What to look for in a PC

[neurotek]

some good advice here, but unless you processing large video or sound files 64-bit OS may be overkill. 4gb of ram is more than enough on a 32-bit OS (32-bit OS will not recognize ram over 4gb, it can't allocate the additional memory do to it's architecture). and as mention not all hardware / software is 64-bit compatible (although most vendors have patches that can be applied to make it so, just check first)

my box is a few years old, and i process large sound files just fine:

pentium quad core
4gb ram
nvidia vid card (1gb)
1tb hd
1tb exeternal hd for backup
xp sp3

i build / mod my own box; i was considering a substantial upgrade the winter (new chassis, cpu, gpu, soundcard, OS), but it's working so smoothly and does everything i need, so i may just replace the gpu and soundcard.

good luck!

[ShantDotMe]

There days there is a very important factor that the end use does not pay attention too, which is the BUS SPEED.

BUS SPEED is the speed that the info moves between the components!! First the motherboard, the RAM, the CPU's & even the VGA.

Having a supper fast CPU with low bus speed of motherboard (or any other component) is more like having a heavy duty water pump but very thin pipes to move the pumped water.

So, pay attention to the BUS speed of all the components.

If you will go with Intel & can wait a couple of month, do so!! As intel is scheduled to launch a 32 core (no typo there) in the 2nd half of 2010 & that will surely bring the i3/5/7 price down.

I did pause my PC upgrade project & will wait till the i7 price drops down.

[jdepould]

Buy as much RAM as you can afford, even if you have to get a slightly cheaper processor. If you can afford it, get something with hyperthreading or quad-cores. If you can't afford it, don't worry about it.

Get a video card with its own memory, the more the better.

Honestly, just figure out a realistic budget and buy the best that's available when you need it. Even a middle of the road, off-the-shelf job should run photoshop and lightroom fine. Faster is faster, but you're not doing motion graphics.

[Henry Wilt]

On a 32 bit system you cannot properly utilise 4GB of RAM. Go 64bit and don't skimp on the RAM (I wouldn't suggest anything less than 4GB) plus get a good graphics card.
Don't forget you will need a decent quality monitor as well, so don't forget to budget for that. Alternatively, if you have a good HD TV, use that (so long as it's not the only TV in the house or you get more grief than it's worth! ).

[BCampbell]

Some good info in here.

RAM is probably going to be your #1 concern. You really can't have too much. I would build with at LEAST 8GB, more if you can.

The video card is not as important as people make it out to be. You could look for a card designed specifically for design & illustration, but they are specialty items and hideosly expensive -- not ideal for multipurpose machines. Consumer video cards today are designed for fast 3D rendering which is way mroe complex in a different way than photo editing. Almost any modern GPU is fine, more dedicated RAM on the GPU is better but dollar for dollar I would buy more system RAM.

CPU is largely irrelevant, any modern chip that's not bottom of the barrel will work. Dual-core is nice to have; quad-core maybe, again dollar for dollar it's better to have more RAM so if your choice is between a dual core CPU and 4GB RAM and a quad core CPU and 8GB RAM, go for more RAM.

Nobody mentioned hard drives. A lot of people are using solid state hard drives for working with images. The advantage is that they are extremely fast, much faster than platter drives. Of course, they're expensive. You might want to budget for a solid state drive that's big enough just for your photo editing software, so you're doing the majority of your work on that. Then a drive for your OS, and a drive for your miscellaneous applications/files, if you want. And don't forget about budgeting for backup; if you don't have one or two, now is a good time to get external drives.

As others have said, look into a good display as well -- possibly two.

If you want better advice, I'd pop over to the forums at tomshardware.

[benjamieson]

Originally Posted by neurotek

4gb of ram is more than enough on a 32-bit OS (32-bit OS will not recognize ram over 4gb, it can't allocate the additional memory do to it's architecture).

This is incorrect information.

32bit machines can happily eat up way more than 4GB RAM.

Indivudual applications/processes cannot access more than 4GB, but the system is many process, and Lightroom is another process altogether. These processes can access and utilize 4GB each if it's there.

[BCampbell]

Originally Posted by benjamieson

This is incorrect information.

32bit machines can happily eat up way more than 4GB RAM.

Indivudual applications/processes cannot access more than 4GB, but the system is many process, and Lightroom is another process altogether. These processes can access and utilize 4GB each if it's there.

Can you point to a source for this?

If you're right, there is a lot of incorrect information out there. I'm really very, very curious.

[milosh]

Memory Limits for Windows Releases (Microsoft)

XP 32bit: 4 GB
XP 64bit: 128 GB

Win 7 32 bit: 4 GB
Win 7 64 bit: 16 or 192 GB.

[wildbird]

1 thing I would look at is a backup strategy. No good having a superfast machine, with huge storage space etc, and the thing gets stolen, or crashes, or there is a fire or kids pour water on it, and leave magnets on it. An off site strategy is best, some way to keep a rotation going to keep it updated. And of course a good monitor helps, or 2.

[kirbinster]

Well I went through a similar quest a month or so ago and ended up builing my own system. You want to find the sweat spot for processor power versus performance. I went with an Intel i7-930, its a fast quad core than Windows7 x64 multithreads and sees as 8 cores. I think the chip with heat sink and fan was $199. Went with an Asus Motherboard, 6gig of triple channel ram, a Nvidia GTX260 graphics card, not too expensive but supports CUDA for CS5. Used an Intel 80gig SSD for my C-Drive, super fast! For storage I added four (yes four) 2 TB drives set up as a RAID10 array.