Advice on prospective build

[BrentH1]

Hello,
I would like any thoughts on the new build specs below. Does it look ok? Any serious problems? Any advice on changes that would significantly help it without significant extra expense? It will be used as a photo editing workstation, with thousands of high-res images going through it weekly. Thanks in advance!
Brent

Approximate Purchase Date: Next two weeks.

Budget Range: sub $1500

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Photo editing (adobe products - cs3 & lr3)

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: amazon

Country of Origin: U.S.A.

Parts Preferences: see parts list below

Overclocking: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080, 1920x1200
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CPU: Intel Core i7-950 Processor 3.06GHz 8 MB Cache Socket LGA1366

MoBo: Gigabyte Intel X58/Intel ICH10R Intel X58 ATX DDR3 2200 LGA 1156 Motherboard (GA-X58A-UD3R)

RAM: Corsair XMS3 8 GB 1333 MHz PC3-10666 240-Pin DDR3 Memory Kit CMX8GX3M2A1333C9 (x2 for 16 GB total)

SSD (for programs): Corsair 60 GB Force Series Ultra Fast TRIM Supported Solid State Drive CSSD-F60GB2-BRKT (x2 in RAID array)

Hard Drive: Western Digital WD Caviar Black 1 TB SATA 6 GB/S 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Internal Bulk/OEM 3.5-Inch Desktop Hard Drive

GPU: EVGA nVidia GeForce 9500GT 1 GB 2DVI PCI-Express Video Card, 01G-P3-N959-TR

PSU: Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750-Watt TX Series 80 Plus Certified Power Supply compatible with Intel Core i7 and Core i5

DVD: Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive IHAS424-98 - Retail (Black)

Case: Cooler Master Computer Case RC-692-KKN2

 

[kajabla]

You should absolutely go with a Sandy Bridge processor over the i7-900 series, which is now outdated and overpriced. A 2500K would perform much, much better than that 950, and it would do it at a lower price. You should put it on a P67 chipset and overclock it like crazy.
If it's for media, get 16gb RAM.
You should get a better graphics card; maybe a 5770 for $120.
The power supply can be a 500W or lower.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027&Tpk=corsair%20500
I don't know about this, because I don't know exactly how you'll use it, but won't you need more storage space for all these photos? Are you planning to work on each batch and delete it immediately afterward? It would be pretty each to get, say, three 1tb hard drives.
The SSD should contain, first and foremost, the operating system, and important programs after that.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

its 8am and I should be off to bed, but you want an intel 2600k processor on a z68 mobo, lots of ram, 8Gb's ok but with editing work, more is better,
psu is fine but dear gods look to that graphics card, please, for your sake
I dont know any good ones for work purposes but you are looking at Nvidia 570ti level cards imo,
hope this helps some, sorry to blow your build up but the 2600k is the chip you want/need at the moment for editing work over gaming (2500k wins for gaming over the 2600k) and the new z68 boards have some tweaks that also help your editing work, I'm not an intel fan so can only guide you to them, you'll have to research or hope a more intel-informed member pops in here

Moto

 

[Outlander_04]

Another vote for the 2500 or preferably 2600 Intel . The K version if you want to over clock .

A Z68 motherboard , or p67 .

You do not need a gaming gfx card . For a workstation either the ideal will be an nVidia Quaddro , or perhaps a GTS 450.

The very fastest hard drive access available is the OCZ Revodrive 2. Its an SSD RAID PCI-e card.

You are using CS3 which is not a 64 bit program . Its ability to "see" RAM is limited . Ideally upgrade to CS5 , but till then 8 gig of RAM is likely to be plenty

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Thanks for the graphics input Outlander,
I remembered quaddro's but wasn't sure if they were outdated now so said 570 as a guideline card
Moto

 

[BrentH1]

Great (and quick) input - thanks. I was going with the i7 series because I had read it was more stable for running multiple adobe programs than the sandy bridge. Has anyone else heard or believe this? With all the sandy bridge love, I'm questioning that. And thanks for the GPU advice - I was going nuts trying to find info on which one, and knew I was *settling* with that one. And good advice on the extra storage kajabla - they are easy enought to get inexpensively. Any other advice/thoughts? What z68 mobo's do folks like?

 

[Outlander_04]

Click on the CHARTS tab on this site and you can select relevant programs and see how respective CPU's benchmarked .

Sandybridge is probably your best option . I havent heard of any stability issues .
The 2600 has 4 cores and four more virtual cores thanks to hyperthreading .

Motherboards with similar chipsets perform within a couple of percentage points of each other . I prefer ASUS/ Gigabyte / asrock as brands but other are good too .
Avoid high priced overclocking gamer boards that support multiple gfx cards. You dont need it so dont pay for it