Help with a new system

I am considering upgrading by computer and let AVA build me a system which will primarily be used for image editing. I am looking for a system that will handle LR and PS CS4 and be reliable. What they suggested is the following:

· ANTEC, Performance One P193 Black Mid-Tower Computer Case, EATX, No PSU
· CORSAIR, CMPSU-750TX TX Series Power Supply, 750W, 80 PLUS®, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, Multi-GPU Ready
· ASUS, P6T Deluxe V2, LGA1366, Intel® X58, 6400 MT/s QPI, DDR3-2000 (O.C.) 24GB /6, PCIe x16 SLI CF /3, SATA 3 Gb/s RAID 5 /6, HDA, GbLAN /2, FW /2, ATX, Retail
· INTEL, Core™ i7-920 Quad-Core 2.66GHz, LGA1366, 4.8 GT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, 45nm, 130W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail
· COOLER MASTER, Hyper N520 CPU Cooler, Socket 775/1366/754/939/940/A​M2, Copper/Aluminum
· CORSAIR, 6GB (3 x 2GB) XMS3 PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz CL9 (9-9-9) 1.5V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
· EVGA, GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked, GTX 260 626MHz, 896MB GDDR3 2106MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, DVI /2, HDTV Out, Retail
· WESTERN DIGITAL, 150GB (WD1500HLFS) WD VelociRaptor™, SATA 3 Gb/s, 10000 RPM, 16MB cache
· RAID, No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
· SONY, AD-7241S Black 24x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ Lightscribe, SATA, OEM
· ROSEWILL, RCR-IM5001 Black/Silver 75-in-1 Card Reader/Writer Drive w/ 3 USB 2.0 and eSATA ports, 3.5" Bay, SATA, USB 2.0
· MICROSOFT, Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Edition, OEM
· WARRANTY, 3 Year Limited Parts, Life-Time Labor Warranty

If any of you computer knowledgeable people could comment on their choice of parts I would be most thankful.

What are they charging? Also, only one Velociraptor? It's a nice drive (I have two), but it isn't for storage.

Overall, it looks like a good system, but just about any quad is adequate for editing photos. That machine looks like it's more for gaming then photography. The key will be which monitor you choose.

They want about $1800. The monitor is a non issue as I have a NEC 2490. Most of my storage is kept on external hard drives. Having been reading about computer mfg. just throwing in inexpensive parts that soon fail, I was hoping that these parts were more "bullet proof". Since my knowledge of computer components is severly limited, any suggestions are appreciated.

Poaceae wrote in post #9374531
Having been reading about computer mfg. just throwing in inexpensive parts that soon fail, I was hoping that these parts were more "bullet proof".

Not sure where you read this bull from, I know dell uses brand name parts for the most part (dvd drives from them are now iffy, but have yet to get one to fail), my motherboards are asus and foxconn (who also build a lot of parts for apple), hdds are WD or seagate (laptop ones are seagate, fujitsu, and toshiba), ATI (AMD-ATI built and eVGA) video cards, etc, etc.

MaxxuM wrote in post #9374341
What are they charging? Also, only one Velociraptor? It's a nice drive (I have two), but it isn't for storage.

+1. If he didn't want it for data and just wanted a boot drive, OCZ and kingston make great SSD boot drives for the same price as a velociraptor, and have faster read speeds especially in low sized files.

Poaceae wrote in post #9374031
I am considering upgrading by computer and let AVA build me a system which will primarily be used for image editing. I am looking for a system that will handle LR and PS CS4 and be reliable. What they suggested is the following:

· ANTEC, Performance One P193 Black Mid-Tower Computer Case, EATX, No PSU
· CORSAIR, CMPSU-750TX TX Series Power Supply, 750W, 80 PLUS®, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, Multi-GPU Ready
· ASUS, P6T Deluxe V2, LGA1366, Intel® X58, 6400 MT/s QPI, DDR3-2000 (O.C.) 24GB /6, PCIe x16 SLI CF /3, SATA 3 Gb/s RAID 5 /6, HDA, GbLAN /2, FW /2, ATX, Retail
· INTEL, Core™ i7-920 Quad-Core 2.66GHz, LGA1366, 4.8 GT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, 45nm, 130W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail
· COOLER MASTER, Hyper N520 CPU Cooler, Socket 775/1366/754/939/940/A​M2, Copper/Aluminum
· CORSAIR, 6GB (3 x 2GB) XMS3 PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz CL9 (9-9-9) 1.5V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
· EVGA, GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked, GTX 260 626MHz, 896MB GDDR3 2106MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, DVI /2, HDTV Out, Retail
· WESTERN DIGITAL, 150GB (WD1500HLFS) WD VelociRaptor™, SATA 3 Gb/s, 10000 RPM, 16MB cache
· RAID, No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
· SONY, AD-7241S Black 24x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ Lightscribe, SATA, OEM
· ROSEWILL, RCR-IM5001 Black/Silver 75-in-1 Card Reader/Writer Drive w/ 3 USB 2.0 and eSATA ports, 3.5" Bay, SATA, USB 2.0
· MICROSOFT, Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Edition, OEM
· WARRANTY, 3 Year Limited Parts, Life-Time Labor Warranty

If any of you computer knowledgeable people could comment on their choice of parts I would be most thankful.

