Lets Build Me A Kick @$$ Photo Computer

[iflynething]

Forget buying a Dell desktop with Quad Core processors, 1TB HDD and 8GB of RAM.. I want to build my own. I'm going to desktop because I don't want to have to limit my HDD space. I have a 500GB in my laptop and it's filling up....about 100GB left. Once dance season starts up and I get about 30,000 more pictures on there in 3 months, that'll be gone. I would like to bring my laptop to compeitions to unload the compeition shots, then use SyncToy (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en) to sync it to the desktop then to maybe 2 more backup external drives.

What have you found that will work, and what will not. I have a computer guy who knows what he is doing and is going to help me put it together.

I'm not sure as far as actual components go. Probably the same specs as what the Dell one had, just build by myself. 8GB RAM with the 1TB hard drive. Probably going with a 24 or larger monitor.

I'd like to keep it under $1,000 if possible. I think the dell was about $750 which is insane considering I bought my laptop w/ 2GB ram, 320GB HDD and 15" for over $800 a year ago. I hate technology.

I'm just getting tired of editing pictures with CS4 and it's slow.

What hardward do you like. What works. Would I need 4 2GB or just 2 4GB sticks of RAM? Nice tower? Fans? Gotta keep it cool!

~Michael~

[felix.reichardt]

What I can recommend:

DFI Lanparty Motherboard.
Intel Core 2 Quad Processor is absolutely fien but go for i7 if the budget allows.
Soundblaster for the entertainment section, those are cheap and produce awesome sound.
OCZ Memory 4GB (At least) to 8GB
Get one of those huge tower casings (Coolermaster for example).
I live in Bali so its very very hot - I have 3 casing fans but normally you can get away with 1.
DVD drive with SATA Connection
HD Seagate, seagate or seagate

OS: Windows 7 (64bit)

I am using that sync toy (stupid name) and its a fantastic free piece of software. Highly recommended indeed.

All of CS4 works absolutely fantastic with my system (DFI BI P45-T2RS, 8GB Memory 1066, Q6600, Nvidia 8800GTS). I guess of you go for an intel i7 system it might be even faster.
You shoudl be fine with 4GB RAM, I need more because I have a lot VMWare system(s) open all the time for work.

[iflynething]

First I don't know howbi could get by wihout synctoy. Indeed it is a weird name, but t works really really well.

Thanks for all the insight. I will have to look furtherbinto somebof the rungs you mention. I know a guy who knows a guy that might could get me some hardwae cheaperthan paying retail. Another thing I will have to look at is the motherboard. If the memory is, well, the memory if a computer and the CPU would be like the brain, what would you consider the motherboard. The body and bringing allbof those compontnets to work.

Thanks again and I will look at what you mentioned

would 8GB be overkill of what. I'd love to have CS4 open maybe prcessing some RAW panorama files, along with Safari and a couple of tabs, as well as iTunes and whatever else I want. In essense; I want to open many program alog with CS4 and noting notocibly slow down

~Michael~

[Gna]

[QUOTE=iflynething;863788In essense; I want to open many program alog with CS4 and noting notocibly slow down[/QUOTE]

You'll probably get what you pay for, Michael.

[iflynething]

Awesome! That's what I was thinking....

Love your avatar also Gna

~Michael~

[Mr Mikey]

The only motherboard I have used for years is the ASUS brand, I only use Pentium, not a fan of AMD. my preference is NVIDIA technology over ATI, personal preference is all ATI is not bad at all. WD SATA hard drives, if you have the money get some 10k rpm drives, if not the 7200rpm drives are great, sound is not overly important to me since i already have a good stereo system. get a name brand NIC. I typically use coolmax or thermaltake power supplies, 500 watts or better. I use corsair memory only. Rember that unless you are using a 64 bit operating system there is no sense in going over 3gb ram.
I have had good luck with pioneer and sony DVD CDRW optical drives.
I always upgrade the fans on the video card and processor, cooling is the key to a stable system. I use variable speed fans on my processor and case, gives me the option of extra cooling during warm weather.
try not to buy no name generic parts, they do not always play well with other components.
The case is up to you, just get one big enough to allow upgrades as you need them, if it is to tightly packed in your case cooling becomes an issue.
I wish you well on your new build.

