Ultimate photo editing pc

[tommykjensen]

This has been up before but since the development within pc hardware goes so fast I would like to hear about how You think the ultimate photo editing pc should be configured.

- which motherboard
- which cpu and speed
- which brand of memory and how much
- which graphics card
- which harddrives
- which backup media
- which monitor

[EricKonieczny]

is there a budget, or just the best of everything as if we won the lottery?

[tommykjensen]

Maybe 2 options. One for a reasonable budget and one for the lottory win.


I can't put a price on since prices in US and Denmark are very different.

[KevC]

Processor should definitely be the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ when it debuts in june. As for the motherboard, the Asus A8N SLi Deluxe seems like a good board. Jam it with as much memory as you can, 4 Corsair 1GB sticks sounds good. You can just get any graphics card that has decent quality because the gfx power doesn't really apply in photoshop. Get the 6600GT or 6800GT.

Harddrives are very important. I'd do a raid 0+1 setup with 4 Western Digital 74GB 10,000RPM raptors. I'd stay away from SCSI for now, I don't think the benefits outweigh the costs. A raid 0+1 setup with Raptors would be mighty fast.

Get a NEC ND3520 for backup, and maybe a dual setup of 19" Flat Panels. Make sure you get DVI in, and make sure you gfx card has dual dvi out.

That is, of course, if you win a lottery. Or you wish to spend thousands upon thousands on a PC, which I don't recommend. (better spent towards L-glass)

Toned down a little, get a decent Athlon64 s939 chip. With 2GB of good brand name of memory and an nForce4 chipset motherboard. Get a single 36 or 74GB raptor as your "work" drive and a massive 250GB 7200rpm HDD for storage. The DVD writer I still recommend for backup, and with graphics card it still doesn't matter as much.

Good luck!

[embdaw]

My DREAM computer is a Power Mac G5 with:

• Dual 2.7GHz PowerPC G5
• 2GB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 4x512
• 400GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
• NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL w/256MB GDDR3 SDRAM
• Apple Cinema HD Display (30" flat panel) <-----friggin AWESOME!
• 16x SuperDrive double-layer (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

....hmmmm...just need the $8000 ;)

[Jonny]

I agree, the ultimate PC is a Mac.

[Digital Prophet]

God let's not have the Mac vs. PC argument.

My ultimate photo editing PC would be a box that had a midget in it to do the work for me.

- Digital Prophet -

[Pekka]

I would build:

- AMD Athlon 64 X2 with suitable motherboard
- one 22" CRT (e.g Lacie) one 20" LCD (e.g. Eizo)
- 4GB RAM
- display adapter can be Matrox if you do not play games
- one 10K/rpm disk (SCSI or SATA) only for RAW cache. Fastest you can find.
- SATA drives: couple in main PC, more in separate enclosure (any PC) behind a gigabit network
- Backup all photos to 2 USB or Firewire drives (SATA) and selected ones also to DVDs.

(why most drives in separate PC? Reasons are heat, noise, power, space, firewall security).

[Sketcher]

This isn't so much an "Ultimate" photo editing pc but it's what I'm building right now in lieu of my ultimate pc:

- which motherboard: ASUS P5AD2-E
- which cpu and speed: Intel P4 3.6Ghz
- which brand of memory: Crucial Ballistix DDR 5300 (2GB)
- which graphics card: Matrox Parhelia APVe (PCI-Express)
- which harddrives: 2 - 74GB Raptors, 5 - 250GB Diamondmax SATA 150's
- which additional hd's: 1 removable 250GB SATA 150
- which additional storage: 250MB internal ZIP Drive
- which backup media: 2 - NEC 2520a (DVD+-RW), 300GB Firewire Backup
- which monitor: 3 - 20" Dell 2001FP LCD's on an Ergotron mount
- which media reader: some no name 7-in-1 internal and a USB 2.0 Sandisk Reader.
- which case: Lian-Li PC v1000 (yup, all that stuff above fits in there w/room to spare... ok, not much room ;))

I do like AMD equipment and have been pleased with the builds I've done thus far. Definitely best bang for the buck and benchmarks currently leave little room to argue. However; this time around I decided to consider technology aside from CPU architecture. I liked what I saw in the ASUS P5AD2-E motherboard and wanted to tinker a little with Intel Matrix Raid technology.

