PC Computer Setup Help [Archive] - Canon Digital Photography Forums

speedracersong

23rd of December 2007 (Sun), 22:53

I was hoping I could get some assistance. I would like to build a pc from scratch. Right now im on a 5 year old dell. It's driving me insane how slow it is.
The computer will be used for lightroom and cs3. I will not need a gaming machine. I would like to spend the money now and not have to upgrade in 4 years or so.
Any suggestions on what parts I should get?
Thank you!

ChasP505

24th of December 2007 (Mon), 10:39

I've built about a dozen PCs for general office use and gaming but I've decided it is no longer worth my time to build my own. As my own PC is getting old, I just recently paid a visit to the showroom of a local PC business that builds custom PCs and services my business office.

They had a setup based on a newer Antec case which was incredible. The first step in building a custom PC is selecting a case, so I highly recommend this one. It's the Antec Nine Hundred Gaming Case. Don't let the "gaming" part of the name throw you. I like this case because it uses a HUGE 200mm top mounted exhaust fan and the rest of the fans are big 120mm units. The power supply is mounted on the floor of the case. This thing was dead silent and will keep your components incredibly cool. Here's a link:

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=15900

Tsmith

24th of December 2007 (Mon), 13:19

Whats you budget for this?

rklepper

24th of December 2007 (Mon), 16:46

I agree completely. I have always built my own, but since it will be obsolete in a short while anyway, why put in the effort.

I've built about a dozen PCs for general office use and gaming but I've decided it is no longer worth my time to build my own. As my own PC is getting old, I just recently paid a visit to the showroom of a local PC business that builds custom PCs and services my business office.

They had a setup based on a newer Antec case which was incredible. The first step in building a custom PC is selecting a case, so I highly recommend this one. It's the Antec Nine Hundred Gaming Case. Don't let the "gaming" part of the name throw you. I like this case because it uses a HUGE 200mm top mountain exhaust fan and the rest of the fans are big 120mm units. The power supply is mounted on the floor of the case. This thing was dead silent and keep your components incredibly cool. Here's a link:

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=15900

speedracersong

24th of December 2007 (Mon), 17:14

i would like to spend around 1000-1200 w/o monitor.

i just wanted to get a general idea on what i should get.

Corejonp1

24th of December 2007 (Mon), 17:18

Holy crap...for a desk top...I could build you more pc than you would know what to do with for under or around 5. Here, give me 15 minutes I'll give you a quick run down, with everything you would need/want. Should give you a good estimate, or something to base your future set up on.

Havn't mentioned Iv'e put, one, two, or 20 computers together or so (cisco IT essentials 1&2 certed). Another hobby.

speedracersong

24th of December 2007 (Mon), 17:27

why is that too little? i have no idea.
i wouldnt want to spend more then that much.

Corejonp1

24th of December 2007 (Mon), 17:41

too little, no, too much lol.

The quick and dirty set up:

Cases: Range from 20 buck cheapies to hundreds of dollars, its more of a personal choise, I'll let you choose.

Power supply:Ultra / X-Connect / 400-Watt / ATX / Dual 80mm Fan / Titanium-Blue / Modular Power Supply

Cost: 20 bucks (just because its cheap, do not knock it, its an amazing deal)

Motherboard / Proc combo: Asus M2N-E SLI Motherboard CPU Bundle - AMD an Athlon 64 X2 5400+ Processor 2.80GHz OEM

Cost = 210.00

Memory: Corsair Dual Channel TWINX 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz E.P.P. Memory (2 x 1024)

Cost = 50.00

Harddrive: Maxtor Ultra 300GB Hard Drive - 7200, 16MB, SATA-150, Retail

Cost = 75.00

Graphics card: again, personal choice. Prices vary greatly.

Cd/DVD rom drive : even if you wanted a good DVD burner, your only looking at 40 bucks or so.

with the dvd burner your at about 395. Add in a case and somewhere around 5. Graphics card extra. Onboard graphics will get you started, and if you tell me what card your thinking about, I can quote you lol.

speedracersong

24th of December 2007 (Mon), 18:00

thank you for your help!
greatly appreciated!

