Must Upgrade PC :: Suggestions?

Shortly, I'll have a new PC built from scratch.

What is a functional setup with high speed and accurate color these days?

Here's what I have that I'll keep:
- The O/S and all software
- CS2
- 2x 500 GB USB drive for backup rotation

Here's what I think I should grab, but what mfr? What's reliable these days?
- Some kind of RAID 5 array, 1 TB + OS drives
- At least a dual core CPU
- At least 4 GB RAM
- I might keep the ATI vid card, but I'll bet something else is better
- May keep the Sony 21" flatscreen but add something else?
- Any good high-speed CD-ROM RW + DVD R stuff around now?

Quite honestly would go for a Mac BUT since your heart is set on a PC...

RAID is fine as long as the drives are mirrored. Once you start striping, you're out of luck with inaccessible data when the card fails a few years down the line and you can't get another identical card.

I'd go for a DVD reader/writer.. I don't know what light-scribe is but it sounds interesting.

id stay wayyy away from Vista (new window operating system), that thing is sooo slow and such a memory hog. wish i still had my XP *sigh*

first thing I always ask when someone wants a new computer, what u gonna use it for? if only like browsing internet and emails, then any computer will do. If u gonna be doing alot of photoshop editing, thats a completely different computer. Tons of ram and prob a raid setup for security.

I just setup a Core 2 Duo E6700 - 2 GB Corsair XMS 6400C4 RAM - NO RAID as I went with Raptor drives for the OS & Apps, Raptor for Scratch Disk/Page File and 2 SATA II drives for storage and backups. This thing is super fast at running CS3 and LR.

Yes, Vista s*cks, I still have a Mac, it does iTunes, don't ask.

Tsmith interesting setup -- And did you really get your screen name changed? I hate mine.

I have to mirror what everyone else is saying on the memory. The mroe the better. Just keep in mind the memory issues with XP (4GB total including page file...if I remember correctly) and Vista is supposed to support a full 4GB of ram. You may want to research this a little to make a good decision. As far as Vista being as horrible as everyone says, I don't have the same problems. I have been running Vista Business on a well equipped Dell XPS M1710 laptop with no problems. I run CS3, LR, SQL, Office (all products), and various other programs as well. This may not be everyones experience, but it is mine. For the RAID, I think a RAID5 is a good idea. It is not something you want to rely on as the only backup (make other backups on DVD or something similar), but it is a very nice thing to have. If you set it up right and use a hot-swap drive, it is that much better. Hope this helps.

When I worked at a compter repair shop I decided to quite when vista came out. it'll be as horrible and buggy as XP was for the first two years. It's definitely a resource hog.

Tsmith wrote in post #3367271
I just setup a Core 2 Duo E6700 - 2 GB Corsair XMS 6400C4 RAM - NO RAID as I went with Raptor drives for the OS & Apps, Raptor for Scratch Disk/Page File and 2 SATA II drives for storage and backups. This thing is super fast at running CS3 and LR.

I like this. People that have never had an OS load off a Raptor don't know what they are missing. The only thing faster is loading the OS off two striped raptors.

I'd get this:

http://www.buy.com …204389946.html?​adid=17662

and this:

http://www.buy.com …203263801.html?​adid=17662

What budget are you working with? That plays a big roll in where you allocate your funds. We would easily spec out a $6000 desktop, but that does no good if you have $2000 to spend. Also, I fully agree on hard drive speed. I have been a fan of SCSI 15K RPM drives for a while now. That is all we run in our 10 servers that I manage.

$3K budget (yeah, that helps!)

Sathi your first like looks like a fine idea; second at this time points to some RAM chips. (The URL may not be static)

Buy a Dell - components guaranteed to work together, good warranty, and zero hassle. Reformat the drive and install XP. I'd forget RAID, it's almost never a limiting factor on my machine, plus I think you need quite a few disks for RAID 5. 4GB of RAM is almost excessive, 2GB is fine so long as you can upgrade to 4GB later if you need it. Video card doesn't matter if you're not playing 3D games. All optical drives are decent, I got an LG I think, because it has a good reputation for ripping stuff off them.

Horton, you really want an S-IPS panel if you're going to do serious photography work. You can go here to see if the panel you're looking at is S-IPS (ie. the Samsung is not).

For the processor, make sure it's an Intel Core 2 Duo. E6600 or better, preferably.

CD/DVD drives are commodities now...just find a good deal on one and buy it. If it breaks, replace it. They're too cheap to worry about. Lite-On, LG, Benq, NEC are all good brands.

Any decent video card should work fine.

tim wrote in post #3374078
Buy a Dell - components guaranteed to work together, good warranty, and zero hassle.

If he has the skill to build his own machine then why not? The warranties on individual components are usually superior and he will be able to ensure top quality parts. $3,000 seems pretty excessive to me though. At a certain point diminishing returns on bleeding edge components takes over. You would get overall better performance over time if you spent $1500 on a PC now, and then buy another PC for $1,500 in 18 months then you would by dropping all $3K in one shot today.

You might want to checkout www.slickdeals.net They have a link to 2Gigs corsair PC 1066 ballistix ram for $87 AR selling on newegg. You could get 4 gigs of some of the best ram available for $175. Doesn't get much better than that. See what I mean? It would be kinda hard almost to spend $3K on a machine without getting a little silly. Maybe you could fit this into your budget as long as your Johnny BigBucks. I know I would.

http://www.dell.com …wfp?c=us&cs=19&​l=en&s=dhs

With a $3k budget, I would forget about RAID5. You will be hard pressed to find a computer with an internal RAID5 and with good components elsewhere for the $3k mark. I agree with tim on the Dell. I am in charge of our entire companies computers and they are all Dell. For the money they are hard to beat. I have heard a lot of problems with their lower end machines, but for $2000+ for the tower, you are far from a low end machine. I will also say, it is worth it to get the upgraded service plan. All of our machines have the next day on-site service. We have used it about 6 times in the 5 years I have worked here and it was a lifesaver when there was a technician on site the next day with parts in hand. If you are going to go with XP I would go with 2GB of memory in a 4x512mb configuration. That will usually outperform 2x1GB. Do not get an onboard video card as most of them share the system memory and that takes from the performance. There is not need for a 512 mb video card or anything. A 128mb card would serve just fine for doing pictures (lower would also work, but i dont think you can find them anywhere).

On the RAID topic as well, you need to have a minimum of 3 disks for RAID 5. Not to mention a lot of other issues that can come up with them. If you had a larger budget, I still think it is a good idea.

The monitor is a place you will want to spend some money. As was already said get an S-IPS panel. The 24" from Dell (I believe is S-IPS) looks like it would be nice to have if you have the deskspace for it. Also, with the really big monitors you may want to think about how close you are going to sit. I just tried a 22" and it was way too big as I am only 2' from the monitor.