Computer for Photoshop

[ChuckZ]

I'm in the process of buying a new PC to replace my 6 year old Dell.  My max budget is $2200.  So far, I've come up with the following computer configuration to be built by a company called Puget Systems.  I'd appreciate any thoughts or suggestions as my knowledge of computers is basic.  Thanks.

Motherboard: Asus P7P55D-E Pro
CPU: Intel Core i7 QUAD CORE 860 2.8GHz 8MB 95W (Socket 1156 45nm)
RAM: Kingston 8GB DDR3-1333 (4x2GB)
Video Card: Asus GT 240 1GB Silent
Hard Drive 1:  Intel X25-M 34nm Gen 2 80GB SATA II 2.5inch SSD
Hard Drive 2:  Western Digital Caviar Black 1.0TB SATA 6 Gb/s
Power: Corsair TX 650W Power Supply
CPU Cooling: Gelid Tranquillo  
OS:  Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM

[TimBarker]

I'm in the process of buying a new PC to replace my 6 year old Dell.  My max budget is $2200.  So far, I've come up with the following computer configuration to be built by a company called Puget Systems.  I'd appreciate any thoughts or suggestions as my knowledge of computers is basic.  Thanks.

Motherboard: Asus P7P55D-E Pro
CPU: Intel Core i7 QUAD CORE 860 2.8GHz 8MB 95W (Socket 1156 45nm)
RAM: Kingston 8GB DDR3-1333 (4x2GB)
Video Card: Asus GT 240 1GB Silent
Hard Drive 1:  Intel X25-M 34nm Gen 2 80GB SATA II 2.5inch SSD
Hard Drive 2:  Western Digital Caviar Black 1.0TB SATA 6 Gb/s
Power: Corsair TX 650W Power Supply
CPU Cooling: Gelid Tranquillo  
OS:  Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM

Should work.  Maxes out the memory but you'll need minimum of 6 and as a result a 64bit O/S to go with it. I'm running a Asus P6T with 6Gb, i7 920.  Only recommendation would be to have more disc space, go for a minimum 200Gb and pref 500Gb for the system drive and double up the 1Tb under a RAID system to protect the data.  CS4 works well on mine with plenty of headroom.  If you need to minimise on cost maybe go for a cheaper video card(?) or perhaps cooling, maybe drop the memory to 4Gb but I use my full 6Gb frequently.  You need 64-bit o/s so can't do much there.  Think you'll notice a difference in speed...

[B-Ark]

This is almost identical to the system that I'm putting together.
I might question the SSD - I'm assuming this will be the system drive.
My concerns are:
- if you expect this system to also last 6 years, then 80Gb might be a bit tight.
- long term reliability of SSD's is still unproven.
My configuration has a 150Gb Velociraptor.

[Bill Koenig]

Why only 8 GB of ram? If I could, I would max out the ram, or at least go with 16 GB or better yet, 24 GB. You can't have to much ram.

[Christopher]

Why only 8 GB of ram? If I could, I would max out the ram, or at least go with 16 GB or better yet, 24 GB. You can't have to much ram.

Well because 24GB of RAM are fu***** expensive on a I7 system. It only makes sense on a Xeon System. (Feel free to compare prizes)
However, 8GB are bs, too. Why ? Because a i7 System needs 3 or 6 dimms, which means 6GB or 12 GB.

The rest sounds quite good.

[B-Ark]

"Because a i7 System needs 3 or 6 dimms, which means 6GB or 12 GB."

True with a Socket 1366 system.
Socket 1156 systems install dimms in pairs.

[Christopher]

"Because a i7 System needs 3 or 6 dimms, which means 6GB or 12 GB."

True with a Socket 1366 system.
Socket 1156 systems install dimms in pairs.

Your correct my fault, I was still under the impression i7 = 1366 and  1156 = i5 and i3. I was wrong so it is 2/4 Dimms for a i7 with 1156 and 3/6 Dimms for a i7 with 1366 .

[BernardLanguillier]

I'm in the process of buying a new PC to replace my 6 year old Dell.  My max budget is $2200.  So far, I've come up with the following computer configuration to be built by a company called Puget Systems.  I'd appreciate any thoughts or suggestions as my knowledge of computers is basic.  Thanks.

Motherboard: Asus P7P55D-E Pro
CPU: Intel Core i7 QUAD CORE 860 2.8GHz 8MB 95W (Socket 1156 45nm)
RAM: Kingston 8GB DDR3-1333 (4x2GB)
Video Card: Asus GT 240 1GB Silent
Hard Drive 1:  Intel X25-M 34nm Gen 2 80GB SATA II 2.5inch SSD
Hard Drive 2:  Western Digital Caviar Black 1.0TB SATA 6 Gb/s
Power: Corsair TX 650W Power Supply
CPU Cooling: Gelid Tranquillo  
OS:  Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM

I would consider the SSDs made by OCW. Very happy so far about the one I have installed in my Mac Pro one month ago.

Regarding storage, my personnal policy is not to store any data on internal disks, you always end up running out of space and have huge risk with disk failure. An external eSATA  Raid 5/6 unit is a safer bet IMHO (that having to be backed up as well of course).

