Budget PC For Photoshop/Premiere

[junzo150]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for.

Mostly for photoshop and some premiere work

2. What YOUR budget is.

Need to keep it under 500.00

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

Im from the states and hope to buy all my parts from newegg. Trying to keep it simple.

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

Im a fanboy of cheap deals.. =p I dont really have a preference.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

The only part Im able to reuse from my old build is the atx case. Other then that I plan on replacing everything else.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

Yes I have.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Definitely plan on running at default speeds. I dont need my newb nerd skills breaking anything.

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.

My guess would be 1920 x 1080

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?

5 days or so.

What I have in mind:

Motherboard: MSI 770-C45 AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard Link 79.99

CPU AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GH Link 102.99

DVD Drive Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R Link 30.99

Hard Drives Western Digital Caviar Blue WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb Link x2 78.98

Power Supply: hec HP585D RETAIL 585W ATX12V Power Supply Link 24.99

Memory:
EDIT:For right ram Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Link 60.99

Video Card: GIGABYTE GV-R467ZL-1GI Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Link 74.99

Grand Total:
Edit: New grand total with right memory $453.92

Its just under my price range including tax and all.

So what I was wondering is if I could get some input on this overall build. Should I step it down some for what im using it for or maybe up a little even though I really can't without it going over my 500 dollar goal. Any suggestions on a motherboard would be great to. 79.00 is probalby the max I would want to spend on it. I dont know much about the one I chose except what newegg people have said. If you know of a better AM3 board that is cheaper and runs sold I would love to know. Also I dont think I need a great Video card so I just picked a mid to low end card with 1g of ram and hdmi port.

Any type of input would be appreciated.. Thanks.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: junzo150
What I have in mind:

Motherboard: MSI 770-C45 AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard Link 79.99

Memory: OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Link 50.99

Any type of input would be appreciated.

Before you hit that "Confirm Payment" button, you might want to swap out the DDR2 memory you have linked for some DDR3.
I'd stick with DDR3 rated for 1.5v

 

[junzo150]

HaHa..I just noticed that.. :disgust: Updating my post now. Thanks.

 

[junzo150]

I was also checking out this CPU

AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor Link

Its a few bucks cheaper then what I picked out and it comes in a combo deal with the motherboad I listed. Anyone think I would see a big differance in performance if I went with this CPU instead?

 

[sparks]

Phenoms are a much faster than Athlons so I would stick with your original CPU.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

First of all, what format video are you going to edit? Read this first.

 

[BaboonGuy]

Dude... don't get a dual core! Get a quad core!!!! It's a must have!!! Definitely. Video editing software and photoshop both make full use of quad core capabilities, so it's like going to be ~twice as fast compared to a dual core. I highly recommend getting something like an AMD X4 Phenom II 940 or 945 or something like that. 3 gigahertz of quad core goodness. It's going to up your budget but it's definitely worth it! Not too long ago there were lots of motherboard/phenom II x4 combos on Newegg where you basically get the motherboard for free.

Also if you don't care about gaming, you don't need a powerful video card. You'd be fine with an IGP (integrated gpu into mobo). It'll be a lot cheaper this way. I managed to get a newegg combo of 940 X4 and motherboard for like $210 or something like that, and the mobo had an IGP that is pretty good. It doesn't have HDMI out but do you really need that?

Also you're paying $80 for 2 160GB hard drives! Having 2 HD's will aid in performance as you dedicate one to being a scratch disk but I think you'll want more space than that. I also highly recommend getting a 500GB 7200RPM HD, that's about $50 IIRC... imo sweet spot in price point/value.

 

[BaboonGuy]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
First of all, what format video are you going to edit? Read this first.

Not a bad resource but there is something wrong, it says minimum req for editing AVCHD is an i7. I'm using a Phenom II 940 and it's working just fine!

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Exactly! With some overclocking, AVCHD can be edited using Premiere Pro CS4 and if you have a Nvidia card, that helps more than having an ATI from what I faintly remember. My playback in the source window did stutter with my Q9650 @ 3ghz, ran alot smoother at 3.6Ghz..

