Help building a graphic workstation....

[imported_Buckgooner]

I am a professional photographer, who is also pretty familiar/comfortable with PCs.

My old system is beginning to show its age, and I need something new.

Unfortunately I have been out of touch with all the new technology in computing and really dont know where to start.

Can anyone give me some good ideas on what to build for my new workstation? My budget is around $1600.00 (I'd love it if I could upgrade my monitor as well, but that isn't as important) I do a lot of batch processing, etc of large image files and need something that can chew through the I/O pretty good.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bob4432]

please be more specific - assuming ps but what version? also, if the i/o is disk then a raptor raid0 array may be warranted as long as you do a daily or even 1/2 day backup/image to a secondary internal hdd - with somthing like acronis depending on exaclty how much i/o is involved.

how big are the pics - dpi?

what is old system and what can you bring over?

welcome to the forums

i don't see why you can't do it pretty easily w/ $1600 (assuming usd and can) even w/ a 1680x1050 lcd....

 

[imported_Buckgooner]

Thank you for the reply!!!!

I am currently using a 3.0ghz Pentium 4 (H/T) with 1GB RAM.

I have an ATI AIW 6800 and a Nvidia GeForce 6800GT (AGP) that I am currently not using (got them from a buddy who upgraded)

I have Photoshop CS2, and Adobe Lightroom 1.0, but will be upgrading to Photoshop CS3 as soon as it comes out. I also do a little bit of video editing with Vegas Video.

All my photos are 8mpix shots. When I download photos I copy them to an internal hard drive, and an external hard drive simultaneously, the burn them off on to DVDs when I get a chance.

Thanks again.... I appreciate it.

 

[bob4432]

sadly all of the better performance boards are going to be pci-e for the gpu, not that you need it, but that is what is available.

you may try to sell the 2 agp version as the 6800gt is still a good option for people w/ agp and 9800pros that don't want to move up to pci-e

is o/cing an option?

 

[piasabird]

The going Processor now is Quad 2 Duo. Quad 4 processors will come out soon. The MAC Pro is using Two Quad 2 Xeon processors. Even if you dont go with a Quad 4, when those processors are released the Quad 2 processors should theoretically drop in price and demand.

I think you should have at least 2 Gigs of ram if not 4. It should make large video images open faster. So if your budget allows it go for 4.

On the video cards AGP is quickly disappearing. Most new motherboards are using PCI-E X16 video cards. Only older motherboards like the one that you have is using AGP video cards. I suggest you try to sell those video cards on E-Bay or something like that. You could still watch TV on that AIW video card if you installed it on your current system.

I am not a big fan of Arrays (using multiple hard drives together). If one goes bad, then they all go bad. So maybe get 2 400 gig hard drives. One for general use and one for backup. You could use your current system for a backup server and just network them together. The external hard drive is ok, but you can almost build a small backup server for what an external hard drive costs.

 

[fire400]

well here's an old system that works, doesn't provide monster speeds like the new Intel chips, but it does good enough:

dual core opteron OC'd to 3GHz
8GB DDR400
Quadro SLI _ top of the line 2006 cards, forgot the model
SCSI 300GB, RAID 1
dual gigabit and wireless N_WPA2

not the best, but it's okay with 3DSMAX

quadcore will outperform this thing, so I'd suggest quad X 2 if you can. quado is such a damn ripoff. 3Dlabs is more accurate with mathematics. fireGL cards are the same as quadro cards, personally. even a gaming card will work with photo. i haven't seen nVidia 8800 cards do workstation stuff, but I'm yet to see how that goes. good luck

 

[jpeyton]

2 x 22" Samsung/Acer/Chimei/AOC LCDs (same panel, same performance) $500
Core 2 Duo E4300 $170
Gigabyte S3 $105
Geforce 7600 (fanless) $80
4 x 1GB DDR2 667 RAM $250
Antec Quiet Case/PSU $80
WD SE16 400GB $100
Samsung DVD Burner $30
Quiet CPU Heatsink/Fan $20

Total: $1350

The E4300 will easily (at default voltage, without running any of your other components out of specification) run at 2.4GHz. It's the safest overclock ever, and will give you E6600 speeds for about half the price. You can most definitely run it higher than 2.4GHz if you wanted to; the E4300s average around 3GHz overclocking, but since this is a work computer, I don't recommend it.

Besides, a Core 2 Duo at 2.4GHz will astound you in CS2 compared to your Pentium 4.

4GB RAM is absolutely necessary. The two 22" LCDs are a godsend for photo editing; you have an effective resolution of 3360 x 1050 pixels for your desktop, allowing you to edit multiple photos, working in multiple programs.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
2 x 22" Samsung/Acer/Chimei/AOC LCDs (same panel, same performance) $500
Core 2 Duo E4300 $170
Gigabyte S3 $105
Geforce 7600 (fanless) $80
4 x 1GB DDR2 667 RAM $250
Antec Quiet Case/PSU $80
WD SE16 400GB $100
Samsung DVD Burner $30
Quiet CPU Heatsink/Fan $20

Total: $1350

The E4300 will easily (at default voltage, without running any of your other components out of specification) run at 2.4GHz. It's the safest overclock ever, and will give you E6600 speeds for about half the price. You can most definitely run it higher than 2.4GHz if you wanted to; the E4300s average around 3GHz overclocking, but since this is a work computer, I don't recommend it.

Besides, a Core 2 Duo at 2.4GHz will astound you in CS2 compared to your Pentium 4.

4GB RAM is absolutely necessary. The two 22" LCDs are a godsend for photo editing; you have an effective resolution of 3360 x 1050 pixels for your desktop, allowing you to edit multiple photos, working in multiple programs.

i would go with something like this too. if you don't want to o/c then do a 6400. obviously different components if you want but this is a very good starting point. plus the gigabyte 965p-s3/ds3 also support the kentsfield quad cpus, so when you need more cpu, you can drop in a quad an be good to go.

honestly, if i was going to build a new rig, this would be what i would go with but add a x1950xt since i game, and maybe a different case since i like larger cases, but all in all, this is definately a good starting point or even go with it as described, i don't think you can beat the setup/price performance ratio

 

[bob4432]

fire400 in your sig -

Intel Core Duo T2500 _ 3.2 GHz
AOpen i975Xa-YDG
SeaSonic M12 SS-600HM
Corsair XMS DDR667 4GB _ 4-5-4-13
Fujitsu 73.5GB Ultra SCSI 15K RPM [x4] (LSI RAID 1+0)
WD Raptor 150GB 15K RPM [x2]
x1950 XTX 512mb _ core:812/mem:1277
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite
Plextor DVD-RW 16x SATA [x2]

where did you get a 15k raptor????

 

[imported_Buckgooner]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
2 x 22" Samsung/Acer/Chimei/AOC LCDs (same panel, same performance) $500
Core 2 Duo E4300 $170
Gigabyte S3 $105
Geforce 7600 (fanless) $80
4 x 1GB DDR2 667 RAM $250
Antec Quiet Case/PSU $80
WD SE16 400GB $100
Samsung DVD Burner $30
Quiet CPU Heatsink/Fan $20

Total: $1350

Thank you so much. This is an excellent starting point. I do not have a problem OC'ing other than the fact I have never done it before and not exactly sure what needs to be done, but I can figure that out.

Thanks again!!!