Assembling a system for Photo editing .Help needed,Please

[vp9]

Hi everyone,

i am a photographer and my current system - AMD 2 ghz with 4Gb(3gb) ram dosent cut it when it comes to batching and filter stuff.so i am considering a new computer and i´d appreciate if someone can help me select the main components .i´ll try to explain my needs as clearly as possible .

my main priority is Photoshop work and some video editing (from a compact camera and also from a soon to buy Dslr with movie function -but this is simply for fun and not important as photo editing)

the rest of the things am going to use this computer is, for usual office stuff and regular surfing and occational DVD viewing.i plan to get a Eizo S2431WH (incase if the graphic card selection should be based on the monito in use)

i dont play any PC games and dont plan to either,so i believe i can get away with a cheap and low power consuming graphic card.

i would be glad to get a configuration for one silent , most cost effective and most energy efficient system possible (running average 8 hours every day)

how can i make use of more than 4 gb (DDR2)of Ram ? ( incase i plan to use the 64 bit versions of windows XP and Photoshop -what will be the advantages other than being able to use more than 3 gig RAM?,and what all should i care about?driver availability ? compatibility?etc.
or is there any other way to make use of more than 3 gig RAM without getting the 64 bit version of win?, i use PS-CS2 and win XP 32 bit and wish to avoid Vista )

here are the links to the CPU and MoBo price listings (Germany - prices).

CPU Intel 775 - http://geizhals.at/deutschland/?cat=cpup7

MoBo - http://geizhals.at/deutschland/?cat=mbp4_775_ddr2

graphic card - http://geizhals.at/deutschland/?cat=gra16_512

thankyou verymuch and wish you all in advance a great year ahead

thanks again,
VM

 

[jsc]

Budget?

Recommendations depend if you want to go to the really new i7 or stay with current technology.

 

[Outlander_04]

Core i7 shows some impressive gains over C2D in the kind of apps you want to run . If thats in your budget then I'd head in that direction .

Pretty much any gfx card will do . A fairly basic quadro might be the best choice if you never need to work in 3D .

There was a windows xp workaround tried a few years go that used 34 bit addressing to the HDD . But since no one ever wrote apps that could address 34 bit it just crashed a lot .

If you want more RAM now you will have to go for 64 bit Vista .

Today if i was building a Core i7 computer I'd install 3 gig , use XP and wait till Windows 7 is released in a years time and upgrade to the 64 bit version of that . Vista is worth bypassing and MS cant be that stupid they would try to sell the same mistakes again [ plus we already know netbooks will run 7 so it has to be less of a hog ]

 

[vp9]

Budget?

Recommendations depend if you want to go to the really new i7 or stay with current technology.

Thanks for asking this ,i completely forgot to mention it.

budget for upgrading is around 450 - 500 Eur ( 600 - 700 $ for the 4 main hardware components ) Mobo ,4gig DDR2-800, CPU and Graphic card (or a very good Mobo with useful onboard graphic ,sufficient for my needs, will also do)- the rest of the stuff i plan to use from my old computer)

i would be glad to go with the current tech, and with a CPU with no more than 85 Watt TDP (65 would be ideal).

energy efficiency is also a main concern !

thankyou once again

 

[WR2]

CPU: Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz

Motherboard: ASUS P5QL-EM G43 or Gigabyte GA-EG43M-S2H G43. Has integrated video chip GMA 4500 which is enough video power for your editing, surfing and DVD watching even on the 24" monitor.

If you're thinking about moving to HD/Blu-Ray DVD watching: ASUS P5Q-EM G45 or Gigabyte GA-EG45M-DS2H G45 Upgrades vide chip to GMA 4500HD.

Graphic Card: GMA 4500 video chip on motherboard. Seperate video card not required.

While the Q9550 is not the most energy efficient CPU it does have an energy managment system to lower power draw when all four cores aren't required or CPU demand is low. Without having to power a separate video card you can make a good case for a more powerful CPU which will finish up your batch processing jobs faster vs. a more power efficent dual core CPU.

 

[vp9]

Core i7 shows some impressive gains over C2D in the kind of apps you want to run . If thats in your budget then I'd head in that direction .

Pretty much any gfx card will do . A fairly basic quadro might be the best choice if you never need to work in 3D .

There was a windows xp workaround tried a few years go that used 34 bit addressing to the HDD . But since no one ever wrote apps that could address 34 bit it just crashed a lot .

If you want more RAM now you will have to go for 64 bit Vista .

