Upgrades for Computer

tenlientl · Oct 13, 2008

Hello. ATM I have and using an HP DV9000. It has:

It's at 1.83 Ghz(Intel G5600) with 2GB Ram under Vista using GeForce Go 7600

The thing is, I'm using this laptop for everything. Photography stuff, music, videos, a game or two, surfing, MSN, etc.

I have an old desktop that I considered high-end when I bought it a few years ago. I'd like to use it for ONLY my photo editing. Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. ATM, it's under Ubuntu 8.04. It seems slow so what should I upgrade? I'm assuming my motherboard is fine, I don't think I'll need SATA2. Or would I?

Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe motherboard
AMD XP 2500+
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
1GB Ram

Would I still be better off with the notebook, or should I upgrade my desktop? If so, what should I upgrade and if you could, suggest a product.

btw, I'd really rather have a dedicated computer for just my photo editing.

SpeedTrap · Oct 13, 2008

Processor Upgrade and at least another Gig of Ram.
Not sure what the best processor will fit on that board, but given it's age you should be able to get a faster chip on the cheap.

skiboarder72 · Oct 13, 2008

Honestly, I would upgrade the whole thing, the MOBO that is on won't support a much faster chip. It's also AGP and won't accept a newer video card or newer ram. You can build a crazy fast computer that will fly through photographs for $600 anyways.

tenlientl · Oct 13, 2008

Oh, $600? Hmm. What's with the $2,500 ones(just PC, no monitor, etc.). Are those for gaming?

I buy most of my computer stuff at http://www.ncix.com/ Cheapest place around locally and in Canada IMO. Would anyone reccomend a decent motherboard? I don't know. When I was big on computers, I liked AMD over Intel. Would video card matter? If so, what should I look for?

How about RAM?

jvgig · Oct 13, 2008

It really depends on what you do with your photos. For everyday light editing and organizing, 600 will be more than enough. For that price you can get a cheaper quad core 4gb of memory with a tb hdd and a basic video card if you look around. However, if you do heavy editing with huge files, then the sky is the limit. $2500 computers are either lower high end gaming rigs or low end workstations. i would not upgrade your old PC, its just too old and the upgrades will be expensive and will not give the performance you are likely looking for. We need a little more info about your usage and intents if we are to suggest any particular setup.

F1addict · Oct 13, 2008

Yeah, your mother board is too outdated to really upgrade.
Just do what I'm doing, replace the mobo, cpu, ram, and you'll might want a new power supply.

I don't really know what would be best for you but these are the parts I'm looking at putting into my old HP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131323
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122 remember you need a 64 bit operating system to support 4+ gigs of ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103272

you'll also need a new video card I'd suggest something from XFX. I have a 256MB card from them that is great.
I'm stealing my brothers old 500W power supply because he got a new one so I can't really help you in finding a new one of those if you even need it. I'd say if your current one is over 400W its fine, if not replace it.

I'd also suggest a hard drive of at least 250-500GB from either Seagate of Western Digital, I don't think you could go wrong with a hard drive from either company
You can probably replace your mobo, cpu, ram, power supply, and hard drive for around $500-$600 without a problem

hope this helps

oh and yeah those $2500 computers are for gaming most likely. My brothers building a new computer that will probably come close to the $1000 mark and will probably play any game you throw at it just as well as the next computer. Those real expensive "gaming" machines are really only for people who do pretty much nothing but play games on their computers

tenlientl · Oct 13, 2008

ATM, i just edit my RAW files. Lightly I guess. Lightroom 2. I plan to use Photoshop CS3(or CS4) more often once I acquire the skills.

I would rather have a small capacity/fast hard drive than a high capacity/slow one. Would 8GB be overkill?

Would it be fine if I just buy a bit more expensive motherboard that has built-in video card that will be fine? Or would a dedicated video card be better?

I've been eyeing this http://pc.ncix.com/ncixpc/ncixpc.cfm?uuid=8DC57B9C-BEC3-4DCA-861B07A05C795265-2096251

I just plan to 'upgrade' to the Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 over the Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200.

Remove the case(i got an old one that will do), remove that Vista, maybe get a 64-bit XP, remove mouse/keyboard and dvd-writer.

Could I get something different that's better/as good that's cheaper?

Hobbes · Oct 13, 2008

uh as long as you are satisfied with their performances you dont really need to upgrade them even if they are a few years old. I am using a 4 years old computer and I have only done some minor upgrades like a faster and more silent graphic card and more memories and it's fast enough for the things I am using it for. as long as you don't need to play the latest games (like Crysis or Far Cry 2) you dont really need to have the latest and the fastest

JustAnEngineer · Oct 13, 2008

At the low end, AMD's chipsets have by far the best integrated graphics.

