Advice for building a PC for Still photography

"Joe" wrote in message

I’m looking into building a PC for Still photography – Processing images with PhotoMechanic & Photoshop CS2 – Both programs can address dual cores.

Answers to my previous post have cemented my switch to AMD – Here’s my planned purchase –

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
AMD 4200 X2
Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card (dual head) 4gb PC3200 400MHZ CL2.5 DDR SDRAM

Some last minute worries-

I plan to get Win Media center – any reason not to over XP Pro ( does it have the 5 PC limit of XP home)

Go for MediaCenter, it’s just XPhome with usefull multimedia stuff. Unless you have some need to have more than 5 computers accessing at the same time.
Now there’s little need for even two machines. USB drives take care of backup and storage

I would love to set up a DVR (Tivo like) – Should I put it in m old PC with Media center – and use XP Pro in my new machine?

I used to always want a mobo with multiple PCI slots -(NIC, SCSI, Video, i/o Card etc.) theres just no reason for that concern anymore? Correct?

You don’t need many slots. Ethernet should be built in to the board, scsi is of little use now, video will be PCIExpress slot. Everything else is done with USB now (thank God)

I need a large case – for multiple SATA Hard Drives in removeable enclosures

Look at a CoolerMaster CM Stacker, you can’t go wrong.

"Joe" wrote in message

I’m looking into building a PC for Still photography – Processing images with PhotoMechanic & Photoshop CS2 – Both programs can address dual cores.

Answers to my previous post have cemented my switch to AMD – Here’s my planned purchase –

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
AMD 4200 X2
Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card (dual head) 4gb PC3200 400MHZ CL2.5 DDR SDRAM

Some last minute worries-

I plan to get Win Media center – any reason not to over XP Pro ( does it have the 5 PC limit of XP home)
I would love to set up a DVR (Tivo like) – Should I put it in m old PC with Media center – and use XP Pro in my new machine?

I used to always want a mobo with multiple PCI slots -(NIC, SCSI, Video, i/o Card etc.) theres just no reason for that concern anymore? Correct?
I need a large case – for multiple SATA Hard Drives in removeable enclosures

Thanks

Old Post –
My Needs –
medium speed Dual core Processor
Gigabit NIC
2 gb RAM would like to be able to go to 4gb – (can I go higher? would it help?)
SATA Controller
Dual monitor (or triple if possible) Video card – I have no clue about this
Multiple USB 2.0
Firewire

Do you have any hardware recommendations?
– this was the barebone system I am looking at to start with.
Intel Pentium D 830 3.0GHzw/Asus P5WD2 Premium Barebone (DO you know a comparable AMD chip & Motherboard)

Please Santa, I would like the following,

proc: AMD

Joe wrote:

I’m looking into building a PC for Still photography – Processing images with PhotoMechanic & Photoshop CS2 – Both programs can address dual cores.

A PC is a very difficult item to lug around when taking pphotographs. I am sure you fill find a digital camera much mor euseful and less time consuming.

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 09:24:19 GMT, "Dennis Pogson" wrote:

Joe wrote:

I’m looking into building a PC for Still photography – Processing images with PhotoMechanic & Photoshop CS2 – Both programs can address dual cores.

A PC is a very difficult item to lug around when taking pphotographs. I am sure you fill find a digital camera much mor euseful and less time consuming.

😉
remove -bats- to reply

"Ingratitude is never having to say thankyou".

Joe wrote:

I’m looking into building a PC for Still photography – Processing images with PhotoMechanic & Photoshop CS2 – Both programs can address dual cores.
Answers to my previous post have cemented my switch to AMD – Here’s my planned purchase –

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
AMD 4200 X2
Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card (dual head) 4gb PC3200 400MHZ CL2.5 DDR SDRAM

Some last minute worries-

I plan to get Win Media center – any reason not to over XP Pro ( does it have the 5 PC limit of XP home)
I would love to set up a DVR (Tivo like) – Should I put it in m old PC with Media center – and use XP Pro in my new machine?

I used to always want a mobo with multiple PCI slots -(NIC, SCSI, Video, i/o Card etc.) theres just no reason for that concern anymore? Correct?
I need a large case – for multiple SATA Hard Drives in removeable enclosures
Thanks

That would be a hellofa Photoshop PC. I’m using a home built PC that is great for Photoshop and certainly less than that.

I have 2 GB of RAM and the P4 3.2 GHz with HT. I don’t have a dual head video card, because I don’t have two monitors. I’d like that though.

