 2009 Apple MacBook Pro unibody 17
- Pimp My MacBook Pro
- 2008 Apple MacBook Pro unibody
- 2009 Apple MacMini
- Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34
- Novatel Wireless MiFi 2372 3G Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot
Mac Pro Early 2009 (Nehalem)
Configuring and optimizing.
- Introduction to Mac Pro Nehalem
- Mac Pro Nehalem Memory Overview
- Mac Pro Nehalem Scalability
- Mac Pro Nehalem: Dual vs Single CPU
- Mac Pro Nehalem Tests: Introduction
- Mac Pro Nehalem Tests: Memory and Compute Speed
- Mac Pro Nehalem Tests: Photoshop CS4
- Mac Pro Nehalem Tests: RAW-file Converters
- Mac Pro Nehalem Tests: Scaling/stacking Images
- Mac Pro Nehalem Tests: Software Development
- Mac Pro Nehalem Power Usage Spike Playing Music
- Mac Pro Nehalem Recommendations
Desktop Hard Drives
Performance and use.
- Testing Desktop Hard Drives (Introduction)
- HGST Deskstar 6TB NAS Hard Drive
- Hitachi 4TB Deskstar 7K4000 Hard Drive
- Toshiba 3TB Hard Drive (HDKPC08/DT01ACAxx)
- Toshiba 4TB Enterprise Hard Drive (MG03ACA400)
- Toshiba 4TB MG03ACA400 vs 3TB DT01ACA300: Is Cheaper Faster?
- Hitachi 4TB Deskstar 5K4000 'Coolspin' Hard Drive
- Hitachi 3TB Deskstar 7K3000
- Western Digital RE4 2TB Enterprise Grade 'RAID Edition' HDD
- Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB hard drive
- Hitachi 2TB Deskstar 7K2000 / Ultrastar A7K2000
- Western Digital RE4-GP 2TB
- Low-power 2TB consumer hard drives
- Hitachi 1TB Deskstar E7K1000 Saturn.E
- Hitachi 1TB Deskstar 7K1000
- Maxtor 500GB Maxline Pro 7H500F0
- Seagate 1TB Barracuda ES_2
- Seagate 1.5TB Barracuda 7200.11
- Western Digital 1TB RE3
HGST 8TB Ultrastar He8
Outstanding high-capacity enterprise hard drive.
- HGST 8TB Ultrastar He8 Hard Drive
- Using 4 or 5 8TB Hard Drives: Singly or RAID and How?
- Using High Capacity Drives Singly (non-RAID)
- Using High Capacity Drives in a RAID-0 Stripe Volume
- Using High Capacity Drives as Single Large RAID-4 / RAID-5 Volume
- Using High Capacity Drives as RAID-4 / RAID-5, Multiple Volumes
- HGST Ultrastar He8: Sample Variation
- HGST 8TB Ultrastar He8 vs HGST 6TB Deskstar NAS, 6TB Capacity Utilization
- HGST Ultrastar He8 Performance: Speed vs Capacity Utilization
- HGST Ultrastar He8 Performance: Transfer Size
- HGST Ultrastar He8 Performance: RAID-0 Striping
- HGST Ultrastar He8 Performance: RAID-0 vs RAID-4 / RAID-5 Compared 3/4/5/6/7/8 Drives
- HGST Ultrastar He8 Performance: RAID 1+0
Laptop Hard Drives
Technical performance data.
- Testing Laptop Hard Drives (Introduction)
- Seagate 500GB Momentus XT Hybrid Hard Drive
- Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB
- Fujitsu 320GB
- Intel 80GB X25-M SSD
- Hitachi 500GB Travelstar 5K500.B
- Hitachi 320GB Travelstar 7K320
- Seagate 160GB Momentus 7200.2
- Seagate 320GB Momentus 7200.3
- Western Digital 320GB Scorpio Black
- Western Digital 500GB Scorpio Blue
ioSafe N2 Fireproof and Waterproof NAS
Network attached storage with fire and flood protection.
- ioSafe N2 NAS Overview
- ioSafe N2 NAS Ethernet Connection
- ioSafe N2 NAS Software Interface
- Monitoring Performance on ioSafe N2 NAS
- Software and Services
- Physical Drive Installation
- Drive-Swap Experience Report
- Using the ioSafe N2 as a Backup via Cloning
- Backup Speed Cloning 245GB to a Disk Image
- ioSafe 1513 5-to-15 Bay NAS
SSD
OWC Mercury Accelsior PCIe RAID SSD
Ultra-fast solid state storage with hardware RAID for a Mac Pro in a PCIe slot.
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD with Hardware RAID
- Mercury Accelsior 'E2' PCIe SSD with Dual eSATA Ports
- Mercury Accelsior 'E2' Upgrade Process (Module Swap)
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Setup and Configuration
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Benefits and Applications
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Performance Singly and Striped
- Mercury Accelsior 'E2' eSATA 6G Speed with HDD / SSD
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Photoshop CS6 Benchmark (diglloydMedium)
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Photoshop CS6 Benchmark (diglloydHuge)
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Speed vs Capacity and Data Type (240GB)
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Speed vs Capacity and Data Type (480GB)
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Speed (Triple RAID-0 Stripe)
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Conclusions
OWC Mercury Accelsior Pro Q
Ultra-fast PCIe SSD for Classic Mac Pro or Thunderbolt Macs
OWC Mercury Electra 960GB 3G SSD
Huge capacity in a speedy SATA SSD.
Solid State Drives, Various
SSDs and thumb drives.
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini USB-C SSD
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini USB3 / eSATA SSD
- Kingston HyperX 128GB Data Traveler USB3 Thumb Drive
- OWC Mercury Envoy Pro EX 480GB USB3 SSD
- OWC Mercury Envoy Pro EX 1TB USB3 SSD
- OWC Mercury Envoy Pro EX 2TB USB-C SSD: Awesomely Fast!
