Recommend PC Setup


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LensView

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Dec 23, 2005
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Hi all, can anyone recommend me a PC setup for editing photos. Mine just died so going to build one new one. Budget about $2kfor the PC. Thanks:)
 

Basically, all that really matters is the amount of RAM you have. 1 GB should be enough. Rest of the specs are pretty standard...Pentium 4, proper graphics card (you don't need those expensive $800 cards... mid level one will do). And lots of hard disk space. Better yet get 2 and do a RAID setup.

And you might want to consider a CRT monitor instead of an LCD if you're into photo editing... gives more accurate colours once calibrated.
 

solarii said:
Basically, all that really matters is the amount of RAM you have. 1 GB should be enough. Rest of the specs are pretty standard...Pentium 4, proper graphics card (you don't need those expensive $800 cards... mid level one will do). And lots of hard disk space. Better yet get 2 and do a RAID setup.

And you might want to consider a CRT monitor instead of an LCD if you're into photo editing... gives more accurate colours once calibrated.

Thanks for the tip man. Still considering making the switch to Mac. What do you think?:confused:
 

If you want to use your computer solely for photo editing ie. either professionally or you're filthy rich, get a Mac.

If you use your PC for everything (work, games, etc.) like most of us stick with the PC, unless you're a sworn Mac user or convert.

Macs give better OS-level colour management, whereas windows relies on 3rd party solutions for accurate colour calibration.
 

Don't see why PCs can't be used professionally for photoediting...Initial outlay is lower, and they provide a better upgrade path as well. And AMD chips are a good option in that they run cooler than Intel chips and use less power... speed wise AMD and Intel are comparable...and comparable to Macs of similar spec but higher cost...

In terms of colour management, rigor in calibration and user awareness is more important... ;p
 

theRBK said:
Don't see why PCs can't be used professionally for photoediting...Initial outlay is lower, and they provide a better upgrade path as well. And AMD chips are a good option in that they run cooler than Intel chips and use less power... speed wise AMD and Intel are comparable...and comparable to Macs of similar spec but higher cost...

In terms of colour management, rigor in calibration and user awareness is more important... ;p

Nobody said that PCs can't be used. Some PROs do use PCs, but a good number choose MACs for their colour management. It makes a difference if you do a lot of cross media work for printing presses, newspapers etc. To a home user it might not make that big a difference unless you're picky.

There are a ton of articles on the web discussing this... they all offer similar advice.
 

the main reasons is

Photographer use Mac
Designer use Mac
Colour Seperator use Mac
Printers also use mac

The colour will be roughly the same as they all use ColorSync

BTW Mac Mini is cheap
and now also have macintel
 

lcd will giv very gd color once calibrated, crt's color sync will change over time so u'll need to recalibrate...oso some ppl like me get dizzy after looking at it for long enough.

mac mini aint powerful enough
 

donno...maybe I've been under the wrong impression that a calibrated monitor is good enough to let me adjust an image so that it will look consistent for other calibrated monitors as well... ;p

until recently my boss a photog used a PC, I use a PC to DI, I used a PC to do design at my former workplace, the printers I've used, one used exclusively PCs, one used both PCs and Macs...maybe I'm just biased, but it is possible to build a more powerful PC than any Mac designed so far, for less money... ;)
 

roti_prata said:
lcd will giv very gd color once calibrated, crt's color sync will change over time so u'll need to recalibrate...oso some ppl like me get dizzy after looking at it for long enough.

mac mini aint powerful enough

Mac mini ain't powerful enough, that's true.
I have a Mac mini.
 

LensView said:
Thanks for the tip man. Still considering making the switch to Mac. What do you think?:confused:

If you want to switch to Mac, you'll have to forgo things that are most popular with Windows, e.g. games.

If you don't play games or is not into programming, it's safe to get a Mac.
I use Windows and Mac frequently.

The most important thing about the Mac is, it really lets you concentrate on your work instead of spending time troubleshooting your Windows OS!!
 

I bought a Powerbook a few months ago and love it. Using iPhoto and Photoshop. Integration is fantastic. The best thing about the Macs (from my experience) is that everything works so well with each other - all the conflicts and errors encountered in Windoes don't exist.

If you are keen on buying one now though - try and find one that is still using the PowerPC. Majority of software (incl Photoshop) is running through an emulator on the new Man Intels... down the track the will be awesome but not worth the gamble now...
 

solarii said:
Nobody said that PCs can't be used. Some PROs do use PCs, but a good number choose MACs for their colour management. It makes a difference if you do a lot of cross media work for printing presses, newspapers etc. To a home user it might not make that big a difference unless you're picky.

