Components for a Photoshop Computer

[r.e.]

I want to build a desktop PC that will be used for scanning, graphics editing (Adobe CS4 Premium) and some audio and video editing. I have other computers that can be used for the internet and office applications. This one will be dedicated and kept off-line.

I'm prepared to spend US$2k - $2.5k not including external storage (where I want to keep anything that I'm not actively working on), monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers and software.

I've been reading anandtech.com and tomshardware.com in an attempt to figure out what components to purchase, and the net result is that my head is hurting.

On the off-chance that there are photographers on this site who are on top of this stuff, I thought that I'd ask for suggestions. One specific question. Are any of you using solid state drives? I'm thinking that a small one, either 30 or 60 gigs, might be a good idea to shorten boot/loading time; not a necessity, but a nice convenience.

[Peter De Smidt]

Use a 64 bit operating system. Max out your ram. 4 cores is probably the sweet spot. A stripped array for the scratch disk is a good idea. Coolermaster makes some nice cases.

[paulr]

How much performance you need is somewhat subjective. Is time money for you? Go all out. Otherwise, you can save a lot by getting hardware that's a generation or two or three old. I'd much prefer an old Mac to a current DIY commodity PC.

An excellent monitor, however, with all the hardware and software tools for calibration, is essential.

I use old LaCie CRT monitors, calibrated with eye-one hardware and software; this is a cheap way to get results, with the caveat that the monitors are big and they guzzle electricity and they die after a few years. If money were no object I'd use Eizo.

[Donald Miller]

I just recently purchased a new computer from Falcon Northwest. I configured my machine with an I-7 quad core liquid cooled processor (3.07 overclocked to 3.95), 12 gigs of ddr3 ram and a GeForce 280 GPU with 1gb of dedicated video memory. Dual optical drives and dual 1TB HDs. I work in HD video and HD slide show productions. I decided against a SS drive because the benefit/cost ratio didn't work for me...your needs may be at variance to mine.

Donald Miller

[r.e.]

Donald, what is overclocking doing for you in your application? I'm trying to figure out whether this is just a consideration for gaming and general playing around or whether it is useful in graphics and other data intense applications.

Paulr, I agree about the monitor, calibration, etc. I exlcluded this stuff from my question because I have an Eizo for the laptop computer that I'm currently using and plan to replace.

[PenGun]

I just recently purchased a new computer from Falcon Northwest. I configured my machine with an I-7 quad core liquid cooled processor (3.07 overclocked to 3.95), 12 gigs of ddr3 ram and a GeForce 280 GPU with 1gb of dedicated video memory. Dual optical drives and dual 1TB HDs. I work in HD video and HD slide show productions. I decided against a SS drive because the benefit/cost ratio didn't work for me...your needs may be at variance to mine.

Donald Miller

Is that Bloomfield or Lynnfield? The i7 comes in LGA 1366 and LGA 1156.

Bloomfield will address 3 channel memory with a possible 24G of RAM. Lynnfield has 2 channel controller on board.

A good working system but I question the GeForce 280. You have no need of that unless you play video games. The sweetest HD I've seen was on the GeForce 6600 with hardware acceleration.

[PenGun]

A much better, though I fear much more expensive, video card for Photoshop might be found here:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/builtforadobepros.html

Yes I know a GTX 280 is not cheap but it's nowhere near what they charge for Pro cards.

[r.e.]

PenGun,

Yes, the PNY Quadro cards are on my consideration list. Some of them are wickedly expensive, but not all. It's not quite clear what they really do for you if you aren't invovled in fairly fancy video editing or 3D. Then there's the new Radeon 5870 card that came out a couple of weeks ago :)

I've at least settled on a processor, the i7-950 Bloomfield, probably the Asus PT6 motherboard and either 6 or 12GB of RAM. So much of the discussion of this stuff on the internet is about gaming. If you aren't careful, you'll wind up with a computer that needs to be packed in dry ice.

[Ed Richards]

You do not need fancy video cards for still images. Just at least 512 megs of memory, all that fast frame buffer stuff and refresh rates are for gaming. Ram is good, I am not sure there is much difference between dual core and quad core for the money - none of the software is vectorized enough to use the cores well. Ram matters, and get ECC, and a fast drive for swapping and for the system. Use external SATA as much as possible - runs cooler, and its more flexible.

[PenGun]

Actually CS4 will use CUDA on GeForce 8 and up to accelerate many filters etc. With 320M images, that's where I start, some GPU magic can speed things up a lot.

I just bought a GTX 260 but I bought it for games. Rage is coming. I guess I'll have to acquire CS4 to test this stuff out.

[Donald Miller]

The reason for the overclock and the 280 is because I work in HD video and slide show production (converting of still images to video productions). Still images is only a small part of what I do.

For primarily still images I would have configured differently

Donald Miller

[norly]

Only want to say that im running a 2x2,8 quad mac pro with dual raid H-discs and 16GB ram. I always scan 250mb/16 bit and the PSD files are normally 400-1000mb. Runs like a charm. If you can afford it I recommend mac, it works so much faster then all previous pc:s ever did.