- OWC Mercury Envoy Pro FX Thunderbolt 3 SSD: Awesomely Fast!
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual Mini USB-C
- 4TB SanDisk Extreme PRO V2 USB-C SSD
- 2TB Samsung T5 USB-C SSD
- 2TB Samsung T7 USB-C SSD
- 4TB Samsung T7 Shield USB-C SSD
- 4TB Crucial X6 USB-C SSD
- 2TB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, Singly and in 8TB RAID-0
- Samsung 860 EVO, 2TB and 4TB SSDs
- OWC Envoy Pro Mini 480GB Ultra-Portable SSD
- OWC Aura 960GB SSD Upgrade for MacBook Air or MacBook Pro Retina
- Micron P400e 400GB Enterprise-Grade SSD
- Samsung 4TB 850 Evo SATA III SSD
OWC SSDs, Various
Various SATA and USB SSDs.
- Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD
- Sustained Transfer Speed — 2011 MacBook Pro 6G Port
- Read Applications Folder — 2011 MacBook Pro 6G Port
- Duplicate Image Files — 2011 MacBook Pro 6G Port
- Photoshop CS5 diglloydMedium Benchmark
- Photoshop CS5 diglloydHuge Benchmark — OWC 480GB 6G SSD on Mac Pro 3G Port
- Sustained Transfer Speed — OWC 480GB 6G SSD on 2010 Mac Pro 3G Ports
- Sustained Transfer Speed — OWC 480GB 6G SSD on 2011 MacBook Pro 6G
- Sustained Transfer Speed — 2010 Mac Pro Internal 3G Port 120GB Model
- OWC 1TB Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD (Late 2015), Single and RAID-0
- OWC 2TB Mercury Electra Max 6G SSD
- OWC 4TB Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD
- OWC Elektron USB-C SSD
OWC Mercury Electra 6G 960GB SSD
Fast 6 Gbps high capacity SSD.
OWC Mercury Aura SSD for Mac Pro
High Capacity internal SSD for 2013 Mac Pro.
OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 3G Solid State Drives
Fast and durable, enterprise-grade solid state drives.
- Introduction to Mercury Extreme Pro 3G
- Mercury Extreme Pro 3G Single Drive Performance
- Mercury Extreme Pro 3G RAID-0 Stripe Performance
- Mercury Extreme Pro 3G and Photoshop on Mac
- Mercury Extreme Pro 3G and Photoshop on Windows
- Mercury Extreme Pro 3G RAID-0 Stripe Performance
- Comparing the Mercury Extreme Pro 3G 400GB to 200GB Model
- Comparing the Mercury Extreme Pro 3G 480GB to 240GB Model
- OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 3G 115GB SSD (25nm Flash)
- Mercury Extreme Pro 3G Conclusions
SPECIAL REPORT: Real World SSD Performance
Many brands of solid state drives put on a good show when new, but some degrade with use.
- Real-World SSD Performance Considerations (Introduction)
- Seasoning SSDs for Testing
- New vs Seasoned OWC Mercury Pro RE 200GB
- New vs Seasoned OWC Mercury Pro 240GB
- New vs Seasoned Crucial RealSSD 256GB
- New vs Seasoned Crucial M225 256GB
- New vs Seasoned Intel 160GB G2
- Comparing SSD Performance Results
- Comparing SSD Performance: Fill-volume 1000-file Test Results
- Severe Duty: OWC Extreme Pro RE vs Crucial RealSSD
- Severe Duty: OWC Extreme Pro vs Intel 160GB G2
- Severe Duty: OWC Extreme Pro vs Apple 512GB SSD
- Real World SSD Performance Conclusions
Solid State Drives (SSD)
Choosing and using solid state drives.
- Overview of Solid State Drives (SSD)
- Understanding Compressible vs Incompressible Data
- How to Make Your Mac Feel Lightning-fast
- Installing a solid state drive (SSD)
- Reconditioning a solid state drive (SSD)
- Crucial 128GB solid state drive (SSD)
- Crucial M225 256GB solid state drive (SSD)
- Intel X25-M G2 160GB solid state drive (SSD)
- OWC Mercury Elite On-The-Go External SSD
- Intel X25-E SSD
- Intel X25-M SSD on MacBook Pro
- Intel X25-M SSD in Mac Pro RAID
THUNDERBOLT PERIPHERALS
Promise Pegasus J4 Thunderbolt 4-Drive Enclosure
SSDs or hard drives for fast single-drive or RAID volumes in a portable enclosure.
- Promise Pegasus J4 — Overview
- Promise Pegasus J4 — Drive Installation
- Promise Pegasus J4 — Reliability Issues
- Promise Pegasus J4 — Initializing Volumes
- Promise Pegasus J4 — SSD Speed (Compressible)
- Promise Pegasus J4 — SSD Speed (Incompressible)
- Promise Pegasus J4 — SSD Speed (Fast Hard Drives)
- Promise Pegasus J4 — Photoshop CS6 Speed (diglloydHuge)
- Promise Pegasus J4 — Recommended Configuration
Thunderbolt peripherals
Reviews of Thunderbolt products.
- OWC Drive Dock: Thunderbolt + USB3 Connectivity Using Dual Bare Hard Drives or SSDs
- OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock for Port Expansion
- OWC Thunderbolt Go Dock for Port Expansion
- LaCie 2Big 20TB Thunderbolt 3 Storage Dock
- LaCie Bolt 2TB Thunderbolt 3 SSD
- TekQ Rapide SSD
- OWC Envoy Pro EX Thunderbolt 3 SSD, Consumer Edition vs Video Edition
- OWC Thunderbolt 2 Dock for Port Expansion
- OWC USB-C Dock for Apple MacBook
- OWC Mercury Helios Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis for PCIe Cards
- OWC Mercury Helios 2 Dual Bay PCIe Enclosure
- FirmTek ThunderTek/PX Q6G Thunderbolt to 4-Port eSATA
- OWC 30 Meter Optical Thunderbolt Cable: Does Length Matter for Performance?
