Build your "dream" editing PC

[Village Idiot]

Duh...

Top of the line processor, board, GPU, PSU, etc... with max memory for said processor with cards for blue tooth, thunderbolt, etc... in my currect 10 bay case with 2 of the largest capacity SSDs and 8 2TB HDDs. The drives would be split 1 SSD and 4 HDDs each so that one SSD had Win7 on it with 4 drives formatted for it and the other had OS X on it with 4 drives.

That or the computer from the Enterprise. That ***** could make hot tea appear out of thin air!

 

[Village Idiot]

I just bought a new one. Budget was a big concern, so I certainly couldn't build or buy a 'dream machine'. But I did get an i5 processor and 8GB of Ram.
I was really temped to get a solid state drive of the OS & programs. The IT guy as work just built a new machine with an SSD and he said it boots up an opens his internet browser in 4 seconds.

My old machine, took 2-4 minutes to boot up, and if you clicked on Firefox, before everything else had settled down, it took another minute or two to open. It actually ran LR and PS4 well enough. I was even able to work on files from my 5DmkII. It just took a long time to get going.

I bought a mid level Mac Mini strictly for image editing because I got tired of having the get OS X to run properly every time there was an OS update and having to switch between the Win7 partition and the OS X partition. It was something like $600ish refurbed and so far has proven to be a great little machine. It runs all my programs at 2560x1600 resolution on a 30" monitor (even though Apple's dual link DVI adapter blows angry goats) and fits nicely in a laptop bag so I can pull movies onto the computer from the server and take it to my friends' houses and have access to whatever I need.

 

[flameshots]

Ok so I'm thinking the I7 with at least 16G of ram and a 2TB HD. I am thinking i'm going to start with an AZUS Gaming unit to get a Nvida graphics card. I will then build from there. I like the idea of a SSHD for the OS and periphrials. How many gigs are needed to run win-7 64-bit? You can find several on new egg for a reasonable price.

 

[Big Mike]

Keep in mind that while a high end video card is great for gaming, it's not as useful for photo editing.

Before PS CS (version 3 or 4), it didn't use the video card processor at all. Since then, it now does use the power in the video card to help out. Initially it was just to help speed up zooming and smooth zooming (not terribly important). I think it does a lot more than that now...but still, I don't think it's worth the price to get a high end video card, just for photo editing.

For gaming or maybe video editing/playing...then yes.

 

[flameshots]

Keep in mind that while a high end video card is great for gaming, it's not as useful for photo editing.

Before PS CS (version 3 or 4), it didn't use the video card processor at all. Since then, it now does use the power in the video card to help out. Initially it was just to help speed up zooming and smooth zooming (not terribly important). I think it does a lot more than that now...but still, I don't think it's worth the price to get a high end video card, just for photo editing.

For gaming or maybe video editing/playing...then yes.

Good to know. I will be doing some GoPro editing with it also so I will probably still want the video card. Thanks for the information Mike.

 

[Fox_Racing_Guy]

Here is a good article (& free software) on how to use a lower end Nvidia GTX GPU's with CS5 acceleration Adobe Premiere CS5 and Premiere CS5.5 Video Cards with CUDA Acceleration Mercury Playback Unlock Enable MPE Hack Mod Tip
Definitively go Intel for processing power, just read the above article for CPU rendering alone. Don't waste your money on a 980X system, it was 2 generations old back in Nov and it will soon be 3 generations old. A $180 i5 2500K can keep pace with it and a $280 i7 2600K surpasses it in PS.

For SSD's Intel and Samsung are known for reliability, I use a Mushkin because they are assembled here in the USA.

 

[Demers18]

Why waste time building it when you just need Mac.

 

[jake337]

Well dream PC.....hmmm this should easy. Whatever is the latest in greatest in every department possible from monitor to software!

 

[OscarWilde]

I actually just finished building my computer!

CPU: Intel i7 2600k (3.4gHz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte P67 6gb/s USB 3.0
Video Card: EVGA GeForce 560
RAM: Crucial 8gb (2 x 4gb) DDR3 1600
HDD: WD 2 tb internal + 1 tb external
SSD: Crucial 60gb internal (Running my OS and a few programs)
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
PSU: Corsair 650w
Disk Drive: Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner
All in a beautiful steel Cooler Master HAF advanced case!

Cost about 1500 with all the shipping and taxes...

Photoshop runs like a dream for me now... (it runs off the SSD with windows) I can't remember the last time I even had to wait for it to do something... it's like it just happens! Especially compared to my old pc!

 

[table1349]

Well since you said dream, here it is:

Mac Pro with:
Two 2.93GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon “Westmere” (12 cores)
64GB (8x8GB) DDR3 ECC SDRAM
Mac Pro RAID Card
Hard Drive 1 512GB solid-state drive
Hard Drive 2 2TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive
Hard Drive 3 2TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive
Hard Drive 4 2TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive
Two ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB each
Two 18x double-layer SuperDrives
Apple LED Cinema Display (27" flat panel)
Apple LED Cinema Display (27" flat panel)
Apple Magic Mouse + Magic Trackpad
Apple Wireless Keyboard Intuos5 touch Large Pen Tablet


With this you can edit to your hearts content, play Mass Effect 3 and control the Hubble all at the same time. Ok, maybe you couldn't control the Hubble, at least not without an up link. :mrgreen: :lmao:

 

[Hickeydog]

Why waste time building it when you just need Mac.

Because not everyone feels like dropping $1000 more than they really have to.

 

[480sparky]

......... Ok, maybe you couldn't control the Hubble, at least not without an up link. :mrgreen: :lmao:

You don't need an uplink to the HST. There's already one available.

You can buy time on HST if you have the funds and can convince the powers that be of the scientific usefulness of your request.

 

[jake337]

Why waste time building it when you just need Mac.

Because not everyone feels like dropping $1000 more than they really have to.

Some don't feel like building one themselves, just using it.

 

[Demers18]

Some don't feel like building one themselves, just using it.

Insert me here

 

[pharmakon]

I used to build my own pc's, then I got tired of spending 1500-2k all the latest s### just to see it outdated 2 months later. Now I just settle for cheaper off the shelf pc's and just add a couple things that matter to me (more RAM, better GPU and additional HD). Currently I just have an HP PC for daily use and a Mac Mini for app development (because they force you to). Neither is blazingly fast, but they are both adequate for what I need them to do.

I did finally invest in a decent IPS monitor.

And just for the record after having used both PC and Mac a while I still don't know what you mac fanatics are raving about. (other than the magic trackpad, I do love that thing. haha)