<$2,000 Photoshop Machine Build ???

Rich Fro

Honorable
Apr 12, 2012
5
0
10,510
Approximate Purchase Date: (e.g.: Within the next 6-8 weeks

Budget Range: Looking to stay right around $1,800-2,000

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Extensive photo editing in Adobe Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS6, web surfing and email.

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg.com

Country: US

Parts Preferences: i7 processor, SSD for OS and Adobe applications, full-size case with room for future expansion

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Not reallly sure what either is

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080, 1920x1200)

Additional Comments: Will be installing Win7 Pro and 32GB of RAM.... I use two 2TB external HDs for storage of my images

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Here is a list of components that I have been looking at. Just want to make sure that they are sufficient for my needs, and that they'll all "play nice" together.


Thermaltake Overseer RX-I VN700M1W2N Black Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133194


ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131790


GIGABYTE GV-N56GOC-1GI GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125383


OCZ Fatal1ty 750W Modular Gaming 80Plus Bronze Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341041


Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070


Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148443


Western Digital VelociRaptor WD4500HLHX 450GB 10000 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136557


G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9Q-32GXM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231569


GEAR HEAD 24x DVD Burner Black SATA Model 24XDVDINT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827269008

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Thanks for looking, and for any advice you may wish to toss my way


-Rich

 
Solution

This would depend on this new pc's access to the 4TB's. Going from a 10000rpm HD down to the 7200 isn't a big change when you have an SSD drive. I suggested the 7200rpm drive as its nearly as fast temporary storage for most often accessed files. If the 4TB's has external SATA connection tho they should be fine.

Make sure to look into the i7 3770K and Z77 motherboards. Leaked benchmarks gives it about a 15% advantage over i7 2600k.

The 750 watt PSU should be...

MrKopaka1016

Honorable
Apr 10, 2012
55
0
10,630
For that much money for such programs like that is kinda crazy in my opinion. I recently had a build with a GT 430 Nvidia GPU and the build runs Autocad, Photoshop and Rhino. Now if you want clear and fluid performance then the subject changes
 

Rich Fro

Honorable
Apr 12, 2012
5
0
10,510
I figured the Velociraptor would suffice for a scratch disk. Any reason that it wouldn't?

Keep in mind that I am currently using CS5 on a Dell with 32 bit Vista and 4GB of RAM, so this machine will seem like a NASA supercomputer to me...
 
G

Guest

Guest
the raptor will be good for a scratch disk. if you are working with several dozen layers, an image several gigs in size, an SSD will cut down the rendering time.

though since SSDs life expectancy is measured in writes; it won't last as long as usual. (i believe most today are expected to last around 3 years)

yeah that machine will blow your socks off compared to that dell :)
 
Drop the costly HD as with the SSD it will mean nothing in performance terms. Get a 1TB storage drive as most of your work will be done on the SSD. Here is a nice Seagate 1TB 7200 SATA3.0 drive. Use the extra cash for a video card with more memory.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840

For photoshop to make good use of video cards they need about 2~3GB's or video memory. Pro versions have 6GB's but at your budget these are not an option. May is the release date on the 670GTX which by leaks has 2GB's for $299. Given your $179 560GTX and the $140ish you saved on the 1TB drive your price range should match the 670GTX perfectly.

You may want to rethink the i7 2600K and z68. I suggest the soon to release i7 3770K and a Z77 motherboard. A few Z77 motherboards are out if you want to start shopping for those. The other items you have look fine. Just dont jump the gun as the new 670GTX by leaks is way more powerful than the old 580GTX.

Here is a few good Z77 boards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627+600315497&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=280&description=&hisInDesc=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc=&Page=2


 

Rich Fro

Honorable
Apr 12, 2012
5
0
10,510
Thanks everyone.... So I'm guessing that the power supply is sufficient and that everything he will be compatible then?

I'll look into a big storage drive since I have the room for future expansion, although I already have a pair of externals giving me 4 TB of storage.
 
G

Guest

Guest

:lol:
no. it is photoshop'd
a reseller on ebay was trying to sell some i5s they claimed were a special "redline" series and i did it as a joke on a thread.
 

This would depend on this new pc's access to the 4TB's. Going from a 10000rpm HD down to the 7200 isn't a big change when you have an SSD drive. I suggested the 7200rpm drive as its nearly as fast temporary storage for most often accessed files. If the 4TB's has external SATA connection tho they should be fine.

Make sure to look into the i7 3770K and Z77 motherboards. Leaked benchmarks gives it about a 15% advantage over i7 2600k.

The 750 watt PSU should be fine for any single video card with only 1 GPU. This said do note the new 600 series cards has much lower power draw. In the link below the test system with the 680 only draws 353 watts during furmark testing. This is a good deal lower than ASUS's 560ti DCII. Again I highly suggest the 670GTX once it launches in May.
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1881/16/
 
Solution

ddan49

Honorable
Mar 13, 2012
1,549
0
11,860
I'm fairly sure you could get the price down to $1,000 and not sacrifice anything, really. I mean, the SSD, the RAM, the CPU, and sort of the mobo are the only high-end parts you'll need... the SSD being the most expensive (relatively).