OWC Thunderbay 4 Mini
High performance with 2.5-inch hard drives or SSDs.
- OWC Thunderbay 4 Mini Overview
- Initializing with New Drives
- Aggregate Throughput with 4 X 6G SSD
- Sequential Speed vs Transfer Size with SSDs
- Sequential Speed of Large Transfers with SSDs
- RAID-5 vs RAID-4 with SSDs
- Thunderbay Mini with SSDs as a Photoshop Scratch Disk
- Thunderbay Mini with SSDs: Incompressible Data
- CPU Usage for RAID-0 vs RAID-4 or RAID-5
- Real World Throughput for RAID-0 vs RAID-4 vs RAID-5
- Outrageous Speed with 8 SSDs in Dual Thunderbay 4 Minis
- Outrageous Speed with 8 SSDs in Dual Thunderbay 4 Minis: Speed vs Transfer Size
OWC 40TB SSD (in Thunderbay 4 Mini)
Ultra high flat-line performanc in 40 Terabyte capacity
OWC Thunderbay 6
Six bay storage solution with RAID-0/1/4/5/10 or non-RAID.
OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dock
Two-Drive Hardware RAID plus USB ports, SD slot, video, gigabit
OWC Envoy Pro EX SSD, Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C
Two high-performance SSDs
OWC Thunderbay FLEX 8
Eight bays for HDD, SSD plus PCIe Card and Ports
- OWC Thunderbay FLEX 8: Overview
- OWC Thunderbay FLEX 8: Configuration Possibilities
- OWC Thunderbay FLEX 8: Designing an OWC Thunderbay FLEX 8 Configuration for Still Photography or Videography
- OWC Thunderbay FLEX 8: HDD Speed Across Volume Capacity, RAID-0 vs RAID-5
- OWC Thunderbay FLEX 8: HDD Speed vs Transfer Size
- OWC Thunderbay FLEX 8: SSD Speed Across Volume Capacity
- OWC Thunderbay FLEX 8: SSD Speed vs Transfer Size
- OWC Thunderbay FLEX 8: SD Camera Card Slot Speed
OWC Thunderblade SSD
Ultra high speed robust pro-grade external SSD.
OWC Thunderbay IV / 4 Thunderbolt Enclosure
High performance with hard drives or SSDs.
- OWC Thunderbay IV / 4 Thunderbolt Enclosure
- OWC Thunderbay IV vs Thunderbay 4 (Thunderbolt vs Thunderbolt 2)
- OWC Thunderbay 4 with Four OWC SSDs as RAID-0 Stripe
- OWC Thunderbay 4 with Four OWC SSDs in RAID-5
- RAID-0, RAID-5, RAID 1+0 Performance (SoftRAID, Thunderbolt v1)
- RAID-0 with 4/3/2 Drives (SoftRAID, Thunderbolt v1)
- RAID-5 with 4 / 3 Hard Drives (SoftRAID, Thunderbolt v1)
- RAID-1 Mirror (SoftRAID, Thunderbolt v1)
- Thunderbolt vs USB3 with 6G SSD (SoftRAID, Thunderbolt v1)
OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual Thunderbolt / USB3
Dual-drive Thunderbolt + USB3 user-selectable RAID.
- Overview of OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual
- Formatting and Partitioning
- Ergonomics of OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual
- Performance as RAID-0 Stripe
- Performance as RAID-1 Mirror
- Thunderbolt vs USB3 Performance as RAID-0 Stripe
- Striping 4 Drives In Two OWC Mercury Elite Pro Duals
- RAID 1+0: Striping a Pair of Mirrors for Fault Tolerance
CalDigit T3 3-Drive Thunderbolt Enclosure
Three drives in a high-grade enclosure.
Drobo 5D with Thunderbolt or USB3
RAID reliability in easy to configure 5-drive enclosure for full-size hard drives.
SECURITY
Setting Up Your Mac For Better Security
Reduce the chances of security breaches.
- Set up a Normal User Account (and use it)
- Keep System Software Up To Date
- Disable Automatic Login
- Disable Incoming Internet Connections
- Disable Safari’s 'Open Safe Files by Default'
- Disable Java in Safari
- Apple Mail Security: Disable Loading of Remote Content
- Apple Mail Security: Viewing Mail Headers
- Put Adobe Flash on a Leash
- Safe Settings for Adobe Flash
- Turn Bluetooth Off
- Turn Off Unused Network Services
- File Sharing and Remote Access
- Use a Hardware Firewall With Unroutable LAN
- Prefer Wired Internet; Avoid Wireless Internet
- Use a Bastion Server
- More Diligent Measures, Even Hardware Removal
Password Managers and Encryption
Use high quality passwords, identities, logins conveniently.
DESKTOPS
Apple 2022 Apple Studio M1 Ultra
Fastest Mac Yet?.
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Overview
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Recommended Models and Accessories
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Test Notes
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Memory Bandwidth
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: SHA512 Hashing Speed Scalability
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Java Web Server Startup
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Maven Build Java App
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: SSD Speed
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: IntegrityChecker Java, Verify
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Adobe Camera Raw Enhance Details
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Assemble Panorama
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: diglloyd Adobe Photoshop Benchmarks
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Photoshop Filters
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Real World Photoshop: Make Multi-Res Image Series
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Lightroom Import/Export
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Sony A7R IV)
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Nikon D850)
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Hasselblad X1D)
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (PhaseOne IQ4)
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Fujifilm GFX100, Fujifilm GFX50S)
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Zerene Stacker Focus Stacking
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: CPU Core Scalability (Focus Stacking, Zerene Stacker)
iMac
Apple iMac 5K (October 2020)
Rocking fast iMac with 8 cores and up to 128GB.
