Caught in Computer Quagmire

[azsilver]

Your Input and advise is really needed!

Need a new computer/workstation ASAP. Our computer died after a long life (my husband uses the computer for email, internet and word docs.) Right now we are using a borrowed older laptop for just basic Internet connection. And we need to return the laptop soon.

Want to spend around 2 to 3K without a monitor(s) for this build. This will be my first build...with the help of our friend who builds mainly higher end gaming system. He has given me ideas of components. But I do not want to build a gaming rig to use for Photoshop and Lightroom.

I was using Photoshop CS2 and want to upgrade CS4 Extended and (I have used Beta Lightroom) LightRoom 2. I shot in Raw, do heavy multitasking. I also am a heavy MS Office Professional user as well.

As for an OS...at work I use XP professional 32 bit and my old home system (which died) had XP professional 32 bit as well.

My husband perfers XP and when I check with our IT department at work they are not going to upgrade to Vista but rather wait for the next MS Windows OS before they upgrade from XP professional.

For this build I have looked at the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 for $319.99 at Newegg. I also looked at the Q9650...but really pricey.

For Motherboards....I have looked at so many....do I want to OC?.....which chipset do I want Intel or nvidia? The more I read and learn the more I know I do not know which one I want? I think I want a higher end Mobo. Which vendor Asus--Gigabit or one of the many others?

Which GPU works best with Photoshop CS4? Then after I decide that I can pick the best Motherboard to match the GPU.

After that which Memory? DDR3 is expensive....If not then which DDR2? What speed do I want to go with?
If I stay with 32 bit OS then I just need 4 gigs of RAM ....what brand of RAM? I have looked at numerous brands.

It seems I want an air cooler . Air cooler ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118019 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118019)


My friend suggested the following Hard drives:
For my OS and applications Drive he suggested I should get Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136260 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136260)

for my photoshop scratch Drive he suggested I should get 2 WD VelociRaptor 150GB on Raid 0 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136296 ( dedicated scratch dives - information from adobe.com http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Photoshop/11.0/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-7489a.html )

for my Data Drive he suggested: 1 WD Caviar Black 1TB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
And He also suggested an external e-sata HDD


Then which case? a CoolMaster?

Which Power supply? A Corsair 750W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

Which 2 DVD Burners ?

Thanks so much for your help! I look forward to hearing your suggestions and ideas.

Ruth

[tim]

Welcome to POTN :) I have a few thoughts:
- Get the Q9550 CPU, it's cheaper than the next one up and almost as fast.
- Intel boards are stable, other brands are generally stable and easier to overclock. I don't bother to overclock, maybe 10% more speed and a risk you'll foul something up.
- Not sure which GPU works best, and you don't need anything fancy for photoshop. Get a reasonably recent nVidia chip, midrange, not too much ram. 256 should plenty.
- DDR3 is a waste of money, get DDR2. 4GB is enough, but if you get 8GB go with Vista 64.
- VelociRaptor drives are a waste of money, generally, they offer little performance gain and cost more, plus they're smaller. I buy standard Seagate, they're fast and reliable. Make sure whatever drives you get don't get too hot, put an extra fan in if you need to.
- RAID is a waste of time, especially for scratch. You don't even need a dedicated drive for it, just put it on the system drive. If you think you'll be using scratch a lot just get 8GB RAM and Vista 64. RAM is at least 100 times faster than swapping to disk.
- eSata drives are great for backups. Backup regularly, keep it offsite.
- Why would you need two DVD burners?

Everything else someone else will have to help you with. Aim for a quiet case, and good quality quiet fans, you'll appreciate them later.

[OdiN1701]

Grab a Q9550.

Asus motherboards are good. Intel are rock solid, but offer less overclocking or customization options - this is up to you if it's something you care about, but it probably isn't. The Intel boards will probably cost more for the same features as other boards, but they are very good.

Stick with the Intel chipsets - they designed the CPU, they know best how to interface with it. Nvidia is fine, but more tuned towards overclockers.

I would highly recommend you get Vista 64 and 8GB of RAM. Yes it's different, but you'll get used to it.

For hard drives - for your data drive I recommend RAID 1 - this is a mirror image and requires two identical drives. If one goes bad, you can still run off of the other while you get it replaced. This IS NOT an excuse not to do actual backups though.