[Citizensmith]

Budget Box - http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/system-guide-200504.ars/2
Hot Rod - http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/system-guide-200504.ars/3
Home Theatre PC - http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/htpc-guide.ars/2
and,
"Like a tiny God" - http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/system-guide-200504.ars/4

[Bosman]

Another vote for Mac!!

Does anybody who really wants to get anything done use anything else?

[tommykjensen]

Another vote for Mac!!

Does anybody who really wants to get anything done use anything else?

Please don't turn this into a religion war between PC vs MAC !

[MazerRakhm]

God let's not have the Mac vs. PC argument.

My ultimate photo editing PC would be a box that had a midget in it to do the work for me.

- Digital Prophet -

I'm with you if I can substitute a midget for an Oompa Loompa (sp?)!

Otherwise I say anything 3+Ghz, At least a gig of ram, and a video card with some memory to it for later when you want to play some games.

[Jonny]

- which additional storage: 250MB internal ZIP Drive



I am curious why you chose a zip drive, i thought these were pretty much old hat nowadays.

What kind of write speed do they have? Is it faster than writing 250mb to a CD ant todays speeds?

I have never used a zip disk.

[CyberDyneSystems]

My "Lottery Win" PC includes either a Tyan "Thunder" http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8we.html

or Iwill ;
http://www.iwillstore.com/product.asp?pf_id=MADK8N

DUAL Opteron Mainboard with up to 8GB of RAM PER CPU!!!! (each CPU has it's own dedicated memory)

I'd use Corsair memory.. whatever was best for the board I chose.
For graphics a good Matrox card.
SATA RAID 1 for all the data storage (dual 250GB 7200 RPM)
and at least one "raptor" 10K RPM drive for the OS,. and maybe another for the swap files.

Monitors,. I'm all set for and I highly recommend the Sony Trinitron AG monitors in 21" and 24"

[twl845]

What ever you need to do the job, plus what ever you think you'll never use.

[Sketcher]

I am curious why you chose a zip drive, i thought these were pretty much old hat nowadays.

What kind of write speed do they have? Is it faster than writing 250mb to a CD ant todays speeds?

I have never used a zip disk. Realistically, I have a few 1 and 2 GB USB drives that I'll likely use more than the 250MB ZIP; but it's nice to have easy to use re-writable media on hand. Leaving it (and a box full of disks) gather dust on the shelf while I had room in the case didn't make much sense. I don't know about write speeds, I just like having multiple storage options available and the 250MB zips have served me well.

*Edit - Iomega's website states a sustainable 2.4MB/sec transfer speed. All I know is that it's fast enough that I've never really thought of it as being slow. Then again, 250MB isn't all that much data to transfer in the first place (compared to current technology).

[soupdragon]

I already own the dream PC.

But then that's my dream.

[EOSAddict]

Have just (last week) built from scratch a PC - mainly to cope with the demands of my EOS D Habit, so here goes:

ASUS P5GDC Deluxe Motherboard (with Wifi for futre upgrade to Media streming)
P4 3.0 775 processor
1GB Samsung (2x512) PC4200 DDR2
1x 250GB Seagate Barracurda SATA
1x LG 4163 DVD-r/rw/ram
ASUS Extreme X300 Graphics (because I don't need great 3d fps)
LG1915S 19" LCD
480W quiet PSU
Coolermaster Cavalier Tower Case
Intenral 7-in1 Card Reader
PSE3, PS 6, RSE, Picasa 2
M'Soft MCE 2005 OS

Looking Good so far and toal cost approx £900

[Bosman]

I am curious why you chose a zip drive, i thought these were pretty much old hat nowadays.

What kind of write speed do they have? Is it faster than writing 250mb to a CD ant todays speeds?

