Help me build my second PC to process RAW files

[jrgeoffrion]

Alright... Two and half years have past and it's time to build a new system to process my RAW files (I'm a photographer: JRGeoffrion.com). I exclusively use the workstation to edit and process RAW and TIFF files with Photoshop and RAW converters.

Here is what you guys helped me put together back then:

System:
Asus A8N-SLI Premium
AMD 4800+
4x 1Gb Corsair Value Select PC3200
eVGA 7900GT
Seasonic S12
1x WD160YS-01S SATA II
4x WD320KS-00P SATA II
Silverstone Temjin TJ07 case
Vista Ultimate 64-bit

It worked pretty well except for the eVGA card that was defective and was finally replaced by an 8800GTS 320Mb. However, I find the CPU fan on the AMD4800+ quite noisy. I also think that my limiting link was my RAM.

I've also since then updated the four WD320Gb hard drives to a single WD640 and kept the WD160YS for the system.

I would like to keep / retain the following components from the above system:

- WD160Gb for Vista Ultimate and programs
- WD640Gb for documents / music / pictures
- Silverstone Temjin TJ07 case
- Seasonic S12 PSU
- eVGA 8800GTS
- Vista Ultimate 64-bit

In other words, I need a MOBO, CPU, and RAM recommendations to use the components above. I don't overclock and I'm looking for almost top-of-the-line processing speed with RAW converters and Photoshop -- but I'm not willing to pay 10% more for 1% increase in speed. I don't have a preference between INTEL and AMD. I would like to stay with at least 4Gb of RAM and would like to reduce the sound level of my machine. Not looking for something complicated.

I essentially just want to swap my MOBO, CPU, and RAM and get going.

When making your recommendations, if you have links to similar system with performance comparison to my AMD4800+ above, that would be great as I would love to understand how much speed increase I should be expecting.

I'll be happy to respond to any and all questions!

 

[ichi]

Hi,

Maybe there is something that could be of help in this recent thread: Photo/video editing, compiling, gaming rig: X48, DDR3?.
Some of that may be over-kill for your system. But you may get some ideas.

Are you sure 640GB are enough for your pictures? I am a hobby photographer, but with the 5D RAWs that would not be enough. Maybe you store your images somewhere else? I just ordered 2 1TB Samsung drives (about $400) to be used for photos and DV movies.

Cheers
- ichi

 

[jrgeoffrion]

Ichi (Ni),

Thanks for the link -- but this guy is spending big bucks (~$3k).

You are correct, I store my RAW files on external eSATA drives (1TB, 500Gb, 4x 320Gb, 4x 300Gb, and 2x 120Gb) and additionally archive on DVD.

I also do not use RAID as I maintain daily, weekly, and monthly incremental back-ups in order to be able to return to a previous version of my files if necessary.

I'm probably looking at a Quad-Core... but not sure which one...

 

[Urtho]

CPU - for your needs you'll probably want one of the newer Peryn quad cores. Since you didn't like the link to the $3K thread I can safely assume the QX chips with their $1K+ price tags are out. Q9300 / Q9450 / Q9550 are the options, of those three only the first one is readily available right now. The others are either completely unavailable anywhere outside of pre-built systems (Q9550) or are incredibly hard to find and/or price gouged (Q9450).

Q9300 - $285

Get the above chip if you are building right now. If you can wait either of the other chips would be a better buy for your needs but they are very hard to find right now. It's all up to your patience level.

Motherboard - given your storage needs, I suspect you'll be looking for a board with eSATA ports on it. Good choices to look over follow, find the features you need and you're done.

ABIT IP35 Pro - $150 AR

ASUS P5K-E - $140

MSI P35 Neo2 - $110

RAM - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1000 - $80

Note that this ram lists at $90 right now but you can get $10 off with a promo code if you're an email subscriber this week only. Get 2 kits of these sticks for 8GB total and you should be all set in your ram needs.

 

[jrgeoffrion]

Urtho,

Thanks for the reply.

On the one hand, the ASUS board seems really nice. 6 USB 2.0 Ports, one 1394, and 2 eSATA. As some of the reviews mentioned, I may lose 2 of the SATA ports because my 8800GTS may be a bit thick... but that's not a major issue. On the other hand, the ABIT seems to have a really nice and clean layout for the part and rear connectors. Any experience with either?

