Photography News Issue 41

Photography News | Issue 41 | absolutephoto.com

50 First tests

Accessories First tests We get our hands on the

latest kit and share our first impressions – so you know whether or not to add it to your wish list

Reviews by Will Cheung and Kingsley Singleton

Crucial MX300 SSD from£87.59

Verdict

Specs

You will, in all probability, be using a computer to get the most from your photography, and it is very, very likely that uses a traditional hard drive or HDD. If that is the case, from my experience here your workflow will see an immediate and substantial benefit from a solid state drive or SSD. I didn’t appreciate the magnitude of performance difference until I took the plunge and swapped the hard drive of my Mac Mini (late 2012) for an SSD. Wow! What a difference! I had a while ago installed as much RAM as the Mini would allow (also from Crucial), invested in a system cleaning app, and I work from an external drive, so I was doing all the things I thought necessary to keep a HDD running efficiently, yet my Mac was seriously struggling. The SSDoptionwas the next logical step but I’m no IT expert and the prospect of fiddling around with the innards of a computer was not one I looked forward to with any relish. Now, having been through the process successfully, I don’t know what I was worried about.

Before doing anything I checked the actual installation process just to make sure it was within my skill range. I found videos on YouTube and while it lookeda little fiddly–certainly much more so when compared with a deskPC– it didn’t seemtoo challenging with the right tools. Next I visited the Crucial website where I downloaded its System Scanner app that analysed my computer’s internals and produced a shortlist of suitable SSDs. I bought the MX300 1TB SATA 2.5in for £261.59 and got the tools fromAmazon. When the time came, I backed up my computer, initialised the SSD and found a well-lit area to work in. Thirty minutes after I’d started, the Mac Mini was back in one piece, the old HDD out and the new SSD in. It wasn’t too fiddly and the only really awkward stage was getting the SSD to sit correctly, lining up two lugs to matching holes. That took a little while and several goes to sort. I connected the power and screen and fired it up. Hmm, the Mini’s LED came on but nothing happened.

While I used a Crucial SSD for this review and very good it has proved to be in the few weeks it has been in use, this review is also a general SSD call to arms. If your desktop or laptop is HDD and you’re finding its performance sluggish, do consider the SSD option especially if you’re working with big files. The benefit difference is little short of astounding and my workflow is so much quicker. For example, going from preview to preview in a Lightroom catalogue on the HDD was tiresome, so slow that on occasion I’d work from the thumbnails for an easy life. With the SSD, there is minimal lag which makes rating a shoot using large previews a breeze. So, very much a thumbs up for SSDs, and if you do go for one, certainly the Crucial MX300 is worth a serious look. Pros Huge performance benefits, Crucial scanner app Cons You need a few (cheap) tools, fiddly (in the case of a Mac Mini)

Prices MX300 SATA 2.5in (with 9.5mm adaptor) 275GB £87.59, 525GB £135.59, 1TB £261.59, 2TB £531.59 Availability

275GB, 525GB, 1TB, 2TB Sequential read speed 530MB/s Sequential write speed 500-510MB/s Key features Micron 3D NAND Extreme Energy Efficiency technology

I powered down, dismantled the Mini and tried again. I found I hadn’t been firm enough with the SSD’s connecting lead so I sorted this and tried again. This time, everything worked. Hurrah! I could see the benefits of the SSD immediately. I opened a massive Lightroomcatalogue and the previews popped up in next to no time – that is probably an exaggeration but it was very quick, so much quicker than the HDD. Opening a 300MB Photoshop file was really fast too, at least four times faster. Simply, the before and after difference was immense and very, very welcome. WC

Dynamic Write Acceleration Adaptive Thermal Protection technology to avoid overheating Contact Uk.crucial.com