Setting up new rig

[kevyan]

Hi all,

I need some help here. My current PC is a bit old and slow. One simple edit in PhotoShop takes about 8sec to take effect.

My current system is running on AMD processor (Athlon 64 3000+, 1.8Ghz), 3GB RAM and Winfast Geforce 7600GS, 256MB gfx card.

I would like to set up a new PC just for photo-editing purpose, no need to play games on it as I use my game console to do the job.

I will try to keep my budget to below $700 if possible.

I can use back the following hardware:

1. LCD screen
2. Keyboard and mouse
3. 3 SATA harddisk, which one of them is install with Windows XP and other programs
4. DVD/CD writer

So I guess I just need the following:

1. Motherboard
2. Processor (I will go for Intel this time round)
3. RAM
4. Graphic Card
5. Power supply
6. Casing

That's all right?

Can you guys recommend me parts based on my budget? Thank you very much.

 

[kevyan]

Eh... 138 view this post and none reply?

 

[aspenx]

Sorry, can't help.

Maybe try posting this in hardwarezone? :dunno:

 

[kevyan]

I did, but was thinking because CS is a place for photographers, so you guys may know more on the required spec for a photo-editing PC.

Sorry, can't help.

Maybe try posting this in hardwarezone? :dunno:

 

[setiardi]

I always go for the rig technology that can be future-proof for at least 2 years. If based on that then AMD is the Way.

I recently upgraded using an AMD Athlon X2 5600, 4GB Kingston DDR2 800mhz, MSI K9A2GM micro ATX mainboard with built-in ATI HD 3200 graphics (HD playback capable), 3x 500GB SATA Hardisk and Corsair 520W Power supply.

Just bought a ATI HD 4670 graphics card with HDMI output and yesterday I tested on a 42inch LCD TV and played Call of Duty 4 @full screen with 4x AA smoothly.

As you can see, I just expanded my system and still can change my CPU, in the future, to a newer Phenom II (Quad processor), if I have the budget.

If you go with Intel now using the the X58 platform, it will cost you a bomb. If you use the previous X48 platform, you will be stuck with it as when you upgrade to the X58 system, you need to change again almost everything. Also to add the X58 platform uses the expensive DDR3 Ram as compare to AMD using DDR2.

AMD intends to retain usage of AM2+ based processor and DDR2 ram on it's coming Dragon platform.

Perform wise Intel always win but in real world usage, I think AMD is not far off in performance while keeping the hole in your wallet smaller as the AMD/ATI combo consumes lesser power and that translates to $$$ too.

I hope I didn't make your choice much tougher now........:bsmilie:

 

[kevyan]

Thanks for your advice. At least I know that there is still hope for AMD and it's AM2+.

But I was told that Photoshop make use of L2 cache, the bigger the better. Is that true?

I always go for the rig technology that can be future-proof for at least 2 years. If based on that then AMD is the Way.

I recently upgraded using an AMD Athlon X2 5600, 4GB Kingston DDR2 800mhz, MSI K9A2GM micro ATX mainboard with built-in ATI HD 3200 graphics (HD playback capable), 3x 500GB SATA Hardisk and Corsair 520W Power supply.

Just bought a ATI HD 4670 graphics card with HDMI output and yesterday I tested on a 42inch LCD TV and played Call of Duty 4 @full screen with 4x AA smoothly.

As you can see, I just expanded my system and still can change my CPU, in the future, to a newer Phenom II (Quad processor), if I have the budget.

If you go with Intel now using the the X58 platform, it will cost you a bomb. If you use the previous X48 platform, you will be stuck with it as when you upgrade to the X58 system, you need to change again almost everything. Also to add the X58 platform uses the expensive DDR3 Ram as compare to AMD using DDR2.

AMD intends to retain usage of AM2+ based processor and DDR2 ram on it's coming Dragon platform.

Perform wise Intel always win but in real world usage, I think AMD is not far off in performance while keeping the hole in your wallet smaller as the AMD/ATI combo consumes lesser power and that translates to $$$ too.

I hope I didn't make your choice much tougher now........:bsmilie:

 

[navlem]

1. Motherboard -> Get the cheapest P45 motherboard.
2. Processor -> A Core 2 Duo E7200 would do good
3. RAM -> 4GB DDR2 800Mhz RAM
4. Graphic Card -> GPU is important for PS, but since your budget is quite low, i'll only recommend a nVidia9600GT
5. Power supply -> A 500W will do
6. Casing -> Doesnt really matter since your budget quite low. Get a Coolermaster Centurion 5 if you have to.

 

[zcf]

you probably can view a list of CPU chip performance here on PS3
It does seem like Intel CPU chip has more advantage over AMD one, not sure it's the L2 cache or architecture. Though I keep hearing that memory is important in PS. Although I don't think PS3 can utilise multi cores nor GPU power yet. PS4 probably can.

 

[mummum]

I used to be an AMD supporter since their 486DX4 days until the launch of Intel Pentium-M and from then on, it has always been Intel. The gap between the two offerings is getting even wider nowadays... especially with the launch of Intel i7.

So i say, go get rigged with Intel Core 2 Duo, loads of RAM (dirt cheap nowadays), a good 'big' power supply and you should be PS-ing happily. Asus or DFI are gr8 mobo choices... Gigabyte stinks in the reliability department to me.

PS does use the L2 cache but its not anal bout it, rather PS is anal bout the processor FPU portion. You don't really have to bother much bout the GFX card though.

Cheers!

 

[kevyan]

I am using PS CS4 & LR2, so I get it will benefit from multi-core processor.

you probably can view a list of CPU chip performance here on PS3
It does seem like Intel CPU chip has more advantage over AMD one, not sure it's the L2 cache or architecture. Though I keep hearing that memory is important in PS. Although I don't think PS3 can utilise multi cores nor GPU power yet. PS4 probably can.

