Price / Performance

[billmidd]

So doing some research on an upgraded rig.

I've built several PC's in the past, but it's been 7 years since my last build and this will be my first for graphic editing so wanted to get some input.

Looks like I should be focusing on Processing power and ram.

Looks like the after the i7-860 there is a big jump in price for not that much performance.

Any advice on amount of DDR3 and channel configurations / timings to get good performance.

Looks like whatever the cheapest gfx card that will do my resolutions will be fine right?

Anything else I should be looking at?

[basroil]

If you are doing photo editing, get an i7 chip, either 860 or 920, a roomy case, decent motherboard, 4-12gb ram, and minimal graphics card (If you are running a the new U2711 or dual 1080p+ monitors, I would suggest something at least as powerful as the ati 4850 just in case GPU accelerations in photoshop carry over into LR2 and such).

If you are interested in video, at least 6gb is recommended, and if you use premiere pro cs4, upgrade to 4.2 and get an nvidia geforce gtx 285.

You don't need more than 8gb ram for photo editing, and any dual channel ddr3 ram (or tri channel) is more than fine, and timings and speed don't really do anything, maybe increase video encoding FPS from 100 to 101 (from crappiest timings to best ones).

If you want the power of a higher spec'ed i7 chip (870, 940 to 975) but don't want to pay the price, buy yourself a good cooler and overclock those things. You can get a 10% OC without even breaking a sweat, 35% OC on a good air rig, 50% OC with some better cooling while still being fairly stable

[StudioBin]

basroil,

Regarding OC.. how reliable is it now? Back in the day I would always shut off my computer when I am not using. Having the computer running 24/7 was not an option. That is one of the reasons I stopped OC my pass desktop computers because I never shut off my desktop computer.

[basroil]

basroil,

Regarding OC.. how reliable is it now? Back in the day I would always shut off my computer when I am not using. Having the computer running 24/7 was not an option. That is one of the reasons I stopped OC my pass desktop computers because I never shut off my desktop computer.

Well, since then, intel introduced speedstep, and now turbo. Disable both, and a 20% OC is 20% faster, but also takes more power and increases random heat related issues. Add speedstep, and OC doesn't work as well, but the chip will idle at a quarter of the power (half the clock speed), so heat isn't an issue and you can leave the machine on all the time. My i7 920 pulls about 149W peak, but only about 34W idle. 34W is not bad at all, and performance hit isn't all that large. From all the reports I've seen, a medium OC (maybe 3.4gh for an i7 920 ) doesn't actually have any impact on the stability or chip integrity. Maybe we'll learn more about that in a few years, but machines that have been running i7s for over a year haven't been cropping up issues due to OCs last I knew.

[Poe]

What RAM speed do you recommend?

[billmidd]

I imagine it would depend on the bus speed... but I think there is no FSB on the i7's so maybe Basroil can chime in in where to get the optimal speed.

I'd imagine you take the total GHz of your CPU and divide it by the multiplier.... then if you are planning on OC'ing get a step or two faster.

[djvkool]

if you are doing photoshop, the most important is the memory (RAM), make sure you install 64-bit Windows 7, and install at least 8GB RAM (12GB would be better) - and to make it even faster, use a fast RAID with the scratch HDD (as long as you have about 1TB scratch HDD)

[basroil]

if you are doing photoshop, the most important is the memory (RAM), make sure you install 64-bit Windows 7, and install at least 8GB RAM (12GB would be better) - and to make it even faster, use a fast RAID with the scratch HDD (as long as you have about 1TB scratch HDD)

If you look at the tests, it's not actually true at all. After 4-6gb, photoshop stops using more memory properly. An SSD for scratch tends to make a much higher performance increase than more ram, as does a faster processor.

As for memory, older tests showed there isn't much difference between 1333 and higher speed memory except in synthetic tests that don't mean anything, so just go with 1333 or even 1067.

[Poe]

If you are doing photo editing, get an i7 chip, either 860 or 920, a roomy case, decent motherboard, 4-12gb ram, and minimal graphics card (If you are running a the new U2711 or dual 1080p+ monitors, I would suggest something at least as powerful as the ati 4850 just in case GPU accelerations in photoshop carry over into LR2 and such).

