builindg a photoshop machine

[getho]

My AMD64 3500+ system is feeling slower by the week. I want to spend about 2K AU$ (about 1.6K USD) but I wont need case or power supply or OS.

Thinking of going xp64 route (vista 64 not an option),
and starting with 2x2gb dimms so I can expand.
RAM is the main thing I need - processor speed not as important. I dont need a fancy pants board, just stable - so I've been looking at intel and ASUS - had both previously, both OK - though heard Gigabyte getting good press.

Anyone got suggestions of rock solid no-nonsense board and CPU combo? Dont know anything about Graphics cards - dont need 3d just want best 2D option (I've got matrox p650 agp at the mo, but I cant see any 2D difference between it and Ati).

1st board I've checked out:
D975XBX2KR , but I dont need crossfire.

Getho

 

[jpeyton]

XP64 :thumbsdown:

But just commenting on the hardware side:

C2D E4300
Gigabyte S3
4x1GB DDR2 667
Any modern video card with 256MB RAM

 

[getho]

thanks for the info,
but why thumbs down for xp64? I've heard mixed things, but dont really understand why it would be worse than xp apart from driver availability - I'll just go with XP if its a lemon (and live with only 3 gb being used)

By the way, I've seen some opteron server motherboards floting around cheap - anyone care to say whether I'd be better whith a fast intel single processor of a dual opteron with lots of ram?

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: getho
thanks for the info,
but why thumbs down for xp64? I've heard mixed things, but dont really understand why it would be worse than xp apart from driver availability - I'll just go with XP if its a lemon (and live with only 3 gb being used)

By the way, I've seen some opteron server motherboards floting around cheap - anyone care to say whether I'd be better whith a fast intel single processor of a dual opteron with lots of ram?

Your question about single is dual processor depends upon your version of Photoshop, and if it is multi-threaded...

 

[cleanerPA]

Originally posted by: getho
My AMD64 3500+ system is feeling slower by the week. I want to spend about 2K AU$ (about 1.6K USD) but I wont need case or power supply or OS.

Thinking of going xp64 route (vista 64 not an option),
and starting with 2x2gb dimms so I can expand.
RAM is the main thing I need - processor speed not as important. I dont need a fancy pants board, just stable - so I've been looking at intel and ASUS - had both previously, both OK - though heard Gigabyte getting good press.

Anyone got suggestions of rock solid no-nonsense board and CPU combo? Dont know anything about Graphics cards - dont need 3d just want best 2D option (I've got matrox p650 agp at the mo, but I cant see any 2D difference between it and Ati).

1st board I've checked out:
D975XBX2KR , but I dont need crossfire.

Getho

What version of PS?

This is what I ended up with for my photo editing workstation:
Intel Bad Axe 2 MB
Intel C2D 6400 (stock clock)
Buffalo Firestix DDR2-800 2x1GB
WinXP Pro (no Vista yet for me, drivers for XP64 are iffy)
PNY 7900GS (what can I say it was cheap and can run dual 20s at native res.)
4x WD320GB SATA drives in RAID5 array
1x Maxtor 250GB SATA drive for OS/Apps
Promise 8350EX hardware RAID controller
Liteon DVDRW
Antec Titan server case
Antec 550W PS (maybe upgrade to Corsair 620W)

I chose the Intel MB for one reason- stability, reputation and I needed at least a PCIE x4 slot for the RAID controller. This board would let me run quad monitors or two dual-link monitors and the RAID controller (3 PCIE x16 slots). That way, I could even run dual 30s.

The C2D because it's the best bang for the buck right now.

The Firestix because they were cheap and supposedly decent RAM (I usually only buy Crucial, just force of habit I guess and good past experiences)

The RAID controller because I wanted hardware RAID and the Promise controller sounded okay from the reviews and the Areca and 3Ware cards were a bit beyond my budget. Despite some setup issues, I have the array up and running and it's nice to have hot-swap, hot-rebuild and the ability to migrate RAID level on the fly.