- 2020 iMac 5K: Overview
- 2020 iMac 5K: Memory Bandwidth
- 2020 iMac 5K: SSD Speed vs Transfer Size
- 2020 iMac 5K: IntegrityChecker Java, Verify
- 2020 iMac 5K: Adobe Camera Raw Enhance Details
- 2020 iMac 5K: Assemble Panorama
- 2020 iMac 5K: diglloyd Adobe Photoshop Benchmarks
- 2020 iMac 5K: Photoshop Filters
- 2020 iMac 5K: Real World Photoshop: Make Multi-Res Image Series
- 2020 iMac 5K: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Sony A7R IV)
- 2020 iMac 5K: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Nikon D850)
- 2020 iMac 5K: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (PhaseOne IQ4)
- 2020 iMac 5K: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Fujifilm GFX100)
- 2020 iMac 5K: Zerene Stacker Focus Stacking
- 2020 iMac 5K: Helicon Focus
- 2020 iMac 5K: Recommended Models and Accessories
Apple iMac 5K (March 2019)
Rocking fast iMac with 8 cores and up to 128GB.
- 2019 iMac 5K: Memory Bandwidth
- 2019 iMac 5K: SSD Speed vs Transfer Size
- 2019 iMac 5K: Adobe Camera Raw Enhance Details
- 2019 iMac 5K: diglloyd Adobe Photoshop Benchmarks
- 2019 iMac 5K: Photoshop Filters
- 2019 iMac 5K: Real World Photoshop: Make Multi-Res Image Series
- 2019 iMac 5K: IntegrityChecker Verify
- 2019 iMac 5K: Server Startup
- 2019 iMac 5K: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Sony A7R III)
- 2019 iMac 5K: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Nikon D850)
- 2019 iMac 5K: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Hasselblad X1D)
- 2019 iMac 5K: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Fujifilm GFX)
- 2019 iMac 5K: Zerene Stacker Focus Stacking
- 2019 iMac 5K: Helicon Focus
- 2019 iMac 5K: Recommended Models and Accessories
Apple 2017 iMac Pro
High-end computing moves to the iMac form factor.
- 2017 iMac Pro: Introduction
- 2017 iMac Pro: Scalability with CPU-Intensive, Memory-Intensive and Mixed Workload
- 2017 iMac Pro: CPU Cores, Clock Speed, Turbo Boost
- 2017 iMac Pro: Power Usage (Watts)
- 2017 iMac Pro: Flash Drive (SSD)
- 2017 iMac Pro: APFS vs HFS SSD Speed
- 2017 iMac Pro: Grep (Search)
- 2017 iMac Pro: Integrity Checker Verify
- 2017 iMac Pro: diglloyd Photoshop Benchmarks
- 2017 iMac Pro: Photoshop Filters
- 2017 iMac Pro: RAW to JPEG
- 2017 iMac Pro: Real World Photoshop: Make Multi-Res Image Series
- 2017 iMac Pro: Lightroom Import and Export
- 2017 iMac Pro: Phase One Capture One Pro
- 2017 iMac Pro: Iridient Developer
- 2017 iMac Pro: Zerene Stacker
- 2017 iMac Pro: Helicon Focus
- 2017 iMac Pro: XCode Build C++ Project
- 2017 iMac Pro: Recommended Configurations
- 2017 iMac Pro: Usage Observations and Conclusions
Apple 2017 iMac 5K
Even better than the 2015 model.
- 2017 iMac 5K: Flash Drive (SSD)
- 2017 iMac 5K: Grep (Search)
- iMac 5K: Integrity Checker Verify
- 2017 iMac 5K: diglloyd Photoshop Benchmarks
- 2017 iMac 5K: Photoshop Filters
- 2017 iMac 5K: Photoshop Benchmarks, 64GB vs 8GB Memory
- 2017 iMac 5K: Real World Photoshop: Make Multi-Res Image Series
- 2017 iMac 5K: Lightroom Import and Export
- 2017 iMac 5K: XCode Build C++ Project
Apple 2015 iMac 5K
5K Display, blazingly fast SSD
- iMac 5K (Late 2015): Flash Drive (SSD)
- iMac 5K (Late 2015) vs Mac Pro: 64GB Memory Supported
- iMac 5K (Late 2015) vs Mac Pro: Real World Photoshop Performance
- iMac 5K (Late 2015) vs Mac Pro: Integrity Checker Verify
- iMac 5K (Late 2015) vs Mac Pro: diglloyd Photoshop Benchmarks
- iMac 5K (Late 2015) vs Mac Pro: Photoshop Filters
- iMac 5K (Late 2015) vs Mac Pro: Convert 50-Megapixel RAW Files to JPEG (Adobe Camera Raw)
- iMac 5K (Late 2015) vs Mac Pro: Convert 50-Megapixel RAW Files to TIFF (Iridient Developer)
- iMac 5K (Late 2015) vs Mac Pro: PhotoZoom Pro
- iMac 5K (Late 2015) vs Mac Pro: XCode Build diglloydTools
- iMac 5K (Late 2015): Color Gamut
- iMac 5K: Bridges the Gap to the Mac Pro
- iMac 5K: Building a High-Performance Configuration
Apple 2014 iMac 5K
World’s first 5K Display
- iMac 5K (late 2014): Introduction
- iMac 5K (late 2014): Memory
- iMac 5K Flash Drive (SSD)
- iMac 5K Display Quality
- iMac 5K Display Color Gamut
- iMac 5K Display Resolution Scaling
- iMac 5K vs Mac Pro: Photoshop Benchmarks
- iMac 5K vs Mac Pro: Photoshop Filters
- iMac 5K vs Mac Pro: Make Multi Resolution Image Series
- iMac 5K vs Mac Pro: Photoshop Assemble Panorama
- iMac 5K vs Mac Pro: ACR 36MP Raw to High Quality JPEG
- iMac 5K vs Mac Pro: Phase One Capture One Pro Raw to High Quality JPEG
- iMac 5K vs Mac Pro: Focus Stack (Helicon Focus)
- iMac 5K vs Mac Pro: Image Scale (PhotoZoom Pro)
- iMac 5K vs Mac Pro: Unigine Valley (GPU test)
- iMac 5K vs Mac Pro: Cinebench
- iMac 5K vs Mac Pro, Video Transcode 4K to 1080P
- iMac 5K vs Mac Pro, Integrity Checker Verify
- iMac 5K vs Mac Pro, XCode build diglloydTools
- iMac 5K: Heat and Fan under Heavy CPU/GPU Usage
- iMac 5K: Adding a 4K External Display
MAC PRO
Apple Mac Pro (December 2019)
Workhorse desktop tower.