 

[kevyan]

Thanks. But Adobe themselves say that PS CS4 actually utilise the GPU, and they worked with Nvidia on it.

I used to be an AMD supporter since their 486DX4 days until the launch of Intel Pentium-M and from then on, it has always been Intel. The gap between the two offerings is getting even wider nowadays... especially with the launch of Intel i7.

So i say, go get rigged with Intel Core 2 Duo, loads of RAM (dirt cheap nowadays), a good 'big' power supply and you should be PS-ing happily. Asus or DFI are gr8 mobo choices... Gigabyte stinks in the reliability department to me.

PS does use the L2 cache but its not anal bout it, rather PS is anal bout the processor FPU portion. You don't really have to bother much bout the GFX card though.

Cheers!

 

[setiardi]

If based on link provided by zcf, Intel C2D 8600 did a 69Mb TIFF file with 6 filters in 88sec and come up tops in against all processors including the new i7 chip.


I check the pricing (Fuwell @SLS) for a simple rig based on the E8600 and come up with this:

Intel Core2Duo E8600 + MSI G45M-FD VGA/GBE/DVI/Audio -$600
4GB PC6400/800 Kingston DDR2 Ram (2gb x 2) - $64
CoolerMaster Extreme 550W -$85

Total : $749.

A wee bit over your budget. I believe CS3 uses 2D apps so a dedicated graphics card might not be necessary or you can hold up on that until later. To save, I suggest u reuse your casing since this board is Micro-ATX size.


For the AMD alternative A64 X2 6400 (120secs on same benchmark) :
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Black + MSI K9A2GM-FIH HDMI V/GBE/Sound -$418
4GB PC6400/800 Kingston DDR2 Ram (2gb x 2) - $64
CoolerMaster Extreme 550W -$85

Total : $567.

Adding a ATI HD4670 512mb PCI-E @$139 leaves u with an overbudget of $6 ($706).

 

[tyho]

I just upgraded from my old AMD rig with the same Athlon CPU- 3000+ 1.8Ghz 2 months ago. It had a Nvidia 6800 video card.

The new rig has a 1Tb HDD, a Core 2 Duo 2.5Ghz CPU and the same 2 Gig RAM running WinXP Pro. I didn't want Vista as I would need to invest in more RAM.
Initially I was using the same video card but I have since upgraded to an ATI 4650 512Mb video card for games. The difference in performance even before changing the video card is easily felt in even simple web surfing. For PS it feels much snappier though I can't tell you if it is say 50% faster.

Our old Athlons are quite old now. Mine served me well but it was past it's prime a long time ago.

 

[kevyan]

My current system can still do pretty well for Photoshop CS2, but not CS4. But I only have license for CS4...sigh...

 

[Reportage]

really depends what you want to do but your budget is possible to get an older model macbook 2nd hand. If you want a new pc,

Asus M3n78-em + AMD 9950 Quad $342
kingston ddr2 800 2gb $32
andyson 500w $77
normal casing $40

$700 can either get a slow intel or fast amd system. for both have to use onboard graphics but adequate as long not for games.

 

[hobbes187]

I changed my PC last week for the main purpose of faster processing using photoshop. After doing my research, I found that all the benchmarks done with CS3 and CS4 shows clearly that quad core chips will give better than even the best dual core chips. This is especially true for CS4 which is optimised for multi-threading (multi-core) operations and it effectively utilises ALL 4 cores a quad core chip (one of the few programs to currently do so).

Also, CS4 has been optimised for certain video cards and I chose 9600GT for its faster performance. Since RAM is cheap, I maxed it out at 4Gb. The result is a system that is very fast for CS4... Maybe I feel the improvement more as my old PC was a 6 yr old pentium 4 2.66GHz that takes 1 min+ to even start CS3

Total cost for the CPU was $930. Think its cheap cos I got a lobang for it

This is what I got:

Intel Q8200 Quad Core
Gigabyte G31 Mainboard
4Gb 800Mhz DDR2 RAM
Nvidia 9600GT 512Mb Video Card
500Gb + 320Gb SATA2 HDD
CoolerMaster Extreme Power 460W
Normal casing

 

[ezhub]

Something to share.
To fully utilize ur 4 GB ram, you will need to run on 64bit windows. 32bit windows will only show max 3.2GB of ram.

 

[kevyan]

Hi all,

Can take a look @ http://www.cybermind.com.sg/images/stories/pricelists/cyber-system-1.gif

And advice if any of the system is worth getting for photo-editing? Thanks in advance.

 

[liarliar]

Hi all,

I need some help here. My current PC is a bit old and slow. One simple edit in PhotoShop takes about 8sec to take effect.

My current system is running on AMD processor (Athlon 64 3000+, 1.8Ghz), 3GB RAM and Winfast Geforce 7600GS, 256MB gfx card.

I would like to set up a new PC just for photo-editing purpose, no need to play games on it as I use my game console to do the job.

I will try to keep my budget to below $700 if possible.

I can use back the following hardware:

1. LCD screen
2. Keyboard and mouse
3. 3 SATA harddisk, which one of them is install with Windows XP and other programs
4. DVD/CD writer

So I guess I just need the following:

1. Motherboard
2. Processor (I will go for Intel this time round)
3. RAM
4. Graphic Card
5. Power supply
6. Casing

That's all right?

Can you guys recommend me parts based on my budget? Thank you very much.

Unlock and overclock your processor and graphics card. All you need is the time to run the stability tests for a stable timing setting and cost for a couple of artic cooler fans to replace the stock ones on your processor and graphics card. If you intend to get a good brand new system 700 bucks is not enough. Note your current system still have 3GB of ram.

 

[kevyan]

Okay, but what if I have $1k to play with?