If you are interested in video, at least 6gb is recommended, and if you use premiere pro cs4, upgrade to 4.2 and get an nvidia geforce gtx 285.

You don't need more than 8gb ram for photo editing, and any dual channel ddr3 ram (or tri channel) is more than fine, and timings and speed don't really do anything, maybe increase video encoding FPS from 100 to 101 (from crappiest timings to best ones).

If you want the power of a higher spec'ed i7 chip (870, 940 to 975) but don't want to pay the price, buy yourself a good cooler and overclock those things. You can get a 10% OC without even breaking a sweat, 35% OC on a good air rig, 50% OC with some better cooling while still being fairly stable

Is the GTX 285 better for video editing than the ATI 4850 or some of the higher end ATIs? I may need to plan for the right video card too, since video seems to be an included feature in all new canon bodies and I'll probably want to play around with video in addition to processing photos.

[MaxxuM]

Is the GTX 285 better for video editing than the ATI 4850 or some of the higher end ATIs? I may need to plan for the right video card too, since video seems to be an included feature in all new canon bodies and I'll probably want to play around with video in addition to processing photos.

The 4850 would be adequate for even professional video work. Just make sure you do your homework on the motherboard's chipset. Intel chipsets are generally better than most because everyone else references Intel, they just add some frills.

[basroil]

Is the GTX 285 better for video editing than the ATI 4850 or some of the higher end ATIs? I may need to plan for the right video card too, since video seems to be an included feature in all new canon bodies and I'll probably want to play around with video in addition to processing photos.

ONLY if you use Premiere Pro CS4 (updated to 4.2). It is one of the few cards that Premiere Pro accepts for gpu accelerated video.

If you don't use Premiere Pro CS4, then no point.

EDIT:
The 4850 would be adequate for even professional video work. Just make sure you do your homework on the motherboard's chipset. Intel chipsets are generally better than most because everyone else references Intel, they just add some frills.

Wouldn't say better, but usually Intel motherboards are ridiculously stable at the expense of extras that most people don't need or can't use.

[themadman]

I personally won't worry about OC too much. If you notice, the heat sinks Intel now packs with their processors area bout 1/3 the size of the ones they packed with P4's. I really don't think heat is an issue if you get a decent after market heat sink, preferably one made of a ton of copper =)

[basroil]

I personally won't worry about OC too much. If you notice, the heat sinks Intel now packs with their processors area bout 1.3 the size of the ones they packed with P4's. I really don't think heat is an issue if you get a decent after market heat sink, preferably one made of a ton of copper =)

If you notice, the quality of the Intel sinks has improved over the ones they packed in the P4s.

P4 heasinks were massive, but thermodynamically speaking, they were garbage. The spiral sink with center hub and heat piped box are much more efficient, as are the fans (i7 920 fan does 60cfm+, old p4 ones got maybe 20). If you plan on overclocking, I do suggest getting a good heatsink/fan combo, but you can overclock on intel coolers if you don't mind the extra noise (it'll be at a higher cycle than some larger coolers)

[themadman]

Hmmm weird... I must have gotten a strange P4 then cause the heatsink on mine looks the same as the ones they packed with later processors, spiral design and all. Now that you mentioned it I do recall my friend got the "same" processor as I did but got this piece of crap heatsink that was essentially a block of aluminum with straight fins sticking out the side. Maybe what I got was an anomaly?

[basroil]

Hmmm weird... I must have gotten a strange P4 then cause the heatsink on mine looks the same as the ones they packed with later processors, spiral design and all. Now that you mentioned it I do recall my friend got the "same" processor as I did but got this piece of crap heatsink that was essentially a block of aluminum with straight fins sticking out the side. Maybe what I got was an anomaly?

LGA 775 heatsink (for up to 95W) is the spiral thing, and it works just fine for core 2 duo ( think my core 2 quad also has a similar one, but can't remember). The old socket type P4 had the aluminum fin block. That thing was pathetic.

[b.han]

On the topic of heatsinks, I usually just invest in an aftermarket one.

In terms of what memory speed, go for the fastest speed your motherboard can handle. It usually doesn't cost more for faster memory.