There are a ton of articles on the web discussing this... they all offer similar advice.

Most of the articles online are total crap too by the way.

The issues for any cross graphics system are profile, profile profile and general colour managment polcies (colourspace selection, calibration etc) for good colour consisitancy, be it Mac or PC and both use exactly the same profiling hardware which needs to be done just as regularly on both systems.
 

Get a good Processor and Ram with a Big screen.
 

AMD Opteron 165 + & Abit KN8 Ultra - $768
Patriot PC3200 DDR400 2GB Kit (2X1GB) - $284
2 x Hitachi T7K250 SATAII 160GB 8MB 7200RPM RAID - $270
Leadtek 6600GT PCIE - $239
BenQ DW1640 16X DVD±RW - $79
Antec True Power 2.0 430 W - $140
Lian-Li PC7A+ - $129

$1909 ;) Rough estimate
 

Klose said:
AMD Opteron 165 + & Abit KN8 Ultra - $768
Patriot PC3200 DDR400 2GB Kit (2X1GB) - $284
2 x Hitachi T7K250 SATAII 160GB 8MB 7200RPM RAID - $270
Leadtek 6600GT PCIE - $239
BenQ DW1640 16X DVD±RW - $79
Antec True Power 2.0 430 W - $140
Lian-Li PC7A+ - $129

$1909 ;) Rough estimate

Hey, I'm oso looking for a DIY system. Anyone else wanna do this together?Maybe can get better price?:bsmilie: Klose did u just built the quoted rig?
 

Klose said:
AMD Opteron 165 + & Abit KN8 Ultra - $768
Patriot PC3200 DDR400 2GB Kit (2X1GB) - $284
2 x Hitachi T7K250 SATAII 160GB 8MB 7200RPM RAID - $270
Leadtek 6600GT PCIE - $239
BenQ DW1640 16X DVD±RW - $79
Antec True Power 2.0 430 W - $140
Lian-Li PC7A+ - $129

$1909 ;) Rough estimate



Its just photo editing no need so high end, your pc can be used for backend rendering server for maya, after effects, and video. By the way mac is a 64bit OS environment while Windows is a 32bit environment unless u use windows 64bit edition and thats explains why mac has a better colour management. Now mac also starts to use Intel processor (Dual Core) but not sure of the performance yet.
 

Erm..

Apple's new macs uses a new dual-core processors which shares a single cache (a very fast memory on the processor itself). The 2 cores can "talk" to each other via a super-fast bus, this allows true utilization of the 2 cores on the CPU. Current Pentium D 8xx-series doesn't share the same core, and I am think they talk to each other thru the Front-side-bus (much slower compared to a delicated bus). It is still faster than single core Intels, but doesn't really gives the true benefits of dual-core processing to the end user.

Anyway, the current Intel processors used on Macs (or simply called Intel CORE) will be on the roadmap for like only half a year.

In the 2nd half of the year, Intel will launch a brand new architature (Current Intel processors based on the old NetBurst Architature from Pentium 4) which will be used in Intel processors in the next few years. That processor is in my plans for a next upgrade.

Anyway since you need a computer now, let's put that topic a side. I always feel that Intel processors are still good buy compared to AMD. (Maybe that is because I have bad drivers issue with AMD PCs.) I think Pentium Ds would be good buy.

RAM? My next computer will definately have 2GB of RAM. My 2-yr-old P4 2.4Ghz has 512MB. This, until a year ago, was more than I would ever need. (I would not upgrade to 1GB now because I do to invest into DDR rams right now. My next computer will definately be DDR2, my RAMs would be useless) Now I feel like 1GB will be more than what I ever need, but to be safe, I would take 2GB.

GeForce 6600GT is still the current best balance for price/performance. But I can't help feeling that nVidia would come out with a 7xxx-series mainstream performance card to replace 6600 (7300 was just launched for the entry level card)

Screen? DVI and 19-inch and above! :D
 

firestone said:
Hey, I'm oso looking for a DIY system. Anyone else wanna do this together?Maybe can get better price?:bsmilie: Klose did u just built the quoted rig?

Just built mine recently.. :sweat:

euphoria said:
Its just photo editing no need so high end, your pc can be used for backend rendering server for maya, after effects, and video. By the way mac is a 64bit OS environment while Windows is a 32bit environment unless u use windows 64bit edition and thats explains why mac has a better colour management. Now mac also starts to use Intel processor (Dual Core) but not sure of the performance yet.

The extra speed will be handy when processing raw. I dont consider this high end as it's a mid end config.
 

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