[iflynething]

Originally Posted by Mr Mikey

The only motherboard I have used for years is the ASUS brand, I only use Pentium, not a fan of AMD. my preference is NVIDIA technology over ATI, personal preference is all ATI is not bad at all. WD SATA hard drives, if you have the money get some 10k rpm drives, if not the 7200rpm drives are great, sound is not overly important to me since i already have a good stereo system. get a name brand NIC. I typically use coolmax or thermaltake power supplies, 500 watts or better. I use corsair memory only. Rember that unless you are using a 64 bit operating system there is no sense in going over 3gb ram.
I have had good luck with pioneer and sony DVD CDRW optical drives.
I always upgrade the fans on the video card and processor, cooling is the key to a stable system. I use variable speed fans on my processor and case, gives me the option of extra cooling during warm weather.
try not to buy no name generic parts, they do not always play well with other components.
The case is up to you, just get one big enough to allow upgrades as you need them, if it is to tightly packed in your case cooling becomes an issue.
I wish you well on your new build.

Thanks for the help! I am running an AMD on my laptop right now, and I'm not really impressed. Of course this is what I'm used to, so I think anything better would be good. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be running 64 bit unless I got a 64 version of Win 7 from the computer guy. Probably wouldn't be a problem. What is the reason for not having to go over 3GB? Would I not notice a difference with running multiple programs as well as a lot of processing in CS4? I just hate having a slow system. I want it to MOVE!

Cooling will definitly be key. I really should invest in a cooling tray for my laptop for the time being. I think that might be some of my problems right now. Not sure of the temperature, but the bottom gets really hot during use.

I have found some big cases at Best Buy - not saying I would buy there but just mentioning I have seen some big ones there for around $100-130, which is not bad.

Anyone ever used PC Perspective - The #1 Choice for PC Hardware Reviews and Information

~Michael~

[felix.reichardt]

32 bit windows cannot address more than 4GB and some is already consumed for example to address the graphics card memory. I saw around 3.5 GB previously.

If you want/need 8GB you have to go 64 bit.

[db83]

I'd go with a motherboard that supports triple channel memory. so get either 6gb or 12gb or ram.

[felix.reichardt]

Originally Posted by db83

I'd go with a motherboard that supports triple channel memory. so get either 6gb or 12gb or ram.

[TheRoaddog]

Visualville: a Resource for Photographers. Digital Darkrooms ("Photoshop" power PC's), Photoshop Training and Consulting. There's some kick-butt stuff there; have a look.
RD

[iflynething]

Originally Posted by felix.reichardt

32 bit windows cannot address more than 4GB and some is already consumed for example to address the graphics card memory. I saw around 3.5 GB previously.

If you want/need 8GB you have to go 64 bit.

Originally Posted by db83

I'd go with a motherboard that supports triple channel memory. so get either 6gb or 12gb or ram.

Woah woah woah! Where did I get. I wasn't getting any e-mails that I was getting responses for this thread. Other than the ability to "recognize" and run more RAM, is there any other difference between 64 and 32 bit?

Originally Posted by TheRoaddog

Visualville: a Resource for Photographers. Digital Darkrooms ("Photoshop" power PC's), Photoshop Training and Consulting. There's some kick-butt stuff there; have a look.
RD

Hey thanks for the link. Pretty cool stuff on there! Thanks alot for the link

~Michael~

[iflynething]

Alright, bump...

