I am currently getting quotes for a computer primarily used for CS2 with a little Dreamweaver and Flash. I do mostly large format work and regularly work with files between 200meg to 1 gig or more.
I currently have dual Xeon 3.2 processors, 4 gig of ram, and a Nvidia Ge Force FX 5700card, 200 gig SATA drives ( mirrored) and find Photoshop still bogs with the big files and even with multi-tasking it isint as fast as I would have expected.
I am now considering Dual Quad Core Xeon (R)5355 processors, Intel 5000X chipset, 4 gig of Quad channel DDR2 Ram. 5 x Seagate Cheetah 1500k SCSI 146meg drives and am undecided about the graphics card. Could anyone offer suggestions and or tell me whether they think this is over kill. Chris
From what others have said it doesn’t look like Photoshop CS2 or 3 makes use of one Quad Core processor let alone 2. Good luck with it. I suspect what you need more than more processor is more RAM, good luck with that too. I think pigs will fly before we can get software and OS that can handle 8 or more GB’s or RAM. I have no idea what the hold up is. But, the more they do with computers the more outdated is seems to be. How long have we had a 4GB limit or a practial limit of 2GB? Do we really need to wait a few more decades?
I agree, the processing power you are planning is money down the drain. Up the ram to 8G’s. I have a dual Opteron rig with Seagate 15000 320s and they are not pushed. Wish to hell that Adobe would get their fingers out and free up the ram limit. They seem to have forgotten that not everyone works with small files!
Thank you for this information, I’ve also been considering the Dual Quad Xeon 5355’s. The only argument for buying a system like this is for rendering.. and even then its not much faster than a single quad!
I think I’ll go with a single Quadcore QX6700 and spend the savings on more/faster ram.
Hi Guys Thank you for the responses, I have since reached similar conclusions. So am now also going for the Quad core 6700, 4 gig ram,( will be still using XP until they iron out the kinks in Vista, so the 8 gig wouldnt be of any help…..would it?) the Seagate Cheetah 1500k drives, but would appreciate some thoughts on the video card. I have read the posts that Photoshop doesnt benefit from the high end cards, I want to use a Nvidia card, what would be the best for my application. 200meg – 1 gig files, Illustrator Photoshop and Indesign often open together for long periods, and will be running a new EIZO GC210 monitor and hopefully an old Sony trinitron together, dont know whether this possible yet. Appreciate any help here, Chris
8GB would help if you ran more than one major program at once. The 2 or 3GB limit (if using the 3GB switch) is a per application limit. So if you run say Phtooshop CS3, Adobe Lightroom, Microsoft Office and AutoCAD each of those could use 2GB or 3GB of RAM (If the 3GB switch will work with the last two). So more memory would pay off that way. But, not for any one program including Photoshop.
I thought Windows XP didnt see any more than 4 gig of ram? even with the switch? Does it? Could you clarify what you meant re "not for any one program inlcuding Photoshop" isint this a contradiction to what you said at the top "you could run PS, Lightroom etc together and they would all use 2-3 gig" Any advice on the video card?
Chris, that is only true for 32-bit operating systems. 64-bit versions will see far more than 4GB…at least more than any motherboard is likely to support.
Hey guys, I run my own one man biz, www.jlabaudio.com, and I’m looking to build a super fast new PC that will handle multitasking such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Excel, Word, Outlook. I often have to do a bunch of things at once and I work with huge graphics files for product packaging, etc. I don’t want to spend a fortune on the quad cores. I’m considering the Intel Xeon Dual-Core 5110, E5310, and 5320. I’m wondering whether it’s worth it to get a dual socket mobo and run 2 of these cpu’s? Would Photoshop CS2 be able to take advantage of that, or would it benefit the multitasking at all? What would you recommend for a graphics card that supports 2 monitors? I don’t game at all, just graphics intensive work! How much RAM should I get? I run XP now but could get Vista. Also, which OS’s are 64 bit? Any advice is greatly appreciated, my email is Send me some useful info and I’ll send you free earbuds from JLab. We have the #1 bestselling earbuds on Amazon. Thanks! Josh
Remember that all the cores communicate with the chipset through one pathway to the memory controller (MCH). While all four are running, there may not be as much speed gain as one might think is there. I would use a Core2Duo, E6300 or the E6600.
Until Intel decides that the memory controller is worthwhile to put on the cpu, or AMD finally releases it’s true quad, (don’t hold your breath!), the value of the quads is greatly limited.
If you want a mobo with two sockets, look at the dual core AMD units.
