Your Photo Editing Computer

prodigy2k7 · Feb 6, 2009

mar1u5 said:
I can see that my set up goes in the "old school" category: 3ghz pentium 4, 2gb ram and 1.3tb harddrive space in total. Using an old 21" DELL CRT monitor. It's stone age technology, but it works.

You call that old? This is my old pc: (7 years old)
Intel Celeron 1.8Ghz (single core)
512MB (256MB x 2) memory (LOL)
40GB HDD

feRRari4756 · Feb 6, 2009

I got an iMac with Tiger
2gb ram
128 graphics card
2.8 ghz processor

I want to upgrade the graphics card soon..

Lynnzora · Feb 6, 2009

Well I just got a Compac... Pentium duel processor
2gb ram
I'll probably add more ram and a graphics card... How important is it to have a graphics card when editing?

prodigy2k7 · Feb 6, 2009

Lynnzora said:
Well I just got a Compac... Pentium duel processor
2gb ram
I'll probably add more ram and a graphics card... How important is it to have a graphics card when editing?

Not very important at all... A graphics card isnt really a graphics card, its a video card... You want a good monitor and good CPU for editing, some memory too. Graphics cards (the good ones) are mostly for games and anything that requires large LCD screens and fast rendering etc...

sabbath999 · Feb 6, 2009

I use an iMac 24 core duo 2 w/4GB RAM

Hock · Feb 6, 2009

well.. my set up..
intel core 2 quad 2.66 Ghz
8 GB of DDR2 ram
728 MB of vid RAM
7200 RPM - 500 GB hardrive

this is probably a little much for just photo editing... but i do more than just that...

i would recommend a PC, since its what you know, as for hardware sepc...
i'd recommend just a decent processor core 2 for intel, im not sure on AMD equiv
4 gigs of ram is enough IMO, you can splurge a little bit and get 6-8 if you want, its not that cheap (for DD2)
512MB video should be fine
and 7200 RPM

richard - why not go for the i7, they will be a lil bit pricer, but this is a new architecture, not just a die shrink, so you will see a better speed up, and add a few more years before you have to replace your computer

prodigy2k7 · Feb 7, 2009

Hock said:
well.. my set up..
intel core 2 quad 2.66 Ghz
8 GB of DDR2 ram
728 MB of vid RAM
7200 RPM - 500 GB hardrive

this is probably a little much for just photo editing... but i do more than just that...

i would recommend a PC, since its what you know, as for hardware sepc...
i'd recommend just a decent processor core 2 for intel, im not sure on AMD equiv
4 gigs of ram is enough IMO, you can splurge a little bit and get 6-8 if you want, its not that cheap (for DD2)
512MB video should be fine
and 7200 RPM

richard - why not go for the i7, they will be a lil bit pricer, but this is a new architecture, not just a die shrink, so you will see a better speed up, and add a few more years before you have to replace your computer

Did you say DDR2 is not that cheap? DDR2 800MHz is like, SUPER cheap right now... 4GB is the common right now too... 4GB (2x2) is really cheap these days...

Hock · Feb 7, 2009

wow my bad the late nights are getting to me.... yes DDR2 is pretty cheap now

I meant to say.. its not that EXPENSIVE...

prodigy2k7 said:
Did you say DDR2 is not that cheap? DDR2 800MHz is like, SUPER cheap right now... 4GB is the common right now too... 4GB (2x2) is really cheap these days...

Richard · Feb 7, 2009

Hock said:
well.. my set up..

richard - why not go for the i7, they will be a lil bit pricer, but this is a new architecture, not just a die shrink, so you will see a better speed up, and add a few more years before you have to replace your computer

Hock,

Don't think I haven't thought about it, but really I'm at my borders already on my budget. And even 100 dollars more might get me in trouble with the wifey. I'm already thinking of getting the next size up on the wacom and that will be an extra 100 right there.

What I am going to do is right before I order my PC parts I'm going to search one last time on Newegg and check what current specials on going on and might make some adjustments to my order. Maybe an i7.

Lynnzora,

As far as the video card the only thing you would need to worry about is can the video card produce a high enough resolution for your monitor. I'm not sure how well a onboard video (which means it's on the motherboard, instead of a seperate card) would be.

Currently I have a crt 17" monitor and my screen resolution is 1280x1024px, I don't think my onboard video would be able to be that high. But the good news is if you do want to upgrade your video card, you won't have to spend a lot for photo editing purposes, I would guess $50 or less.

The other benefit of a video card is most of them allow dual monitor capabilites. If you are into that sort of thing.

Good Luck

P.S. If your PC needs a pick-me-up, just buy an extra 1gb of ram. Would be very inexpensive and it gives a little boost on preformance.

prodigy2k7 · Feb 7, 2009

Hock said:
wow my bad the late nights are getting to me.... yes DDR2 is pretty cheap now

I meant to say.. its not that EXPENSIVE...

I thought you meant to say that but wasnt sure...

Its all good :thumbup:

Village Idiot · Feb 8, 2009

Richard said:
Hock,

Don't think I haven't thought about it, but really I'm at my borders already on my budget. And even 100 dollars more might get me in trouble with the wifey. I'm already thinking of getting the next size up on the wacom and that will be an extra 100 right there.

What I am going to do is right before I order my PC parts I'm going to search one last time on Newegg and check what current specials on going on and might make some adjustments to my order. Maybe an i7.

Lynnzora,

As far as the video card the only thing you would need to worry about is can the video card produce a high enough resolution for your monitor. I'm not sure how well a onboard video (which means it's on the motherboard, instead of a seperate card) would be.

Currently I have a crt 17" monitor and my screen resolution is 1280x1024px, I don't think my onboard video would be able to be that high. But the good news is if you do want to upgrade your video card, you won't have to spend a lot for photo editing purposes, I would guess $50 or less.

The other benefit of a video card is most of them allow dual monitor capabilites. If you are into that sort of thing.

Good Luck

P.S. If your PC needs a pick-me-up, just buy an extra 1gb of ram. Would be very inexpensive and it gives a little boost on preformance.

Mast last refurb was new. Plus there's other things you have to consider. Firewire ports, blue tooth, and other things that make apple more expensive.

And if she's using CS4, it uses GPU acceleration for certain things so a cheaper graphics card isn't going to be the best thing for image editing anymore.

Nvidia just came out with an integrated graphics card. Apple's using it in it's Macbooks and it gets pretty good performance. The integrated gpu's we have in the PCs at work will run up to 1920x1600 and the computers are about 4 years old.

So telling her to buy a video card without considering what editing software she's using is not something you want to do.

Bigpopa · Feb 8, 2009

Well here comes another old school comp.....

Dell Dimension 4600 2.8ghz HT
2gb ram
ATI Readeon x1650 pro 512mb AGP video card
1-40gb main HD
1-300gb secondary HD

ok so it's only 5yrs old but it is a workhorse.