A computer built to run games will also do photo editing VERY fast
Asus P6T motherboard with Intel i7 and 3 each 2gig (matched) ram for 6 Gig of 3 channel memory with Ati 4870 is what I am looking at building later this year (if the tax man is kind)
I’ll echo John here a bit with an emphasis on the Asus board. The Intel i7 boards are poorly designed. They work okay, but the SATA ports tend to get blocked by the larger video cards which makes adding additional hard drives or opticals problematic or impossible.
I have an AMD machine at home with an Asus ATI 4870 X2 that should handle CS4 pretty well, but can’t say for sure as I haven’t ordered it yet. I want to play games and do Photoshop (and other suite apps as well) on the same machine hence the gamer card. So far, the system handles games very well.
Someone else will have to chime in on the use/usefulness of the Quadro cards for Photoshop use. They may be more for video rendering but may still provide some good use in Photoshop’s higher functions (video, 3D layers, etc.). SLi/CrossFire are only worth it for gamers right now as they won’t offer any speed enhancements in non-game apps.
Drawback on the i7 proc and boards is that they only support DDR3 RAM and that’s still pretty pricy. Also, while they are triple channel, they have four RAM stick slots but you take a performance hit if you populate the forth slot. You will get noticeably better performance with 6GB over 3 2GB sticks over 8GB over 4 2GB sticks. Overall, the more RAM the better, but 6-8GB will be plenty unless you’re doing some seriously hardcore PSing.
SSD’s are still pretty small for my taste and needs so I don’t use them except for external storage and transport. VelociRaptor drives are well worth using as your primary drive and a high-end 250GB (or even smaller) will work great as your scratch disc. Any good sized drive will be fine for storage and you may want to consider RAID in your setup.
For the type of machine you’re talking about building, I would suggest having it built for you locally by someone/a business you trust rather than trying to build a hotrod your first time out. Especially since you could be building everything perfectly but have a bad part that makes you think otherwise… that’ll throw you for a loop. A good tech will recognize those things almost immediately and know how to correct them. Mine did when my primary HD failed after it worked fine for its first test; second time it was hit it failed.
Calling the i7 a drawback because of only ddr3 is like calling a Ferrari a drawback because it won’t handle a bunch of kids.
i7 is another breed of processor, and, the oversize video card problem not withstanding, the DX58SO is a killer board.
that’s what i wanted to hear larry! π
SO stands for Smackover. I guess the namers wanted to make a statement! π
John and jcates
Thank you for your very helpful messages.
John, your spec. of "Asus P6T motherboard with Intel i7 …with Ati 4870" is exactly what I’d decided on. It’s good to know that I’m not way off base. I didn’t really think I was, but you never know.
Yes, a gaming computer will run PS very fast, but over here in the UK, at least, it’s hard to find a firm that will customise their PCs exactly how you want; you have to choose from a limited range of components. My building project actually started because I couldn’t find a firm that would build me a PC in a Zalman case with a Reserator 2, with my choice of motherboard, CPU etc., and no fancy sound board.
jcates – Thanks for your advice about RAM and SSDs. I’ll stick to Velociraptors, and let them fly away when SSDs become big and cheap. (Besides, they currently seem to have limitations in the write-to-disk department.)
Your advice about not trying to build a hotrod first time out is good. But I should have mentioned that I have 2 experienced friends who will help me. They take computers apart and put them together all the time (they run computer-related businesses). But neither of them uses Photoshop or anything like it, so they can’t give me much help with choice of appropriate components.
Besides, it will be an adventure! – and with luck I’ll get a great system, which I’ll be more knowledgeable about upgrading bit by bit than I am now.
Thanks again for all your help. I’ll sit down this weekend and start ordering components.
Mary
It’ll be fun….
….and it’s quite easy once you know where everything goes. Last time I did it I nearly had kittens when I forgot to put power in to the GPU board which set off an alarm…My ears are still ringing after 6 months.
Put in as much RAM as possible.
When ddr3 12gb triples (24gb) come out I will upgrade to the i7. Which I hope is soon as one of my projects, which is in the pipeline, will require more than 16gb RAM….Oh well! the faster the specs, the harder you push the boundaries which means you need faster faster hardware….it’s never ending.
I looked at the Intel motherboard and decided on Asus for 2 reasons
The Intel only has 4 ram slots, so to go to 12Gig of DDR3 memory I would have to find very expensive 3×4 chips… in fact, when I started researching last year, I could not find a source of 3×4 ram at all… while the Asus has 6 ram slots, so starting at 6Gig and adding another 6Gig if needed seemed like a good idea to me
The Intel has fewer (can’t remember the number right now) Pci slots, and knowing that the Ati video card is double wide for cooling, I was a bit concerned about having space for a Pci card to run my parallel laser printer (neither MD has a parallel port) plus room to plug in a legacy Pci card for analog video capture
I do (home hobbyist) video editing of family movies, so am planning ahead for the day when I want to add HD editing… current computer is Ok with SD, but not enough "oomph" for HiDef
Now, I’m starting to read articles about how Win7 will be better and faster than Vista, so I may just keep my hardware notes and $$ in storage, and wait for Win7 and Premiere CS5 before I upgrade
As far as building… get all good components and go slow and read the directions to make sure you connect everything in the right place and you should be Ok
When ever I do build a new computer, I’m also going to read up on how to create a dual boot system… with Vista or Win7 and Win2000 to be able to fully run my analog capture card
….. and Intel customer service sucks big time.
