Best hardware for CS3 under Windows (XP or Vista)

MG
Posted By
Michael_G._Reed
Oct 30, 2007
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455
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8
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Closed
Much appreciate the VistaBootPro recommendation. I will definitely be dual booting either XP or Vista-32bit along with Vista-64

I’m definitely getting a board that can handle lots of 1066 memory. Starting with 4Gb and will go to more if needed.

Yes, SATAII with a 150Gb Raptor is certainly one of my considerations. But I am seriously leaning towards a solid state alternative for the C: drive. The 32Gb SSDs from Sandisk and Mtron look pretty interesting when two are put together in a RAID0 config, especially the Mtron which is more expensive but a lot faster than Sandisk. But even more, I’m looking at the 80Gb Fusion io "ioDrive" which is said to be "1000 faster than any HDD on the market." At an expected $2400 when it releases in December, it seems like an insane choice, but having a "disk" that is essentially as fast as RAM is pulling very hard on my wallet. If you want to take an early look go to:

< http://www.tgdaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task =view&id=34065>

Or the Fusion io site at <http://www.fusionio.com/>

I’d love to know what other Photoshop users are thinking about this coming wave of solid state drives.

Thanks, Michael

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I
ID._Awe
Oct 30, 2007
We can drool all we want over SS drives, but I won’t be looking at them until I update my system again in another five years or so.
JJ
John_Joslin
Oct 30, 2007
There’s a different between having the latest and greatest in drives and actually recouping the extra cost through the gain in speed in your workflow.
MG
Michael_G._Reed
Oct 30, 2007
We can drool all we want over SS drives, but I won’t be looking at them
until I update my system again in another five years or so. <<

Understood. But are you saying, if you WERE updating your system today, that you would not consider these drives? And, if not, is that because you’ve heard bad things about them that I should know about, or other personal reasons? If there are specifics about why I should not think about them now, it would help a lot to know what those are.

I’m not being argumentative, I really want to know.

Thanks, Michael
MG
Michael_G._Reed
Oct 30, 2007
Agreed. But I hold it the way someone buying a BMW instead of a Honda might (not that I own a car). I have the money to spend on a luxury like one of these ridiculously expensive SS drives…so why not?

If I liked the Honda better (which I actually do), then I would certainly not buy the BMW. The question for me here is whether the new SS drives are BMWs (or more truly Ferraris) of if they will totally fail their promise at this early stage.

I probably could have said this better without the car analogy, but I hope I still make the point. Of course it’s not a reasonable or practical choice at this time, but would it (returning to the car analogy with apologies) be fun to drive now? If you had an extra free $3000 to throw at a new Photoshop and HD video editing computer, would you put it in an SSD or would you put it in something else?

Looking for serious thoughtful advice.

Thanks, Michael
I
ID._Awe
Oct 30, 2007
Well if you got the bucks, then knock yourself out. I buy just behind the bleeding edge when I’m updating my system.

My last system was a dual 1Ghz, on an Abit VP6 board with 2GB of RAM with ATA133 Maxtor drives. It was sweet and smooth, I really liked that machine and it lasted six years. The reason I updated was that with the current round of apps and the amount of multi-tasking that I have to do for my work, it just wasn’t cutting it for the last six months. It’s embarrassing when your system freezes while your client is on the phone and you have to re-boot to continue working.

Honestly, while this system is good, its overall inter-compatiblity is not as great as the last machine where the FSB for the CPU/RAM/HDs were identical. With the new system the FSBs are all different and the ride is not as smooth as I would like.

The new system is based on the Intel D975XBX2 board (which I am slightly dissappointed with), with high-end Mushkin RAM (which turned out to be faulty which they replaced) and an ATI FireGL card which I want to return because it is turning out to be a high priced piece of doo-doo, their customer service is lousy and their techs apparently aren’t that knowledgeable about their products. Despite doing my homework………………………..
MG
Michael_G._Reed
Oct 30, 2007
Ouch. Don’t ya hate it when you buy something fine and it ends up with problems. Oh, oops, I think I just described the world of buying computers. I’m lucky at the moment with a 4yo Intel single-core machine with 2megs and two 7200rpm HDs. It runs flawlessly…but way too slowly to get into HD video editing.

BTW, do you have sage advice on a decent video card for PS. All the reviews and advice these days is about gaming cards like the nVidia GeForce 8800GTX or the newer, less expensive 8800GT. Some people say I need a hot card for HD video editing (though I can’t imagine why as the bottleneck is CPU not video), but surely nothing like that is needed for Photoshop. I have a flawless old Matrox Millenium in the current machine and it works perfectly.
I
ID._Awe
Oct 30, 2007
I’d head over to the Premiere forum, they gots lotsa advice on hardware, I think they have a hardware forum.

Personally I wish I’d stuck with Matrox & bought a Parhelia instead. I had been using Matrox cards for a decade, but I’ve been moving into some 3D stuff with Maya so I went with the FireGL card because of its stronger 3D rendering abilities. I have installed lots of ATI cards over the years and never had a problem, but apparently the Catalyst drivers create this screen flicker where a text page shows up over the desktop randomly. I did not know they had this problem since the V6 drivers and haven’t solved it, apparently everyone knew but me. Damn it’s annoying.

I made a support ticket about that and another problem and, without telling me, stopped the ticket. The support at AMD/ATI sucks so I would go with Intel for the CPU, but not with their boards, for what you want to invest, they are not known for being cutting edge like Asus, Gigabyte or Abit.
MG
Michael_G._Reed
Oct 30, 2007
Thanks for the suggestion to go to the Premiere Forum. Premiere doesn’t support AVCHD editing and so I wasn’t thinking in that direction.

Yes, good advice, the board will be an Asus…unless there is something better for overclocking the new Yorkfield QX9650 when it releases 11/12.

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