Build new PC- RAID / Scratch discs and suggestions for CS3

[jim_karthauser]

Hi everyone

 

I'm finally building my new pc, mainly intended for use as a photoshop machine

but I will also be using the usual office 07/ outlook/ media player/ web etc.

 

I'm going to be running Vista Ultimate SP1 with one 19" monitor and one 22".

 

My ideas are-

 

Motherboard- Asus M3N78-EMH HDMI, GeForce 8200, S AM2+, PCI-E 2.0 (x16),

DDR2 1066MHz, SATA II, SATA RAID, uATX

 

CPU- AMD Phenomﾙ X3 8650, Toliman Core, Socket AM2+, 2.3GHz, HT

3600MHz, 3.5MB Total Cache, Retail

 

PSU- 500w Seasonic S12II-500 PSU, 12Cm fan, active PFC RoHS +80%

 

Graphics- 512MB EVGA 9600GT, KO, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), Mem 1900 MHz, GDDR3,

GPU 700 MHz, Stream 64, 2x DL DVI-I

 

HDD- 250 GB Maxtor STM3250310AS DiamondMax 21, SATA 300, 7200 rpm,

8MB Cache, 11 ms (2 x disks on RAID 0 configuration)

 

RAM- 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2 PC2-8500 (1066), 240 Pin, Non-ECC

Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-15, EPP, DHX

 

 

What do you guys and girls think? I want the best performance for about ﾣ450/

ﾣ500 spend.

 

Do you think that I'll need a scratch disc for CS3 with this and that it'll be

beneficial to me? If so, any recommendations?

 

Any other suggestions?

It's been a long time since I last played with the vital organs of a PC so want to

make the right purchases...

 

Cheers in advance, Jim

[walter_degroot]

I would go to www.promise.com

this is the same company that makes the chipset for many asus motherboards

the raid controllers are not that expensive

and my older ata 133 tx2 cards have worked well.

[fisher]

At first... is the Vista able to use more ram? If not consider to use 64bit edition so you can put 8G or even more (up to 128G) memory into the PC, so the 64bit applications (PS should have 64bit edition) also could use it. However many applications, plugins, utilties lacks 64bit version :(

RAID 0 is a good choiche of the speed, if you have more slots you can put more disks into it speed up it. Or you can have a look at the addonics.com for eSATA (external sata) cards, cables and cabinets to build reliable and/or fast (external) storage.

If you have big and complex ps files, you probably need a swap (scratch) disk for PS, but at first I would try to utilize as much memory as possible due it's speed.

[Stock-Photos]

Switch out the Maxtor drives for Western Digital, IMO.

[garrison_k.]

yes indeed, go WD. I'd skip the raid and go with a Velociraptor instead. go intel. go 64-bit OS. Next version of CS will be in 64-bit and you'll wish you did in a year from now.

[dan_danilowicz]

Interesting topic. If building a photo-oriented system on a budget, where should the money be put to get the most bang for the buck? I'm working with an older 2 gigahertz Pentium 4 running a gig and a half of RAM, so about anything out there now will be an improvement.

[jim_karthauser]

Hmm. Thanks for the responses so far, I'm sure there's more to come, it's all useful.

 

I'm not to sure about 64 bit as the lack of the unknown scares me a little- drivers seem to be the main problem on there or lack of, obviously.

 

All I intened to use device wise on the new box is pantone huey pro calibrator, canon software (40D/20D) adobe suite (bridge/CS3, maybe lightroom but thats a different discussion) External usb drive, microsoft activesync for my windows mobile device, media sync with my 60gb creative zen vision m. This is all fairly new stuff so I guess it'd be ok?

 

Also, when looking at 3.5" bay card readers online none seem to be compatible with vista. They run on usb straight from the motherboard so is it safe to assume it's just an omission from the listing?

 

Cheers

[garrison_k.]

"...drivers seem to be the main problem on there or lack of, obviously."

 

I'm not going to go out on a limb here and say you'll be fine with 64-bit OS and drivers. But I've been running XP 64 since it came out in 2005 and yes, for the first few months, I had problems back then. Today though, with XP64 updates and everyone else catching up, everything that suits my needs is found for Xp64. All my 32 bit apps run under emulation.

 

Dan, need more info in terms of your ability and budget. Can you build your own? Do you have the ability to add parts yourself later when budget allows? Do you have an ATX case and can use your current dvd drive and power supply? If you can build your own from parts from newegg and use your case etc, $900 buys almost the fastest quad core CPU, Mobo, 8 gigs of ram, and Vista 64. Are you just wanting to purchase a box from Dell?

[dan_danilowicz]

As far as my building abilities go, I've put together a few, so I'm confident there. My case, power supply and DVD burner should be fine.

 

I'm equipped with PS7, but I like using Paint Shop Pro X2. Are quad core CPUs and high RAM amounts on the mobo more useful than a fast graphics card with lots of RAM? My Pinnacle video editing program pushes work off on the graphics card when it renders output, so I'm wondering if photo programs benefit as well.

 

Thanks for the input.