I'm an avid Bird Photographer (hobbyist, not pro) and I need a PC that will process photos quickly and has lots of storage. I usually take hundreds of photos in a half-day sortie (using up at least 10gb of CF cards). This could mean a thousand photos, each more than 13mb. I then run some processes that convert each photo to multilayered TIFF files, each more than 300mb. And the process takes a looong time.
I'm thinking about the configuration below which I plan to source from eWiz:
Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.4GHz 1066MHz
Asus P5N-E SLI Quad-Core/ nForce650i SLI Motherboard
2 strips of Super Talent DDR2-800 4GB (2x2GB) CL5 Dual Channel Memory Kit (total 8gb)
2 Seagate ST3750330AS 750GB SATA2 7200rpm 32MB NCQ Hard Drive
EVGA nVidia GeForce 8600GT 512MB 2DVI/HDCP PCI-Express Video Card
AOC 2216Sw 22 inch Widescreen 3000:1 5ms LCD Monitor (Black/Silver)
This'll probably set me back a little less than $1.1k, and some more for the casing, keyboard, mouse, DVD.
I'm definitely not rich and I don't make money from this hobby so economics is an issue. I'd appreciate some tips on reducing the cost without reducing functionality/capacity. Perhaps even improving it? Or did I make some conflicting/incompatible choices?
Not sure if that video card or a motherboard with SLI capability are worth spending on since I do not do gaming anyway. Am also thinking if 8gb of RAM is overkill. Photoshop can be hacked to use up to 4gb only.
I'm thinking about the configuration below which I plan to source from eWiz:
Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.4GHz 1066MHz
Asus P5N-E SLI Quad-Core/ nForce650i SLI Motherboard
2 strips of Super Talent DDR2-800 4GB (2x2GB) CL5 Dual Channel Memory Kit (total 8gb)
2 Seagate ST3750330AS 750GB SATA2 7200rpm 32MB NCQ Hard Drive
EVGA nVidia GeForce 8600GT 512MB 2DVI/HDCP PCI-Express Video Card
AOC 2216Sw 22 inch Widescreen 3000:1 5ms LCD Monitor (Black/Silver)
This'll probably set me back a little less than $1.1k, and some more for the casing, keyboard, mouse, DVD.
I'm definitely not rich and I don't make money from this hobby so economics is an issue. I'd appreciate some tips on reducing the cost without reducing functionality/capacity. Perhaps even improving it? Or did I make some conflicting/incompatible choices?
Not sure if that video card or a motherboard with SLI capability are worth spending on since I do not do gaming anyway. Am also thinking if 8gb of RAM is overkill. Photoshop can be hacked to use up to 4gb only.