Controller does run a bit hot w/ passive cooling, though, even in the Antec case with dual 92mm fans on the intake side, a 120mm fan on the exhaust side and a Tuniq tower doing the CPU cooling. Everything else runs cool, though- I'm seeing under 40C even under load as long as I keep the room ambient temp at a reasonable level (80F or less).

I was running an AMD A64 3500 on ASUS A8N-SLI before that, just finished the upgrade and haven't really had time to do much of any photo editing, so I can't tell you how much faster it runs, but just by the benchmarks, going from a 3500 to a C2D 6400 should be a massive improvement.

 

[rb56]

Here's my photoshop setup. For me it was a huge upgrade from my P4 2.8. This system has been rock solid since I first booted it.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2400MHz
Motherboard: ASUS P5B-Deluxe
Memory: 2000 MB of CORSAIR XMS2 PC2 6400
Video Card: GIGABYTE 7600GT GeForce
Hard Drives:
WD Raptor 16mb cache 74.0 GB @ 10000 RPMS (bought later, just because)
(2)Seagate 7200.10 320GB
(1)Seagate 160GB (external)
Monitors:
Planar 19"
Samsung 19"
DVD R/W: Samsung SATA (with lightscribe)
Other Components:
Lian Li PC-7B plus II
Enermax Liberty ELT400AWT
Zalman CNPS7700-CU
Logitech Bluetooth keyboard/mouse
Wacom graphire tablet

 

[bob4432]

i am pretty sure ps has been smp/smt aware for a long time, even back when i first started to use it which was ps6.

are you using more than 2GB currently?

i would do a 4300 or 4400 just due to the mad o/cs you can get out of them easy and them still being very reliable (in fact just about o/c can be made to be as reliable as a stock setup, especially with the new c2ds and 65nm am2 whcih in turn will save you lots of $$$)

a mix of the other recommendations look good if they are available down under....

 

[jpeyton]

CS2 can use up to 4 cores.

CS3 can use up to 8, I believe.

 

[getho]

CS2 at the mo, CS3 in a few months!

yes I can get everything mentioned in OZ - thanks for all suggestions, will check them out - I've got both intel and Asus boards at the mo will check these 2 out - Gigabyte S3 is cheap for its functionality BUT...

Done a bit more research - apart from the mixed bag in terms of stability xp64 has issues especially with acrobat - no printing to PDF - a big part of my workflow, which means I'm back with xp which means only 3GB of ram addressed. Seeing as Ram is my bottleneck I'm wondering how much milage I'll get out of effectively adding only 1 more GB (I'm on 2 GB DDR400 at present). (Even acrobat 8 in CS3 has scary list of xp64 issues)

Which means that currently there is NO way to get a decent Creative Suite computer that uses more than 3GB ram. Macpro will be an option once they've sorted out CS3 and done a heap of debugging, but 2x xeon and FBDIMM that cost at least twice as much as DDR2 dimms is total overkill IMHO. Mac need a Mac Not-quite-so-pro.

 

[RonAKA]

I was not aware XP was limited to 3 GB. In any case I would be surprised if you got much value out of more than 2 GB. The trick to get ram speed is to go with a dual channel memory board and put 1 GB in each channel. Can't see how you could go wrong with a E4300 OC's to 3 GHz or more, using the Gigabyte DS3 or Asus PB5 DX. The Asus is likely to be quieter. Also remember that you can increase ram speed by using DDR2-800, but that is only necessary if you are going beyond 3.1 MHz or so. Below that you can use DDR2-667.

Also if you are printing, consider a product called Qimage. It outperforms Photoshop when it come to putting an image on paper. However, it does tax the CPU even more than PS, because it extrapolates the image out to the full capability of the printer driver, and makes amazing sized print files.

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/

 

[jackschmittusa]

BTW. There is no particular need to migrate to a Mac for PS anyway.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: RonAKA
I was not aware XP was limited to 3 GB. In any case I would be surprised if you got much value out of more than 2 GB. The trick to get ram speed is to go with a dual channel memory board and put 1 GB in each channel. Can't see how you could go wrong with a E4300 OC's to 3 GHz or more, using the Gigabyte DS3 or Asus PB5 DX. The Asus is likely to be quieter. Also remember that you can increase ram speed by using DDR2-800, but that is only necessary if you are going beyond 3.1 MHz or so. Below that you can use DDR2-667.