 

[BaboonGuy]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...?ItemList=Combo.236878

BIOSTAR TA790GXE AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor Model HDX945WFGIBOX - Retail

$225.98

That board has integrated graphics (same as what I have actually) and it runs pretty darn well! Only thing is that it is a microATX board, I'm unsure whether your case will fit it.

 

[BaboonGuy]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
Exactly! With some overclocking, AVCHD can be edited using Premiere Pro CS4 and if you have a Nvidia card, that helps more than having an ATI from what I faintly remember. My playback in the source window did stutter with my Q9650 @ 3ghz, ran alot smoother at 3.6Ghz..

I'm using Vegas 9.0 and it works very smoothly. Can even do layered AVCHD editing, though it gets a bit less smooth. My system is 940 x4 phenom II 3.0ghz with 4GB 800 ram, and 1 hd.

The new Premiere Pro CS 4.1 apparently utilizes the video card quite well for AVCHD editing and people are getting great results (editing on dual core laptops). In fact I wish I had it, but I'm stuck with Vegas for now.

 

[BaboonGuy]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
Exactly! With some overclocking, AVCHD can be edited using Premiere Pro CS4 and if you have a Nvidia card, that helps more than having an ATI from what I faintly remember. My playback in the source window did stutter with my Q9650 @ 3ghz, ran alot smoother at 3.6Ghz..

btw, not to derail the thread but what do you use your dual HF S100s for? That's a pretty nice camera. Do you have a 35mm adapter? One of those turns it into a monster!

 

[BaboonGuy]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...?ItemList=Combo.237639
$254.98

1. AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor Model HDX945WFGIBOX - Retail
2. ASUS M4A78-E AM2+/AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

That motherboard is ATX and comes with onboard video (radeon 3300 again) but also has HDMI.

also as a note, this is the same price as what you have above, but twice as fast for your purposes! it has a worse video card but that's about it.

looks like it takes DDR2 RAM not DDR3 but that's fine imo. also if you plan on loading up 4 slots on the RAM (like 2gb x 4 for 8gb) i'd suggest getting some ddr800 stuff with really fast timings. from what i've read, the memory controller will have a hard time, if at all, running 4 2GB sticks of 1066.

 

[KeithP]

Originally posted by: junzo150


Hard Drives Western Digital Caviar Blue WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb Link x2 78.98

Two WD 320GB drives will only cost you about $20 more but you will double your disk space and get slightly faster drives.

Also, have you budgeted for a back up solution? Whether you are working on personal or business files, having at least an external HD for back up is a must.

-KeithP

 

[junzo150]

Thanks for all the advise. Im not to worried about about video editing. I have a canon 5d mark ii and only shoot video very rarely. I do photoshop a lot for my business so I figured a cheap duel core will do the trick.

I dropped the second hard drive and will pick up a bigger 500+gig at frys in a month or so.

 

[BaboonGuy]

Duder! You can get a 3.0ghz quad core phenom II for nearly the same price as what you have now. Really should go that route man, it'll be faster for photoshop too.

Really nice camera btw, the video it can take is amazing.

 

[elconejito]

If you're using CS4 you are better off with a quad core (intel or AMD doesn't matter). In CS4, the more cores the merrier. This will only become more pronounced in future (CS5, CS6, etc) versions.

Anandtech Photoshop CS4 benchmark you have to go down the list a ways before you see the first dualcore (e8600). The first X2 is about half-way down, right below an e7200. The top of the list is dominated by the i7, then a mix of Core2Quad and PHII X4.

If you're using CS3 then you need all the GHz you can get. Which means a fast dual-core.

If you have CS3 now, and plan on upgrading to CS4 someday soon, then you can get the best of both worlds by getting a cheap quad now, and overclocking the heck out of it

 

[deputc26]

I'll add my voice to those recomending a quad core, and for $78 you can get a lot more than 160gb
500gb for $45
http://www.logicbuy.com/deals/...-Hard-Drive/12496.aspx
1tb for $65 after $10 MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822145233