Help building new system for Photography business (64X2 or Pent.D)

[JMPHOTO]

I am currently looking to rebuild my computer. I currently have a P4 3.2 prescott with 2g of memory.
I have a new Lian-Li PC6070plus case and Antec 550w PSU. I am basically going to be doing only photoshop CS2 and other business apps. I am looking to install XP 64bit OS.
My two thoughts were.
Pentium D 950 pressler
Asus P5LD2 delux with 2g of DDR2.
OR
AMD 64X2 4800
Asus A8nSLI premium with 2g of DDR.
I currently own 2g of DDR that would fit this board (4x512 kingston)

The video card I was looking at for these systems is the Radeon X1300ATI Radeon X1300
I wont be doing any gaming. I basically do RAW photo processing in Photoshop CS2. Thoughts, suggestions feedback appreciated.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

The x2 system will kill the Pentium D.

And you should make sure that there are 64bit drivers available for all your hardware before going with windows64. Most people are sticking with 32bit windows at this point.

 

[JMPHOTO]

Thanks. The only hardware that I currently have is an HP printer and an HP2215 Ipaq pocket PC. I just noticed that windows released a new Activesync for pocket PC that looks to be XP64bit compatible. How much faster would thes be over the 3.2 prescott?

 

[Broly]

Don't get xp64bit unless you play counterstrike or any source game or farcry.

There is little support for performance, it's just great gaming, Sourcei n 64bit is just way better than 32, it utilizes the proc fully

Farcry, there's a 500mb patch that basically revamps the textures of the game for 64 bit procs.

Nothing really huge about 64 bit, i just bought it because source got recoded

Stick with pro my man.

 

[OdiN]

I'm a photographer as well.

I would recommend this video card.

It is better at 2D than other gaming cards.

Also I would get the X2. I have a 4400+ myself and it works great for CS2. I also have 2GB RAM.

Also - don't bother with 64-bit XP. There are still a lot of things that do not have proper 64-bit drivers.

 

[Broly]

agree with odin, enthusiasts like me sacrifice the odd driver (network card had to be switched out)
but i will tell you this, the boot and overall utilization FEELS much faster
it utilizes it better but no significance

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: Broly
agree with odin, enthusiasts like me sacrifice the odd driver (network card had to be switched out)
but i will tell you this, the boot and overall utilization FEELS much faster
it utilizes it better but no significance

I've used it...IE and explorer are "snappier" but I doubt much difference would be seen in CS2.

 

[Broly]

I noticed a difference there too, ODiN,

Everything in general is just so snappy I can't go back :/

It's weird to explain but I'm glad you know where I'm coming from.

Also It sees all 4gb of ram with my a8nsli32 because the memory hole in the bios fixes it
unlike hte lanparty which restricted me to 3.75

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: Broly
I noticed a difference there too, ODiN,

Everything in general is just so snappy I can't go back :/

It's weird to explain but I'm glad you know where I'm coming from.

Also It sees all 4gb of ram with my a8nsli32 because the memory hole in the bios fixes it
unlike hte lanparty which restricted me to 3.75

Yeah...I just wish that they had drivers My scanner doesn't have drivers. My printer has a "workaround" that won't offer proper printing support. Just can't have that for what I do ya know.

 

[Broly]

Yeah no kidding eh,
My r800 had drivers for it in like SEptember
Gotta love epson!! ^_^

Still the best printer and I've had it for a year hehehe!

 

[HO]

Originally posted by: OdiN


I've used it...IE and explorer are "snappier" but I doubt much difference would be seen in CS2.

CS2 and a 64bit OS can pull off a really neat trick, IF you have more than 4GB of RAM. Right now (in Windows, anyway) 6GB is the sweet spot. Photoshop will allow the OS to use the RAM above 4GB for caching as opposed to PS writing immediately to the scratch disk. This can speed up some operations tremendously. Of course, now we're talking an Opteron board. Still, a nice perk for those who can afford the hardware.

 

[dexvx]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
The x2 system will kill the Pentium D.

In Adobe Photoshop CS2? I think a X2-4800+ is about even with a Pentium-D 950.

I'd suggest getting the P5WDG2/P5WD2 series for the Pentium-D setup.

 

[JMPHOTO]

I looked into the Matrox card as suggested above. I currently have a Matrox G550 right now, but it is AGP. Well I see there was one vote for the Pentium D.

 

[JMPHOTO]

I am having trouble finding that Matrox card that was listed above. No one seems to stock it in the US??

 

[HO]

New on ebay
CDW

Other possible sources

Or buy direct from Matrox (currently out of stock).

 

[dexvx]

At $240ish, you'd be better off buying a lower end FireGL or Quadro.

 

[HO]

Originally posted by: dexvx
At $240ish, you'd be better off buying a lower end FireGL or Quadro.

