New PC for Photoshop and general use...

[Anthony.Ralph]

My current PC (from PCSpecialists) is about four years old and I feel the need to upgrade things. The old PC is in good enough condition to act as an ad-hoc server/backup unit so nothing will be wasted.

This is the specification I have set out and bearing in mind that it is to be a graphics type workstation and not a gaming machine I wondered if anyone would care to comment?

Anthony.

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Case
COOLERMASTER SILEO 500 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD5770 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
3rd Hard Disk
120GB Intel® X25-M 2.5" SSD (34nm / upto 250MB/sR | 100MB/sW)***SPECIAL***
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TX SERIES (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£78)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Wireless Desktop® MK250 Keyboard and Mouse Combo (£19)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

 

[Phoenix]

I'd downgrade the RAM to 8GB (1333mhz) because for pretty much any software out there you won't need 16GB and the faster speeds are for overclocking. With the money saved there it would be a good idea to upgrade the graphics card to something like a Radeon HD6870 or if the sotware you'll be using supports CUDA then the GTX465.

 

[bg92]

Put the ssd as first hard drive, and to save a bit you could change both or one of caviar black to caviar green drives. And follow Phoenix's advice i.e. downgrade ram to 8gb and change the gpu with money saved to amd 6870, or gtx 465 or gtx 470 assuming you are using software which supports Cuda technology,

 

[Anthony.Ralph]

I'd downgrade the RAM to 8GB (1333mhz) because for pretty much any software out there you won't need 16GB and the faster speeds are for overclocking. With the money saved there it would be a good idea to upgrade the graphics card to something like a Radeon HD6870 or if the sotware you'll be using supports CUDA then the GTX465.

Thanks for the response. I find that coming into the market on every 4-5 years pretty much everything has changed!

My thoughts on the 16GB of memory was based on [a] not too expensive and always get twice what you think you will ever need - cos, you are sure to need it in due course. Speed wise, this looks like I need to revisit the specifying pages once more. As far as the graphics card is concerned, I just wanted something mid-range-ish , ATI and that is on the Adobe supported graphics card list for Photoshop. Nevertheless, I will look into and possibly change the spec, based on your comments.

If I could comment on the points bg92 made here...

The SSD is for a scratch disk for use with Photoshop, so I would need to install two SSDs if I wanted to use one as the C:\ drive - but a good thought nevertheless. I have a 1TB Caviar green in my current machine and it is working fine. I was under the impression that the Black Caviars are faster? I need to look into Cuda technology, as I have no clear idea what that is; this may then influence the choice of card.

Anthony.

 

[bg92]

The caviar black are faster then green but I thought than you wanted caviar black as storage drives, and it that role caviar greens are better, more quiet consume less power and are cheaper.
If you want to have ssd to use for photoshop than having the following confing would be good:
1st hard drive 1tb caviar black
2nd 1tb caviar green
3rd 120gb ssd
From what I know photoshop does have plugin which support cude technology.