[Peter De Smidt]

Here's what I bought a little while ago:

COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail50179237 (N82E16811119197)

ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail50179237

Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 cooler

2 sets of: CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8 G - Retail50179237

SAPPHIRE TOXIC Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

LITE-ON 24X CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model iHAS324-08 - Retail

CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD 1500VA 900W UPS - Retail

SAMSUNG EcoGreen F2 HD103SI 1TB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive50179237

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive50179237

SeaSonic M12D SS-850 850W ATX12V V2.3/EPS12V V2.92 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail50179237

Bought everything but the cooler through Newegg.

[John T]

SAMSUNG EcoGreen F2 HD103SI 1TB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive50179237

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive50179237

Peter,

I'm curious, why did you get two different manufacturer/drives here?

[Peter De Smidt]

Hi John,

It had to do with combo pricing at the time at New Egg. I use the WD as my system drive, and the Samsung as my photo storage drive. (I use e-Sata external drives for backup.)

I use a Dell 2209WA as my main monitor, with a cheap gateway 17" LCD for palettes.

Regarding the case, there were a couple of cheaper and more expensive cases that looked good. Searching the forums on the would-be combos, mainly motherboard and case, ruled out some of the combos for lack of clearance. The CM922 has great airflow, and it is a joy to work with, especially with a modular power supply. In my case, all of the cables--yea, no ribbon cables!--tied neatly behind the motherboard. The big fans are quiet and efficient.

[r.e.]

Peter,

Thanks, a couple of questions.

Now that you've got the system, do you think that it was worth going with 12Gb of RAM?

Do you find that you need the cooler? Are you overclocking?

If I'd read your list a week ago, I would have needed a translator to figure it out. Now, fortunately or unfortunately, I know what it all means :)

[Peter De Smidt]

Hi,

Regarding the cooler, it's probably overkill since I'm not over-clocking. I figured that even if I didn't overclock, that keeping the processor cooler would lead to longer life. I may try some gentle over-clocking down the road.

Regarding the memory, I often work with high-res scans of 4x5, and while I haven't done any testing of 12 versus 6 gb, I expect it helps. My current system deals with these files much, much better than my old one, which had 4 gigs. If I were working only with digital camera files, 6 gb would be fine. Memory isn't that expensive. If you're doing hi-res film scans, I'd skimp elsewhere, such as on the cooler or video card. Make sure to get a 64 bit operating system, or the extra memory will be useless.

I can't stress the importance of a good UPS (uninterruptable power supply.) A large percentage of hard drive failures occur because of power outages.

Hope that helps.

[SAShruby]

I do have a Athlon 900Mhz, 512MB Ram with 20GB HD 95% full and 80GB with 99% full, running Adobe CS3 with Epson 4990. I think video card is 128MB. Bought it in November 2000.

Is it good?


p.s. Computer always notifies me that 4990 would run faster if I had USB2.0, but I don't...

[Doug Dolde]

What about one of the new 27" iMacs? The high end model is quad core and takes up to 16 GB ram.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/imac?mco=MTAyNTM5OTY

[r.e.]

What about one of the new 27" iMacs? The high end model is quad core and takes up to 16 GB ram.

Yes, with the upgraded processor (appears to be an i7-860) and 16GB of RAM, it is $3600 :)

Anyway, for unrelated reasons, I have to stay with Windows.

[Doug Dolde]

Buy the ram from OWC not Apple.

[Peter De Smidt]

I do have a Athlon 900Mhz, 512MB Ram with 20GB HD 95% full and 80GB with 99% full, running Adobe CS3 with Epson 4990. I think video card is 128MB. Bought it in November 2000.

Is it good?


p.s. Computer always notifies me that 4990 would run faster if I had USB2.0, but I don't...

Good by what standard and for what? For many things--emailing, web browsing, word processing--it's probably fine, although hard drives get slower as they get filled up, and a 9 year old hard drive is really pushing it. For working with large files in Photoshop, there are much faster systems available.

[r.e.]

Peter, unless things have changed since 2000, you can only defrag your hard drive if it is at least 15% free. If you haven't defragged that drive lately, you might consider transfering some of the data from your hard drive, at least temporarily, in order to do so. It would help performance. Also, if your operating system has been on that system for nine years, and you still have the installation disks, it might help to erase the hard drive and re-install.

[SAShruby]

Good by what standard and for what? For many things--emailing, web browsing, word processing--it's probably fine, although hard drives get slower as they get filled up, and a 9 year old hard drive is really pushing it. For working with large files in Photoshop, there are much faster systems available.


It meant to be a joke.

But besides the missed intention, this configuration works for me very well. I use it only for dodging and burning for my "analog" prints.
Keeps costs low.

p.s. I paid $3200 for it back then. Money well spent. $29 a month and getting lower.

[pocketfulladoubles]

If you're doing that much serious work, you should really consider dedicated hardware accelerators. They will be a lot faster than your CPU.

[SAShruby]

If you're doing that much serious work, you should really consider dedicated hardware accelerators. They will be a lot faster than your CPU.

No need, still works like a charm with 600 dpi 4x5 scan.

[pocketfulladoubles]

No need, still works like a charm with 600 dpi 4x5 scan.

At 600 dpi sure, but at drum scan resolutions, if you need to work directly on the image, filters particularly, it can really bog down. With a fixed fee project, you're losing money. With an hourly service charge, you're costing your clients unnecessarily.