- 2019 Mac Pro: Memory Bandwidth
- 2019 Mac Pro: OWC Accelsior 4M2 PCIe SSD
- OWC Accelsior 8M2 PCIe SSD
- 2019 Mac Pro: IntegrityChecker Verify
- 2019 Mac Pro: diglloyd Adobe Photoshop Benchmarks
- 2019 Mac Pro: Photoshop Filters
- 2019 Mac Pro: Real World Photoshop: Make Multi-Res Image Series
- 2019 Mac Pro: Lightroom Import/Export
- 2019 Mac Pro: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Sony A7R III)
- 2019 Mac Pro: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Nikon D850)
- 2019 Mac Pro: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Canon 5DS R)
- 2019 Mac Pro: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Hasselblad X1D)
- 2019 Mac Pro: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Fujifilm GFX)
- Phase One Capture One 20: Export to JPEG (Phase One IQ4)
- 2019 Mac Pro: Focus Stacking with Helicon Focus, 28 X 45-Megapixel Nikon D850 TIF
- 2019 Mac Pro: Focus Stacking with Zerene Stacker, 28 X 45-Megapixel Nikon D850 TIF
- 2019 Mac Pro: Image Scaling with Topaz Labs Gigapixel AI
Apple Dec 2013 Mac Pro
Choosing among 4/6/8/12 cores, GPUs, memory, flash.
- 2013 Mac Pro: Introduction
- 2013 Mac Pro: Choosing the CPU
- 2013 Mac Pro: How Many Cores for Your Workflow?
- 2013 Mac Pro: 4 CPU Cores Can Constrain Your Workflow
- 2013 Mac Pro: CPU Upgrades
- 2013 Mac Pro: Choosing the GPU (Graphics)
- 2013 Mac Pro: Algorithms and Performance
- 2013 Mac Pro: Choosing PCIe Flash Drive Capacity
- 2013 Mac Pro: How and Why to Partition the PCIe Flash Drive
Memory Configuration in 2013 Mac Pro
32GB, 64GB or 128GB?
- 2013 Mac Pro: Memory Configuration
- 2013 Mac Pro: How Much Memory for Performance?
- OWC 128GB Memory Kit: Bandwidth
- OWC 128GB Memory Kit: Photoshop CC diglloyd Benchmarks
- OWC 128GB Memory Kit: Photoshop CC With Too Little Memory
- OWC 128GB Memory Kit: Photoshop CC Filters
- OWC 128GB Memory Kit: Convert Raw to JPEG
- OWC 128GB Memory Kit: Assemble Panoramic Image
Understanding Thunderbolt and USB3 Performance with the 2013 Mac Pro
Using the right ports is critical to performance.
2013 Mac Pro Performance
Performance of the 2013 Mac Pro.
- Test Machine Configurations
- 2013 Mac Pro: Power Usage (Watts)
- 2013 Mac Pro: SSD / Flash Drive Speed
- 2013 Mac Pro: SHA1 Cryptographic Hash Speed
- 2013 Mac Pro: Photoshop CC Performance (diglloydSpeed1, diglloydMedium)
- 2013 Mac Pro: Photoshop CC Performance (diglloydHuge)
- 2013 Mac Pro: Photoshop CC Performance (Many Filters)
- 2013 Mac Pro: Lightroom Import
- 2013 Mac Pro: Photoshop Raw to JPEG
- 2013 Mac Pro: Aperture Import Raw
- 2013 Mac Pro: Capture One Pro: D800E Raw to JPEG
- 2013 Mac Pro: Iridient Digital Raw-to-TIF
- 2013 Mac Pro: Sigma Photo Pro X3F Raw-to-TIF
- 2013 Mac Pro: DxO Optics Pro Raw-to-TIF
- 2013 Mac Pro: Assemble Panorama in Photoshop
- 2013 Mac Pro: Image Sizing with Photozoom Pro
- 2013 Mac Pro: Focus Stacking with Helicon Focus
- 2013 Mac Pro: Assemble Panorama in PTGuiPro
- 2013 Mac Pro: Unigine Valley 3D Rendering
- 2013 Mac Pro: Cinebench
- 2013 Mac Pro: Performance Graphs
2013 Mac Pro GPU Benefits
GPU vs CPU Performance.
Transitioning to the 2013 Mac Pro
Peripherals and add-ons forexisting hardware.
Apple Mac Pro Westmere 4/6/8/12-Core (Aug 2010)
Choosing among 4/6/8/12 cores, and is 2010 Mac Pro faster or better than 2009 model?
- Mac Pro Westmere Introduction
- Which Mac Pro CPU for Photography, Video, Sound?
