leo s.

<p>I received the new monitor earlier today, and am very pleased with it. Right out of the box the colour/contrast looks great to my eye. I'm seriously considering getting a second one!</p> <p>Many thanks once again to all who responded.<br> Leo</p>

<p>I just ordered the Dell UltraSharp U2412M - 24". It was either that or the LG 27ea63v-p, and I could only find that for sale outside the UK.<br> Thanks again to all who replied for all the help, advice, and lively discussion.<br> <br />Leo</p>

<p>Thanks to all for the in-depth discussion, which has been very informative for me. I have to admit (and perhaps I should have stated this in my opening post) but I'm not really doing anything super-critical with my images right now - I don't even have a printer connected at the moment! I don't need a monitor that is "95+%" accurate, so a Dell (which may not be quite as accurate) is the front runner for me right now. As with most photographic products, it seems you pay a premium to get that last 5% quality, and for me paying 4x the price for that last 5% is a bit much at this point in time.<br> If I find I need a better monitor later that's also no big deal to me since I can just upgrade one of the other PCs (I'm currently building a couple more PCs and have not really thought about individual monitors for them) with the Dell, and get a better monitor for more critical work.</p>

<p>Thank you all for the responses.</p> <p>Does anyone know if the Dell UltraSharp U2414H is an acceptable monitor? I've found one for a good price.<br /></p>

<p>Thanks for the info Charles. Is the reason you've done little photo editing since to do with the monitor quality?</p>

<p>Thanks for the recommendations Harry and Andrew. I just had a look, and the NECs although they look very nice, are a little too pricey for me.<br> <br />I've also had a look for recommendations in older threads on this forum, and so far found two possibilities - ASUS PA249Q and Dell UltraSharp U2410.</p> <p>The ASUS seems better value than the NEC range, but it's still a little expensive, so I might go for the Dell if I can find one.</p> <p>Please do keep the recommendations coming. </p>

<p>My old iilyama Vision Master Pro CRT finally decided to stop working today, so I need a new monitor for photo editing. Can anyone recommend a replacement? 19 inches is the minimum screen size I'm after, and I'd prefer a monitor that's not too expensive although I don't have an upper limit as such.<br> <br />TIA Leo</p>

<p>The main reason for using CS2 is to save money. CS2 cost me a lot of money, and it does what I need it to do. Upgrading to the latest version of photoshop would mean having to pay a monthly fee, and I do not see why I should have to pay for something twice, especially when CS2 has all the functionality I need. As mentioned in the post above, it has more functionality than I actually need - I can't see myself running into any limitations any time soon. It's also very rare for me to sell my work. If I had a regular income, I might be more willing to pay a monthly subscription.</p> <p>As for Lightroom, I must admit I've never felt the need to try it given what I said above, and that I'm so used to the workflow with my current software.</p>

<p>Thank you all for the replies.<br> JDM von Weinberg - Sorry I was not clear in my first post. I'll be using Photoshop CS2, but might also get C1-pro on there too (if I can install it on another machine without having to pay too much - I don't think I have any more "activations" left!).<br> Pat - I think this will be my 3rd custom build, so I have a little experience, but it's nice to hear what others with more experience have to say.<br> <br />To all - I've purchased a copy of Win 7 pro since it was only £10 more than home premium, so that way if I ever need to upgrade, all I have to do is scrap the RAM, but I think 16 GB should be more than enough for me for a long while. The machine I'm currently using (3.6 ghz dual core AMD, 8 GB RAM, standard 7200 rpm) works well enough, but wouldn't win any awards for speed, so I'm hoping the new machine will make things a little smoother.<br> Since I have all the parts (either here or on their way), I'll try using the config I posted with the 40 GB SSD as a cache, and if the machine struggles, I can always upgrade with another SSD. I'd rather wait till prices fall more in line with standard HHDs before spending too much on an SSD anyway. <br> <br />Thanks to all who replied again, and if there are any more suggestions, I'll be keeping an eye on this thread, so please post away.</p>

<p>Hello all,<br> <br />I've just started buying components for a new PC for photo editing use (CS2 and CR2 files up to 17 MB). I have most of the key components, but I'm not 100% sure which OS to buy. I was going to go with Windows 7 home premium (16 GB of ram should be more than enough), but have heard it suggested to go for the "pro" version, although that was for Windows 8. So I'm wondering, is there any specific reason to consider Win 7 pro or Win 8 pro ?</p> <p>The components I have so far are:<br> Intel Core i5 3330 3.00GHz Socket 1155 6MB (Quad core)<br> ASRock Z77 Extreme6 Motherboard<br> Corsair 16GB DDR3 1600 MHz Vengeance Memory ( 9-9-9-24)<br> Seagate 1TB Barracuda Internal Hard Drive (SATA-III - 7200RPM - 64 MB Cache)<br> Intel 40GB 320 Series SATA-II OEM SSD<br> 2TB External USB drive for backup</p> <p>What I'm wondering is how best to configure the HHDs/SSD/OS/page file? My original plan was (and is) to partition the internal HDD into C:/ (around 100 GB - for windows/program files) and D:/ (around 900 GB - primary photo data storage) and then use "Intel Smart Response Technology"(http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/smart-response-technology.html) to speed everything up since the motherboard I've bought supports this feature. Is anyone out there using a system like this?<br> The final thing I'm unsure about is the page file. Should I even bother having one (if so, how big and where?), or perhaps buy a USB flash drive and have one on there instead?<br> Thanks for any advice.<br> Leo</p>