New PC for my mum. Q6600 for photoshop?

[Gustafarian]

Hey peeps,

My mum is looking to buy a new work PC and I volunteered to build her one so she can get a better deal (and I get to play with some new electronics!). She's going to be using it for Photoshop (usually no more than 10MP images), web design, standard office tasks and it would be nice if it could run Oblivion and older games for my sister. She also wants it to be quiet and run Vista Home Premium.

This is her current rig:

Athlon 64 3800+
2gig
ATI X800 (I would re-use this but it is noisy)
160GB disk with 320GB external backup
XP home SP2

This is what I was thinking:

Intel C2D E6600 (I'll probably OC to 2.7Ghz or something)
Scythe Ninja with a quieter fan
Gigabyte P965 S3
4GB of own brand PC6400 ram
ASUS X1650 silent
2x500GB disks in RAID 1 (cos I don't trust her to backup!)
Antec Sonata III with included 500W PSU
An extra fan for the HDD intake

So my questions are:

1) What version of Vista should I use, 32 or 64 bit?
2) Will she notice much of a difference getting a Q6600?
3) Any suggestions/comments?

Thanks for your time,

Gus

 

[evongugg]

I would just stick with your socket 939. It is still good. Eventually you could upgrade to a dual core processor or an Opteron.
You could upgrade to a better video card also.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/05/01/the_best_gaming_video_cards_for_the_money/

 

[Hatman]

e6600 beats a 3800+ anyday and is quite cheap now. However Id rather recomend a 6420+. It still got that 4mb cache, and a desent £20 cooler could help you overclock it up past the 2.5gig mark.

 

[Onus]

Like yomamafor1 said, Vista is a bad choice. Particularly if you want to run [older] games on it, stick with XP. My brother got Vista for his family, and almost all of their older games won't run (nor will some new ones run stably). Like he said, stick to 2GB of RAM. The RAID-1 is a good idea for a machine with valuable data. Just make sure you're going to be around to help if the RAID breaks. If not, set up an automated scheduled back-up using that external 320.
For games, you might want better than the x1650, especially since you mentioned Oblivion. On that card, you'd probably need to run it at 800x600. Based on Tom's VGA charts and Cleeve's GPU threads, if it were me, I'd probably get at least a 1950Pro, but for primarily business use your mum might not go for an 8800GTS/320.
What's the budget for this build?

 

[Gingerade]

As for O/S, stick with XP for now. Vista is highly unstable, inefficient, and a resource hog.

not true! i am currentaly running vista and its very stable only had one lockup and since ur getting all that ram it will prob not slow down one bit. if ur getting 4gb of ram you would have to get a 64 bit os to utalize all of it and vista 64 is were all the probs are at.

 

[yomamafor1]

As for O/S, stick with XP for now. Vista is highly unstable, inefficient, and a resource hog.

not true! i am currentaly running vista and its very stable only had one lockup and since ur getting all that ram it will prob not slow down one bit. if ur getting 4gb of ram you would have to get a 64 bit os to utalize all of it and vista 64 is were all the probs are at.

I'm sorry but I have to say I disagree with you.

Vista has known for numerous bugs, such as: freeze when boot up with 4Gb or RAM, or constant crash due to incompatibility...

As for personal experience, I switched back to XP after using Vista for 2 months was because Vista had some serious conflict issues with my games, as well as hardware. I cannot use my onboard LAN because of Vista incompatibility. The computer will crash constantly if I play games.

I would advice OP against it is because the OS is not stable at the moment. Maybe you had better experience with it, and that's definitely good for you. But you won't know exactly what will OP's experience will be.

 

[Hatman]

So far with me vista has worked with over 7 games 4gig/4x1g of ram and hasn't had any problems whatsoever!!

But before it was working like a bitch, so I uninstalled and reinstalled and now its great.

I think, I swear iv heard from somewhere, that for some reason you need to install it then uninstall then reinstall or something weird.
#
At least that's what I did and it worked fine, don't ask me why I have no idea.

Just what know from personal experience.

And I've been using it for more than 2months now.

 

[frenchsquared]

I use my computer for work not games. I run CS3 almost exclusively.
There is always someone who has good and or bad luck. However for the majority of people Vista is a pain and a ram hog. You will want the 4 gb for vista and photoshop. I find i run out with large file merges.

I would love a quad core currently dual p d 945 oc to 3.9.

Adobe CS3 (suite) is one of the few programs that is coded to utilize all processors. I have had several problems installing Vista but once it is installed it seems fine only slower (3 computers). However, A very large amount of printers are not compatible, so look at the other office software.

I am a Pre press operator for PIP Printing and I cant run vista at work even if i wanted to. Its not compatible with $500,000 press software.

good luck, get q6600 but wait a few weeks, it will get cheaper.

 

[zhaf]

1) I say 32... 64 is better for apps like photoshop and such. But as far as I know gaming isn't so hot on 64 bit platform.

2) from what you're describing I say no. Photoshop:ing with 10mb files and webdesign won't need that kind of boost at all, the old computer should be fine for those tasks. My computer is worse than than and I use it for ~50mb files with lots of layers and it runs pretty smooth. Oblivion and older games won't support multi core.

3) As far as I see it. Gaming is the only thing you should build the new computer around. But it'll be an issue over the GPU not the CPU. I'd as many suggest lower to 2GB ram and a cheaper c2d and OC it. Use the extra money to buy a water cooled high end GPU for power and low noice. Raid 1 (Y). One vital equipment for anyone that uses Photoshop regularly should consider to buy a tablet. I recommend the Wacom brand, and for casual use I'd recommend their Graphire4 products.