Corejonp1

24th of December 2007 (Mon), 18:16

That computer coupled with a decent graphics card set up, and a nice monitor (or HDTV) will be a great editing pc for pictures, and in most cases, overkill itself. Its future proof with dual 64-bit core processors. 2GBs of ram will be plenty, I run CS3 on my labtop with just over a gig of ram with zero problems. I also use such programs as 3d studio max with out any problems. The power supply is cheap, but very solid, and modular, keeps number of wires down, and helps to increase air flow. Check out websites like tigerdirect, I've used them in the past, and will use them in the future.

when it comes to desktops there are a few rules, if you can, never buy a premade desktop as you are spending more than you have to. Assembling a computer does take techincal know-how but is not hard, I was putting them together when I was 16. Just have to be careful mounting the processor to the motherboard, and when you put the fan on top of the processor you don't press too hard or you can crack the processor. Other than that, most of the instructions included with the things you buy will be more than enough to get you started. And, if you do decide to build on yourself (highly recomended) there are tons of forums and people who will be, i'm sure, more than happy to awnser you questions. Take care, and good luck on your project.

deadpass

24th of December 2007 (Mon), 19:31

Corejonp1

24th of December 2007 (Mon), 20:20

..I did say the quick and dirty, it was just to give him an idea. Ultra PSU may not be the top, but then again, I was trying to show him what you could build for not a lot of money, not everyone has a lot of money to spend. You don't need the fastest computer on the planet to process pictures. This wasnt a build the best computer for the least ammount of money contest. I just wanted to give the OP an idea of whats out there.

Personally I am an AMD guy, I think intels are crap, forget what you read, and what the box says. AMD's run cooler, and IMO run better. Obviously as the ammount of money you spend, the better the overall computer you will end up with(HA). The point I was making is it is foolish to spend a lot of money on a desktop computer, especially if all you plan on doing with it is editing photos, and probably surfing the web. I build computers on the side to render animation, and I can tell you from experiance you can buy the fastest processor in the world, and if your hard drive cant read or write fast enough, or if the motherboard cant handle data fast enough on its buses, then it dosn't really matter.

and for 210 just for the processor, why- whats your current computer set up may I ask, and what software do you run that is so performance driven. Maya? 3DS Max? Inventor? Master Cam? Games? Maybe I'M missing the point myself.

-
processor to system bandwidth (total)-
Intel C2D = 17 Gb/s
AMD 64 X2 = 20.8 Gb/s
-
I have no defense for the ULTRA PSU, it isnt the greatest, but it isnt the end of the world if you were building on a budget, and the least of your worries.

Justin_NJ

24th of December 2007 (Mon), 22:25

Ok - so I see that you say you don't want to have to upgrade in a few years - and that your current computer is slow, and you want to do your own build....

So here are a few points i'd like to run by you before you go and start your own build. I used to do my own builds and just upgrade when needed, which still turns out to be more often then you think. PCs are outdated the minute you turn it on, and it has nothing to do with how old it is, it really has to deal with the software you want to run.

Option 1: If you are not looking for a game system, and you are just really looking for picture editing, your honest best bet, go to Dell's web site and order a medium grade PC in the 600-800 range or so that comes with VISTA's home edition. Take the rest of the money you were going to spend to bring you up to 2k, and stash it for your next PC in 4 years or so.
Option 2: you current PC might just be slow due to the hard disk's fragmentation, some adware or spyware on your PC etc. Copy off your data to a backup, format the hard drive reinstall ONLY the software you use, reload your data and see how your PC is running - should be fine for picture editing and you'd be supprised how fast it is again. Spend the cash on Camera gear and use your PC for another 2 years till you are forced to upgrade to an O/S like Vista that won't run on your current PC.

Getting back to your build: These days, PCs are disposable, almost like a paper plate. Unless you are really into doing your own build - as a hobby or for the heck of it, then go for it, otherwise, the parts that go into your own build are just slightly better than your standard dell, hp, etc.

If you go the route of a build your own - good luck and go for it!

tomd

24th of December 2007 (Mon), 22:35

here is a good thread to follow:
about $1100
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=380028&highlight=recommend+monitor

Canuck

24th of December 2007 (Mon), 22:38

I've had nothing but problems with Maxtor HDs. My experience is that they are rubbish. I've had Hitachi, IBM DeskStar, WDs, Seagate. The last drive that failed on me was a Hitachi, but there is no telling the hours on it. It was from about 2002 and probably had a rediculously high number of hours on it. I can't fault the Hitachi. This is my voice from experience only.

Corejonp1

24th of December 2007 (Mon), 23:49

You know, in the past I've had problems with Maxtor drives as well, that MaxBlast software is crap. That said, last computer I built was with a maxtor, and I've had no problems.

