Build my own

[ABDurbs]

My 4 yr old HP PC can no longer cope with my 24mp RAW files, plus CS5, plus all my other work so I am considering building a new one for the "fun" of it. I must add when Incredible sold me the HP they didn't tell me I could not upgrade the CPU or RAM !!!! You only get me once Incredible.

I have had a look at some of the other threads but I am not looking for a super computer just something that will do the job adequately. This is what I have put together and would like to know if what I have selected is OK or can be improved on without a huge jump in costs:

MB Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2
CPU i5 2500K 3.3GHZ or i7 2600
Graphics GV-R545D3 -1GI ATI Radeon HD5450 1GB GDDR3
HDD Seagate 500GB 7200rpm Serial ATA 3 (SATA3) 16mb cache
RAM Transend JetRam HP 4GB DDR3-1333 x 2
PSU 470W
I already have an 23" IPS monitor.

As I said I don't want or need a super computer, just something to do my editing a lot faster than I currently can.
Thanks

[Leo Theron]

There is lots of info available on performance increases using CS5.

I would do two things:

- Install a scratch disk

- Maximises memory - check that your OS can utilize it.

- Check what Adobe says about a display card.

The correct display card has an onboard maths processor that can be utilized by CS5 - improving rendering speed.

HTH

[ABDurbs]

Hi Leo,

I checked the "suggested" system requirements for CS5 on the Adobe site before looking at putting this together and the graphics card is the only thing that did raise a bit of a question mark for me. However some of their suggested cards cost R6000.00! For my style of photography, editing and my budget that is way over the top. Anyway it makes sense to install something a bit better so I will look at that. I did consider a scratch disk but have a 500GB portable drive which I currently use. It's a bit slow so maybe I should look at another HDD.

Thanks for your suggestions.

[BrerFox]

I built a similar computer recently (two actually, one with a 2500K and one with a 2600K processor) and am very happy.
My RAW converter (DxO pro is about ten times faster than it was with my old core-two duo)

Some comments:
I went with the genuine Intel (extreme series) motherboard and am VERY happy with it - good value too.
USB3 makes downloads SO much faster (I also have a USB3 card reader)
I would have been just as happy with the 2500 as with the 2500K - I had some RAM stability problems when overclocking, so figured it was not worth it.
Use LOTS of RAM - 16 Gb works well for me
I went with a small SSD as the main disk and it works well - Kingston are very good value for money at the moment
64-bit o/s is also a big performance booster with Photoshop.

By the way, at the same time, I also built a supercomputer for a client (twin hexacore Xeon, 48 GB RAM and 6x Velociraptor drives). I could not do a
direct comparison with the i7 (video card limitations), but got the impression that Xeon was not that much better in Photoshop work, but was much much
better in handling parallel loads.

[Chris F]

I take it you know that you need Windows 7 to be able use the full 8 Gigg of ram.

From previous posts it seems that LR cant "use" the i7 any better than the i5. NOT sure if this applies to CS5

I heard from a pro-photographer that LR4 is "harder" on his PC than LR3. He is now looking at getting 16 Gigg of ram. Too early to say if this will be the answer.

[mervin]

Also consider SSD caching drives available which has intelligent algorithms using the most often used program on the fats SSD drives. Windows 7 a must. I bought 60 Gig SSDs and speed is much more acceptable on older machines... about a grand.

[BrerFox]

Also consider SSD caching drives available which has intelligent algorithms using the most often used program on the fats SSD drives.

I think you mean hybrid drives, Mervin, where a little SSD is used as a cache to a conventional drive.

[Forgiss - Sean Nel]

We've had a few "build a PC" threads over the last few weeks, and only now do I realise why people go for only 4gb RAM.... I think?

I thought 4gb RAM was what windows would allocate *at a time* (i.e. 4gb to CS5 + 4gb to LR + 4gb to the OS, etc, etc) Did I completely miss the train here?

I've been on the macs for a while, but I honestly can't remember if this was ever an issue in my PC days (circa windows2000)

[cagenuts]

We've had a few "build a PC" threads over the last few weeks, and only now do I realise why people go for only 4gb RAM.... I think?

I thought 4gb RAM was what windows would allocate *at a time* (i.e. 4gb to CS5 + 4gb to LR + 4gb to the OS, etc, etc) Did I completely miss the train here?

Nah it's because 32bit Windows only sees 4Gb at max but less because it reserves some for display memory. So it's only worthwhile getting more than 4Gb RAM if you are going to run say Windows 7 64bit.

[ABDurbs]

I take it you know that you need Windows 7 to be able use the full 8 Gigg of ram.

From previous posts it seems that LR cant "use" the i7 any better than the i5. NOT sure if this applies to CS5

I heard from a pro-photographer that LR4 is "harder" on his PC than LR3. He is now looking at getting 16 Gigg of ram. Too early to say if this will be the answer.

Yup will be running Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.

[cagenuts]

I take it you know that you need Windows 7 to be able use the full 8 Gigg of ram.

but only the 64bit version though.

[visagieh]

Nah it's because 32bit Windows only sees 4Mb

4GB. {Not 4Mb} Some 32bit Unix dont have this drawback. But todays standards, 64bit is the way to go. Simple.

[cagenuts]

Ta for the correction. ^^^

[Forgiss - Sean Nel]

The correct display card has an onboard maths processor that can be utilized by CS5 - improving rendering speed.

Played with CS6 yesterday that *definitely* uses the gpu. CS5 processing time: 50secs CS6 processing time? 10 seconds!

[cagenuts]

Hectic!

[Chris F]

Jip, 64 bit is the way to go.


BUT, prepare yourself for a bit of fun getting the correct drivers for your old printers etc. In fact the printer drivers should be on the Windows CD, yet I had fun installing my one printer. Finally went in via Printers Devices, Advanced setup then manually selected the driver for the printer (THE SAME DRIVER) now it works .....


major train smash though .... my old Suduko game wont run on 64 bit .... Might not be that funny when you have some special software you NEED that wont run on 4 bit.



Windows 32 bit "sees" 4 Gig, uses some and leave a bit more than 3 Gig available to other programs (or so I have been told)

[Gavin van Dam]

Have you not considered an APPLE? Maybe a Powerbook?

[J-D]

Don't bother with a 2500K processor on a H61 motherboard? Since the motherboard does not support overclocking, a normal 2500 would do exactly the same for a few bucks less.

[ThalliumZA]

Any windows x64 will support 8gigs ram etc, but Windows 7 x64 is the best to use for now.

I would Recommend an I7 the normal 2600, like J-D said. any of the K chips, you will need far more expensive motherboards to do anything extra with those chips, Kind of a waste of time, unless you are also a gamer.

Adobe seems to love those 8 threads on an I7 and get atleast an H67 Board, not the H61, As for the Graphics card, The amount of ram does not matter nearly as much as its features, Find one with the most cores, highest Memory Bandwidth that you can afford, A cheapie with 2gigs ram will be out performed by a more expensive 512mb or 1gig performance card. also look for at least GDDR5 on the card, and if its on the Adobe list of supported cards.

If you want to throw some more money at it, use an SSD drive for windows and PS, and Standard drives just for storage, thats what I have done. massive performance increase.

[cagenuts]

major train smash though .... my old Suduko game wont run on 64 bit ....

I upgraded to Windows 7 64bit late last year and my favourite game Jezzball finally met its match. I've been playing this game since I started out on Windows 3.1 as it came with the Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows 3.x.