1: These are newegg parts, "Rosewill" isn't a real company, it's newegg's brand of electronics.
2: even if you add up all the parts from newegg prices (not always the best pricing mind you), it's not much more than $1300. Where the hell are the other $500 going?
3: GTX 260 is overkill for photo editing, and useless for video editing. Either get something smaller (save money and electricity), or bigger (GTX285 and 295 enable GPU accelerated decoding and effects in adobe premiere pro) if you do video editing.
4: Almost all those parts have 3-5 year warranty, so unless that 3 year warranty you added to your price was free or has at home service (and you are too afraid to replace even the most minor of things), what's the actual point?
5: Check out http://configure.us.de​ll.com …c=desktop-studio-xps-9000 . Yes, you saw right, it's a whole $800 cheaper than your system. And if you want to, you can add an ati 5870 for $330 (hell-a cheap if you ask me) for 60fps framerates in crysis with everything maxed out AND 1080p resolution.

Appreciate the input, Basroil. The Dell machine does look good.

Poaceae wrote in post #9375316
Appreciate the input, Basroil. The Dell machine does look good.

If you don't care so much about gaming, check out the 8000 as well. The PSU is crappy and won't let you get the best cards in, but it's cheaper, and the i7 860 chip version is as fast as the i7 920 in the 9000. If later on you want to do some gaming, you can upgrade the PSU and get a good graphics card, and that's not too bad an upgrade price wise.

basroil, back in the day I used to build my own PC however I got tired of hassle. Later I would by desktops but had one failed on me when I went on vacation. The power supply died while I was away. The thing is I never shut my computer off. One thing I notice is always a cheap PSU on branded desktops. Have things changed? I notice ur link on hte dell... spec'd but I am worried about the PSU.

StudioBin wrote in post #9376166
basroil, back in the day I used to build my own PC however I got tired of hassle. Later I would by desktops but had one failed on me when I went on vacation. The power supply died while I was away. The thing is I never shut my computer off. One thing I notice is always a cheap PSU on branded desktops. Have things changed? I notice ur link on hte dell... spec'd but I am worried about the PSU.

I've never had a dell PSU break. Even have a 10 year old one and it's in tip top shape (though the hdd is broken and finding ata 66 compatible drives under 20 bucks isn't easy). Have a second desktop that's now a bit over 6 years and working just fine. Both computers have 95% cycles (only turn off the 6 year old while i'm sleeping in that room, damn p4 cpu fans were beasts). While the PSU for the dells are either 350 or 475 (8000 and 9000), they will easily drive an i7 920, two hdd, optical, and ati 4850 card. The 8000 will drive a 4870 thanks to the fact that the i7 860 doesn't take up 150W. Unlike most (brand name) PSUs that are rated at 350, but are really only comprised of a 5v and 12v rails, the rest are negligible. And Unlike many, it actually gives out exactly what it says. So it ends up being something like 25A-30A on 12v alone (total 350-360W). The dell PSUs have always been underrated, wouldn't be surprised if most of the other companies has the same type of quality.

Your issue was likely a power failure/brownout, and if you didn't have a UPS, all I can say is: Better luck next time, and buy a UPS while you are at it.

Poaceae wrote in post #9375316
The Dell machine does look good.

Poaceae,

If you're buying a desktop in the $1000+ range, the hardware is generally going to be pretty good. I can't always keep up with who is putting in what from where....but the price (unless it's some huge rip off scam) is generally going to tell you lots about what you're getting.

So you gotta keep that in mind when comparing Dell Inspiron vs. Dell Studio XPS. There's a reason why the *bulk* of the disapproval ratings come from the former and not the later. It's not only hardware, but that's a significant factor involved. If you're running the middle to higher end of Dell computers, you're getting (on the whole) better computer components.

"Cheap" parts also depend on what parts we're talking about. Virtually all memory that I've seen recently is "lifetime warranty" stuff (from the likes of Kingston, Crucial, G.Skill, etc.). Virtually all hard drives are from the good companies (Seagate, WD, Samsung, Hitachi), where quality-control often more depends on a particular run of hard drives than the brand. CD burners? Not a heck alotta difference between LG, LiteOn, Pioneer, and Samsung! Motherboards can be tricky. I've seen two boards crash first-hand back around 2004, and both were cheap-a$$ boards from ECS (aka "Electronic Computer Sh**). Since then, when building PC/Linux boxes, I've only used ASUS....and these boards never seem to die!