A lot of times I have to build something for someone on a budget so tight that I have few if any options. All the suggestions I made would produce a very useful machine capable of photo editing, and leaving some green in the wallet. Just like someone said, its outdated as soon as you power it up. I've come to the conclusion its just not worth sinking a lot of money into desktops. With prices falling all the time, its very easy to build on the cheap. 4- years ago I would have told you a different story. The only difference is now I have the money where as before, My dad had the money.

My argument for building your own vs buying a dell is for half of what you would pay for a dell, you could build a comparable computer, if not better. I'm just making the argument that while its not good to go cheap for camera stuff, computers just are not worth spending a fortune on.

ChasP505

25th of December 2007 (Tue), 10:04

Assembling a computer does take techincal know-how but is not hard, I was putting them together when I was 16. Just have to be careful mounting the processor to the motherboard

Agreed, but most of the "know-how" is is tweaking the BIOS settings for the optimum balance of performance and stability. Just as I like to do local business with my photography equipment, I strongly urge the OP to have the computer built locally.

Corejonp1

25th of December 2007 (Tue), 11:07

I agree, if you have problems, and you have someone other than yourself build it, you'll want them local. The bios may seem tricky, but there are many guides online, and the manual that comes with the motherboard itself to help you. Have a merry X-mas everyone!!

lostdoggy

25th of December 2007 (Tue), 11:14

At that price range I would go for at least a Quad Core and the Newer Intel Chipset that supports dual PCIe at full speed. Liquid cooling for the CPU for potential overclocking. 700Watt PSU. Lots of RAM.

speedracersong

26th of December 2007 (Wed), 01:15

Corejonp1
i really appreciate you keeping the budget in mind. I would like to spend a little bit more now and not have to upgrade soon then necessary. thank you.

Justin_NJ

I think my computer is running at optimum speeds. I take every precaution not to infect my computer. The problem is that I have only 512kb of ram.

tomd
Thank you for the link.

deadpass
ill send you a pm

ChasP505
ill look into local businesses

Guess

26th of December 2007 (Wed), 09:11

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz ....................................$280
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

ABIT IP35 Pro LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard.......................$180
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127030

SUPER TALENT 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800................$74
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609026

CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX(PSU)........................................ ..............$110
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001&Tpk=Corsair%2b520

EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800GT..........................................$2 70 (lifetime warranty)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB...............................$120 (5 year warranty I believe --> important if your drive fails)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288

LiteOn LH-20A1H............................................. .......................$36
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106045

Subtotal: $1070

Case (Personal Preference) Good ones will run from $100-300. Unless you have one already. One that I like is this:

LIAN LI PC-V1000APlus II................................................ ...............$200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&Description=lianli&bop=And&Page=2

Very nice interior & definitely won't cut your hands while working in it.

OS: Approx. $140 for XP Pro, add more for Vista.

Hope this helps as this was my hobby before getting into photography. :)

Moppie

26th of December 2007 (Wed), 15:29

Any suggestions on what parts I should get?
Thank you!

You might also want to have a read of this: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=413788

I've been useing it for a couple of weeks now, and all I can say is its bloody fast!
You could build something similar, for photo editing only, for a fair bit less by saving money on the case and Graphics cards. You could also get away with useing less HDD's.
I only have a 320gb HDD, and the 8800GT because it also gets used for gaming.

Just note, that to get the most out of a multi-core processor you need to run Vista. XP turns my PC into a dual core only, while Vista (even 32bit) runs all 4 cores quite happily.

Personally I am an AMD guy, I think intels are crap, forget what you read, and what the box says. AMD's run cooler, and IMO run better. Obviously as the ammount of money you spend,

What decade, sorry, century are you living in?
Even 2 years ago you would have been right, but AMD have dropped the ball, and Intell have picked it up and are running hard with it.
Give it a year or two, and hopefully that will change, but right now Intell makes the fastest processors at the best prices. Even the new AMD quad cores are well off the pace of Intell's.

Denying yourself, and others, the best solution simply because of brand loyality will never solve anything.
All it does is allow manufacturers to get lazy with thier R&D and QC, and increase thier margins. Look at the US auto industry and what Ford and GM have become, and the quality of thier cars compared to whats coming out of Europe and Asia.
Even more relevent example, look at Canon and the 1D MKIII.

Corejonp1

26th of December 2007 (Wed), 15:36

I agree to the above, I can admit that I don't nearly pay as much attention to computer technology as much as I used to. Mostly because once I got my labtop, my desktop became obsolete, and infact, the only time I use a desktop - it's at work. I go to antarcitca for 2 months and my world has been flipped upside down lol.

bcdoug

26th of December 2007 (Wed), 15:57

as much as i rather build a system myself and have built pretty much everything i've ever run, there is something to be said about buying a dell system, having it delivered, ready to go, next day, and having a 3 yr 24/7 next day warranty on it.