I am disappointed in the memory slot count as well.
But, that’s why other options are available. π
My current (PBZ motherboard) and previous (Pentium 3) computers are/were built with Intel MB’s and gave me Zero problems… I built my current P4 ’cause the P3 didn’t want to run XP very well, and I needed to run some XP software
I never needed to contact Intel about the MB so can’t comment… I did have to have them replace the CPU cooling fan when it died in warranty, and that was easy via their web page
I do NOT overclock, since my #1 criteria is running 24/7 with no problems… but, as I said, the current Intel just doesn’t have the options I need, so am looking at the Asus P6T
Asus P6T is ‘THE ONE’
For some……
BTW, the Intel board has 4 memory slots. You populate the black slot ONLY after the blue slots are filled. There is a bit of a memory timing penalty if you do so, but you can get 8G from 4 2G’s that way.
John, your spec. of "Asus P6T motherboard with Intel i7 …with Ati 4870" is exactly what I’d decided on. It’s good to know that I’m not way off base. I didn’t really think I was, but you never know.
Mary,
I too am preparing to build a PSCS4 machine and have decided on the Asus P6T with the Intel i7. I have tentatively decided on the ATI 4870 since it was recommended by a local expert, who stated that the ATI drivers tend to be more stable than those from Nvida and good drivers are an important issue with PSCS4. What were your reasons for choosing this card?
Someone else will have to chime in on the use/usefulness of the Quadro cards for Photoshop use.
The Quadro series from Nvida and FireGL are the professional workstation cards from Nvida and ATI; these cards are more expensive than the gaming cards and I don’t know if they offer any advantage for Photoshop CS4. Nvida recommends their Quadro CX for CS4, but at US$ 1800, I suspect that this is overkill for Photoshop.
<
http://www.nvidia.com/object/adobe.html>
My nVidia Quadro FX 3700 512MB PCIe works well.
nVidia Quadro FX 3700
PNY NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 Graphics adapter … $745 to $1,062 – 168 stores
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 Graphics adapter – 512 … $741 to $1,480 – 56 stores
HP Workstation – Xw6600 – 4 GB RAM – 3.33 GHz … $1,431 to $5,383 – 62 stores
my whole machine doesn’t cost that much!!!
Graphics cards are the most confusing area of component choice, at least for me. You can pay between Β£163 and Β£453 for a 4870 on Amazon UK. One has 512 MB of RAM & the other 2 Gb – but there’s a Sapphire card with 1 Gb for Β£218 — and a Sapphire with 512 Mb for Β£230. For the life of me I can’t find anything in the specs that explains why the 512 is more expensive than the 1Gb.
Mary,
I agree that the graphics card is indeed a confusing area. Since I am in the USA I would buy from a domestic vendor. I see a 1GB Sapphire advertised at one of my favorite vendors for US $229 after a rebate.
<
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102 801>
Does anyone have any comments on this card for CS4?
Bill, Is the more expensive on DDR2 or 3? I heard for a computer store that DDR3 beats 1 gig of DDR2.
wrote in message
Graphics cards are the most confusing area of component choice, at least
for me. You can pay between Β£163 and Β£453 for a 4870 on Amazon UK. One
has 512 MB of RAM & the other 2 Gb – but there’s a Sapphire card with 1 Gb for Β£218 — and a Sapphire with 512 Mb for Β£230. For the life of me I can’t find anything in the specs that explains why the 512 is more
expensive than the 1Gb.
Mary,
I agree that the graphics card is indeed a confusing area. Since I am in the USA I would buy from a domestic vendor. I see a 1GB Sapphire advertised at one of my favorite vendors for US $229 after a rebate.
< http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102 801>
Does anyone have any comments on this card for CS4?
Loretta,
PLEASE turn off the autoquote in your newsreader. This is primarily a web based forum and even in a true NNTP newsgroup a full autoquote and top posting is considered improper.
Thanks,
Bob
My previous (Intel P3) computer had an nVidia video card… I bought it ready made from Alienware (now, I think, part of Dell) since it came bundled with a Dv500 analog to digital video capture card
The nVidia card (don’t remember the model) worked well in that computer as long as I used ONE SPECIFIC driver version… any driver before or after that version did not work with Adobe Premiere 6 (bundled with the Dv500)
When I built my current P4 card I decided on Ati (not at that computer, I think it is a "something" 9600) and have had no problems at all
Based on other nVidia discussions I’ve read… about driver problems… I think that whatever hardware merits either cards may have, Ati does a better job with device driver stability
That is, of course, just my single opinion… YMMV
this is a great thread!!!
so do you think this machine is overkill? my brother-in-law is also wanting a high-end editing computer. he uses Lightroom and PS CS4. he doesn’t care about gaming either. i’m mostly wondering if too much RAM and too big of video card. i’ve read so Adobe KB articles regarding CS4 using at most 512MB on video card, but I know LightRoom may be adding GPU support as well, and the article said if you have multiple apps accessing the video card you may want more than 512MB on video. i was also looking at stream processes and clock speed. but now i’m wondering if they are just going to be sitting there idle.