Also if you are printing, consider a product called Qimage. It outperforms Photoshop when it come to putting an image on paper. However, it does tax the CPU even more than PS, because it extrapolates the image out to the full capability of the printer driver, and makes amazing sized print files.

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/

if the op is using more than 2GB of ram then he will be hitting the pagefile on the hdd all the time, so if he is using anything over 2GB he will benefit greatly as even the slowest ram is faster than the fastest hdd.

 

[In2Photos]

I am member of a photo forum and there are tons of members with Photo PCs that use CS2. Many are using more than 3GB RAM but most speak of using Raptor hard Drives for Swap files to speed things up as well. I am new here and don't know if this is allowed but try asking this same question here:

POTN

 

[cleanerPA]

Originally posted by: getho
Done a bit more research - apart from the mixed bag in terms of stability xp64 has issues especially with acrobat - no printing to PDF - a big part of my workflow, which means I'm back with xp which means only 3GB of ram addressed. Seeing as Ram is my bottleneck I'm wondering how much milage I'll get out of effectively adding only 1 more GB (I'm on 2 GB DDR400 at present). (Even acrobat 8 in CS3 has scary list of xp64 issues)

Which means that currently there is NO way to get a decent Creative Suite computer that uses more than 3GB ram. Macpro will be an option once they've sorted out CS3 and done a heap of debugging, but 2x xeon and FBDIMM that cost at least twice as much as DDR2 dimms is total overkill IMHO. Mac need a Mac Not-quite-so-pro.

Just curious, why is Vista64 not an option? Are there critical drivers that are missing?

I haven't gone Vista on any of my systems yet, but I'm planning to move to Vista on at least one system to get familiar with the OS. I've been reading on a lot of forums about Vista and have yet to really hear anything that is really scary about Vista.

I agree w/ the MacPro situation- either you get something that is not expandable (iMac) or you have to get a really heavy-duty workstation system (MacPro). Nothing in between.

If you're really that worried, as long as you keep your image files on a separate drive, I dont' see why you can't just build a system, run 32-bit XP Pro for the time being and then reevaluate after Vista has some maturity. Even if you can't use the entire 4GB, getting it for the next couple years isn't really all that bad.

One thing that I'd do for serious photoshop work- definitely get a few Raptors in there- one for the OS, one for scratch disk, maybe a third for apps. Also, make sure you have a good backup solution implemented- I went RAID5, might switch to RAID6, will implement a NAS backup system soon with Retrospect Pro. I don't want to lose photos- I figure with daily incremental backups, weekly full backup and all data in at least 2 places, loss of data will be averted to some degree. I'm also thinking about switching to Barracuda ES drives for the RAID array- enterprise-class drives seem to have better long-term reliability. I recently had my server lose its OS drive, that was not good.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: In2Photos
I am member of a photo forum and there are tons of members with Photo PCs that use CS2. Many are using more than 3GB RAM but most speak of using Raptor hard Drives for Swap files to speed things up as well. I am new here and don't know if this is allowed but try asking this same question here:

POTN

welcome to the forums no problems i am aware of posting to information on a different forum - this forum for the most part is for everybody to learn the best setup for their particular needs and although a lot of us know a lot nobody knows everything for every specialized setup required.

 

[In2Photos]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: In2Photos
I am member of a photo forum and there are tons of members with Photo PCs that use CS2. Many are using more than 3GB RAM but most speak of using Raptor hard Drives for Swap files to speed things up as well. I am new here and don't know if this is allowed but try asking this same question here:

POTN

welcome to the forums no problems i am aware of posting to information on a different forum - this forum for the most part is for everybody to learn the best setup for their particular needs and although a lot of us know a lot nobody knows everything for every specialized setup required.

Thanks for the welcome.