Moppie

26th of December 2007 (Wed), 16:02

I go to antarcitca for 2 months and my world has been flipped upside down lol.

Literally!
Do you fly out of Christchurch?

I went through 2 AMD processors, at the time when they were just coming onto the market as a force to be reckoned with with a 900mhz Duron (i was on a real budget) then with an Athalon 2600XP.
It's still a good processor, and with 400mhz ram and a SATA HDD will load and run most single applications just as quickly as my new quad core. Things like word, excell, media play, web browsers etc, show no performance difference.
There is a small speed increase in loading photo editing applications, CS3, bridge, etc, all load faster on the new PC.
But editing single images dosn't show a huge increase, unless I start playing with multi layer 16bit TIFF files. Then applying filters etc happens a lot faster.
Its when I open folders holding several hundred RAW files with bridge or lightroom that I start to see a marked improvment, and of course batch processing is just so much faster it's not funny.

Samanax

26th of December 2007 (Wed), 16:15

speedracersong, is your budget still around $1200?

If I were building myself a new computer for photo editing this is what I would build (prices from Newegg):

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe - $189.99
ASUS P5K LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX - $126.99
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit - $67.00
SAPPHIRE Radeon X1650PRO 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - $59.99
Antec Solo Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Case - $79.99
CORSAIR 550VX ATX12V V2.2 550W Power Supply - $99.99
Seagate 250GB 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $69.99
Seagate 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $94.99
LITE-ON Black DVD Burner - $27.99
SIIG JU-PC8112 8-in-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader - $19.99
Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B - $89.99

Total before shipping: $926.90

If you do a lot of multitasking then a Quad Core processor would be worth getting.

You didn't mention gaming so I stayed away from the gamer type video cards. The ATi Radeon based SAPPHIRE X1650PRO will handle 2D images very well.

I usually install 2 or more hard drives in my computers because I like to keep my data on a different hard drive (or at least another partition) from the OS.

If you want more RAM (like 4GB or more) you'd have to go with a 64 bit operating system instead of a 32 bit one. I think 2GB of RAM should be enough if you're using a 32 bit OS like WinXP Home SP2B.

:) Samanax

Corejonp1

26th of December 2007 (Wed), 16:27

OT - I know. But yes I fly out of Christchurch. Beautiful country. The above computer set up is very nice

speedracersong

26th of December 2007 (Wed), 17:03

i think im way over my head.
i have found a friend of a friend that builds pc's as a side hobby.
i'll post up the specs once i get them from him.

thank you for all of your help once again.

Moppie

26th of December 2007 (Wed), 17:22

If you have built a PC before, nothing has really changed.

I thought I was getting over my head as I've only built mid range/low end systems in the past.
But, with a lot of reading, several phone calls, and a thread here, I'm pretty confident I have built a very good system.

If you havn't built a system before, then you will just have to do a bit more reading, and ask a few more questions :)

PC's are actually getting easier to set up, and build yourself.
More and more components are now on board the mother board, and modern SATA hard drivers don't need to be set to master or slave modes with jumpers.
There is no need to set things on the m/b to match your ram and processor speed etc.

Now everything really is just plug and play.

r.morales

26th of December 2007 (Wed), 18:19

Probably not what you want to hear , But for that you can get a Mac LAPTOP and upgrade to new one in 5 yrs. - AND give it to your kid . If you go for a PC - stay with Laptop - - just max out memory and Hard drive - still under 1100 .
You are close to Frys / Micro center if you want to built your own - just make sure you stay with brand names and have more than 4 memory slots .
You can probably increase the speed of what you have by increasing the memory AND replacing hard drive with a faster / bigger one .

scorpio_e

26th of December 2007 (Wed), 21:34

I have two Maxtors. Never had problems. I had one western digital that died after a year..

nwa2

26th of December 2007 (Wed), 22:00

I built a PC myself recently, first I have built myself - very successfuly in terms of performance. Dual Core Intel. Mainly built it to run PS and Lightroom and surfing, as such it has no dedicated graphics card.

I am very pleased I built it my self as it was an ambition I always had. I am in no doubt however that this was not the most cost effective way of owning what is a pretty standard (although quite powerful) PC. I do not know what it is like in the US today, but here in the UK I can buy a good off the shelf package for under £500.