So if you go by this, the internal discs end up being only about OS for disk 1 and scratch for disc 2,... you would therefore not need 1TB, a fast hybrid disk, Velociraptor or SSD might be a better bet.

Just my 2 cent.

Cheers,
Bernard

[TimBarker]

I would consider the SSDs made by OCW. Very happy so far about the one I have installed in my Mac Pro one month ago.

Regarding storage, my personnal policy is not to store any data on internal disks, you always end up running out of space and have huge risk with disk failure. An external eSATA  Raid 5/6 unit is a safer bet IMHO (that having to be backed up as well of course).

So if you go by this, the internal discs end up being only about OS for disk 1 and scratch for disc 2,... you would therefore not need 1TB, a fast hybrid disk, Velociraptor or SSD might be a better bet.

Just my 2 cent.

Cheers,
Bernard

an interesting point, personally I'd do both have a large hard drive in the PC under mirror RAID AND have an external NAS RAID drive for regular backup but I'm a little paranoid.  Currently reformatting 2x2Tb external for backup...

[Sheldon N]

The way I configure hard drives/storage on my Lightroom/Photoshop machine is like this.

150GB Velociraptor = Operating system and Programs
1TB WD Drive = Photo Storage
2x640GB WD Drives in RAID 0 = First 64GB Partition for scratch disk, Remaining 1+ TB  for storage of music and a doubled copy of all photos.

This way I've got a live backup copy of every RAW file as soon as I import it into LR since I have it back up the RAW files directly to the second drive. If any one hard drive were to take a dive I wouldn't lose any photos. To ensure against fire/theft/massive computer crash/etc I also have an external 1.5TB drive that I will use to periodically back up the entire thing and then store it at an offsite location.

[ChuckZ]

Thanks for the feedback.  These comments have given me more food for thought.

I see here and in several other postings on the internet that photographers have i7 920 systems.  Would such a system provide a siginificantly better photo editing system than the i7 860 system?  (I'm thinking that I should raise my budget if such a system would be better in the long run, but I don't want to spend more money on a system that would provide only marginally better performance)

For storage, I'm thinking that drive 1 (80Gb SSD) would be for the operating system and programs and drive 2 (1Tb HDD) would be for storage.  If I eventually run out of room on the SSD for programs, I figure that I could put those programs that I don't use frequently on the HDD.  I already have a 1Tb external drive that I will continue to use for back-up.

[ChuckZ]

Also, any thoughts on Windows 7 Home vs Windows 7 Professional?  Thanks.

[B-Ark]

I see here and in several other postings on the internet that photographers have i7 920 systems.  Would such a system provide a siginificantly better photo editing system than the i7 860 system?  (I'm thinking that I should raise my budget if such a system would be better in the long run, but I don't want to spend more money on a system that would provide only marginally better performance)

I think there's relatively small difference in performance between the two. Main reason for the 920 is if you might eventually need more than 16 Gb in memory. Motherboard for the 920 is a bit more expensive. Also the 920 is being replaced by the 930. My friendly neighbourhood computer store has the 920 at a discount because it is an 'antique'.

The main reason for getting W7 Pro is if you will need the XP compatibility mode.

[ChuckZ]

Thanks for the comments.  Given what I have read about maximizing the amount of RAM and the guess that future software will be more RAM hungry, I decided to go with the i7-900 series.  Based on comments here and on other photography websites, I've come up with the following configuration from AVA Direct:

ANTEC Performance One P183 Black Mid-Tower Computer Case, ATX, No PSU
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX TX Series Power Supply, 650W, 80 PLUS®, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, SLI Ready
ASUS P6T Deluxe V2, LGA1366, Intel® X58, 6400 MT/s QPI, DDR3-2000 (O.C.) 24GB /6, PCIe x16 SLI CF /3, SATA 3 Gb/s RAID 5 /6, HDA, GbLAN /2, FW /2, ATX, Retail
INTEL Core™ i7-930 Quad-Core 2.8GHz, LGA1366, 4.8 GT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, 45nm, 130W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail
NOCTUA NH-U12P SE2 CPU Cooling Fan, Socket 1366/1156/775/AM3/AM2, 2x 120mm Fans, Copper/Aluminum, Retail
CORSAIR 12GB (6 x 2GB) XMS3 PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.65V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
EVGA GeForce® GTS 250 675MHz, 1GB GDDR3 1800MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, VGA+DVI, HDMI, Retail
INTEL 80GB X25-M Mainstream SSD, MLC, 250/70 MB/s, 2.5-Inch, SATA 3 Gb/s, OEM for operating system and programs
WESTERN DIGITAL 1TB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD1002FAEX), SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB Cache for storage
RAID No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
LITE-ON iHDS118 Black 18x48x DVD-ROM Drive, SATA, OEM
LITE-ON iHAS124 Black 24x DVD±RW Dual-Layer Burner, SATA, OEM
MICROSOFT Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Edition, OEM
WARRANTY Silver Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts, 3 Year Labor Warranty)
together with a 1TB external drive I already have that will serve to backup data.

