PC for Photo Editing

[JustAnEngineer]

Gigabyte GA-EG45M-DS2H motherboard w/ integrated graphics
Intel Core2Quad Q8200 2.33 GHz quad-core processor
8GiB = 2ea 2x2 GiB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 memory
640 GB Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS
Samsung SH-S223Q DVD burner
6X Blu-ray reader/DVD burner
Antec Sonata III 500 case w/ earthwatts EA500
Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium OEM
+$10 shipping and handling
-$20 mail-in rebate
=====
$768.53

If you're not interested in Blu-ray movies, you can use that $105 to add a 1 TB hard-drive, instead.

 

[MikeBcos]

Yeah which is why Im still on XP. If you build your own get XP over Vista/ME. Building isnt that hard at all, everything is basically plug and play.

I just bought a new computer, nothing fancy, dual core processor, 3Gb RAM, 320 Gb hard drive, cost was a little under $500. I had been a die-hard XP hold-out but with this one I switched to Vista. MS have managed to pretty much fix it. Once I switched off the User Account Control I got used to it very fast and I like it, Vista has some very nice features.

Photoshop CS3 opens in 4 seconds on this system and I have yet to slow it down much, it's great for image editing.

 

[Joves]

I had Vista on this machine but after a few weeks dropped it because, it sucked to me. Now I will probably go to Win7 after reading the reports on it. It is much less of a rescource hog than Vista/MohaveBS.

 

[RONDAL]

i love having dual monitors. makes my life sooooooo much better

 

[monkeykoder]

I find that editing RAW photos is one of the few things that I do that pushes my memory usage to 6+ GiB. Windows Vista will use extra available memory to pre-fetch stuff for you, which helps with disk access. DDR2 memory is so amazingly cheap right now that there's no good reason not to get 4 x 2 GiB = 8 GiB of DDR2-800 memory with a Core2Duo or Core2Quad system.

You want Windows Vista 64-bit as your operating system. It's 7 years better than XP, and it shows.


Incidentally, if you install folding @home, you can edit photos and cure cancer at the same time. :thumbsup:

Pretty much true for the ram just got myself a free system (first one of relatively current generation in years) upgraded the video card ($75) and the ram (2GB for $20) basically an all around nice system now. However unless you're running a 64 bit OS (or linux compiled in certain ways) you can't touch anything over 4GB. Never be afraid to build your own but usually it ends up costing more than buying one pre-built and upgrading the parts you need upgraded (for gaming this amounts to ram and video card for editing pretty much just the ram).

 

[pez]

I had Vista on this machine but after a few weeks dropped it because, it sucked to me. Now I will probably go to Win7 after reading the reports on it. It is much less of a resource hog than Vista/MohaveBS.

Vista got a bad rap from the get go and it is Microsoft's own fault. But I have been using it on my gamers and in present SP1 form, Vista Home Premium or Ultimate is actually faster than XP Pro- albeit not quite as stable.
On another note, I'd consider a vid card over onboard graphics for any kind of graphics work...

 

[TwoRails]

... Never be afraid to build your own but usually it ends up costing more than buying one pre-built and upgrading the parts you need upgraded (for gaming this amounts to ram and video card for editing pretty much just the ram).

Ya, that's usually true that building your own can cost more than a store bought system, but you get some things that are very important to many: a higher quality system, and intimate knowledge of the inner working so you can upgrade and or repair you own system instead of paying for repairs.

Also, it you do build a high end system, for example, then you can still build for less than an equivalent pre-build system.

You can do a "budget build" for about the same with decent parts that many would rather have than a store bought system due to the upgrade / repair path.

 

[RONDAL]

i love having dual monitors. makes my life sooooooo much better

 

[monkeykoder]

Ya, that's usually true that building your own can cost more than a store bought system, but you get some things that are very important to many: a higher quality system, and intimate knowledge of the inner working so you can upgrade and or repair you own system instead of paying for repairs.

Also, it you do build a high end system, for example, then you can still build for less than an equivalent pre-build system.

You can do a "budget build" for about the same with decent parts that many would rather have than a store bought system due to the upgrade / repair path.

The easiest way is to just pay attention to the specs of the computers out there and when you see one with the expansion ports needed buy it upgrade video card and ram and you're good. I always price out doing it myself first and always end up buying and upgrading. Of course the best deal is get one someone ELSE bought and upgrade that if possible make server out of it if not...

 

[Garbz]

Ultimate is actually faster than XP Pro- albeit not quite as stable.

I'll believe that when I see the figures. Actually no I won't given how it counters every other source on the net showing that there is zero difference between Vista versions, and all Vista versions benchmark worse than XP on most tests.

i love having dual monitors. makes my life sooooooo much better

I used to think that. But calibrating a cheap monitor is hard, calibrating 2 cheap monitors even from the same brand and make is even harder, and I since bought one large 26" IPS screen with wide gamut and internal calibration LUTs I haven't looked back. Pity no normal person can afford two of those

As an aside if you get dual monitors or a single screen with 1920x1200 resolution or higher I would recommend a beastly video card, even if you don't play games. Got a nice speed boost in 2D performance in Lightroom when I stuck a new card in.

 

[pez]

I'll believe that when I see the figures. Actually no I won't given how it counters every other source on the net showing that there is zero difference between Vista versions, and all Vista versions benchmark worse than XP on most tests.

It actually feels faster, and is generally at parity in current form from tests I've seen lately, although the tests vary a lot and some results show xpsp3 faster- but the drivers have largely caught up with the OS, I think.
Here's one, note Crysis score, the mother of all gaming tests.

 

[Garbz]

Oh yeah for games it may well be, but for every productivity benchmark it was otherwise. It feels snappy to you? Do you use the aeroglass interface, because it only ever feels remotely snappy once that is turned off.

Btw be ware of crysis benchmarks. The game which claims to require dx10, but can be used in highest graphics settings without it, but then gives wildly different performance numbers both up and down with it is not a very reliable indicator. That said decent frame rate in crysis on any system means it's a beast of a system

 

[LarissaPhotography]

Also keep in mind that getting a new system is not always your best bet. We had a computer that was running really slow, and we were considering spending the money to get the perfect Photoshop computer. We decided to start with a fresh install of Windows. The difference was night and day. It runs so fast now that we're no longer considering the new computer.

 

[Mike_E]

And don't forget Spybot- Search and Destroy The home of Spybot-S&D!

Spy-ware/mal-ware can ruin your performance too.

 

[TUX424]

Gigabyte GA-EG45M-DS2H motherboard w/ integrated graphics
Intel Core2Quad Q8200 2.33 GHz quad-core processor
8GiB = 2ea 2x2 GiB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 memory
640 GB Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS
Samsung SH-S223Q DVD burner
6X Blu-ray reader/DVD burner
Antec Sonata III 500 case w/ earthwatts EA500
Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium OEM
+$10 shipping and handling
-$20 mail-in rebate
=====
$768.53

If you're not interested in Blu-ray movies, you can use that $105 to add a 1 TB hard-drive, instead.

The Cart that you have put togeather looks good but you forgot to add a video card i wouldn't say that it is good to go with on board graphics so try this one. EVGA 8600GTS