Need advice: upgrading my Photoshop rig

gloobag

Hey all,

Just looking for some advice on what (and where) to buy. Built my current system myself about 5 years ago. It was a monster at the time, but now with the likes of Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5 I'm finding that it's struggling quite a bit, as I'm usually doing some fairly intense editing on very high res images, multiple layers, smart objects, blah blah blah...
(Note, this is pretty much all this system is used for, bar some light web browsing and music listening.)

I want to upgrade the guts of the machine. New CPU, mobo, RAM and maybe an SSD for Win7 and apps. I've kinda kept my head outta the PC hardware space for a while now so I'm not really up to date on what's good/bad etc...

The system currently has a 500w PSU, but I'm not sure if this enough for the current line of CPUs that are out there? Would obviously love a decent Core i7 and 24Gb of RAM but not sure my budget would stretch to that

Would prefer to keep the budget below the €600 mark if possible. I'm just finding it quite overwhelming looking at all the CPU, mobo, and RAM combinations out there. Half afraid I'm gonna buy a load of stuff that isn't compatible with each other

Any advice would be very much appreciated

Monotype

Is windows to be included with the budget?

You could go AMD + small SSD, but if you were going the more powerful route of Intel, I think that would cut it out, depending on what you are keeping.

PSU - What is the model?
Case/DVD-drive - are you keeping them?
If you get an SSD, do you need a hard drive anyway?

gloobag

Monotype wrote: »

Is windows to be included with the budget?

You could go AMD + small SSD, but if you were going the more powerful route of Intel, I think that would cut it out, depending on what you are keeping.

PSU - What is the model?
Case/DVD-drive - are you keeping them?
If you get an SSD, do you need a hard drive anyway?

Hi Monotype,

Thanks for replying

The PSU is an "Antec NEOHE 500 GB 500-Watt PSU, SLI, Low speed 80mm fan" (copied from an old email invoice)
I'm keeping the case/DVD-drive. I have plenty of storage other than the possible SSD and I'm sorted from OS software as well.

I have an Nvidia 8800 GTX in the current system as well, not in any rush to upgrade this really, as I'm not much of a PC gamer these days.

From what I've been reading myself, Photoshop benefits from a lot of RAM, so I guess the more of that the better.

I've had bad experiences with AMD builds in the past (back when I actually used to build systems regularly, it's amazing how quickly one can become so out of touch :rolleyes:) so I am a little reluctant to use one of their chips again. Would much prefer to go with a more powerful Intel than a cheaper AMD at the end of the day.

Monotype

The PSU should last another while then as it looks OK, but might need upgrading down the line as there's more efficient PSUs around now.

2500K
http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=41224

GD53
http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=44931

128GB C300
http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=31475

8GB 1600MHz
http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=44314

Delivery
€30

Total = €588.56


This site are the cheapest for the processor and motherboard. You can only use bank transfers with them though. Scan.co.uk are a bit dearer, but if you want to pay by credit card...

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/128gb-crucial-realssd-c300-mlc-flash-25-ssd-sata-6gb-s-read-355mb-s-write-140mb-s
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-core-i5-2500k-unlocked-1155-sdy-bridge-quadcore-33ghz-gpu-850mhz-6mb-cache-95w-retail
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-p67a-gd53-(b3)-intel-p67-s-1155-pci-e-20-ddr3-2133-sata-6gb-s-sata-raid-atx-sli-xfire

+ delivery = €512

+ RAM (free delivery)
http://www.memoryc.com/computermemory/ddr3/8gbgskillddr3pc312800ripjawsxseriesforsandybridge.html

Total = €600.94

gloobag

Monotype, you legend! That's exactly the type of advice I was looking for

Only problem I have now is that my optical drive is IDE and that board only has SATA, but I think I might have an IDE PCI card laying around somewhere, so should be good to go. Not the end of the world if I have to buy a cheapo DVD drive though.

I may drop the capacity of the SSD, as it will only be holding OS and a few apps. My current setup is only using about 35Gb of the system drive, and I'll probably look to streamline that a bit.

Also, I might double the memory, as I know from experience that the apps I'll be using will benefit from it. Should still be about the same price.

Thanks again

Monotype

That is double the standard memory.
4GB is more than enough for many situations - games, even photoshop. However, maybe multiple complex projects in photoshop, lightroom and other CS5 applications would benefit (particularly if they're all open at the same time).

I suggested the 128GB drive in case you wanted to store some projects there. 64GB is enough for windows 7 + basic programs + CS5, but you have to be careful not to install any rubbish or you'll start running out.

Scan have cheap SATA DVD±RW drives for less than €20.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/lg-gh22ns50-22x-dvdr-16xdvddl-dvdplusrw-x8-rwx6-12xram-sata-black-oem

gloobag

Monotype wrote: »

That is double the standard memory.
4GB is more than enough for many situations - games, even photoshop. However, maybe multiple complex projects in photoshop, lightroom and other CS5 applications would benefit (particularly if they're all open at the same time).

That's exactly it. Will be running multiple apps while using multiple large project files between them.

Thanks again

redt0m

Will you have 32-bit or 64-bit Windows on the new box?
32-bit will limit the amount of RAM the system can use to about 3.5 gigs so no point in getting more than 4.

gloobag

Yep, 64-bit.

Fishtankdiver

Looks like you'll be headed down the PC route, however if you're open to change I'd seriously consider a Mac. I was a PC user for well over 20 years until 2 years ago when I took the plunge and switched to Mac. If you're using heavy applications like Photoshop etc. etc and want to use them all at once, the Mac is defo the way to go.... I'll NEVER buy another PC....ever! Once you've had Mac, you'll never look back!!!

Another thing to note, if you don't already know is not to leave your Memory allocation in Photoshop preferences/option at the default 70%. You only need to leave this at 30% and it will perform perfectly. I am working constantly on 150MB - 200MB image files and have multiple applications running with no issue.

The point to note, is that when you have Photoshop set at 70% memory allocation it will hogg that memory allocation from the res of your system, even when you are not using Photoshop i.e. simply having Photoshop open starves the rest of your system of that memory. So, set it to 30% and try it for yourself.

Good luck choosing a new system! :cool:

Monotype

Did you switch to Mac when Vista was around? I wouldn't blame you then. Windows 7 is much better (with help from borrowing from other OSs). I think Macs are too expensive for what you're getting - often double the price of an equivalent PC. That's a lot to pay for an OS and a branded case.

Taking a look on the current lineup of Mac Pros, I'm a bit surprised that there's no SSDs available!

Fishtankdiver

I never bothered with Vista - seemed like there were too many bugs. When I bought my Mac there wasn't that much of a difference between the same spec PC and the Macbook Pro. I'd still have to say it is worth it though. I find they 'just work' if that makes sense. They don't crash as much, are smoother when running multiple RAM heavy apps, work in a logical way so are easier to figure out when trying to do something new etc. Also, a big thing for me was that you need a Mac to run Aperture which works seamlessly with PS...

gloobag

I'm with Monotype on this. The price of Apple products is ridiculous, and Win7, in my opinion, is just as good as the MAC OS.

Every system is the same really. If you treat it well, it will work well for you.

My current setup has served me well for many years, but I'm at a point now where I need my work to be done a lot faster and more efficiently, but at a low cost to myself. And for that, I just don't think you can beat a home built system running Win7. Sure, I could fork out €2k on a MAC and get the job done just as well, but I've got better things to spend €2k to be honest