video card to look for... (or other vital computer specs)

sapearl wrote in post #6186589
Hi Beth - a scratch disk is another (physical) hard drive in addition to your boot drive C:.

On Windows machines there's always a lot of disk fragmentation through normal daily use and web surfing. I imagine similar things happen on a Mac, but I don't have that platform so can't speak with any authority. Photoshop and other image editing programs work best when all the data files are in ONE place, and have been subjected to minimal fragmentation.

When you setup Photoshop, you can specify a scratch disk. You are telling PS where to specifically go to retrieve, save and work on your image files. And this physical disk is a different location than the disk holding your program files. PS runs a lot fast and more efficiently when you have a scratch disk. - Stu

Is there a minimal size HD the scratch disk should be? Im in the process of getting some components together for a new computer build, and wasnt sure how big the scratch disk really needed to be. Thanks!!!!!

smcclelland wrote in post #6182399
A good cost effective option would be an Nvidia 8800 GT 512mb. Plenty of power for doing any photo display and processing and if you're a gamer on the side it will hold its own.

I also highly recommend that card. Best bang for the buck right now IMO.

Here is my 2 cents on this one.

The video card anything with the Nvidia 8800 GT is a very good choice for as low as $129 the GTX 260 if you have more money to spend around $300.

If you wan't to buy ATI then the card I would go with is the HD 4850 great "bang for your buck" because the card is priced at $200 I have seen them as low as $154. If I had to replace my Nvidia's right now I would buy this card.

As for the processor I've been a long time AMD user myself never had any problem processing large amounts of photo's on my 2200 my 3400 or my current 4000X2. My 4000X2 has 4GB of memory and when I was still using windows never ran out of memory, I am now a Kubuntu Linux user and that never runs out of memory either. The 3400 only had about 2GB and that worked really smoothly as well. The 2200 was used for DJ-ing and only had 1GB of memory in it which never gave me any problems it now acts as a server with the same amount of memory and Kubuntu on it it also doubles as our Media center PC it's hooked up to the tv.

I would say anything dual core is better. In general the Intels out of the box are a little faster then the AMD's.

A little thing about memory, when you are using software that needs alot of memory you really shouldn't have anything running on it but that software. If you like to listening to music use an iPod or a laptop. If you want to do other stuff while batch processing pictures use another computer.

Hard drives:
I set up almost every system I build(I'm a computer guy so I build a lot of systems) with two or more hard drives. I use 80GB's or up for the OS and 160GB's and up for data. Keep in mind that you have to back up all the data you put on there so going big isn't always the best solution.

The ideal system would be:
80GB OS
160GB Data
And 320GB's External storage for backup.

Or:
160GB OS
320GB Data
And 1000GB's External storage for backup.

I use the ratio Data x 2 or so for back up you always wanna make sure you have enough to back up to.

A really nice system to have for backup is the Drobo. Drobo can have up to 4 drives, when 1 drive fails you can switch it out with out loosing data.

OK that was a little more then two cents LOL

IMO- Intel is the only way to go right now. The dollar/processing power is so low that it doesnt make sense to save yourself a few (20-40$) and get a much slower machine than to spend the extra few and get something that will chug along and be good for a least a few years.

As everyones been saying- you're much better off to buy all of the components (and find your local kid down the street to assemble it for you and install your OS (vista x64 I would hope) for you for like 20-30$) so that you can spend roughly 5-600, have a smoking machine, and know it's going to last for a least another few years down the road.

Anyway- I've built my fair share of machines in the past- I've now moved onto a laptop-only setup. I couldnt stand transferring files back and forth so I got a really nice laptop (dell d830 with the wuxga(ultrasharp 1920x1200) 15.4" screen, 4gb ram, 2.5ghz 6mb core 2 duo) and a good monitor (Dell 2408wfp), and docking station and now I've got a desktop performing machine that I can undock, take to a shoot with me, shoot controlling my camera, and then look at the files all at the same time, know I've got good color reproduction (as its a certified dell premium panel) and go back home to work at 24" size.

IMO, well worth it. I've got a 250gb drive on the laptop, I have a 500gb currently as my "external drive" but I think I'm going to need more space soon as movies are starting to take over.

skywalkerbeth wrote in post #6181201
Hi everyone

I'm STILL in vapor-lock about what new desktop to get. I know that I should look for an Intel chip, the faster the better.. get a big hard drive... (min 500gb)

What Video Card should I seek out, or merely just avoid like the plague? I go to the websites that will help you "build" a computer online but I never know what to look for in that department.

If there are other things to avoid like the plague, let me know. When I do this "build" it comes up with something that looks like a good price and a lot of features, but I have no idea if the components offered are great or not.

Many thanks...

where are u ?

Thank you everyone. I bought a Dell with 640gig hard drive. It's quite fast too...

lol Good job.

Computers are cheap now i started building like 3 years ago.. i paid 300 bucks fora 3.2 P$ >.> on my last computer i paid 90 bucks for a 2.53 dual core OCd to 3.33 i am quite happy with my set up... 8800GT is actually the card ihave and i have to agree that it is a great deal (paid about 100 bucks for mine)
But i have a question for all the smart people out there if i had 3 hard drives 2 120s and a 320 would it possible to run both raid 0 and 1? so for the speeod raid the 2 120s togeather and for back up raid the 2 120s to the 320? o_0 sry for hijacking lol