Photo editing computer build

[mfenn]

I have not seen any benchmarks that were geared to photo processing. Most benchmarks did not show the 6 core being drastically faster than the fastest quad core processor, but lightroom and cs5 ran much faster on a six core.

Remember than Sandy Bridge is whole different animal. If your benchmarks didn't include Sandy Bridge, they are irrelevant. The 2600K beats the i7 980X in pretty much every test.

I have the P8P67 Pro motherboard as you say is definately necessary.

Oh shoot, I made a typo. I meant "definitely unnecessary".

As far as the RAM goes, I am going with 16GB, as 8GB has not been fast enough on my other machines at work. When you spend the entire day processing photos then every second adds up and costs money. The processor fits into this category as well.

Fair enough.

I will look into the NVIDIA card to see if I want to go that route.

Since CS5 can take advantage of CUDA (general purpose acceleration only available on Nvidia), going with an Nvidia card for CS5 is a no-brainer IMHO.

 

[KLC]

With such a large budget I'd go with a better monitor since this is for photo work. The Dell isn't bad, I've got one, but an IPS monitor and a hardware calibrator are better and I think more valuable for photo work than expensive video cards. This NEC comes with a built in eye one calibrator:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824002513

 

[mfenn]

With such a large budget I'd go with a better monitor since this is for photo work. The Dell isn't bad, I've got one, but an IPS monitor and a hardware calibrator are better and I think more valuable for photo work than expensive video cards. This NEC comes with a built in eye one calibrator:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824002513

U2410's are IPS the last time I checked (which was 5 seconds ago since I'm typing on one).

 

[KLC]

You're right I was thinking 2408 by mistake. I'd still get a hardware calibrator if I were doing photo work and the NEC with the calibrator and software is a good setup if you don't want to step up to the high end Eizos.

 

[mfenn]

You're right I was thinking 2408 by mistake. I'd still get a hardware calibrator if I were doing photo work and the NEC with the calibrator and software is a good setup if you don't want to step up to the high end Eizos.

Actually, all of the Dell Ultrasharp 24" monitors (2405, 2407, 2408, 2410) are IPS.

You are correct that calibration with a colorimeter is absolutely essential for photo and print work!