While a fast machine is always great, routine editing of 6 or 7mb images goes pretty fast with even modest modern computers. My computer is substantially less distinguished than the specs you are looking at and the only holdup for me is my lack of skill, not computer power.
I use ATI and Matrox cards for 2D and both are quite good with my CRT displays. LCDs may be a different situation, no experience here.
The need for really powerful computers is mainly a function of working with very large files, like 100s of megabytes. For most of us, whether a filter runs for 0.3 or 0.2 seconds is not a big issue.
Of course, if cost is no object….
Gary
Mark…
If you’re using the machine primarily for Photoshop…
1/ If you can afford 2GB of RAM…. nothing like it
2/ If you don’t plan on doing 3D then the Matrox cards are ideal. i think you’ll probably need the MGA 550. Don’t hassle about the Perahelia (sp?)
2a/ If, however, you ever plan to get into 3D then the Matrox cards suck…. you’ll need to get a Nvidia or Radeon
3/ Go for a large monitor… 19" at the least… if you can afford a 21" the it’ll be great
4/ Go for dual monitors…. you’ll find them invaluable when working… the second could be a smaller one to dave money and if you use a Matrox card you can set different resolutions on each monitor
Regarding the rest of the specs… 🙁 can’t really give you any tips there…but i think that an 80GB disk for just scratch may be overkill but someone will correct me if i’m wrong.
Cheers…
JJ
The two 80 gig drives are being Raided for a fast scratch disk. Agreed, I don’t need a 160 gig scratch disk. I may just get one 40 or 80 gig drive as a PS scratch drive, but it would be slower than the raid 0. I could compromise and get the 37 gig WD Raptor drive, which would between a normal drive and a RAID 0 configuration.
Mark H
Thanks Gary. If I scan any of my negatives, I will get much larger files, but most will still be under 100 MB. I may also stitch scenes together, which will increase file size as will using several layers.
Mark H
My experience…RAM is much more important than processor speed. I have 1GB in my dedicated Photoshop machine with a 1.8GHz P4, 80 and 160 GB HD’s. My camera is an Olympus E-20 (5 megapixels), but I regularly scan 35mm slides and negs which give me images of around 10 megapixels. This modest machine, which I bought about 18 months ago, is still plenty fast for me.
If I change anything, it will be to add another GB of RAM. Bert
Mark,
I’ve just started doing stitching of panoramas. 1GB seems to be a little marginal if you go above 3 images.
Bert
OK, here is what I will get:
37.7 WD Raptor HD for a PS scratch disk
120 GB drive for O/S and applications + Windows page file 160 GB drive for storage
1.5 or 2 GB of RAM dependent upon motherboard (3 or 4 slots) Matrox G650 video card
CD Burner
DVD ROM
22 inch monitor for image
17 inch monitor for PS pallets
The processor Motherboard will be either:
P4 3.2 Ghz with Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
or
3400+ AMD 64 with Asus K8V Deluxe
Of course there will be the case, Power supply, floppy drive and some fans. 🙂
Mark H
Mark,
Sounds like a winner.
Bert
With all that I’d get a DVD burner too. Keep the CDRW separate for fast CD coping. Get a TV tuner in your DX 9 video card – the technology is now.
The only thing I’d be looking to ensure, is future RAM potential. If you were upgrading a current set-up fine then go with a 2-3GB board assuming its there now but if you’re going totally new I’d plan for the future. Then again, if things suddenly go 64-bit we’ll all be possibly changing boards again.
Btw why not set a 120GB drive as the scratch and buy an external HD or use your current system as a server for storage? Better for security.
Adam.
The WD Raptor is much faster than a standard 120 GB 7200 RPM drive, which is why I am using it for the scratch disk.
As for RAM, 2 GB will do me now. Both motherboards can handle 3 (AMD) or 4 (Intel) gigs, but they require 1 gig sticks of RAM to do so, which are VERY expensive. I will be using all 512 meg sticks of RAM as 2 of those are less than half the 1 GB stick.
I have an external USB hard drive that I will be using to backup the 160 GB data drive. That way I have it on two drives, the internal 160 gig and the unplugged and unconnected (when not needed) external hard drive.
Mark H
Thanks for the tip on the Raptor. We’re roughly going similar specs but I’m keeping conscious of potential changing RAM needs.
Keep in mind that a 32 bit system will not be able to use more than 4 GB of RAM. A 64 bit system can support much more RAM if the motherboard supports it.
Mark H
A bit out of touchy with the Matrox cards now… is the 650 a Parhelia (spelling?) if so, you can save yourself some bucks and go with the 550….
Cheers…
JJ
I’m using a 10-11 gig FAT32 with a larger than "standard" cluster size (by Partition Magic) swap partition with 12 megapixel digital camera files without any problem. If that overflows, it uses a partition with a bit over 40 gig free. Neither is on the same physical drive as Windows, Photoshop, or the Windows swap file. Photoshop swapfile drive is a WD 7200 RPM 80 gig drive. I haven’t gone past 4 16 bit layers yet.
Bill
The 650 is not a Parhelia card. It is less than half the cost of the higher priced card. The major difference between it and the 550 is it has twice the video RAM.
Mark H
The 650 is not a Parhelia card. It is less than half the cost of the >
higher priced card. The major difference between it and the 550 > is it has twice the video RAM.
That’s cool then….
Cheers…
JJ