Any thoughts?  Thanks

[ChuckZ]

Thanks for the comments.  Given what I have read about maximizing the amount of RAM and the guess that future software will be more RAM hungry, I decided to go with the i7-900 series.  Based on comments here and on other photography websites, I've come up with the following configuration from AVA Direct:

ANTEC Performance One P183 Black Mid-Tower Computer Case, ATX, No PSU
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX TX Series Power Supply, 650W, 80 PLUS®, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, SLI Ready
ASUS P6T Deluxe V2, LGA1366, Intel® X58, 6400 MT/s QPI, DDR3-2000 (O.C.) 24GB /6, PCIe x16 SLI CF /3, SATA 3 Gb/s RAID 5 /6, HDA, GbLAN /2, FW /2, ATX, Retail
INTEL Core™ i7-930 Quad-Core 2.8GHz, LGA1366, 4.8 GT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, 45nm, 130W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail
NOCTUA NH-U12P SE2 CPU Cooling Fan, Socket 1366/1156/775/AM3/AM2, 2x 120mm Fans, Copper/Aluminum, Retail
CORSAIR 12GB (6 x 2GB) XMS3 PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.65V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
EVGA GeForce® GTS 250 675MHz, 1GB GDDR3 1800MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, VGA+DVI, HDMI, Retail
INTEL 80GB X25-M Mainstream SSD, MLC, 250/70 MB/s, 2.5-Inch, SATA 3 Gb/s, OEM for operating system and programs
WESTERN DIGITAL 1TB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD1002FAEX), SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB Cache for storage
RAID No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
LITE-ON iHDS118 Black 18x48x DVD-ROM Drive, SATA, OEM
LITE-ON iHAS124 Black 24x DVD±RW Dual-Layer Burner, SATA, OEM
MICROSOFT Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Edition, OEM
WARRANTY Silver Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts, 3 Year Labor Warranty)
together with a 1TB external drive I already have that will serve to backup data.

Any thoughts?  Thanks

Updated Configuration: Changed video card

ANTEC Performance One P183 Black Mid-Tower Computer Case, ATX, No PSU
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX TX Series Power Supply, 650W, 80 PLUS®, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, SLI Ready
ASUS P6T Deluxe V2, LGA1366, Intel® X58, 6400 MT/s QPI, DDR3-2000 (O.C.) 24GB /6, PCIe x16 SLI CF /3, SATA 3 Gb/s RAID 5 /6, HDA, GbLAN /2, FW /2, ATX, Retail
INTEL Core™ i7-930 Quad-Core 2.8GHz, LGA1366, 4.8 GT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, 45nm, 130W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail
NOCTUA NH-U12P SE2 CPU Cooling Fan, Socket 1366/1156/775/AM3/AM2, 2x 120mm Fans, Copper/Aluminum, Retail
CORSAIR 12GB (6 x 2GB) XMS3 PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.65V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
EVGA GeForce® 9800 GT 550MHz, 1GB GDDR3 1800MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, VGA, DVI, HDMI, Retail
INTEL 80GB X25-M Mainstream SSD, MLC, 250/70 MB/s, 2.5-Inch, SATA 3 Gb/s, OEM (for operating system and programs)
WESTERN DIGITAL 1TB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD1002FAEX), SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB Cache (for storage)
RAID No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
LITE-ON iHDS118 Black 18x48x DVD-ROM Drive, SATA, OEM
LITE-ON iHAS124 Black 24x DVD±RW Dual-Layer Burner, SATA, OEM
MICROSOFT Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Edition, OEM
WARRANTY Silver Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts, 3 Year Labor Warranty)
together with a 1TB external drive I already have that will serve to backup data.

[TimBarker]

Updated Configuration: Changed video card

LITE-ON iHDS118 Black 18x48x DVD-ROM Drive, SATA, OEM
LITE-ON iHAS124 Black 24x DVD±RW Dual-Layer Burner, SATA, OEM
MICROSOFT Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Edition, OEM

That's a significant change in specs and content for the 'budget'.  2 DVD drives? and as an owner of W-7 Prof I'm not convinced of the differences to get it again, but maybe if I'd just gone for the other I'd think differently.  Now you'll need a Eizo/NEC monitor...

[ChuckZ]

That's a significant change in specs and content for the 'budget'.  2 DVD drives? and as an owner of W-7 Prof I'm not convinced of the differences to get it again, but maybe if I'd just gone for the other I'd think differently.  Now you'll need a Eizo/NEC monitor...

Good point on the DVD drives,  as I only need the burner.  I went with W7 Professional because I have been told one of the programs I use for work is not compatable with W7 and W& Professional has a XP mode.

[B-Ark]

The configuration looks good, and should fly at warp speed. Let us know how it works after you get it.
This system should be so fast that Photoshop will have a final image ready, before you even know what you want  ;-)

[ChuckZ]

I dropped the DVD reader and now the price is $2015+$88shipping.  The current monitor, a Dell WFP2408, will do the job for the next few years.

[Christopher]

I dropped the DVD reader and now the price is $2015+$88shipping.  The current monitor, a Dell WFP2408, will do the job for the next few years.

Sounds good.