A couple of questions though… Windows XP naturally only uses 2 GB of memory. There are some settings that you can use to get it to use 3 GB of memory. That is somewhat limited in functionality and I don’t know if it works on XP Home or Media Center versions.

Why don’t you use XP Pro x64 Edition? You are paying for the 64 bit dual core chip and a bunch of memory, buy the OS that uses those features. OK, it won’t make Photoshop use 64 bit processing, but the OS will use it. It will also use up to 128 GB of RAM. I don’t know why you wouldn’t use any other OS.

Since you seem to have a bunch of computers around there, put Windows Media Center on a computer that will run your media devices – like it was designed to do. There is nothing in Media Center that is particularly useful for Photoshop; it won’t help it. Then run your TV receiver/DVD/recorder on the machine where it won’t be eating into your Photoshop processing.

I do have a WD Raptor 36 GB 10K drive. I only use it for Windows and Photoshop swapping. It does speed things up. Recommended.

Otherwise, your HD needs will depend on how you use Photoshop. Most of the time, my 7200 rpm Seagate is just fine for speed. When I am running large batches of stuff through Photoshop, I do notice that the HD is the bottleneck. However, it really isn’t much of a problem for me.

Clyde

Clyde

A couple of questions though… Windows XP naturally only uses 2 GB of memory. There are some settings that you can use to get it to use 3 GB of memory. That is somewhat limited in functionality and I don’t know if it works on XP Home or Media Center versions.

By default, Windows can address a total of 4 gigabytes (GB) of virtual address space.
By default, 2 GB of this is reserved for the kernel (operating system), and 2 GB is reserved for User mode programs
When you put a /3GB switch into the Boot.ini file of the operating system, you reallocate the virtual address space distribution to give User mode programs 3 GB of space and limit the kernel to 1 GB.
This switch only works in WXP Pro.
Any extra RAM above this amount is used in preference to the scratch disc. I once asked a Adobe engineer how much RAM does PS need and his reply was, "more!" 😉

At the moment, XPMC is not a "supported" OS as far as Adobe is concerned, but I know people who use both without problem.

Regards
Mike H

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 10:33:46 -0600, Clyde wrote:

Why don’t you use XP Pro x64 Edition? You are paying for the 64 bit dual core chip and a bunch of memory, buy the OS that uses those features. OK, it won’t make Photoshop use 64 bit processing, but the OS will use it. It will also use up to 128 GB of RAM. I don’t know why you wouldn’t use any other OS.

Because many devices don’t have 64 bit drivers available.

—
Bill Funk
replace "g" with "a"

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 13:13:07 -0700, in rec.photo.digital Bill Funk wrote:

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 10:33:46 -0600, Clyde wrote:

Why don’t you use XP Pro x64 Edition? You are paying for the 64 bit dual core chip and a bunch of memory, buy the OS that uses those features. OK, it won’t make Photoshop use 64 bit processing, but the OS will use it. It will also use up to 128 GB of RAM. I don’t know why you wouldn’t use any other OS.

Because many devices don’t have 64 bit drivers available.

Except the OP asked about a PC specifically for still photography. So. What drivers other than a printer and scanner driver are really needed? OK monitor calibration SW/driver as well?
—
Ed Ruf Lifetime AMA# 344007 ()
http://edwardgruf.com/Digital_Photography/General/index.html

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 16:25:27 -0500, "Ed Ruf (REPLY to E-MAIL IN SIG!)" wrote:

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 13:13:07 -0700, in rec.photo.digital Bill Funk wrote:

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 10:33:46 -0600, Clyde wrote:

Why don’t you use XP Pro x64 Edition? You are paying for the 64 bit dual core chip and a bunch of memory, buy the OS that uses those features. OK, it won’t make Photoshop use 64 bit processing, but the OS will use it. It will also use up to 128 GB of RAM. I don’t know why you wouldn’t use any other OS.

Because many devices don’t have 64 bit drivers available.

Except the OP asked about a PC specifically for still photography. So. What drivers other than a printer and scanner driver are really needed? OK monitor calibration SW/driver as well?

Maybe because the system won’t be *ONLY* for photography. Just becasue someone says a computer will be used for a certain task doesn’t mean it will be *only* used for that task.
While certainly one could build a system that’s fully 64 bit compatable, it narrows the choices, for what is, in reality, a small benefit.

—
Bill Funk
replace "g" with "a"