Trying to use what i have to make a photo editor system

Mark_matajr,

To focus on upgrades, the best approach is to determine what aspects of the performance are below expectation- what's not working fast enough or what does not have the quality you want. There are two ways to check>

1. try the system on projects as big and complicated as you're ever likely to do on the most demanding software. If effects processing and rendering are most demanding tasks, try your system on sample images > download a large image and then use Photoshop and change everything you can.

2. Download, install, and run Passmark Performance Test (there's a free 30 day trial) and the test will give you scores for the system, CPU, 2D, 3D, memory, and disk. These are comparative numbers, and do a search of the baselines for each item. if the performance is very low in any field, it will give you an idea of what to change. For example, if you search for scores for the Phenom II 1035T and the CPU score is lower than for most other 1035T's, then the motherboard may be the thing to consider changing. Same method for the 2D and 3D scores, memory, and disk. You can also compare the Radeon 5570 2D /3D graphics scores to the GTX 560. I think you find the GTX 560 is a very good graphics card. It has a different GPU, but the GTX 580 is one of the best photo and video editing cards and the GTX 560 actually produces more GFLOPS >

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_500_Series

Overall, of course, any system can be improved, but I believe that there is nothing too far wrong with yours for photo editing. The 8GB of 1333 RAM is not terrible, though it may somewhat limit the number of simultaneous applications. I would definitely pursue the GTX 560 option, and the CPU at 2.6GHz may make processing and rendering a bit slower, but the 1035T is a good overall performer. As far as I can tell, the fastest clock speed CPU for the Foxconn MB is >

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

> And in the Passmark benchmarks your 1035T outperforms it in terms of calculation power. Also, this would have to be purchased used. A quick glance at Ebay completed listings show these to e in the $70-$90 range.

I have an SSD in my new CAD system and while the system and applications start more quickly, I don't find it that essential in a workstation. If however, you are loading huge graphic design or video files, it will speed that up.

As Outlander_04 mentions, it would help to know the programs, size of files, and what you need to do with them to give more focussed suggestions.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

HP z420 (2014) > Xeon E5-1620 quad core @ 3.6 / 3.8GHz > 24GB ECC 1600 RAM > Quadro 4000 (2GB)> Samsung 840 SSD 250GB /Western Digital WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > AE3000 USB WiFi > HP 2711X, 27" 1920 X 1080 > Windows 7 Ultimate 64 > Autodesk Building Design Suite, Inventor Pro, Solidworks, Adobe CS MC, Corel Technical Design Sketchup Pro, WordP Office, MS Office Pro [Passmark system rating = 3815, 2D= 767 / 3D=2044]

Dell Precision T5400 (2008) > 2X Xeon X5460 quad core @3.16GHz > 16GB ECC 667> Quadro FX 4800 (1.5GB) > WD RE4 500GB / Seagate Barracuda 500GB > M-Audio 2496 Sound Card / Linksys 600N WiFi > Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit > (earlier versions) AutoCad, Revit, Solidworks, Sketchup Pro, Corel Technical Designer, Adobe CS MC, WordP Office, MS Office Pro [Passmark system rating = 1859, 2D= 512 / 3D=1097]