computer for editing

[BluSpoon]

hp slimline S3600 Desktop
Operating System Genuine Microsoft® Windows® Vista Home Basic Processor Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor E2200
2.2GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB Memory 1024MB Hard Disk 160GB Serial ATA at 7200rpm Optical Drive SuperMulti SATA Drive with Lightscribe Technology, Double Layer (8.5GB) Graphics Integrated nVIDIA GeForce 7100, up to 319MB total available graphics memory Audio Integrated Intel High Definition Audio - 5.1 Surround Sound Ready Networking Integrated 10/100 BaseT network interface (Broadband Ready) Keyboard & Mouse Included wired keyboard and optical mouse Front Access 15-in-1 Card Reader; USB Port, Headphone Rear Access 1394, 4 USB Port, SPDIF Out, LAN, Line-in, Line-Out, Mic-in Monitor 17” LCD wide-screen flat panel monitor with integrated speakers Warranty 1 year (onsite) limited warranty with up-and-running phone support for first 30 days Approximate Desktop Unit Dimension 105 x 340 x 275 mm Weight 6.56kg Approximate Monitor Unit (including base) Dimension 36.4 x 41.4 x 18.4 cm Weight 2.7kg

guys out there think this is enuf to edit files?
cuz using a laptop now and its quite slow abit laggy
paying bout 500+

thanks

 

[sammy888]

hp slimline S3600 Desktop
Operating System Genuine Microsoft® Windows® Vista Home Basic Processor Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor E2200
2.2GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB Memory 1024MB Hard Disk 160GB Serial ATA at 7200rpm Optical Drive SuperMulti SATA Drive with Lightscribe Technology, Double Layer (8.5GB) Graphics Integrated nVIDIA GeForce 7100, up to 319MB total available graphics memory Audio Integrated Intel High Definition Audio - 5.1 Surround Sound Ready Networking Integrated 10/100 BaseT network interface (Broadband Ready) Keyboard & Mouse Included wired keyboard and optical mouse Front Access 15-in-1 Card Reader; USB Port, Headphone Rear Access 1394, 4 USB Port, SPDIF Out, LAN, Line-in, Line-Out, Mic-in Monitor 17” LCD wide-screen flat panel monitor with integrated speakers Warranty 1 year (onsite) limited warranty with up-and-running phone support for first 30 days Approximate Desktop Unit Dimension 105 x 340 x 275 mm Weight 6.56kg Approximate Monitor Unit (including base) Dimension 36.4 x 41.4 x 18.4 cm Weight 2.7kg

guys out there think this is enuf to edit files?
cuz using a laptop now and its quite slow abit laggy
paying bout 500+

thanks

Fast enough is relative. But well the fact that you are using a desktop now instead of a notebook, you will already be seeing fast speed. Faster refresh rate as you have a better graohic card. It will render editing of effect and use in Photoshop faster too. As in faser then your notebook. There is one very important thing you need to add that is a MUST to guaranteed it will stay faster then your notebook. Your specification only show 1 gig of RAM. Add another 3 gig to get a total of 4gig. No use getting more as Vista will not see more. If you can get the shop to give your Vista Home premium would be better. The Home Edition is the lowest version and not as good. And also make sure you get the Vista with the Service patch added or included for you to patch. If there is none, you will have to go online to get the service pack to patch your vista. You can also still to XP if you like. It is basically very stable once you have done all the updates and services packs.

But get your ram up to 4 gig. Your Vista will only see about 3.4 or 3.7 gig ( restriction in the 32bit OS) Ram is prettty cheap these day so get it. You will thank us later for telling you that. Graphic editing programs like Photoshop especially the latest like CS2 -3 or 4. They are very large application. More ram will help you do your editing quicker and efficiently. Also note this rams come in a few flavour. Make sure you get the 800mhz and not the 660mhz which are cheaper but are abit slower and older. There are faster ones 1066..etc but your motherboard can not handle it so don't even get those.

160gig HDD is not very big and will fill up fast so, be prepared to do backup on data files and photos you are already finished with editing. My movie and MP3 collection on my PC already takes up 500 gig. And my photos I shoot about another 350gig. And that is just stuff I shot this year!

2.2 ghz CPU is just about minimum. Now unless you intend to jump the gun and throw out more money to get like a 3.00ghz Duo Core 2 I would say save your money. The improvement you see by getting a 2.4 or 2.6 is very small. I use a 2.2 at my office PC while I have a 2.66 which I clock to 3.00 ghz at home...the improvement in speed is not by a big margin lah. I do graphic design if you think editing a photo and waiting for an effect to be computated is long...wait till you do that with a large size poster with more then 30 layers of graphic in a PSD file format and at least 20 undo stages.

Your graphic card is I think a built-in one onto your motherboard? In any case it is a by today's standard a value card. Meaning it is a value for money board. Usually it means it good enough for office work but for graphic work if the RAMDAC numbers are high enough it should be fine. ( I just checked and this one has a RAMDAC score of 400 whcih is pretty good) For 3D rendering or computation or play the latest 3D games..it will not work well. I also suspect it is a built-in board for one thing, the way you write "up to 319MB total available graphics memory" I think you wrote what you saw on the brochure or something heheh.. This is another hint that is a built-in board. And here is more bad news....that means it steal that ram resource from your mother's ram. ( The ram I told you to get it up to 4 gig) Another thing about using RAM that is not part of the graphic board...it is slower. You can propably use this for now but once you have more money...get a separate graphic card. It does not even need to be the fastest. Anything you can get like a 8800GT or it's equivalent will be see you getting faster refresh and graphic 2-3D rendering on your screen.

As it stand, what you have will not be super duper fast but against your old notebook it should be faster and I have not even asked you the specs for it. Trust me when I say there is no way in hell any notebook...even all the mac books will be able to beat their desktop equivalent.

There will be others coming in to advice you...so take an open mind and listen to all and then slowly make up you mind especially if you intend to increase now your budget to get a better system then what you wrote here. But if you have already bought it..well it is not too bad !!! So Don't regret it. Just add more RAM and if you can get a graphic card and you will already see a lot more power just like that.

 

[Buggy]

How fast is fast enough? Imo, it's good to go.

 

[Octarine]

A single HDD is not very helpful in terms of speed and redundancy. Since you use SATA you should get at least 2 identical ones and let them run in RAID1. Then do some partitioning at this RAID volume, e.g. 30GB for C: (OS and Program Files) and the rest for D: (your data).
For heavy PS work you can also add another HDD as scrap disk, doesn't need to be very big. You can also use it as swap disk for OS and other programs that need swap space (e.g. Nero)
It's worth thinking about your workflow and the storage concept (where to store which data).
Have a look at Digital Darkroom section, there was a similar question discussed not long ago.