- Mac Pro Westmere Clock Speed, Cores, and Cache
- 2014 Update: Adobe Photoshop CC Scalability
- When More Is Less: Photoshop Slower With 12 Cores Than 6
- Mac Pro Westmere Estimating CPU Performance
- Mac Pro Westmere Hits and Misses
- Mac Pro Westmere Ordering Tips: What to Get and What to Skip
- Mac Pro Westmere Solid State Drive Option
- Mac Pro Westmere How Much Memory and Where to Buy
- Mac Pro Westmere Value Compared to Quad-Core iMac
- Mac Pro Westmere Internal SATA Bandwidth
- Mac Pro Westmere Test Machine Configuration
- Mac Pro Westmere Photoshop Performance: diglloydSpeed1
- Mac Pro Westmere Photoshop Performance: diglloydMedium
- Mac Pro Westmere Photoshop Performance: diglloydHuge
- Mac Pro Westmere Photoshop CS5 Panorama (Auto Align and Auto Blend)
- Mac Pro Westmere Digital Camera RAW File Processing Speed (Bibble Pro)
- Mac Pro Westmere RAW-file Import with Adobe Lightroom 3
- Mac Pro Westmere RAW-file Import with Phase One Capture One
- Mac Pro Westmere RAW-file Import with Apple Aperture 3
- Mac Pro Westmere RAW-file Processing with Canon Digital Photo Professional
- Mac Pro Westmere RAW-file Processing with Nikon Capture NX2
- Mac Pro Westmere Performance with PhotoZoom Pro
- Mac Pro Westmere Performance with Helicon Focus
- Mac Pro Westmere Performance with PTGui Pro
- Mac Pro Westmere XCode C++ Build
- Mac Pro Westmere Real World Memory Bandwidth
- Mac Pro Westmere Performance with Apple Logic Studio
- Mac Pro Westmere Performance with Adobe After Effects
- Mac Pro Westmere Performance with Handbrake Video Encoding
- Mac Pro Westmere Cinebench CPU and GPU
- Mac Pro Westmere Conclusions
Shootout: 8-core 2.93GHz or Quad-Core 3.33GHz?
Why 4 cores are often faster than 8!
- Comparing Cores vs. Clock Speed (Introduction)
- Nehalem Cores vs. Clock Speed Raw CPU Performance
- Nehalem Cores vs. Clock Speed: Digital Camera RAW-file Processing
- Nehalem Cores vs. Clock Speed: Photography Applications
- Nehalem Cores vs. Clock Speed: Photoshop Benchmarks
- Nehalem Cores vs. Clock Speed Conclusions
Mac Pro Memory
2009/2010 Mac Pro Memory — How Much for Performance?
- OWC 8GB memory modules for 2009/2010/2011 Mac Pro
- OWC 16GB memory modules for 2009/2010/2011 Mac Pro
- OWC 16GB Memory Modules for 2009/2010/2011 Mac Pro (2011 variant)
- OWC 16GB Memory Modules Clock Speed (2011 variant)
- OWC 16GB Memory Modules Performance on 3.33Ghz 6-Core Mac Pro (2011 variant)
- OWC 16GB Memory Modules Performance on 3.33Ghz 12-Core Mac Pro (2011 variant)
FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
Optimizing Photoshop CS6 / Creative Cloud Performance
Preferred configuration for best performance.
Strange but True: Photoshop CS5 Performance
What you should know about CS5 performance.
Optimizing Photoshop CS5 Performance
The best hardware and configuration for Photoshop CS5.
- The Photoshop CS5 Upgrade (Introduction)
- Photoshop CS5 Memory Usage Preference
- Photoshop CS5 Maximum Memory on Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, iMac
- Photoshop CS5 Cache Tile Size = Sharp Stick In The Eye
- Photoshop CS5 64-bit and 32-bit Plugin Issues
- Adobe Plugins for Photoshop CS5 Performance
- Speed Up Saving and Opening Photoshop CS5/CS4/CS3 Files
- Save Big Files 20X Faster With the DisallowFlateCompressedPSD Plugin
- Influence of Drive Speed on CS5 Big File Save Speed
- Photoshop CS5 Warmup Time — Memory Allocation Hit
- Scripts to Warm Up Photoshop CS5
- Analysis of Photoshop CS5 CPU Core Usage
- Various Other Photoshop CS5 Issues
- Photoshop CS5 diglloyd Benchmarks
- Photoshop CS5 Optimization Conclusions
Optimizing Photoshop CS4 Performance
How to configure a Mac to maximize Photoshop CS3/CS4 performance.
- Photoshop CS4 Optimization (Introduction)
- How to Configure Photoshop CS4 for best performance
- Performance in Photoshop CS4 vs CS3
- Test results for Photoshop CS4 on Mac Pro
- Test results for Photoshop CS4 on MacBook Pro
- Using Solid State Drives (SSD) for Photoshop CS4 Scratch
- Optimizing Photoshop CS4 on Apple MacBook Pro With Solid State Drives
- MacBook Pro Photoshop CS4 speed demon SSD
- Using a RAM disk as a Photoshop CS4 scratch disk
- Photoshop CS4 Benchmark actions
- Photoshop CS4 oddities
- Photoshop CS4 Performance Conclusions and Recommendations
Optimizing Other Photography Software
Speedups for working with images.
how-to
networking
Tips for networking, internet, etc.
How To Guides
How to perform useful tasks and upgrades.
- How to Capture the Screen or Window as an Image
- Finder Setting for Generic Icons or Custom Icons Based on Content
- How to boot off an external drive
- How to upgrade your system/boot drive
- How to Set the Startup Volume / Startup Drive/Disk
- How to Verify/Repair a RAID Volume
- How to detect a failing hard drive (SMART status)
- How to test memory for reliability
- How to install 6GB or 8GB memory in MacBook Pro
- How to Reset Apple Safari Saved Information
- How-To Disallow Saving Usernames/Passwords in Safari
- How-To Erase a Web Site Password in Safari or Firefox
- Moving Your Bookmarks to Another Computer
- How to Create a Group of Bookmarks in Safari
- Enabling the Developer / Debug Menu to Safari
- How to Change Date and Time Formats for Ease of Viewing
- How to Create and Use a RAM Disk
- How to See Disk Usage / Space Used
- How to use a Mac Pro as a Robust File Server
- How to Disable CPU cores
Setting Up Your Mac
Suggestions for setting up your Mac for performance and data safety.
