mid-size data set with images

[mynameisnfs]

Hi!
I'm going to be doing a home-kitchen food experiment that will have up to about 1,000 individual tests into each which I'll record 5-10 measurements - I got carried away with the permutations and this seems like a fun experiment Don't judge me :p.
The single table layout for this is very simple, each row will have the parameters of the test, and the columns will label the test measurements. I'll record the results accordingly. Excel will easily handle this, no doubt about it. The twist: I plan to take one or two photos of the result of each test. That means 1,000-2,000 photos. I can only think of two ways to associate each test with a photo:
1. create a hyperlink in a cell to the photo
2. embed the photo as a "note" (or "comment" for older excel versions").

#2 would be cool because I just hover over the cell and I'll have a photo.. but.. can excel / my computer handle 1,000-2,000 images embedded in a note/comment? I'd like to have full size image (6-12mp camera, don't know yet), but if necessary, I can scale it down to something like 1024x768 or 800x600.

Is there a better way to correlate 1-2 photos to each test?

Thank you for your time in helping me with this diversion to the seriousness of life.

[shg]

I resized a random photo to 1024 x 768; it was 190kB in JPEG format.

2000 of those would require 380MB. I think that would make for a very sluggish workbook.

[mynameisnfs]

Interesting. Is there a general guideline for file-size / performance (somehow standardizing hardware)?

If I could force image file size to say 75kb, 2,000 images would be about half your findings. How low do I need to go?

[shg]

No idea, but since this is a diversion to life, why not experiment?

[mynameisnfs]

Hah! Good one :p
good one.jpg