Not for Photoshop. Matrox has superior 2D renering and bullet proof drivers. I used a lower end 3D card when I did both 3D Studio and Photoshop. I am happy to be rid of it.

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: JMPHOTO
I am currently looking to rebuild my computer. I currently have a P4 3.2 prescott with 2g of memory.
I have a new Lian-Li PC6070plus case and Antec 550w PSU. I am basically going to be doing only photoshop CS2 and other business apps. I am looking to install XP 64bit OS.
My two thoughts were.
Pentium D 950 pressler
Asus P5LD2 delux with 2g of DDR2.
OR
AMD 64X2 4800
Asus A8nSLI premium with 2g of DDR.
I currently own 2g of DDR that would fit this board (4x512 kingston)

The video card I was looking at for these systems is the Radeon X1300ATI Radeon X1300
I wont be doing any gaming. I basically do RAW photo processing in Photoshop CS2. Thoughts, suggestions feedback appreciated.

I'm tempted to advise you to think server/workstation, and to spend a ton of money upgrading everything from the case (EATX, better cooling and drive array storage / capability) and power supply (EPS12V) and RAM (> 4GB ECC?) with that in mind. But I'll fight that temptation and say that sticking with cost-minimization also makes sense.

From what I read, AMD X2 is still ahead of Intel D 9x in a couple of areas -- performance, and heat / power consumption, even in Photoshop CS2.

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/print_content.asp?id=pd900

I'd be concerned about heat in that case with a high-end esp. Intel D processor, but it could be just fine, esp. with your CPU fan duct, and perhaps the 9xD-series is a lot better than the 8xD-series was.

DDR is ahead of DDR2 because you already have it.

So 3 points in favour of AMD here.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: HO

Originally posted by: dexvx
At $240ish, you'd be better off buying a lower end FireGL or Quadro.

Not for Photoshop. Matrox has superior 2D renering and bullet proof drivers. I used a lower end 3D card when I did both 3D Studio and Photoshop. I am happy to be rid of it.

True. Matrox still rules the 2D world (though just barely). I would also suggest the X2...the performance of the AMD64 in a 64bit OS tends to be better than Intel's EM64T.
Also, HOs point on 4+ GB of ram with CS2 is quite correct...of course you will need to get a mobo that accepts that, and the 2GB sticks of PC3200 are starting for about $420 these days...but if you can afford $840 for Ram it will GREATLY increase your capabilities.

 

[OdiN]

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=321659

They've got it but out of stock. Not a bad price either.

 

[Doojob]

I'm building a Photoshop PC as well I'm pretty set on these specs but any suggestions then please throw them in and is the Matrox card really worth getting? Will it save me 10 seconds an image compared to the cheap MSI one or will it be like a whole minute per image?

AMD Athlon64 X2 4200
ASUS A8N SLI Premium
I already have 2gigs of Dual channel Kingston Ram DDR3200
WD Raptor 74GB 10000RPM
2x300GB Seagate Barracuda
MSI NX6600LE-TD256E nVidia it's not the greatest but I'm not playing games with it and it'sfairly cheap
Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Mid Tower ATX Black with 450 Watt Power Supply
Pioneer DVR-111D Black DVD Writer DVD +/-R/RW 16x16x8x6 8x DVD+/- Dual layer IDE OEM

The total for all this is $1610.27 CDN which is $1400 and change USD Is this a good price?


All help and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks a ton in advance

 

[wwswimming]

intel will be dropping price on the 950 in about a week, from $600+ to $300+.

 

[OdiN]

Doojob - The Matrox won't make photoshop run faster, but it will provide better color/2D image quality.

 

[pkme2]

Just finished my A64 Graphic Station for Still Photography work. If you check my rigs, my graphic workstation specs should help.

I use a ATI FireGL card at the moment, but might update to a Nvidia FX3400, if a good deal is available. I recommend a FireGL or a Quadro card for your graphic work. Google them for the reasons, which will be apparently clear afterwards.

I got my 4400+ here on AT, eBay for the majority, and mWave for the PSU. My total cost was roughly $1500. The machine is everything that I will ever need to use PhotoShop, Illustrator and InDesign. At my speed and age, I'm very satisfied with my build..... May yours be the same.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: pkme2
Just finished my A64 Graphic Station for Still Photography work. If you check my rigs, my graphic workstation specs should help.

I use a ATI FireGL card at the moment, but might update to a Nvidia FX3400, if a good deal is available. I recommend a FireGL or a Quadro card for your graphic work. Google them for the reasons, which will be apparently clear afterwards.

I got my 4400+ here on AT, eBay for the majority, and mWave for the PSU. My total cost was roughly $1500. The machine is everything that I will ever need to use PhotoShop, Illustrator and InDesign. At my speed and age, I'm very satisfied with my build..... May yours be the same.

Provide some explanation for the FireGL rather than just saying "Google, it's obivous!!"