I found that the killer in terms of cost of building yourself is our friends at Microsoft. I had an old copy of XP from a redundant PC I could transfer, if I had to buy a copy new it would have made the whole project too expensive. I chose not to go down the non Microsoft OS option.

Moppie

26th of December 2007 (Wed), 23:07

The key to self building is getting the parts at a trade prices.
Usually all it takes is finding a wholesaler and doing a little clever talking with the sales person.
I got all the parts for my new PC from a local shop, for less than I could have if I had used a trade account with the countries largest distributor, simply because I sold the sales guy on the idea of selling me parts at a good discount.

speedracersong

2nd of January 2008 (Wed), 15:54

Moppie

2nd of January 2008 (Wed), 16:01

i found a friend of a friend to build me a pc. he also bought everything at wholesale prices.

2.4ghz quad core intel cpu
artic cooling freezer 7 pro heatsink
asus motherboard with 8 channel audio, 6 usb ports
samsung 4gig of ddr2 800 ram
500gig samsung 16mb cache sata2 harddrive
nec dvdrw 20x
gigabyte geforce 8600 gt
550 watt enermax powersupply

i just need to decide on lcd monitor.

Very nice!

I use two old, second hand 19inch CRT's.
1 was free, and the other cost so little it was nearly free.
They offer a better image than 99% of the LCD's out there.
Of course they also take up 25% of the room they are in, and are so heavy moving them around is not an option.

ben_r_

2nd of January 2008 (Wed), 16:08

Wow, too broad of a question... To those of us that are really into PCs we could go on and on about a thousand different configurations and why one is different than the other. If you are totally lost them perhaps you should learn all the basics first or just buy a prebuilt computer.

Moppie

2nd of January 2008 (Wed), 16:16

gjman

2nd of January 2008 (Wed), 16:36

i found a friend of a friend to build me a pc. he also bought everything at wholesale prices.....

I am curious...what do you mean by wholesale prices? Prices as compared to what? You should benchmark them against what you would pay for the same item on NewEgg.

Also if you are not running a 64 bit OS you will not see 4Gb of installed. You will see something like 3.5Gb which is normal for a 32 bit OS.

speedracersong

2nd of January 2008 (Wed), 22:12

I am curious...what do you mean by wholesale prices? Prices as compared to what? You should benchmark them against what you would pay for the same item on NewEgg.

Also if you are not running a 64 bit OS you will not see 4Gb of installed. You will see something like 3.5Gb which is normal for a 32 bit OS.

he has a whole seller license.
i know hes not going to rip me off.
ill talk to him about the ram.

thanks

VladDracule

2nd of January 2008 (Wed), 22:24

hate to say it core but AMD's cooling is no where near the c2d. my old amd 5200+ ran at 58 degrees cels when overclocked. my c2d idles at 44 degrees cels overclocked, not to mention it has 4 meg l2 cache compared to the meg l2 cache on the amd. the bus speed on the AMD is only 400 mhz faster than the c2duos, benchmarks increased drastically using the same exactl setup when comparing amd and intel, of course mobo was different do to 775 and949 sockets. you can skimp on certain parts like a psu, but for editing youll need a decent processor.

ill jump on new egg and link you to a build for around 1000

Celestron

2nd of January 2008 (Wed), 22:26

I can't see wanting to build your own CPU unit when you can buy one pre-built with warranty for the amount you want to spend and way cheaper depending your needs . Check out the CPUs' here at BestBuy (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcat17080&type=page&qp=crootcategoryid%23%23-1%23%23-1~~q70726f63657373696e6774696d653a3e313930302d3031 2d3031~~cabcat0500000%23%230%23%2311a~~cabcat05010 00%23%230%23%2329~~nf510%7C%7C4850&list=y&nrp=15&sc=abComputerSP&sp=%2Bbrand+skuid&usc=abcat0500000)

smcclelland

3rd of January 2008 (Thu), 00:21

Pre-built CPU's are always a nightmare unless you get suckered into the performance plan... while they're great for the non-technical person who just wants to open the box, plug a cable in and go they really are hampered when it boils down to wanting to change bits and pieces.

Intel's leading the pack in the CPU department as they've proven with the new C2D
s and C2Q's that they can scale linearly with the future needs of pc users while striving to avoid the typical bottlenecks that plagued the old FSB system (before AMD shot themselves in the foot and went for on-die HT)

Excellent choice on the machine to the OP... I would've suggested a bit larger of a power supply and changed the ram to something along the lines of Patriot and dropped it down to 667 DDR to better sync with the C2Q's FSB :)

Hope you enjoy the new system!