Lets go throught things I will need....EVERYTHING

Win 7
Case
Motherboard (ability to support triple channel memory)
Processor (Quad Core)
Power Supply (750...850Watt?)
Graphics Card
Sound Card
Monitor (saw a 24" in that was very very VERY nice)
Memory (6......12GB?)
Fans (lots of them)


One thing is about the video card. I don't know how much power is required for CS4. I do not game. Don't care about it and won't do it. If I needed to game I would upgrade as necessary. Knowing that, what would be the min I should go for a graphics card. I'm not trying to go cheap, I just don't want to over-do the graphics card if I don't need to

~Michael~

[db83]

Win 7 - Home Premium
Case - Unless you plan on overclocking, any basic case will do.
Motherboard (ability to support triple channel memory)
Processor (Quad Core) - Core i5 or i7 series. I'd stay away from anything before these.
Power Supply (750...850Watt?) - 750 should be more than enough unless you're planning to use multiple video cards.
Graphics Card - If you're not a gamer, you don't need a high end video card. you can probably pick up a suitable card for 150 or less. But you need to decide ATI or Nvidia.
Sound Card - don't really need one anymore. all motherboards have on board audio now.
Monitor (saw a 24" in that was very very VERY nice) - Samsung has a nice 24" monitor at Costco, but I'm not sure if it is as high quality in its color capabilities than ones that you could buy elsewhere and spend several hundred dollars more.
Memory (6......12GB?) - that's up to you. 12GB is probably overkill for just running photoshop.
Fans (lots of them) - again, if you're not gonna overclock, you don't need any additional fans.


Newegg.com is your friend.

[swampler]

Originally Posted by db83

Win 7 - Home Premium

And the 64 bit version of that! If you get retail, it comes with both 32 and 64 bit versions, but the OEM version you have to specify when you order. You HAVE to use 64 bit to use more than 3GB of RAM.

[iflynething]

Looks Like I'm going to be using a 64 bit then either way becuase I am NOT going to be running UNDER 4GB.

Now, is speed more about RAM or processors. Can I have 8GB and 2 processors or does it all run together?

~Michael~

[swampler]

Originally Posted by iflynething

Now, is speed more about RAM or processors. Can I have 8GB and 2 processors or does it all run together?

~Michael~

Both. I have a dual core system with 6 GB of RAM. I would expect a quad core to be a bigger upgrade than adding more memory, but don't have any data to back that up.

I saw a speed increase going from Vista 32 bit to Win 7 64 bit, even with only 3 GB of RAM, so the OS will help some too.

[db83]

The processor will increase your speed more. RAM will increase your speed IF you have programs that use a lot of memory. Unless you're running multiple instances of memory hogging programs, 6GB should be enough.

[iflynething]

I think 6GB is going to be where I'm going to go.

While CS4 is processing a panorama (of which I would like to get more into....like 30-40 images composites) I like to do other things while CS4 is running and pass the time by.

While running CS4, I see it uses about 1.52GB of RAM while processing files. I'd love to have more and it still only use that much memory. Using Bridge and CS4 really sucks up my memory and I think 6GB might do the trick

EDIT: Just messing around with a cart on NewEgg, I'm up to $694 with i7 Quad Processor and motherboard combo'd with 3 2GB DDR3 1600 memory. No monitor, no power supply!

~Michael~

[hatch1921]

Just put this one together last month... LOVE IT! You could change a couple of things to lower the price.. I didn't go through and see how the prices have changed. The case is fantastic! Tons and tons of airflow...

Filters just blink...PS opens in second or two... even the most demanding files/filters run smooth and super fast.

everything purchased at Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more! great service!

Hope this helps and good luck.
Hatch

Price

. 1 COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer
Item #: N82E16811119160

. 1 OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV6GK - Retail
Item #: N82E16820227365

. 1 Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115202

. 2 Sony Optiarc DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model AD-7241S-0B LightScribe Support - OEM
Item #: N82E16827118032

1 HITACHI 0A38016 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822145233

. 1 BYTECC BT-M150BK SATA Hot-Swap Mobile Rack - Tray Less Design - Retail
Item #: N82E16817994057

. 1 GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813128362

. 2 Nippon Labs Premium 18" (1.5 ft.) SATA II Cable with locking latch for SATA I and SATA II Hard Drive Model SATA-L0.5-R - Retail
Item #: N82E16812816027

. 1 CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power ... - Retail
Item #: N82E16817139006

1 XFX HD-489A-ZDFC Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814150359

Subtotal $1,325.88
Tax $0.00
UPS 3 DAYS $11.87
Rush Processing $2.99
Order Total $1,340.74