What to look for in a PC

[neurotek]

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.

the virtual address space is limited, hence a design in the in architecture of a 32-bit operating system (technically, it's a x86 hardware issue).

[JerBear]

Find a good brand name system that has what you want, you'll get more bang for the buck. Going custom will only cost you more for less.

My experience is with HP and have used them for years without any hardware problems.

I picked up a "HP E9107C Desktop C2Q 2.33GHz 8GB 750GB DVDRW WiFi" about a year ago at "Costco" with a 27" monitor for $1,200. Comes with a 2 year guarantee, and if you pay with your A/E card they will add an extra year for a total of 3 years! I added a extra 1gig HD, extra monitor and that is all. It runs 64 bit and has been said, some plug-ins for photoshop only run in 32 bit, but like it was said, you just run the 32 bit version when you need those plugins. I think that in time the plug-ins will be updated to 64 bit compatible anyway.

The big difference between 64 and 32 bit is that 32 bit will not allow use of ram past approx 3 gig, (Some here think they can, but show no proof, don't fall for that), 64bit will and as much as you want. Highly recommend at least 8 gigs. When I run photoshop CS5 (highly recommend) and lightroom3 together, they scream fast.

Bottom line, if your loaded and money is no problem, you could build a custom system, but it will cost you compared to a off the shelf system. Warranty probably won't be as good either.

I like my system so much that I looked on Ebay and just picked up another exact system, HP E9107C Desktop C2Q 2.33GHz 8GB 750GB DVDRW WiFi, for $350! no monitor and no warranty, but it works like a charm and now I have the exact system in both of my offices.

Good luck

JM

[dpinsent]

I've just recently built a custom PC specifically concentrating on graphics. I built my system for about $2800 as opposed to the $8000 I would have spent had I bought a Mac.

It has:
3.3 Ghz Intel i7 quad core processor
12 GB RAM
nVidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB RAM (4GB video RAM)
2 x 2 TB hard rives
Windows 7 64 Pro

I can have Lightroom, Photoshop, a video game, a movie and my web browser open and this system doesn't miss a beat - I keep an Arctic cooler fan on my processor along with two system fans. They all keep my system very cool and the air flow is great.

My only problem is that I bought the wrong monitor a couple of years back. I bought a monitor that has its own color application built in so now it battles my video card and proper calibration is close to impossible. I need advice on purchasing a reasonably priced yet reliable photo processing monitor.

[Camdixon]

I would argue to say as this would be my priority.

1. CPU (4 core or more, possibly 64 bit)
2. Video Card
3. Ram (at least 4 gigs, but first 2 topics more important)
4. Storage (and a backup)

We'll start with the first item. For a CPU I would now recommend a 4 core processor with proper amounts of l2 and l3 cache. I'm assuming most of you don't know what the cache register is. L2 cache is a register in each core that stores small processes that are coming up very quickly for the chip to run next. Often times these are things like a+b, c-d, for loops, and while loops. These are everywhere inside PS and LR even though you may not know it. Moving the mouse and clicking the buttons while often have many of these small operations in each. So in general because most of these are quite small but quick we want a small L2 cache (Yes, a small one) so it will process these loops and operations quickly for each individual core chip. An L3 cache should be as large as you can afford. This is a separate cache register that is actually shared between all of the cores running your photo edits. The larger it is the better as your cores will be able to share more information which gets your edits done more quickly. L3 cache is between your RAM (but faster than RAM) and the L2 cache.

64-bit is an option although in my opinion not necessarily required. If you don't run a 64-bit OS or PS in it then you won't be utilizing it anyway. 64-bit is actually the chunks it can take at one time, not necessarily the speed at which it does it. Although it obviously seems faster if it can take bigger bites at the same speed.

Video Cards (FPGAs circuits) are quite important for this type of work. A heavy Photoshop user would obviously want a good video card. These are fairly well optimized by algorithms anyway which is useful, but the important points when buy these are somewhat subtle. Generally as other users have mentioned you want a large amount of memory on these (preferrably 1 GB or higher) although 512 MB will work. You also want to look for a decent shader clock speed as most of our images have many shades of color in the photos. You will see the main difference of a good video card when you open up a file of pictures with thumbnails and try and scroll through them quickly. A good video card will save you lots of time trying to find the photo you are looking for.

As other users have mentioned RAM is also important because each process can utilize up to 4GB each if you have it available. (I believe XP SP3 will only even recognize 3 GB so might as well upgrade to Windows 7). This is good if you have many photos or applications actually open at one time but if you don't much of this space might go unused anyway. 4GB or more is great, but consider your uses.

Lastly, storage is needed and a backup because we all want to keep the originals and we are working with a good amount of megapixel for the images.

In my experience it's always been better to custom build computers because I control which processor / video card I get. Although I have no problem with people who buy from companies as long as they realize what they advertise may be true, but things like shader clocks and cache registers are hardly ever discussed just due to the common consumers knowledge. I may be learning the art of photography, but my background is computing.

[Jim Bryant]

What do I look for in a PC....Not a damn thing. We only have one PC in the house. My son is a big time gamer and has a custom built PC. The rest of us are Mac laptop users. I thinking about getting one of those die screen iMacs.

[kirbinster]

If you want a PC to surf the net and do word processing, those that say buy a Dell, HP, etc... are 100% correct. If you want a PC for photo or video work you are crazy to buy a big box PC. They throw in stuff you don't want and don't give you the stuff you really want. Plus they load the computer up with trial / cripple ware crap that you can never fully uninstall. I just build a killer machine for under $2k. Its based on an i7-930 processor and ASUS motherboard. It has 6gigs of fast triple channel ram, and I can add more if I find I need to. It has an Nvidia CUDA capable GST260 graphics card with a 896mb onboard memory and is super fast. I have an 850watt modular power supply and five fans in the full tower case. It has a DVD burner, multicard memory reader, esata and firewire ports, more USB ports than I can use. For storage is has an 80gig SSD "hard drive" for the operating system and four 2TB hard drives set as a RAID10 array. I may have to bolt it down so I don't get a speeding ticket

I many times have CS5, Lightroom, Outlook, 10 web browser pages, Quickbooks, Excel and a few other small programs up and running while the TV tuner is recording two shows at the same time and it does not miss a beat.

[Camdixon]

Originally Posted by kirbinster

]For storage is has an 80gig SSD "hard drive" for the operating system and four 2TB hard drives set as a RAID10 array.

SSD, nice man.
That's respectable. The machine is a killer lol based upon all those specs u listed.