Mobo and chipset for pro photographer ?

[booboo22]

Its for both, I'm a pro photographer, I need it for converting raw files, pshop work etc.but its also for my personal stuff too..

I think I would want to stay with sata raptors at this time. Is there any benefit to a hardware raid as you mentioned ? My current intel board has raid already or is that considered software raid ?

And what about a mobo for dual opterons ?

 

[jose]

Their is a big difference between software & hardware raid implementations. But for photo editing I'd say that you'd benefit more from a Dual-cpu setup rather than a raid setup, considering cost. Here's a system that a photographer friend of mine put together. The only thing I'd change If I were you would be to go w/ a dual setup..

Asus P4C800e , P4 3.2C w/ 2 gigs of ram, 1 - lsiu160 scsi adapter w/ 1 - 36g 15k partitioned (os & progs), 2 - 74g raptors raid0 ich5r , 2 - 74g raptors raid0 promise controller &
a 300g ide hd for backups.

You could get better performance by going w/ something similiar w/ a dual cpu mobo.. Personally I'd go the Opteron route w/ 4 gigs of memory. Also I would not partition the raided drives you have. Your probably better off just using them seperately. ie 2 - single drives not raided.

Regards,
Jose

 

[booboo22]

Ok, what board can handle dual opterons

 

[ribbon13]

Here is the minimum investment for one killer Opteron steup.

$1230
PCP&C 510W AG ($200)
Tyan K8WE S2895UA2NRF ($580)
Opteron 242 ($230)
2x Corsair CM72SD512RLP-3200 ($110 each)

Plus case that will accomdate the 12x13" Tyan.

As budget allows
Get 2 more stick of the corsair.
Get another opteron
Get SCSI drives.

 

[sandorski]

I'm not sure how important fast Hard Drives are anymore. At one time there was no way to have enough ram to hold Photos, thus fast Drives were very important, but in this day and age when 2+gb of ram is within reach of most, I doubt fast Drives are necessary.

That said, does anyone have a link to a test concerning More ram vs Fast Drives?

 

[thirdlegstump]

You need an Apple Power Macintosh G5. The Professional's choice.

 

[Dewey]

Originally posted by: deathkoba
You need an Apple Power Macintosh G5. The Professional's choice.

Many professional digital photgraphers use PCs. In fact I don't know any digital photographers that use Macs, but that's not proof of anything.

 

[ribbon13]

Opteron's on a nVidia 2200+2050 chipset will waste a G5! Especially in photoshop!

And when the 'Troy' dual-cores come out, the G5 will walk away with it's tail between it's legs.

G5's are great for clusters in a place like pixar, but for a single user, Opterons are the way to go.

 

[thirdlegstump]

Originally posted by: Dewey

Originally posted by: deathkoba
You need an Apple Power Macintosh G5. The Professional's choice.

Many professional digital photgraphers use PCs. In fact I don't know any digital photographers that use Macs, but that's not proof of anything.

EVERY photographer worth his salt I know around here (NYC) uses Macs and swear up and down by them. These are the guys that shoot thousands of pictures a day at fashion shows etc making serious balls.

I'm really a PC guy now but use the Mini occassionally for testing stuff. Used to be a hardcore Mac guy though : )

 

[jose]

booboo22,

Moving to duals is a big investment, so I'd be careful as to which components to purchase. If you choose wisely you could have a systems that would last you 4-6yrs.

First off I would not choose any dual mobo that doesn't have 64bit/133mhz slots, that would severly limit your disk i/o subsystem in the future, if you decided to get raid.

Now that pci-e taking off, an agp based mobo will be less desirable for future upgradablity. Also get large memory dimms rather then lower density dimms, this will let you add to you memory , rather than replacing it if you decide you need more memory. ie 2 x 1 gig dimms rather than 4 x 512mb dimms.

For a motherboard I'd look to Tyan & Iwill, they will both have mobo's very soon that would fit your needs . ie. 64bit pci-x & pci-e

Tyan K8WE & the Iwill DK8EW ..

You could start off w/ one Opteron 246 w/ 2 - 1gig dimms then later add a second 246 w/ 2 more megs of ram (2 x 1gig) for a dual 246 w/ 4 gigs of memory.

Regards,
Jose

 

[booboo22]

Thanks, I will keep checking here for when the new boards come out...