$C 95½ Asus M3A78-EM w/ Radeon HD3200 integrated graphics
$C 71½ AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz dual-core 64-bit processor w/ HSF
$C 59½ 2x2GiB PC2-6400 DDR2 memory

usayit · Oct 13, 2008

Hobbes said:
uh as long as you are satisfied with their performances you dont really need to upgrade them even if they are a few years old. I am using a 4 years old computer

I agree... most photography related apps are memory heavy. If you don't want or unable to upgrade the entire machine (your desktop), max out memory. I am on a 5 year old Mac G5 with 2x1.8Gz 4GB of memory running Lightroom 2 just fine. If you can afford a completely brand new machine, that would be the way to go ( as always in the computer world).

You'll want to either stay away from on-board graphics adapters that leverage shared memory or just install an dedicated graphics adapter. Maxing out memory should be higher priority than sheer processor speed. I personally prefer desktops for dedicated photo machine. Also consider investing in some sort of backup strategy. You should also do your research on a monitor and calibrating unit. No matter how good your photoshop machine is spec'd, it will be utterly frustrating without a good calibrated monitor.

FYI: Lightroom 2's bare min memory requirement is 1GB. You'll want much more than that. Also, Lightroom 2 LOVES dual monitors....

jvgig · Oct 14, 2008

what is your budget? No matter what it is, you can make a system that will be better than your current one. You can choose any two of the following: cost, performance, and convenience. Now whether or not you need that new $3000 pc to edit your photos is up to you, you can almost always do the same thing with a lesser machine, but it will take longer and be less reliable.

As a general rule of thumb, I would currently recommend 4-8gb ddr2 1066 depending on your expected usage, intel quad core model depending on usage, 640gb-1.5tb hdds 7200rpm, a mid range ati gfx card, with whatever other accessories you want.

Bifurcator · Oct 14, 2008

http://tesselator.gpmod.com/Images/_Text/TPFBS.txt

tenlientl said:
Hello. ATM I have and using an HP DV9000. It has:

It's at 1.83 Ghz(Intel G5600) with 2GB Ram under Vista using GeForce Go 7600

The thing is, I'm using this laptop for everything. Photography stuff, music, videos, a game or two, surfing, MSN, etc.

I have an old desktop that I considered high-end when I bought it a few years ago. I'd like to use it for ONLY my photo editing. Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. ATM, it's under Ubuntu 8.04. It seems slow so what should I upgrade? I'm assuming my motherboard is fine, I don't think I'll need SATA2. Or would I?

Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe motherboard
AMD XP 2500+
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
1GB Ram

Would I still be better off with the notebook, or should I upgrade my desktop? If so, what should I upgrade and if you could, suggest a product.

btw, I'd really rather have a dedicated computer for just my photo editing.

Hehehe LOL. You need a new MB for sure! Just sell the whole thing for $100 or $200 on e-bay (as that's probably the max you're get for it) and buy a whole new machine. Seriously.

Photoshop is your main tool so

2 to 4 gigs ram,
1TB (drive speed rpm & transfer throughput isn't critical.)
Quad core or Dual core is fine for CS3/CS4 but by CS5 you will want as many cores as you can afford 8, 12, or 16 depending what's available.
Display card is not critical beyond display QUALITY. ATI is generally considered by many to have a more lush and beautiful display quality.
Firewire.
Mac is a little more polished, secure, and less of a bogart but linux on a peecee is fine.

The good news is that you can pick up a PC w/linux with those specs for about $500 ~ $700. The main difference between the $500 cheapies and the $2K deluxe boxes is upgradability and girth under high volume usage. Neither of which you'll need if you're main thing is photography and Photoshop. For a Q series proc you can make that estimate $700 to $1K

Me, I'm a workstation and server nut who mostly was into 3D rendering and video editing. I've gone through several hundred machines in the past 6 or 7 years alone. Currently I'm kind of retired and sitting next to eight PeeCee dual-core dual xeons, a Mac quad-core dual xeon (8-core total), and a core-duo cheapy Gateway running Windoze.

http://tesselator.gpmod.com/Images/_Text/TPFBS.txt

frXnz kafka · Oct 14, 2008

usayit said:
FYI: Lightroom 2's bare min memory requirement is 1GB. You'll want much more than that. Also, Lightroom 2 LOVES dual monitors....

Really? I run Lightroom 2 on my laptop all the time, and it only has 512mb. It is a little sluggish though.

Bifurcator · Oct 14, 2008

Really? LR2 says 1 gig min spec. LR1 says 512mb or 768 depending on whether you believe the readme or Adobe's site. How often do you run LR2 in 512mb?