I have never used a zip disk.
Jonny, since you're a mac user like myself, I'll let you in on a little secret, pc users are still using floppy drives. Try to contian your laughter.

[deedas]

All I want is a bottom model PM.

Even that is way more than anyone could ever need for PS work.

One day I'll buy an ACD for my PB. That will make PSing so much easier.

[Andrew Pratt]

Jonny, since you're a mac user like myself, I'll let you in on a little secret, pc users are still using floppy drives. Try to contian your laughter.

Not all of us :) The laptop world long since dropped floppy drives and I don't recall the last time I used the one in my tower at work.

[Wazza]

Sadly, my uncle just bought a very nice pc. And my own PC, is now several times slower....

http://wazz*****scity.com/temp/ultimate.jpg
(even came with the baked beans. ;))

190b philips 19" lcd

Gigabyte 6800GT 256mb DDR3 memory DVI & D-SUB

AMD 64 FX 3800 (2.4Ghz, overclocked to 4.8, before it fell over, :lol:)

ASUS AV8 Rev 2 Deluxe

Geil Platinum Uktra X DDR400 3200 x 2 Dual Channel 2gb (4x512)

[tommykjensen]

Please take Your PC vs MAC war somewhere else!

[Alexia]

My old PC setup that I sold was very efficient at editing high resolution photos. AMD Athlon 2700+ with 512mbs of RAM.

Now my current setup is much faster and I appreciate the speed.
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Newcastle
DFI LanpartyUT nF3 250gb (Very very very nice motherboard for the price.)
2x Kingston HyperX 512mbs PC-3200 (Buy quality RAM and only go for the super high quality sticks if you want to tweak/overclock your PC. Value RAM is alright if it is from a good brand name.)

In my current setup, I have 776gbs of hard drive space. With video, sound, case, PSU, and ecetera added in, my setup costs right about $1,500. It really shows that a system like mine is somewhat on the extreme side, but take out the unnecessary extras to come up with a very nice photo editing PC that is something no manufactuered PC will get you for the same price.

PowerMacs - Very nice. :) I love OS X, but I have a passionate hate for hardware lock in. If that doesn't bother you, they are worth the price they charge.

[tommykjensen]

This isn't so much an "Ultimate" photo editing pc but it's what I'm building right now in lieu of my ultimate pc:

- which motherboard: ASUS P5AD2-E
- which cpu and speed: Intel P4 3.6Ghz
- which brand of memory: Crucial Ballistix DDR 5300 (2GB)
- which graphics card: Matrox Parhelia APVe (PCI-Express)
- which harddrives: 2 - 74GB Raptors, 5 - 250GB Diamondmax SATA 150's
- which additional hd's: 1 removable 250GB SATA 150
- which additional storage: 250MB internal ZIP Drive
- which backup media: 2 - NEC 2520a (DVD+-RW), 300GB Firewire Backup
- which monitor: 3 - 20" Dell 2001FP LCD's on an Ergotron mount
- which media reader: some no name 7-in-1 internal and a USB 2.0 Sandisk Reader.
- which case: Lian-Li PC v1000 (yup, all that stuff above fits in there w/room to spare... ok, not much room ;))

I do like AMD equipment and have been pleased with the builds I've done thus far. Definitely best bang for the buck and benchmarks currently leave little room to argue. However; this time around I decided to consider technology aside from CPU architecture. I liked what I saw in the ASUS P5AD2-E motherboard and wanted to tinker a little with Intel Matrix Raid technology.

What about cooling for this monster?
And which powersupply for all this stuff?

I think I like this setup, though I don't think I will add 3 monitors ;-) Now to lookup prices on all that.


Please people take Your MAC vs PC war somewhere else. I don't want this thread locked - but if necesary I will request it locked myself!

[tommykjensen]

Does anybody know about reliable online shops in UK or Germany with reasonable prices?

[CyberDyneSystems]

Power Supplies:
Modern PCs especially AMD boards need good power supplies.
PC Power And Cooling, Antec,and some of the other new high end units are all you should consider.