The *one* place where I think it probably makes the MOST difference is with your power supply unit. Out of all of the hardware failures I've seen in systems, I tend to think this one is easily the most common! And without exception, it's always been because they were using a *generic* (cheap!!!) power supply. All you have to do is take it out and feel how much *lighter* a generic is vs. name brand. Sellers can get away with it because *most* buyers really don't think twice about getting a quality power supply when shopping. And in a business where margins are so small, every dollar helps....and selling cheap psu's is one way they stealthily improve their margins. Considering that you can get an excellent PSU for under $90 these days, it's really a no-brainer I think -- you can cut corners in some areas, but this is one place where "going cheap" is a huge roll of the dice!

After reading your specs in post #1, my first thought was similar to Maxxum's -- are you building a system for photography OR a system to game with? AVA's prices (for those type of pre-built, non-Dell/HP 'brick and mortar' store) strike me as high....but not outrageously so. I think you could bump down to an i7 860 and not miss a beat. [In fact, I *just* picked up an 860 myself to retire one of my non-Mac home boxes!]

What you put together above is flawless in terms of end quality....but there are cheaper options (if saving money means anything to you! ) available that won't have you sacrificing a thing in terms of quality.

A friend of mine just asked me over the weekend what I thought of this: iBuyPower system from TigerDirect.
Only thing I can see here that's "cheap" is the power supply. But that's actually one upgrade that even a 'newbie' could probably do quickly. So you're out the door with a solid i7 860 system (+ psu upgrade) for about $1000 bucks.

BeritOlam wrote in post #9376740
So you gotta keep that in mind when comparing Dell Inspiron vs. Dell Studio XPS. There's a reason while the *bulk* of the disapproval ratings come from the former and not the later. If you're running the middle to higher end of Dell computers, you're getting (on the whole) better computer components.

Yup... only computer i ever HATED was a laptop my parents bought for my sister way back when... a dell inspiron 9100. Weighs in about 12-15lb with battery and power brick. Uses a p4 HT2.8gh processor, and roars when doing even light work. Had the mobo replaced twice, power brick once, the screen doesn't work all the time, the battery died within 18mo, the hdd corrupts faster than you can say chkdsk, etc. I don't like to talk about that laptop Even so, ever since my little sister moved on to college, that laptop hasn't had any more issues, so perhaps the laptop wasn't as bad as I thought it was

But yes, stay away from the low end systems from anyone, they just aren't worth the headaches.

I think the i860 can't be upgraded so easily later to the 6 or 8 core machines, but I could be wrong.

Thanks to all for their helpful comments. I started looking at new systems because of failures I've had. The video card went when I upgraded to the new computer, a motherboard got fried, etc. It's not the cost of the repair but it's the time you spend loading everything back in. And even remembering everything you need to load. It takes me 2 weeks to get settings back to where they were before. This last time I asked the computer tech if I could go to better power supply but he said that the bigger unit wouldn't fit in the case.
I don't want to imply that money is no problem, but reliability is my biggest concern. What I seem to be hearing is that the high end Dell's are a more cost effective option and will be reliable. So again thanks to all who took the time to comment. Oh, and I don't do gaming.

tim wrote in post #9376765
I think the i860 can't be upgraded so easily later to the 6 or 8 core machines, but I could be wrong.

Unless you are talking about Apple and their glued chips, you shouldn't have any issues. What you can't do is "upgrade" to chips with the integrated graphics on the chip package. And even that isn't entirely true, as the only issue would be that the graphics don't work, but everything else would be fine.

Poaceae wrote in post #9377639
Thanks to all for their helpful comments. I started looking at new systems because of failures I've had. The video card went when I upgraded to the new computer, a motherboard got fried, etc. It's not the cost of the repair but it's the time you spend loading everything back in. And even remembering everything you need to load. It takes me 2 weeks to get settings back to where they were before. This last time I asked the computer tech if I could go to better power supply but he said that the bigger unit wouldn't fit in the case.
I don't want to imply that money is no problem, but reliability is my biggest concern. What I seem to be hearing is that the high end Dell's are a more cost effective option and will be reliable. So again thanks to all who took the time to comment. Oh, and I don't do gaming.

Sorry, but your post makes absolutely no sense. Motherboard frying and PSU getting changed, video card getting upgraded, your thoughts are everywhere. And you can ALWAYS upgrade the PSU. PSUs are made in about a dozen standard sizes, and if you want to find it, you will find something that fits perfectly.