Today if i was building a Core i7 computer I'd install 3 gig , use XP and wait till Windows 7 is released in a years time and upgrade to the 64 bit version of that . Vista is worth bypassing and MS cant be that stupid they would try to sell the same mistakes again [ plus we already know netbooks will run 7 so it has to be less of a hog ]

Thankyou,

i think i´ll wait till win 7 release then and stick with my XP.

this is actually a minor upgrade which i believe could keep my work moving a bit more smoother ,till the end of next year (when i plan to build a heavy duty ,multi monitor system ). so basically it´s gonna be a XP, Photoshop with 3rd party filters ,Word,powerDVD and web browser - system, i can frankly say that the only other applications which will regularly run on this computer are Antivirus and firewall and a Nikon and canon Raw editor . nothing else .

by the way i have been doing some searching during the past couple of hours . what about E8500 or E8600 ?

thanks

 

[the last resort]

this is by far the most expensive route, but would help your system out a TON.

If you could find this from where you are from:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133248

 

[vp9]

CPU: [ Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz

Motherboard: ASUS P5QL-EM G43 or Gigabyte GA-EG43M-S2H G43 ].

If you're thinking about moving to HD/Blu-Ray DVD watching: ASUS P5Q-EM G45 or Gigabyte GA-EG45M-DS2H G45 Upgrades vide chip to GMA 4500HD.

Graphic Card: GMA 4500 video chip on motherboard. Seperate video card not required.

Thanks for the recommendations .

looks like what i am looking for .i´ll check out the details and reviews for those mobos and hopefully i´ll have a new system in a few days

thankyou all for the quick replys and for the help.
i appreciate it verymuch.

 

[vp9]

this is by far the most expensive route, but would help your system out a TON.

If you could find this from where you are from:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133248

, that´s most definitely the costliest route !!, i think in a year or so these things will cost just 1/10th of that,may be i can afford it by the time i build my next big system .

thanks anyway, that was nice to know about these kind of stuff. (coming from a photography gear forum ,my knowledge is limited to some basic computer components when it comes to computer hardware .

 

[cyberjock]

I strongly recommend you check out the ANS-9010 or ANS-9010B. It's a 5.25" enclosure that uses DDR2 ram as a hard drive. Performance is beyond comprehension when doing video editing/photo editing and using it as the 'scrap' space. I couldn't believe the performance increases when using one of these.

I/O's per second and MB/sec is fantastic. I installed Windows XP on one of those, and i was able to upgrade from SP2 to SP3 in less than 3 minutes! That's including the reboot! It's all about the random reads and writes.

 

[WR2]

Power consumption of the E8600 is not that far off from the Q9550 (~between Q9300 and Q6600).

 

[vp9]

I strongly recommend you check out the ANS-9010 or ANS-9010B.

wow,that´s definitely the best Scrap disk option.

thanks for all these great recommendations.

 

[vp9]

Power consumption of the E8600 is not that far off from the Q9550 (~between Q9300 and Q6600).

now that´s another surprise for me, i think i need to hang in here and go through the testing details on this site for the next couple of days to get a better idea .

thanks again

 

[WR2]

Task energy - amount of energy used to complete a task - can tilt in favor of Quad's being more energy efficient.
Finish faster and use less power during long batch mode runs. During idle and low power tasks the Q9550 won't break the energy bank.
TechReport i7 review

 

[vp9]

http://techreport.com/r.x/core-i7-940/cine-power-task-energy.gif

Task energy - amount of energy used to complete a task - can tilt in favor of Quad's being more energy efficient.
Finish faster and use less power during long batch mode runs. During idle and low power tasks the Q9550 won't break the energy bank.
TechReport i7 review

thanks a lot for these infos. now i have a better idea about these things.

you guys have been a big help. wish you all a very nice time

 

[GrimReeperNL]

Could you give some more information about the current parts you have (PSU, Ram, etc?)

After reading some benchmarks, If found that CS2 is not optimized for quad core. This means that a high spead dual core in the short term will give you better speed, lower power use, lower heat output and less costs.

Depending on the re-usablity of you parts (please name all parts you have with exact brand and type), you might be able to only upgrade the mainboard and CPU, while re-using all. This will set you back only about 300 euro max.

Then in a year or so, if you feel upgrading is needed again, you can go over to the I7 systems, which will become more mainstream then (thus much nicer pricing).

 

[vp9]

Could you give some more information about the current parts you have (PSU, Ram, etc?)

After reading some benchmarks, If found that CS2 is not optimized for quad core. This means that a high spead dual core in the short term will give you better speed, lower power use, lower heat output and less costs.

Then in a year or so, if you feel upgrading is needed again, you can go over to the I7 systems, which will become more mainstream then (thus much nicer pricing).

thanks. well,unfortunately i wont be able to use my Ram ( Samsung DDR 400 - PC 3200) and the Psu is an old 350 W HEC (i dont know if they are still in business)

i think the Case,DVD drive and the HDisks are all i can retain on the hardware side i guess. about CS2 ,i believe you are right ,and i dont plan to upgrade to CS4 in the near future so my best option seems to be the E8600 and one of the Mobos another member recommended above.

 

[vp9]

Oh by the way my old system was AMD Athlon 64 3200,939 socket gigabyte board