When to buy a new PC - any advantage to waiting?

If you are on Adobe, Nvidia GPUs are the only real choice. 500 or 600 series (400s run quite hot and are being phased out). Or Quadros if you are doing serious 3D work. (True, the Nvidia issue is less critical if you are not doing video (right now), but why bother handicapping yourself right from the get-go? Times change, and clients and software only get more demanding.)

I am running a moderately overclocked 2600k on the stock cooler. I was waiting for the mounting brackets for my V8 when I built it, but haven't bothered to install it as the temps are fine and it runs CS5 (PP) like a champ without having to push the overclocking. The stock cooler is not the most confidence-inspiring looking thing in the world, but as I'm not into fiddling around with my computer all the time the V8 will have to wait until I need to do something inside the case.

I was worried about Gigabyte but I heard they are really good now so I took a chance with this computer but went higher end rather than lower as the components tend to be better and the extra features can (and did) come in handy. Overclocking the 2600k took about 1 minute on the Gigabyte motherboard- they've come a long way. And two 2-drive RAID 0s, one 2-drive RAID 1, one OS/apps drive (plus 2 more for the hackingtosh) on the on-board controllers run flawlessly and took no time at all to set up. (And without having to invest in a RAID card.) I'm not into benchmark p***ing contests, but I did run PPBM5 when I built it and it was seriously fast even though I was running all my normal crap.

I spent way too many years as a starving artist, so I've spent way too much time over the years (decades) futzing around trying to make cobbled-together or out of date computers do what I need. This was my first ground-up build and it was incredibly simple. And big cases with good, quiet cooling and lots of drives make life easy, back ups less of a pain, and processing fast.

Yeah i'll stick with nVidia for the Adobe connection. Thanks for the heat tip, I do want a quiet card.

Paying NZ$230-$300 for a video card, which is about 65% what the CPU costs, seems crazy given how unimportant it us. Can anyone recommend a 1GB RAM video card that works well with Photoshop that's cheap? Heck my old 8500GT is probably almost good enough, but it's staying in the old machine.

tell us where you shop, and we can see what you have available to you!

and what culling software do you use that utilizes video ram?

Bobster wrote in post #13165771
tell us where you shop, and we can see what you have available to you!

and what culling software do you use that utilizes video ram?

I posted it a couple of days ago, but it was easy to miss. It's this store.

This software using fast video cards and video ram

http://www.fastpicture​viewer.com/

Their blog's interesting too, worth a read.

I mostly need suggestions on a video card (nVidia, not 4x0 series apparently), CPU cooler, case fans, and case. Like I said before it seems crazy to spend NZ$300 or so on a video card when I don't game, given the CPU costs about NZ$550.

Motherboard - http://www.ascent.co.n​z …cation.aspx?Ite​mID=395365
RAM - http://www.ascent.co.n​z …cation.aspx?Ite​mID=398866
Cooler - http://www.ascent.co.n​z …cation.aspx?Ite​mID=396066
Case - http://www.ascent.co.n​z …cation.aspx?Ite​mID=385728

just tested that viewer - i find it no faster than what i currently use - and then i turned on GPU Acceleration - and noticed no speed increase..

Thanks Bob. A few questions:
- Why the $450 MSI motherboard over the $270 Gigabyte one? I might do a mild overclock, but nothing extreme.
- That RAM isn't on the compatibility list, and nothing even similar is on the list. Why that RAM? It's also more expensive than the Corsair XMS3.
- Water cooling is pretty extreme isn't it, mostly for overclockers? I don't see a lot of point choosing water cooling for just the CPU fan if noise is the main consideration, given the other 3-5 fans on the computer will still be making their regular noise.

The case looks good! Huge, but quiet

That viewer's really good for fast culling. My only other program is bridge, it's faster than that. It caches things in video ram, so as soon as you rate an image you go on to the next one. What do you use?

i guess the motherboard is a little on the extreme side VS that gigabyte - 20 USB ports - 10 USB2 and 10USB3 - 2eSATA - your pricing in NZ seems extreme too..

Corsair Vengeance is what i use with my MSI board - the 1600 is better for OCing

that cooler drops temps by 20C which is useful if you OC or live in a hot country

i use Breezebrowser to view and cull

Yeah pricing here can be a bit weird, random, or extreme. It depends how many people want to take a cut before we buy it.

I read up on memory, 1600MHz does seem like the sweet spot for price/performance. The difference between 2066 and 1333 is pretty small though, for real world tasks. I suspect overclocking might make use of the faster ram a bit better, but again probably not massive. I'd tend to buy ram listed as compatible, as i've had problems in the past.

I've had Lian Li, Silverstone, and Vantec cases recommended now. I guess i'll just look at the models and decide what I like. I do like the one you linked too, pretty big too, which is handy.

I'll probably get a cheaper fan, but move up to water cooling if it seems necessary later. Thanks for the idea

After a bit of reading i'm thinking...

Antec P180 case. I like it because I can put my CIS on top of it, can't do that with the Silverstone case Bob recommends. EDIT - turns out that motherboard won't fit in that case. I'll check the other large Antec options when I get a bit of free time.

RAM - what Bob said.

Power Supply - Antec High Current Gamer 520.

Graphics card, Gigabyte 220 based card. It has VGA (for my TV) and DVI/HDMI. I could go for something else and use a DVI-VGA converter, but that card's cheap and should work fine. Graphics cards are easy to upgrade later. I hope it can recognise my digital output as primary, my current cheap nVidia card defaults to analog as primary, which means I have to turn the big TV on to do stuff in the BIOS, or unplug the cable to the TV.

Does anyone have any opinions on those parts?

when buying a video card, you don't want a model that is over 2 years old - go for something that at least has DX11 support..

http://www.ascent.co.n​z …cation.aspx?Ite​mID=387215

Is the 220 based card really that old? I have no idea about that. Good tip on the DX11 though.

That video card fails two of my requirements - 1GB RAM and nVidia based. But i'll keep poking around. Suggestions for what's best are still appreciated.

I've decided on the Antec 183 case. Unfortuntaely it's not available for two weeks, but that's not a big problem. If I get impatient this Lian Li case looks ideal, but it's $440 compared with the $230 of the Antec. As far as I can see its only advantage is it has noise reduction foam prefitted, which I can do myself anyway.

I think the newer GT 520 should be good enough for Photoshop. I can always upgrade to a 550 or something later if I need to.

Right, i've gone and ordered it Cooler Master Silencio 550 mid tower case (decided against full tower), i7 2600K, 16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM, that Gigabyte motherboard, Gigabyte 520 video card, Antec PSU with a big fan, LG DVD writer, and Cooler Master 212 Plus cooler (smaller than the V6 and works very well). I'll move over my two SSDs and five drives, Windows 7, and i'll probably sell the old PC to a friend who needs a new computer.

Thanks to everyone for their help

Moppie - any idea what a working Q6600 PC, 4GB RAM, basic graphics card, and a single medium sized spinning disk should sell for? It's still relatively quick for regular stuff like email and web.

Bobster wrote in post #13171251
when buying a video card, you don't want a model that is over 2 years old - go for something that at least has DX11 support..

So you're saying my ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro will not be a good choice when I upgrade my system? Shall I rather go with the on-board graphics of the Z68?

I have two monitors.

Thanks.