Building a Photographers Computer

[Dirt_Bike_Ryda]

the computer i am using now is lets face it... past it.. well for PhotoShopping and alike. mum/dad bought it for me in may 2006.

It has a "Asus X series K8V-MX" motherboard

1 GB of DDR1 ram (i think its 2x 512mb sticks)

AMD processor 2.00ghz single core

graphics card of some sort.. rather cheap and low end i assume

can anyone tell me whether i could upgrade this setup with enough performance increase versus cost, or should i ditch this, and buy a new box and build it from the ground up? if i go that way i would like to put some DECENT components in it, so i can easily "shop images" and run other programs at the same time (like Google chrome, MSN, windows Explorer and iTunes). i don't play games very ofter(at all..) so it won't need to support that, but ill need to be able to give me good graphics and speed (i don't have a HD monitor.. yet but i will get one one day.)

any ideas. im still just thinking at this stage. but im thinking maby get 4GB of RAM and a dual or even a quad core, and some good graphics card. can anyone suggest anything ?

thank you all kindly. any input welcome as i don't know a great deal about computers and i would like to be able to march into the computer shop with a list of bits i want, and maby even put it together myself (mainly to cut costs)

[Murtasma]

My desktop computer at home is very close to the specs of your system and it works just fine for photoshop. If you feel like buying a new computer is your only answer (wipe hard drive clean, reload windows, purchase more memory may be in order for your machine). I wouldn't get anything less then 4GB RAM and a Dual Core.

I spec-ed out a computer 2 months ago
Dual Quad Core 2.66GHz
8GBRAM
1 Terabyte of Hard Drive space configured using Raid 1
Some Nividia 512MB Video Card

for 1,000

Honestly you should be getting about 4 - 5 years out of your computer before you should consider replacing it. Are you having performance issues. I suggest just reloading your computer and buying more RAM. My 2GHZ box with 2GB of Ram running windows XP with a ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB Video card runs photoshop fine with no slow downs unless I'm working on a truly massive file.

The only thing I notice when using my work laptop which is faster then my Desktop PC is generating HDR images takes less time, perhaps 1/4 to 1/2 the time. To me that's not worth 1,000 bucks.

[KodiakStar]

I got this setup a while back, seems to run pretty darn smooth. Using GIMP and not Photoshop, but no lag, or problems working on images.

Not bad for less then 300.

Add in a TB HD for around 70-100$ ...reuse your case, etc... can get setup for easily.
(I typically order from Newegg.)

[RexK_Cozumel]

You will want more than 4 gb of ram. Viedo card is not as important. make sure you have plenty of HD space and backup.

[LoveDSLR]

Quad CPU
4GB+ RAM
Two or more HD (First for OS+software and rest for data)

One or two partitions on first drive. A smaller partition for C drive to hold OS, swap file and programs only. Take frequent images (upon installation or removal of software and configuration changes) of the C partition with Ghost, DriveImage or True Image. You can then restore your PC within an hour (due to Virus, file corruption etc).

Get a backup program such as SyncBack and external HD or NAS.

Configure your software to R/W on different HD and temp file on another to solve the I/O bottleneck.

[RustySterling]

Originally Posted by RexK_Cozumel

You will want more than 4 gb of ram. Viedo card is not as important. make sure you have plenty of HD space and backup.

Unless he's building a 64-bit PC machine, 4GB of RAM will be useless. A 32-bit machine really only supports 3GB. You can add another 1GB to make it 4GB but that last 1GB won't be available to software. And if he is building a 64-bit machine there isn't very much software out there for such machines. Photoshop CS4 is strictly 32-bit.

I would suggest getting at least 3GB of the fastest RAM that the motherboard will support. But don't waste your money on more RAM than that unless you build a 64-bit machine.

[Jamesc359]

Rusty, virtually everything that runs on a 32bit system will run on a 64bit as well. So there's really no point in avoiding a 64bit system - it's the the future afterall...

[RustySterling]

Originally Posted by Jamesc359

Rusty, virtually everything that runs on a 32bit system will run on a 64bit as well. So there's really no point in avoiding a 64bit system - it's the the future afterall...

Yeah, I get that. But, regardless, 32bit software will not use RAM beyond 3GB if it is 32bit software even if the OS is 64bit. There's just no advantage if the software is 32bit.

[WVCoalMiner]

Originally Posted by RustySterling

Unless he's building a 64-bit PC machine, 4GB of RAM will be useless. A 32-bit machine really only supports 3GB. You can add another 1GB to make it 4GB but that last 1GB won't be available to software. And if he is building a 64-bit machine there isn't very much software out there for such machines. Photoshop CS4 is strictly 32-bit.

I would suggest getting at least 3GB of the fastest RAM that the motherboard will support. But don't waste your money on more RAM than that unless you build a 64-bit machine.

Oh but you are WRONG!!!
CS4 will automatically install the 64 Bit CS4 onto your machine if you have a 64 bit machine as well as a X86 version. And Lightroom 2 also will install a 64 Bit version if you have a 64 Bit machine, I know I have them both installed on my HP dv7 laptop.



More info here: http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2008/04...hop_lr_64.html

[Jamesc359]

If you're using Vista, the OS is likely to consume around 1GB of RAM by itself... So there is an advantage. You're at least guaranteed that if the RAM is available your app can use upto 3GB, that's not a guarantee with a 32bit OS.