Budget build for Photoshop CS5

Do-more

Hi folks, complete NOOB on the building front.

I've recently started working with Photoshop CS5 editing fairly large format designs 50cm x 50cm with 100+ layers per design at 300dpi. The design work has been done for me by a graphic designer and I am just editing the text on each layer.

I'm presently working on a Dell Vostro 200 with a dual core E2180 2.00GHz with 4Gb ram which is not up to the job with fairly big pauses while I wait for design changes to display, as it is highly repetitive work it is mind numbing.

I have an unused full copy of Win7 home premium since the launch so am thinking of going 64 bit so that I can utilise more ram.

I have a ATI Radeon EAH 4550 1Gb graphics card which I was thinking of swapping into the new machine to keep the cost down. As I am not doing the actual design work, only editing I think this is sufficient. (?)

I've looked at pre-built machines on ebay but am worried they may have inferior components, I want to have a WD hard drive for example. (500Gb should be enough as I will save stuff to an external drive)

I haven't a clue as to what the optimum price/performance set up would be for Photoshop work, would I be much better off spending the extra money on a i7 cpu compared to a i5 or am I better to go AMD? Or spending more on RAM 8Gb or more?

What about a separate drive for the OS for this sort of work, will it help?

Apart from web browsing the machine will be used solely for this work. Will just need a basic DVD drive in it.

My budget is about €600 inc. VAT

I would be extremely grateful if anyone can help me with build suggestions.

Jonny7

Here is a great little tool to check up on processor speeds

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/69?vs=185

Thats your chip vs an AMD 6 core chip (just less than 200 euros at the mo)

You could build a system around it for about 600 euros total - that said am not a photoshop expert, but prices are good right now

Solitaire

Argh. Just checked to see what chipset the Vos200 has and found out that its a nice lil' G33... but one specially crippled in the BIOS to prevent the installation of 45nm CPUs and even 65nm quads :eek:

Dell you utter bunch of *******s :mad:

No cheapy Q6700 upgrade option possible I'm afraid!

Do-more

Thanks Solitaire, I figured it being a Dell there was little chance of an upgrade being possible....

Any suggestions on what I should build?

Looking at the comparison guide that Jonny posted I guess any i5 is going to be at about 3 times faster and an i7 950 will be almost 4 times faster.

I'll have to look at prices and see where the sweet spot is in terms of price Vs. performance.

Do-more

Any idea if I can swap the Mobo + CPU on the Vostro keeping the rest of my components for a relatively cheap upgrade to at least halve the rendering time?

the_syco

Do-more wrote: »

Any idea if I can swap the Mobo + CPU on the Vostro keeping the rest of my components for a relatively cheap upgrade to at least halve the rendering time?

Do-more wrote: »

I have an unused full copy of Win7 home premium since the launch so am thinking of going 64 bit so that I can utilise more ram.

If the full copy of Windows7 is a full copy, and not a Dell version, I'd say you could. Dell versions have a habit of not installing on non-Dell systems. Get more RAM if you can

Do-more

Yeah the Win7 is a full retail pack which I got on pre-order from Amazon at the time for about €45 but I never used it as I later got a 3 licence family upgrade pack.

Any suggestions on a Mobo + cpu?

Will the Dell power supply be up to it or am I better off just going ahead and building something new?

the_syco

Do-more wrote: »

Will the Dell power supply be up to it or am I better off just going ahead and building something new?

Dell PSU is usually enough for the system you own, but wouldn't really trust it running anything more. Advise you to get something with a bit more power. As for what to get, dunno. Check what CS5 would prefer more, I suppose. As in, which core (duel, quad, i5, etc) would it be more optimised for, since it's the primary program that you'd be running on it.

edit
Found this: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404439.html

GPU use
Photoshop CS5 and CS4 leverage the graphics display card's GPU, instead of the computer CPU, to speed its screen redraw. For Photoshop to access the GPU, your display card must contain a GPU that supports OpenGL and has enough RAM to support Photoshop's functions - at least 128 MB, and a display driver that supports OpenGL 2.0 and Shader Model 3.0.

To increase performance when accessing a GPU in Photoshop, update your display driver.

For more information on GPU use in Photoshop CS5 and CS4, see "GPU and OpenGL Features and Limitations in Photoshop CS5 and CS4" (TechNote kb404898).

Again, I'd almost go onto a CS forum, and ask what they use?

the_syco

BTW, is the Win7 license that you have 32bit or 64bit?

Do-more

the_syco wrote: »

BTW, is the Win7 license that you have 32bit or 64bit?

Both discs are included, I can use one or the other...

Do-more

Here was I thinking I could draw a simple graph of price and performance and where the two straight lines intersect I'd have the sweet spot! Ha, if only there were some straight lines! Price and performance seem to be all over the place especially when you see that hardwareversand can have two completely different prices on two listings for the same CPU.

Anyway the most bang for buck in terms of CPU's for photoshop work seems to be an i5 760 for €166.

After a bit of Googling I found this table of benchmark results relevant for Photoshop work. Some crazy stuff with up to 48Gigs of RAM. All seem to be running Win7 64bit.

GPU seems to be critical for Photoshop again with some cards being mad money, I'm thinking that as a first step I will get this GTX 460 graphics card and put it into my existing rig.

As a next step I will price up a new rig with 8 or 12gigs of RAM and either a i5 760 or an i7 970 cpu, depending on the price I will make a decision then.

Many thanks for the help I have got so far.

Anyone care to give their comments on what I am proposing?

Cheers

D-M.

Fanny Cradock

I'm thinking that your €600 budget is out the window

Do-more

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

I'm thinking that your €600 budget is out the window

Lookin' like it!

Hence the step by step approach!

Do-more

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

I'm thinking that your €600 budget is out the window

I just tried configuring the set up with the i5 760 chip and 2 x 4Gb sticks of Ram so that I will still have space for another 8 in the future and the graphics card I linked above and it's coming to just under €750 + build + shipping so not too bad

Not sure what the best choice of mother board would be, can anyone make a suggestion?

Do-more

I have put together this spec.

Intel Core i5-760 Box 8192Kb, LGA1156 €164,79
ASRock P55 Extreme4, Sockel 1156, ATX €115,08
A-Data Value PC3-1333 CL9 8GB-Kit €95,49
3R Systems Design Gehäuse R450 Schwarz €25,49
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W €40,04
Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB SATA II 16MB €31,96
Samsung SH-223C bare schwarz SATA €14,70
Assembly €20,00

Total (without GPU) €507,55

I want to have the Gainward GTX 460 Golden Sample 2Gb graphics card but it doesn't come up as an option on the PC configurator, is this because it is not compatible with some other part of the build?

Can someone help and point out my mistakes?

Is the 450W PSU powerful enough?

Total will come to €692.02 + shipping so if it works it won't be toooo far overbudget.

Thanks

D-M.