- Sizing and Setting Up Your Mac Boot Drive
- Installing a Just-Right Mac System
- Separate Data from System and Applications
- High Performance Mac Configuration
- Testing Mac Memory and Drives
- Choosing the Right Mouse
- Boot With the 64-bit Kernel
- Set Finder Preferences
- System Preferences (General)
- How to Unhide your Library Folder on OS X
- Set a Two-button Mouse
- Keyboard Shortcuts
- Disable the Caps Lock key
- Declutter the Dock
- Turn Off iTunesHelper
- How to Exclude Items from Spotlight Search
- Apple Mail Unread Mailbox Setup
- Apple Mail VIP Feature: Multiple Emails for one Contact
- Time Machine for Always-on Backup
- Relocating the Home Directory Off the Boot Drive
- Relocating Mail Off the Boot Drive
- Relocating Documents Folder Off the Boot Drive
- Relocating iTunes and iPhoto Libraries
Connecting Stuff
USB3, networking, and add-on devices other than storage.
USB-C Accessories
Chargers and other specialty USB-C devices.
Digital Camera Related
Camera cards and readers.
Easy Thunderbolt Networking (10 Gigabit)
Networking as fast as an SSD!
Upgrading Your Mac
When and Why to Upgrade Your Mac.
- Upgrades: Know Your Priorities
- Be Smart About Upgrades
- Upgrades: How Much Memory?
- Upgrades: Internal Hard Drive or Solid State Drive?
- Upgrading Your System Drive
- MacBook Pro Upgrades
- Upgrading Mac Pro Memory
- Upgrading Mac Pro Internal Drives
- Upgrading the Mac Pro CPU
- Upgrading Reliability and Backup
- Upgrading Ergonomics and Efficiency
- Case Study: Upgrade a MacBook Pro to Banish Sluggishness
- Case Study: Upgrade a 2010 MacBook Pro for Photoshop Performance
- Case Study of Mac Pro Memory and Photoshop CS5 Performance
Command Line Time Savers
Useful tasks at the command line in Terminal.
Monitoring and Graphing Stock Performance
Following stock performance and company news efficiently.
Drives and Expansion and Various
OWC ThunderBay 8
Eight bay storage solution with RAID-0/1/4/5/10 or non-RAID.
Mac mini
Apple Mac mini (November 2018)
True desktop-class performance.
- 2018 Mac mini: Memory Bandwidth
- 2018 Mac mini: SSD Speed with Large Sustained Transfers
- 2018 Mac mini: Photoshop Filters
- 2018 Mac mini: diglloyd Adobe Photoshop Benchmarks
- 2018 Mac mini: Photoshop Filters
- 2018 Mac mini: Real World Photoshop: Make Multi-Res Image Series
- 2018 Mac mini: IntegrityChecker Verify
- 2018 Mac mini: Adobe Lightroom Import/Export
- 2018 Mac mini: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Sony A7R III)
- 2018 Mac mini: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Nikon D850)
- 2018 Mac mini: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Canon 5DS R)
- 2018 Mac mini: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Hasselblad X1D)
- 2018 Mac mini: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Fujifilm GFX)
- 2018 Mac mini: Buying Recommendations and Accessories
SOFTWARE RAID
About Using Software RAID
Reasons for using software RAID, making the choice of RAID type, etc.
Software RAID Performance with SoftRAID 5
High performance RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5, RAID-1+0.
BACKUP AND DATA SAFETY
backup
Protecting your data from drive failures, theft, fire, flood, and dinosaurs.
Cloning
How to utilize cloning for backup and other chores.
Understanding Storage and Hard Drives
How to erase and partition drives.
Drive Capacity and Speed
Larger drives are faster.
Using Apple Time Machine for Backup
How to use Apple Time Machine for Data Safety
- Using Time Machine for Data Safety
- Configuring Time Machine
- Choosing a Time Machine Backup Drive
- Time Machine BUG: Silent Exclusion of Volumes
- Restoring Files with Time Machine
- Best Practices with Time Machine
- Optimizing Time Machine
- Time Machine and Backup Tips
- Starting a Time Machine Backup When Desired
- Excluding Items from Time Machine Backup
- Using Time Machine with Adobe Lightroom
RAID
Various types of RAID setups.
- About RAID
- Understanding Fault Tolerance
- RAID Fault Tolerance : Keep a Cold Spare
- Speed: RAID-5 vs RAID-0
- Speed: RAID 1 Mirroring
- RAID 1 Mirroring
- How to Create a Software RAID-01
- RAID 0 Striping
- How to Create a Software RAID-0
- RAID 1+0: Striped Mirrors
- RAID-4 / RAID-5 and RAID 6 for Performance and Reliability
- Step-by-step to setting up RAID on Mac OS X
- SoftRAID is easier RAID
Data Safety with RAID-1 Mirror
Protect your data with a fault-tolerant RAID-1 Mirror.
DISPLAYS
CHOOSING & CONFIGURING A MAC
Quick Links for Buying
Where to go to buy Macs and related items.
Choosing and Configuring a Mac
An in-depth look at how to find the right Mac setup for you
- How to Choose a Mac
- How to Select and Configure a Mac Pro
- How to Select and Configure a MacBook Pro
- How to Select and Configure an iMac
- Buying a Refurbished Mac
- Buying a Mac at the Apple Store
- Upgrading Your Mac
- Setting up Your New Mac (or renovating one)
- Mac Boot Drive Dogma
- Mac Backup and Reliability
- Simple and Cost-effective Backups for Mac
- Backing up with Apple’s Mac Backup
- My Mac Pro: An Example
- Mac Pro Memory: Choosing, Installing, Testing
How to Buy / What to Buy
Nuts and bolts of buying a Mac, and recommended extras.