OS: Vista x64
OS Drive: 150GB Raptor
Working Drive: 300GB VelociRaptor
Data Drive: 1TB & 400GB
Motherboard: MSI X85 Platinum SLI
Processor: Intel i7 920 2.66GHz
Memory: G.Skill 2 sets of 3x2GB chips for 12GB total
Optical: two LG 22x DVD+/-RW
Power Supply: undecided as of now, but probably around 900W Monitors: two 20.1" running 1600×1200 each
thanks a bunch!!!
think this machine is overkill
I don’t think "overkill" is possible… the race between software features (think bigger programs, and using more clock cycles and ram) and hardware capabilities is never ending… buy all you can afford, and realize it will be outdated in a year or two
Power Supply: undecided
I do think they are a "bit" high in price (they DO like to pat themselves on the back about being the "best") but I have never read anything bad about PC Power & Cooling… of course, there are other good brands as well
Something to consider is a power supply and case that uses 120mm fans… from what I’ve read, they spin a bit slower than smaller fans at the same CFM so are quieter
With a computer like this you are going to want a LOT of fan power to move air through the case, including a side fan to blow air directly on the CPU and video card, so quiet fans are very important
For what I am going to do, the ATI 4870 with 512M is plenty… if you are in doubt, or think you will have software someday that will use more video ram, by all means get the 1Gig model… the price difference during initial build compared to replacing with a different card later is small
you’re right … there’s no such thing as overkill! π however, i guess i was thinking more bang for the buck. for instance, maybe buy a decent video card now (9800GT) and a better video card next year (260). for everything i have read, the NVIDIA’s seem to be better. right now i’m debating between the 9800GT, 9800GTX, or 260. the 260 is a lot more expensive, and i’m wondering if we’ll ever notice the difference. if not, or not unless we upgrade programs in 2 years, it may be worth saving the ~$50+ dollars for now. WOW, i just realized i didn’t even put my video card in the specs!!! duh. so right now i’m spec’ing the 260, though i don’t know if we’ll ever see the performance and that may put me a tad over my budgeted $1500 (which isn’t the end of the world, but i would like to not go over) π
know what you mean about power supply. i have also heard though never go cheap and under power your computer or it will suffer! that’s why i’m thinking about going with a 900-1000W.
case … yeah, i’m going with the Antec 300. it has two 120mm slots on front blowing over the 6 drive bays (i will have 4 to start and potentially add two more). interestingly enough, the power supply sits at the bottom of the case. the top back corner then has a 120mm on the back where normally the PS is, and a 140mm fan on the top back acting as a blow hole (or whatever you want to call it. there isn’t a fan blowing in the side of the case, however there are vents on the side (hopefully around where the CPU will be).
anymore recommendations or changes i should make? thanks a bunch for the help!
has anyone also used Lightroom side-by-side with photoshop open?
Hi guys!
Was thinking about following setup. Already got hdds, case psu and stuff.
Gainward GeForce 8400GS 512MB PhysX CUDA
Intel CoreΒ i7 920 Quad Processor
Asus P6T, X58, Socket-1366
2x Crucial DDR3 1333MHz 6GB KIT CL9
Any comments before i order?
Is the board i choosed stable?
Hi:
I agree with all of your hardware except you should use all of the memory slots to take advantage of the interleaving of memory. This will enhance the performance of the PC. You could use 6 each of 1 Gig, for a total of 6 or you could use 6 each of 2 for 12.
Hi:
I agree with all of your hardware advice except for the memory. You need to use all of the memory slots, 6, to take advantage of memory interleaving for best performance. The Azus board is much better than the Intel board for exactly this reason. The Intel board doesn’t have 2 banks of memory slots, only 3 slots in 1 bank.
Horsepucky!
It all depends on how much memory you really need and how much the system can handle.
The intel board is damn stable and capable of superb performance.
DDR3 is a three channel memory system, and the three blue slots in the Intel does exactly what the 2 sets of three do in any other. So the only decision concerning which board is how much are you really going to use. Interleaving between six slots is a non starter, imo. It won’t be faster, and a case can be made for the Intel board vs speed over the six slots.
There are other issues which would force one to gravitate to other than Intel boards, but most of those are beyond this discussion.
So, if you believe that 24G of ram is immediate or in your future, by all means, do a six slot version. If 12 will suffice, then the Intel will do fine.
Resist the urge to populate the black (fourth) slot on the Intel. That stick will run as single channel, once the triple channel is maxed out.
