Search
Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in

My computer case needs guts

Last response: in Systems
Share

I currently have a 6 year old HP Pentium 4 computer. I upgraded as much was possible and luckily it is still humming along, but it is time to move to a more current rig. :D  I have been looking at posts here for a long time and have researched till my head feels like it is going to explode. I would like a different set of eyes to look over what I came up with.

Approximate Purchase Date: this week or next


Budget Range: $750 Max Before Rebates


System Usage from Most to Least Important: Photoshop CS3, gaming, internet/netflix, cable tv, minor video processing(mainly putting video up on youtube), also looking into dvd ripping, all other normal computer use


Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, speakers, tv card(reuse from current computer), Case: CoolerMaster Centurion 5 (I got it from a friend for free), Seagate 7200.12 500GB harddrive, DVD burner, 1920x1080 monitor

I need everything else, including OS

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com, amazon.com


Country of Origin: USA


Parts Preferences: AMD (Intel is too expensive and I don't think prices will drop much when Sandy Bridge comes out)


Overclocking: Yes


SLI or Crossfire: No


Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080


Additional Comments: I take a ton of pictures at sporting events and I use the batch processing feature of Photoshop in order to get the photos up on my site as fast as possible. I have batched processed as many as 100+ photos at a time. You can imagine how long it takes on a Pentium 4. For gaming, I play mostly First Person Shooters and RPG's and I like to max out all eye candy if possible.

Here is the list of parts I have come up with, trying to take advantage of combo deals and free shipping. Let me know what you think. Any alternate suggestions would be appreciated. Hopefully I am not missing anything.

AMD Phenom II X4 955 (combo) (processor actually comes out cheaper this way)

ASUS M4A87TD EVO 870 Motherboard and Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit combo

G-Skill Ripjaws 4GB 1600 Cas7

Gigabyte HD 6850

XFX 650W PSU (cheaper than Newegg and free shipping)

Coolermaster Hyper 212+ (cheaper than Newegg and free shipping)

More about : computer case guts

Register or log in to remove


just throw in the Hyper 212+ from amazon.

since your man use is photoshop you should use a hexacore processor to make things FLY by also the 1055t can overclock to 4.1ghz stable.
i also threw in the GTX 460 for CUDA to also help rendering times, and its also a great gaming card and wtih AMD processors you usually dont need faster than 1333 and really you cant tell the difference.

CBaca said:
I currently have a 6 year old HP Pentium 4 computer. I upgraded as much was possible and luckily it is still humming along, but it is time to move to a more current rig. :D  I have been looking at posts here for a long time and have researched till my head feels like it is going to explode. I would like a different set of eyes to look over what I came up with.

Approximate Purchase Date: this week or next


Budget Range: $750 Max Before Rebates


System Usage from Most to Least Important: Photoshop CS3, gaming, internet/netflix, cable tv, minor video processing(mainly putting video up on youtube), also looking into dvd ripping, all other normal computer use


Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, speakers, tv card(reuse from current computer), Case: CoolerMaster Centurion 5 (I got it from a friend for free), Seagate 7200.12 500GB harddrive, DVD burner, 1920x1080 monitor

I need everything else, including OS

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com, amazon.com


Country of Origin: USA


Parts Preferences: AMD (Intel is too expensive and I don't think prices will drop much when Sandy Bridge comes out)


Overclocking: Yes


SLI or Crossfire: No


Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080


Additional Comments: I take a ton of pictures at sporting events and I use the batch processing feature of Photoshop in order to get the photos up on my site as fast as possible. I have batched processed as many as 100+ photos at a time. You can imagine how long it takes on a Pentium 4. For gaming, I play mostly First Person Shooters and RPG's and I like to max out all eye candy if possible.

Here is the list of parts I have come up with, trying to take advantage of combo deals and free shipping. Let me know what you think. Any alternate suggestions would be appreciated. Hopefully I am not missing anything.

AMD Phenom II X4 955 (combo) (processor actually comes out cheaper this way)

ASUS M4A87TD EVO 870 Motherboard and Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit combo

G-Skill Ripjaws 4GB 1600 Cas7

Gigabyte HD 6850

XFX 650W PSU (cheaper than Newegg and free shipping)

Coolermaster Hyper 212+ (cheaper than Newegg and free shipping)


If you like alot of eye candy i would go with the GTX 470

Also go with 8 gigs of ram

Thanks for the advice on the RAM. The main reason I picked the 1600 was because that is what seems to be suggested in all the threads I have read. I will think about the video card. Photoshop CS3 doesn't take advantage of CUDA. Adobe didn't add that feature in till CS4 and now CS5. I won't be updating Photoshop any time soon.

Does anyone know how mulithreaded CS3 is? I tried searching the net and everything I found is dated. It seems that some features are and some are not. Just wondering if it can take advantage of more than 4 cores, if even that many.
Related ressources
Ask the community

Thanks for the link to the article. I think I will stick the the quad-core processor. I could always ugrade later if I get a newer version of photoshop.

Any other suggestions? I am also curious about how easy/hard it would be to add a SSD later on hopefully when prices drop some more.

I have this RAM clocked down to 1333 with the timings at 7-7-7-24. I think the CAS 7 is a good move, from what I've found AMD will prefer lower timings. Might be a viable option if you decide to go with 8gb.

Adding a SSD is simple and hassle free. Just make sure you have all of your drivers up to date when you install it so that it will perform well. My boot time was slowed simply because I did not have my USB 3.0 drivers and Logitech Setpoint up to date.

I <3 my 955! Goodluck!

Register or log in to remove
 
Ask the community
Read discussions in other Systems categories
!