New build: Photo Editing/Gaming

[dephotos1]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Within the next few months

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Photo Editing, Graphics, Gaming

BUDGET: $600 - $900

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, Speakers

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg.com, zipzoomfly.com

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

OVERCLOCKING: Yes

MONITOR RESOLUTION: Not sure. Which is the best for Photos?

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I need this mainly for Photo Editing purposes and Graphics (Adobe CS4 Creative Suite) purposes. I also do a bit of SIM Racing, so overclocking would be nice ( I'd like to be able to over clock 50% at the most). I'm thinking of having 3 graphics cards, but I'm not sure which ones are better suited. I also need a lot of hard drive and memory for the pictures because they are going to be large and high resolution. I'm just trying to get an idea for what I need that will be the best for my needs. Any help is appreciated!

 

[rammar16]

alright well to start i would say you are looking at a quad core with 8 gigs of ram and a moderate GPU (i would go with one card not 3. stacking cards isn't efficient and you can always add more later.)

for the price point i would go with AMD's quads as the 775 socket is not supported anymore. thus a rough build would look something like this....

AMD phenom II X4 955 - $190

ASUS 770 motherboard - $60 (-20 because of combo with CPU on newegg)

Western Digital 1TB drive - $100

Antec 200 case $50

4X2GB Corsair DDR2 1066MHz - $115 x 2 = $230

Corsair 650Watt PSU - $100

XFX ATI Radeon 5750 - $140

optional if you already have this?...
(DVD drive $30 + OS $100 = $130?)

total: $870 without the optional items, $1000 with the optional items.

like i said this is a rough build and could be inproved on depending on what you think you want or need. i went with a more CPU centered rig since you said your most into Photos(CPU intensive) and least into gaming(GPU intensive) that said this is still a solid gaming rig. if you REALLY don't game you might consider stepping down to the 4770 range and use that money else where.

the 1TB drive should get you started in terms for photos i mean doing the math: at 6 MB a photo, and 900GB after all your programs and OS you can store 150,000 photos. now you can have much larger photos depending on the camera but this is a decient estimate. (note you might look into a raid 5 solution)

the 8GB of RAM should be enough for all your photo needs.

the 650 watt PSU should be plenty for all you HDD and GPU needs to come.

anyways this is a start love or hate it i hope it at least helps give you a few ideas for what to do. Good luck and happy building!