Need The Ultimate Photoshop PC Machine

M
Posted By
mrharris2000
Dec 15, 2007
Views
258
Replies
11
Status
Closed
hi everyone,

i’m building a machine for a friend who is a photoshop professional. could you guys help me out. ive been out of the "system buildg scene" for a year or so because of a new baby. I know he wants a pc and not a mac. I also know that he wants to keep the case compact/ modern. Uber fast cpu and ram are a priority…double processor ? As much quick ram as possible.I dont want to say money is no object, but i could say money isnt an object within reason and common sense…i dont need a N.A.S.A. box.

mike

motherboard? cpu/s ? ram ? video card ?

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BL
Bob Levine
Dec 15, 2007
Here’s what I just built:

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 mobo
Intel Q6600 Quad Core processor
8 gigs of G Skill PC800 RAM
Two WD 500 gig HDs configured as RAID (0)
Separte 320 gig HD for scratch
Gigabye GeForce 8600GT 256 meg Video Card
Antec Designer Case
Vista Ultimate 64

Final cost was a little over $1300

Search the forum…this comes up quite often.

Bob
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Dec 16, 2007
Running RAID 0 for the disk containing your system, programs, and data seems a bit chancy.
BL
Bob Levine
Dec 16, 2007
I’ve heard that argument over and over again and I still think it’s unwarranted. What’s the difference if something happens to a RAID setup as opposed to a single drive?

I keep my data backed up and I check the backups to make sure everything is fine. The only hassle I can see is IF something goes wrong is figuring out which drive went bad.

In the world of risk vs reward, this is a "risk" I’m willing to take.

Bob
HC
Howard_Cromwell
Dec 16, 2007
What’s the difference if something happens to a RAID setup as opposed to a single drive?

Exactly.
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Dec 16, 2007
With two drives in Raid 0 you have twice the likelihood of mechanical failure, which is still small but not negligible. Aside from that, I’d agree that there’s no difference.
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Dec 16, 2007
With two drives in Raid 0 you have twice the likelihood of mechanical failure

But half the likelihood of losing what’s on them.

Rob
H
Ho
Dec 16, 2007
Are you sure about that, Rob?
LS
Laverne_Stahl
Dec 17, 2007
Lose one drive of RAID 0 and you lose everything. Double the chance of failure. Why put OS and programs in with storage files? You need to defrag OS and system more than static storage but RAID-0 2 500gig drives forces you to defrag up to 1 terrabite of info striped on 2 drives.
It seems best do a fast OS and program single drive (10k or 15K SAS or Raptor) and a Raid 0 scratch and a large storage drive. Put a Windows Page file on OS drive and large storage drive, Windows will use the one that is free when it needs it.
I have set up PC’s with Raid 0 boot drives but only for people that insist and keep regular backup drive images.
If you do video editing you should add another set of RAID-0 so you have one for source and one for destination files.
Raid 1 keeps 2 drives of the same info (mirror), RAID 0 splits files between both drives.
BP
Brian_Peart
Dec 18, 2007
Robert – wossa difference between your GeForce 8600 GT 256Mb video card and the one supplied in my new machine, a GeForce 8400 GS?

I ask because my new PC has been delivered from a manufacturer with that card in it, and Windows Vista Performance Monitor gives it a low (?) score of 3.5. Is that a low score for a video card or is it actually about right? I only intend to use this PC for Photoshop 2D (flat) work, I don’t do games or video…

The rest of the components in my PC get a score of between 5.2 and 5.8, so it looks like my system is being throttled by the video card.

Or is it? Will it make that much difference if I upgrade to a similar card to yours?
BP
Brian_Peart
Dec 18, 2007
Also, what brand/type of monitor(s) do you use? I think I read on another post you use Dell monitors?…
BL
Bob Levine
Dec 18, 2007
I don’t know the difference but it has a 5.9 performance rating with 5.6 for 3D and gaming.

And yes, I use two Dell monitors…a 2405FPW and 2005FPW.

Bob

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