Hows this comp

[Crescent13]

I've completely changed my design from the last time I asked, and I'm 95% sure I'll be buying today. I'd be a fool not to ask you guys first though. I know how to design gaming pc's pretty well, but when it comes to a photo editing PC, I'm somewhat of a n00b. My approach was just to design a gaming pc for around $1500 with a $500 graphic card. Then I just swapped the graphic card for a dell 2001FPW. What do you think?

P.S. this has to be a quiet pc. (not so much that I'd be willing to throw $1000 into one of those silent zalman cases though)

Mobo
CPU
CPU Cooler
HDD
HDD Cooler/sliencer
Graphic Card
RAM
DVD Burner
Case
Windows XP

Total = $1336.19

 

[nick1985]

If you threw out the uneccesary Northbride coller, HDD coller, and the VGA coller, you would have enough extra cash to buy a decent SLI motherboard. Those three things are completely unecessary and a waste of money, IMO.

 

[Crescent13]

Originally posted by: nick1985
If you threw out the uneccesary Northbride coller, HDD coller, and the VGA coller, you would have enough extra cash to buy a decent SLI motherboard. Those three things are completely unecessary and a waste of money, IMO.

have you looked at the benchies for this mobo?

Rember, it has to be quiet.

 

[alimoalem]

if this is for photo storage, i'd advise getting another 250gb. also, upgrading your graphics card to a 6600 or x700 would be a lot better if possible. do you need all 3 coolers?

 

[Crescent13]

Originally posted by: alimoalem
if this is for photo storage, i'd advise getting another 250gb. also, upgrading your graphics card to a 6600 or x700 would be a lot better if possible. do you need all 3 coolers?

You really think 500GB would be needed? The graphic card doesn't have that much to do with 2d stuff...

All 3 coolers are nice, but I suppose I don't *need* them though.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: alimoalem
if this is for photo storage, i'd advise getting another 250gb. also, upgrading your graphics card to a 6600 or x700 would be a lot better if possible. do you need all 3 coolers?

Actually, I would advise him to find a cheap graphics card that is passively cooled, especially if he is worried about noise levels. For just photo editing, you don't need any 3D capabilities at all. I think ATI makes some passively cooled X300s (or you could drop to AGP and get something like a RADEON 9200SE). Something like this or this.

You don't need an NForce4SLI motherboard (you might look for one that already has passive cooling to cut down on noise), or expensive overclocking RAM (value RAM works fine), or a S939 Opteron (unless this is actually cheaper than a regular S939 Athlon64). A decent CPU and a lot of RAM will take you a *long* ways doing photo editing. You may want more storage than 250GB, but you can fit a *lot* of photos in 250GB of space.

If you really want to cut down on noise, you'll also want to get a quieter PSU (like a Seasonic S12 model), and you can also undervolt/clock your CPU (either dynamically or all the time) so that you don't need much CPU cooling. Silent PC Review has more information on all these topics.

 

[Crescent13]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: alimoalem
if this is for photo storage, i'd advise getting another 250gb. also, upgrading your graphics card to a 6600 or x700 would be a lot better if possible. do you need all 3 coolers?

Actually, I would advise him to find a cheap graphics card that is passively cooled, especially if he is worried about noise levels. For just photo editing, you don't need any 3D capabilities at all. I think ATI makes some passively cooled X300s (or you could drop to AGP and get something like a RADEON 9200SE). Something like this or this.

You don't need an NForce4SLI motherboard (you might look for one that already has passive cooling to cut down on noise), or expensive overclocking RAM (value RAM works fine), or a S939 Opteron (unless this is actually cheaper than a regular S939 Athlon64). A decent CPU and a lot of RAM will take you a *long* ways doing photo editing. You may want more storage than 250GB, but you can fit a *lot* of photos in 250GB of space.

If you really want to cut down on noise, you'll also want to get a quieter PSU (like a Seasonic S12 model), and you can also undervolt/clock your CPU (either dynamically or all the time) so that you don't need much CPU cooling. Silent PC Review has more information on all these topics.

Thanks! I'm changing ths specs now...

 

[jackschmittusa]

Some photo editing apps are multi-thread capable, and you might benefit more from a dual core proc, or an Intel with Hyperthreading. Ram is the big key, 2gb should be fine, as is VS. I also might consider a 16mb cache hd, for loading speed. I have also long considered Matrox vid cards to be the best for 2D work (screen output truest to the original), but, alas, you would be stuck with AGP here for an affordable card.

 

[Crescent13]

Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
Some photo editing apps are multi-thread capable, and you might benefit more from a dual core proc, or an Intel with Hyperthreading. Ram is the big key, 2gb should be fine, as is VS. I also might consider a 16mb cache hd, for loading speed. I have also long considered Matrox vid cards to be the best for 2D work (screen output truest to the original), but, alas, you would be stuck with AGP here for an affordable card.

I do think a dual core proc would be nice, but I'm already overbudget as it is. (it was supposed to be 1200). I thought a HDD with lower latency would be better than a HDD with more cache (16mb cache HDD for same price = 8.9ms latency, 8mb cache HDD that I have selected = 8.5ms latency). yeah I think i'll just have to stay with the nvidia card.