There is no reason to get the Raptor. I do have a 150GB Raptor for my main drive but it's more for the fact that they have a 5 year warranty. I do recommend Western Digital drives. The 1TB drives, last I checked, are not as cost effective as the 750GB ones if you do RAID (their RE drives).

Graphics - get a good Nvidia based card from eVGA. Something around the $200 mark should be fine. The guy helping you should know all about them if he does gaming systems. Make sure you get two DVI outputs and that it supports Dual-Link so if you ever get a large monitor you have the support for it.

For a case and power supply, look at Antec.

For quiet fans, get something like this: http://www.svc.com/sy-1225sl12l.html

[azsilver]

Tim,
Thanks for your input!


Still looking for more advice on the Motherboard-GPU-RAM and other components for my build.

Thanks,
Ruth

[OdiN1701]

I think your friend may steer you more towards some higher end stuff that isn't necessary. It can help for games, yes but you aren't doing that.

$2-3K without monitor is really overkill for a photoshop system honestly. I think just $2K should be plenty - now this doesn't count software so if purchasing CS4/LR, then yeah $3K is about right.

[incendy]

The i7 is coming out in just a bit! If you are getting DDR3 memory it is a must IMO. The low end i7 is very reasonably priced and will take full advantage of your memory. If you are spending that much money it would be a shame not to get it!!

[azsilver]

The i7 is coming out in just a bit! If you are getting DDR3 memory it is a must IMO. The low end i7 is very reasonably priced and will take full advantage of your memory. If you are spending that much money it would be a shame not to get it!!


How long until the i7 CPU and Motherboards are available for the general public to purchase?

Ruth

[incendy]

How long until the i7 CPU and Motherboards are available for the general public to purchase?

Ruth

This month is what is scheduled! I am hoping before Thanksgiving break as I am looking forward to upgrading during the time off :)

[tim]

Not sure the low end i7 is worth bothering with, with DDR3 RAM they're more expensive, and about the same speed as a current gen Core2Quad E9xxx. The E9xxx will drop in price when the i7 comes out though, plus the motherboards and DDR2 RAM are cheaper.

The high end i7 boards are pretty quick. Check out this thread (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=591843) which talks about them a bit.

[Bobster]

depending on how much you use filters etc, a more powerful GeForce card is now an advantage with CS4 as it now utilises OpenGL accelerating a lot of things including zooming, panning etc. The more powerful your video card is the faster it will calculate a filter..

a 750W PSU is a little overboard unless you're planning on running a couple of GTX 280's in SLI?

[tim]

As I understand it filters are still done in the CPU, it's just zooming in and out, and panning, that's done in the GPU.

[azsilver]

I found the following TechNote on adobe.com

GPU accelerated features in Photoshop CS4 and Bridge CS4

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb405745
Hardware/Application Combinations and Available Functionality

A) Basic GL Drawing
Panning, Zooming, Rotating, Direct to Screen Non-Color Matched.
B) Basic GL Drawing with Color-Matched Direct to Screen 3D
Panning, Zooming, Rotating, Color-Matched Toned Direct to Screen 3D
C) Advanced GL Drawing
Panning, Zooming, Rotating, Accelerated Color Matching, Toning on Card
D) Advanced GL Drawing with Color-Matched Direct to Screen 3D
Panning, Zooming, Rotating, Accelerated Color Matching, Toning on CardWindows: Shader Model 3.0 + OpenGL 2.0 card + 128 megs of VRAM or greater

<= 256 Megs
Photoshop Standard supports D, defaults to A. Please note, Windows XP supports A. It does not support GPU resource virtualization.
Photoshop Extended supports C
> 256 Megs

Photoshop Standard supports D
Photoshop Extended supports D
> 512 Megs: Uses more texture memory to better handle larger imagesWhich specific Cards would you recommend with each the following specifications ? I am trying to figure out which Graphics card I want to buy.
I am looking at what my options are and what the costs would be.


Shader Model 3.0 + OpenGL 2.0 card + <= 256 Megs of VRAM
Shader Model 3.0 + OpenGL 2.0 card + > 256 Megs of VRAM
Shader Model 3.0 + OpenGL 2.0 card + > 512 Megs of VRAM Thanks for all your help,
Ruth