Need a fast Photoshop machine

[DaveT]

Hopefully you guys can help me out here.

I need to build a dual core machine that runs photoshop real good. It should be able to handle multiple files that are in the 100-300mb range. This machine will NOT be for gaming. It should NOT be a bleeding edge machine. I'm not into pouring money into a PC. I'm not afraid to overclock.

Here's what I'm thinking:
3 hard drives (2 for RAID 0, 1 for backup/scratch disk). Say 250-320GB each.
Opteron 165
2G RAM
500 w. PSU

This machine will be running a 1920x1200 monitor. Not sure what vid card would be appropriate, but keep in mind this is not a gaming machine.

What would your recommendation be for specific parts?
Any other recommendations? Where's the best place to buy all this stuff?

Thanks a lot guys!

 

[RichPLS]

Go with the Opty 170 if you want a higher overclock...

 

[Daconiam]

Check out ABS Computers

http://www.abs.com/app/config.asp?mono=1922#top

 

[muffin]

Personally, I'd recommend two monitors if possible. I have my main monitor for the zoomed in tight work, and keep my brushes and layer tools on the second screen, with the navigator taking up as much of the second monitor area as possible. With this setup I can use the navigator as an overall view of what i'm working on and be zoomed in on detail work on the main screen. Graphic tablets like Wacoms automatically map across both screens, so the same amount of side to side motion encompasses both screens...very slick. I wouldn't go back to a single monitor, regardless of size, anymore.
The video card is up to you...any dual output video card will do, although you may want to check out Matrox...as you don't game, their video quality is second to none, and i believe their higher end cards actually have a photoshop plugin that they call giga-colour...basically 10 bit colour depth...yielding 1 billion colours instead of the 67 million i believe regular video cards output.
I have 2 Western Digital Raptors and a data drive...the raptors aren't in RAID as one 75GB or especially their new 150GB versions are as fast as cheap drives in RAID without the data corruption / loss risk. RAM matters too...I use 2GB - don't know how much benefit I'd get from more...though some of my files are huge when it's all still in layers (i'm a layer freak...lol)
I'm also running a socket 939 Opteron 170 clocked to 2.6GHz at 1.4 volts...truly an amazing processor.
Hope this helps.

 

[DaveT]

Thanks muffin, good advice. I agree about the dual monitors...in fact my other machine has duals but my wife hogs it nowadays (we both work in a photography business). But I'll probably get a 24" dell refurb (about $700 http://tinyurl.com/nd6nj), and add another one in the near future.

I was not aware that Matrox had a video card specific for graphics apps. I'll look into it.

I also hadn't considered the WD raptor. But still, I'm not convinced: It's 150GB and currently around $270. I can get a couple of SATA2 320's for around $220. No argument which option has more storage, but which would be faster?

 

[doomturkey]

I will recommend that you buy from newegg. They are very reliable and have very good pricing. I ordered from them multiple times and nothing could have gone better.
For hdd, get western digital or seagate, they are quality brands. I'll agree with the 170, and for RAM get something with pretty tight timings, if you loosen them they will overclock like no other. Also you should be able to find a relatively cheap gfx card that runs that resolution, most cards today support that resolution no problem.

Anyways, gl.

EDIT: Don't bother with WD raptor if all you need is storage. Most 7200RPM hdd should do ya fine.

 

[muffin]

Yeah...I agree Raptors are overkill. But I guess I'm just an overkill kinda guy. Just takes a few more hours to pay for 'em. I've also never had one fail, and this is my third machine with them. One drive failure's data loss will pay for the Raptor, is the way I justified it.

 

[WOWchamp]

A 165 can overclock as well as or even better then the 170 if you get a good stepping/week but thats just luck of the draw. 90% of the 165's OC just as well as the 170's do and those other 10% do even better on air. The only advantage to the 170 is if you have a mobo thats FSB limited or doesnt like FSB's over 300mhz.


I suggest 2GB of ram as I dont think you'll find very many 2GB sticks and they would be wrather expensive to boot. Get two nice sticks of something like OCZ with 2-2-2-5 timings.


Look into a LCD as well, they provide much better display for photowork then a CRT would (unless you darkend the room your in)

 

[tjhva]

I just built a photoshop desktop with 2gigs of RAM.

All that is installed on the system is Windows XP, Epson R2400 drivers and Photoshop CS2.


Right now Photoshop has been allocated ~1024 megs of RAM (~50%)

How much can I up the RAM allocation to and still be safe?

 

[DaveT]

That is a good question. But you can probably get away with more ram than that, as long as you have few apps running in the background. Even if you have "too much" physical RAM allocated to photoshop, it will not kill the program. You can probably get away with 75-85% on a 2GB system.

Big files & multi-layered files are happy with lots of RAM.

Also, make sure have a separate hard drive as a scratch disk. Separate from your program files/OS disk I've wondered if a small, solid-state RAM-disk would work for this?