 

[Gustafarian]

Hello,

Thanks for all the great replies, I knew you wouldn't let me down. I think I will get Vista HP 32 because my mum wants to see a difference, I don't want to buy another copy of XP and the compatibility looks better than 64bit. Thanks for the input about the gaming. I will probably stick a nice graphics card in the old PC and put a cheap quiet one in the new one. That way my sister won't have to compete for time on the new PC! My sis only plays rpgs and point & clicks so she should be fine with the 3800+ for a while.

Evongugg, I like the suggestion of getting a dual core Athlon but my mum has been bitten by the C2D bug and must have one. Also it means the old PC will still be running which makes it a lot less stressful to copy the data and there will be another spare PC in the house.

Yomamafor1, I didn't know about the price cut. Do you know if it will be reflected in the UK? If it is then I will certainly wait for a Quad! I like the idea about 2GB now and 2GB later.

Zhaf, My mum works as a freelance web designer so the images she uses are normally pretty small (especially when she's finished with them!). But my dad works in lighing and often gets my mum to help him with his visualisations in photoshop (large files for magazine prints and display boards). She already has a graphics tablet (I suppose I should check that works under Vista). I don't think I'll be able to justify the extra price for a water cooled gfx card.

OK so here is the new plan, wait for the price of Q6600s to come down then put this in the new PC:

Intel C2D Q6600
Scythe Ninja with a quieter fan
Gigabyte P965 S3
2GB of own brand PC6400 ram then 2GB asap
Some quiet graphics card to be decided at the time
2x500GB disks in RAID 1 (cos I don't trust her to backup!)
Antec Sonata III with included 500W PSU
An extra fan for the HDD intake

And a lovely shiny graphics card in the old PC assuming the PSU is good enough.

Thanks again for your help!

Gus

 

[djbrad007]

Hi,

on my asus p5w dh deluxe the scythe ninja blocks the first ram slot.

Read some reviews with scythe ninja + your motherboard before that if you want to upgrade to 4 gb.

 

[Gustafarian]

Good point brad. Thanks

 

[zhaf]

Zhaf, My mum works as a freelance web designer so the images she uses are normally pretty small (especially when she's finished with them!). But my dad works in lighing and often gets my mum to help him with his visualisations in photoshop (large files for magazine prints and display boards). She already has a graphics tablet (I suppose I should check that works under Vista). I don't think I'll be able to justify the extra price for a water cooled gfx card.

Well that changes things. Very large pictures cew up ram and cpu. Getting a Quad core for a workstation is a very nice idea, but if you arn't going to game on that one I'd say get the 64-bit and 4GB ram. The buy a cheap passive cooled graphics-card. Maybe HD2400-2600 when they get released next mont, audio through HDMI and that computer can act as a HTPC too
Your mum works alot with Photoshop so get her a nice tablet (that's the most important part to an artist... trust me). Wacom makes the best tablets IMO and their Intuos3 range are for pros, so despite they're costy take a look on them. All Wacom tablets supports Vista.

 

[brick88]

this really depends on your budget. if you are looking to save money i would just upgrade the existing machine. get a x2 4200 to upgrade the processor. 2 gigs should be enough. if you are worried about stability issues i suggest using xp mce edition. media center to me is worth it. if you upgrade the video card so something like a 8800 gts 320mb using the money you saved from making an entirely new build. and the silverstone 500watt energy efficient to supply more power while still being ultra quiet. also a new case for that new feeling.

 

[InteliotInside]

I recommend sticking with the current rig for the most part. As someone else said, you could get a speed bump from a faster dual core Opteron/X2 chip and a better graphics card (like an X1300 silent).

But if you insist you could go for something like:
- Pentium Dual-Core E2160
- Intel Q965 motherboard (or Q33 when it comes out)
- 2GB of DDR2-667/800
- AMD HD 2400 or NVIDIA GeForce 8500GT (UVD for hi definition movies perhaps)
- DVD-RW
- Floppy
- FSP Group 400w PSU
- 2 x 250GB HDDs in RAID1
- Case with good airflow
- XP Pro w/ SP2

 

[merc14]

RAID 1 is NOT a backup in the true sense of the word. It is simply protection against drive failure. If you contract a virus, both drives will be infected.

 

[Hatman]

Personally id get 64bit just for the fact u can use 4gig/8gig of ram. It's soooooooooooo cheap now.

The more the merrier.

 

[brick88]

i dunno. because it will mainly be a workstation with some "light" gaming i think that 2gigs is sufficient and 4 gigs is overkill unless ur running some insane resolution.

 

[exarrkun]

Yomamafor1, I didn't know about the price cut. Do you know if it will be reflected in the UK?
Gus

yes it will, but probably with some slowdown :roll:

 

[Ogdin]

Some info on photoshop ram use here.

 

[brick88]

i stand corrected. just disregard my previous post if your mom is a serious photoshopper.

 

[Ogdin]

There is a photoshop comparison between the suggested cpu upgarde for the older computer(+4400)and the q6600 here.
If it can fit into your budget its definitely worth the money.

 

[Gustafarian]

Hey peeps,

Thanks again for all your help. My mum decided she didn't want to wait for the price cuts so this is what we got:

E6600 with Zalman 9500
4GB PC6400 RAM
Gigabyte P965 S3
Silent X1650
Antec Sonata III
Vista Home Pro 32-bit
2x500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10s in RAID 1
a couple of optical drives
a couple of fans

And my sis decided she could live without a graphics upgrade so she's still using the X800

Now I just need to put it all together...

 

[Wisecracker]

yah need to put you OS and apps on a drive outside the RAID array . . .

 

[Gustafarian]

Thanks for the advice but I don't understand. What is the problem with setting up the array in the BIOS then installing OS, Apps and everything? I appreciate that there will be a slow 'scratch area' but I don't think that will matter considering the 4GB of ram.