1) Will the CPU fan with the Q series be quieter than my AMD4800+?

2) Also, is $370 for the Q9450 reasonable?

 

[piasabird]

The Q9300 may run cooler than the Q6600. Q series does run quiet. I had one at my house (Q6600) stock CPU Cooler. The Q9300 might be the best deal. I would look at some benchmarks for games or encoding or 3d Mark? The time it takes to open huge photos or images might be a good guage of what you want to do. With 2 Gigs of Ram and a Q6600 we could open a 300Meg image in about a Second or maybe less. Q9300 is slightly faster and uses less power and with less power.

http://lly316.blogspot.com/200...s-q6600-benchmark.html

For gaming the E8500 is still probably faster.

 

[Urtho]

Originally posted by: jrgeoffrion
Urtho,

Thanks for the reply.

On the one hand, the ASUS board seems really nice. 6 USB 2.0 Ports, one 1394, and 2 eSATA. As some of the reviews mentioned, I may lose 2 of the SATA ports because my 8800GTS may be a bit thick... but that's not a major issue. On the other hand, the ABIT seems to have a really nice and clean layout for the part and rear connectors. Any experience with either?

I built a system for my father on that ASUS board around Christmas, that's why I recommended it first. Very nice board, stable and easily handles some mild overclocking on a Q6600 for his light gaming needs (although he just got into Crysis so "light" may be a thing of the past). It is true that one of the longer dual-slot cards like an 8800GTS will have clearance issues with a few of the SATA ports on the board so if you really need them all look into something like this cable for a solution. He didn't need anywhere near all of those ports for his build so I just ended up using the others that aren't blocked for the drives in the system without any issues.

1) Will the CPU fan with the Q series be quieter than my AMD4800+?

I've never owned that specific chip so I don't know what the cooler for it is like. I'm fairly sure that the Yorkfield chips will run much cooler than the 4800+ given it's smaller process size. Cooler chips require less of a robust HSF to keep them from burning up so I suspect it would be much quieter.

2) Also, is $370 for the Q9450 reasonable?

Only you can answer that one really. If you're going to be needing a quad as you have multiple applications that can take advantage of them then it's probably an outstanding deal. $370 is a fairly mild price gouge for that chip. Supposed to be $316 in lots of 1000 I believe, so a price premium of ~ 17% is certainly not a great deal but not totally insane either really. If you think you can use the extra speed and overclocking headroom go for it. If neither apply to you, than the almost $100 more they want for a Q9300 will probably be wasted on a minor speed bump (2.5 GHz vs 2.66 GHz) and unneeded feature (better 8x multi).

 

[jrgeoffrion]

Thanks for the help!

I've ordered the P5K-E, G-Skills RAM (4Gb), and Q9450 (currently $300 at microcenter btw).

Thanks again -- I look forward to gaining a bit of productivity!

 

[bigi]

Good RAW processors take advantage of multicore CPUs. I'd get 2xquad xeon and 8-16gigs of ram

 

[Urtho]

No problem, have fun with your new build. Quads are really dropping these days I see, $300 for a Q9450 would have been unheard of even a few weeks ago so you got a really nice deal there.

 

[jrgeoffrion]

- I've received the mobo (P5K-E), cpu (Q9450), and ram (G.Skills 2Gb PC1000) and swapped my current hd, psu, and gpu from my previous ASUS A8N-SLI.
- I updated the P5K-E BIOS to rev. 1013.
- I'm able to boot vista x64 (previous install on my existing drive) but have two issues: 1) my USB keyboard and USB mouse are not operational (I know the USB port work because I upgrade the BIOS via a USB card reader) and 2) the system crashes almost instantly with the error: asio.sys crash.

I'm assuming that this error is due to the fact that I have drivers for the A8N-SLI I previously used on the system hard drive and I need to install those for the P5K-E (correct me if I'm wrong).

QUESTION (related to my assumption above):

How do I go about installing the x64 drivers (should this be my issue) for the P5K-E without wiping my current install? Or better yet, I do I go about starting this new build up?

As usual, I'm happy to provide any and all information necessary.

Again, thanks in advance.

 

[jrgeoffrion]

Urtho,

Which BIOS rev. do you have in the rig you built for your dad at X-Mas time?

I'm asking because there is a known bug with this board and all of the late BIOS -- it won't see a USB keyboard or USB mouse!