Cooling needs to be thought out in two parts,. with the case and CPU.
I'm not up to day\te on the CPU coolers.. but a good name brand unit for which ever processor you chose,. Thermaltake, Thermalright, Zalman etc... lots of copper and aluminum!

Here's one that looks up to the task!
http://www.xoxide.com/thermalright-xp-90-cpu-cooler.html

[tommykjensen]

If I am going to build a new pc I am considering this case

http://aspireusa.net/product.php?pid=65

which has a 500 watt powersupply and 5 fans!

And I would probably choose a ThermalTake cpu fan.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Wow,. that certainly looks to have all the bells and whistles and then some!

So it's just a CPU cooler you'll need on top of that.

[lostdoggy]

With all those hard drive I think 500Watt is too little. I'mrunning 2 HDD (120and 160 GB) and two DVDr and One case fan one CPU fan and 2 PS fan on 400W PS and its barely enough. Since My home is climate control to 72 degree F throughout the Year, the Tower maintains an internal temp of 92 to 102 degree F with CPU temp at 112 to 124 degree F. All this with 2.8Ghz Intel CPU. With a 3.6Ghz that would significantly increase the temperture.

[CyberDyneSystems]

I didn't even know they made more than 500watt PS supplies?

I'm running a lowly Athlon 1900+.. slightly overclocked on an Abit board,. 1GB RAM, 128MB ram in the graphics card,. Four Hard drives on all the time, two more optional at bootup (internal) .. and two optical drives.

This on a GOOD 400 watt unit.

[tommykjensen]

You can get 600 watt

http://www.chieftec.de/?page=products_big&id=212&k_id=4&language=uk

But more usefull for normal pc's are probably this 550 watt

http://www.chieftec.de/?page=products_big&id=240&k_id=4&language=uk


A pc I used as my webserver (until a nasty worm killed the websites :-( ) has a standard powersupply. In this I had 4 IDE harddrives. 2 of those in hotswap bays with fans. DVD and cd write. And a tapestreamer. I did experince some problems running this as sometimes I could hear one of the harddisks loose power just for a split second, I never lost any data on that account (maybe because they were setup in RAID1). Now I have unplugged some of the drives and when it is turned on I have not heard the hd's power down since.

[CDickinson]

La Cie monitor.

[vpkb]

Here's mine
Asus A8N SLI Deluxed
AMD64 939 3200+
2x512 PC 3200 Corsair XMS
2x6600GT
3x160gig SATA Seagate Baracuda (2 @ raid 0)
"some unknow DVD R/RW"
19" viewsonice VX-900 flat panel
creative audigy2 zs

[tommykjensen]

Ok, I have now come so far that I have ordered most of the parts. I just need to choose the video card.

I am down to following 2:

Matrox Parhelia APVe
Matrox Millennium P650 PCIe 128

The APVe have a bunch of output options which I really don't think I need.
The P650 have the minimum output options I need.

So I wonder if I will regret getting the P650 instead of the APVe?

[tim]

What does the expensive one do that the cheaper one doesn't?

[tommykjensen]

What does the expensive one do that the cheaper one doesn't?

Output to a third display, output to HDTV and things like that.

[tim]

Doesn't sound very useful to me, i'd get the cheap one.

[tommykjensen]

Doesn't sound very useful to me, i'd get the cheap one.

The question though is: is the quality of the 2 cards the same or similar? Or in other words are the extra cost only used to get the extra output facilities.

[tim]

I've read someone say even a 3 year old matrox will give excellent quality. Best thing to do is google reviews, I can't really help much with PC stuff, gave up caring a while back. Try tomshardware or firingsquad.com

[tommykjensen]

I already searched for reviews of both but it seems they are so new (march/april) that there are not many reviews and most of the links returned by google comes from price compare sites etc.

[lost]

Ok so I only read the first page but noticed that no one advised Stripped SCSI 15k drives. If I was going for pure speed and not having to worry about money that is what I would get. (thats what I run in all my servers)