- Mac Pro Buyer's Guide: Step-by-Step
- Buyer's Guide: Ordering a Refurbished Mac Pro
- Buyer's Guide: Ordering a New Mac Pro
- Buyer's Guide: Setting up a Mac Pro
- Buyer's Guide: Multi-interface External Enclosures
- Buyer's Guide: eSATA Enclosures
- Buyer's Guide: Memory for Mac Pro
- Buyer's Guide: Hard Drives for Mac Pro
- Buyer's Guide: eSATA Cards for Mac Pro
- Buyer's Guide: Recommended Solid State Drives (SSD)
- Buyer's Guide: MacBook Pro Memory
- Buyer's Guide: eSATA for MacBook pro
- Buyer's Guide: Displays
- Buyer's Guide: Power Conditioning (UPS)
- Recomended Vendor: OWC
OPTIMIZING MAC PERFORMANCE
Optimizing Mac Performance
Learn about Activity Monitor and understand how CPU cores, processes, memory use, and software scalability affect performance.
- Ways to Optimize Your Mac’s Performance
- Optimizing your Mac: Get Adequate Memory
- Optimizing your Mac: SSD for Fast Virtual Memory
- Optimizing your Mac: Fast Hard Drive or SSD
- Optimizing your Mac: Quit Vampire Programs
- Optimizing your Mac: Turn Off Unused Services
- How to Delete a Space-Hogging Sleep File sleepimage
- How to Reclaim Wasted Cache Space on Your Boot Drive
- Extending the 'sudo' Timeout
Optimizing Video/DVD and Other Software
How to make your software run faster on the same hardware!
Mac Performance 101: Cores, Processes, Memory
Monitoring tips and application CPU core scorecard.
- Analyzing System Performance in OS X Mavericks
- Monitoring How Much Memory Is Used
- Monitoring CPU and CPU Core Usage
- Monitoring System Activity on the Command Line
- Monitoring Spotlight and Daemons
- Monitoring Battery Life
- CPU Cores Explained
- Application support for multiple CPU cores
- Scalability — multi-core performance
Optimizing Mac Application Performance
Optimizing specific application performance.
Special Report: Virtual Memory on Apple MacBook Pro
Virtual memory performance on the Apple MacBook Pro 2010/2009 with solid state drives and hard drives.
ACCESSORIES and ADD-ONS
Comfort and Convenience
Connecting, quieting, arranging your Mac and devices.
APPLE OS X
OS X 10.9 Mavericks
Significant changes and issues in OS X 10.9 Mavericks
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
Mountain Lion tips and how-to.
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
Special Report: Upgrade Now or Wait?
- The Snow Leopard Upgrade (Introduction)
- How to Safely Install Snow Leopard
- Finder preferences in Snow Leopard
- Snow Leopard Performance
- Memory and Drives for Snow Leopard
- Booting into 64-bit mode (Snow Leopard)
- Snow Leopard Hardware Compatibility
- Snow Leopard Software Compatibility
- Snow Leopard: Printing with Epson Pro Printers
- Snow Leopard Hassles and Bugs
- Snow Leopard Test Notes
Mac Trials and Tribulations
Headaches and hassles encountered with OS X.
Mac OS X Lion Hairballs
When an upgrade brings more downgrades and bugs than value.
- Mac OS X Lion Hairballs
- Cannot Print With Epson Stylus Pro 3800
- Lion-converted Apple Mail Cannot Be Used With Snow Leopard Boot
- Apple Mail Searching Multiple Choice, Multiple Steps
- Apple Mail Modal Window
- Apple Mail Takes Accounts Offline for Days
- User Comments on Apple Mail in Lion
- Multi-second System Hangs with Rainbow Beachballs
- Software RAID Display Broken
- Disk Utility Cannot Verify a RAID Volume
- Unusable Full-screen Mode
- Scrolling Direction Baffling
- Spelling Auto Correct
- Save As Command Forces Multi-Step Workaround, Data Destruction
- Fixing Controls in Finder Icon View Windows
- Pixellated Image Previews in Lion Finder
- Finder Cannot Display File Type Correctly
- Column Divider Will Not Size To Fit
- You Are Not Connected To The Internet
- Launchpad Does Not Accept Keyboard Input
- Restore Windows When Quitting and Re-opening Apps
- Disable Animated Window Zooming
iPhone and iPad and iOS
iPhone and Related
Apple iPhone and related items.
TRENDS
Core Rot at Apple
The worrisome decline of OS X quality and integrity.
- Apple Core Rot: Introduction
- Reader Comments on Apple Core Rot
- Impossible to Complete a File Copy on Any Drives
- Time Machine Silently Excludes Critical Data
- Finder Copy Destroys File System on Boot Drive
- Finder Refuses to Delete 'Backup Items'
- Finder Silently Fails to Copy Files
- Disk Utility Offers to Destroy 13 volumes on 4 Drives
- Graphics Professionals Need 10-bit Color
FUSION DRIVE
Fusion How To
Using Apple’s Fusion drive technology.
Fusion Technical Nerd Stuff
More technical details about using Apple Fusion.
OUTRAGEOUSLY FAST SYSTEMS
Apple July 2010 iMac 27-inch Quad-Core
Just how fast is Apple’s new quad-core iMac?
Fast and Reliable Hardware RAID
How fast and reliable can RAID-0, RAID-5 and RAID-6 go using an 8-drive mini-SAS box and a hardware RAID card?
- Introduction to RAID Considerations
- Choosing RAID-0, RAID-5, RAID-6
- CiDesign iStoragePro iT8SAE Enclosure
- Atto R380 RAID PCI Express RAID Card
- Atto/iStoragePro Performance and Testing Overview
- Atto/iStoragePro Test Results for RAID-0 Striping
- Atto/iStoragePro Test Results for RAID-5 Striping + Parity
- Atto/iStoragePro Test Results for RAID-6 Striping + Dual Parity
- Atto/iStoragePro Speed with Western Digital RE4 vs Hitachi 7K2000
- Atto/iStoragePro RAID Conclusions
Optimizing the MacBook Pro Core i7
Maxing-out your MacBook Pro Core i7 with memory and drives.