Motherboard and CPU for photo processing

[DeepFrz97]

I had decided on a SB build for my photo processing computer, but we all know the story on that one. I need to build a computer in the next two weeks and I am now looking for recommendations on a processor and motherboard.
I prefer ASUS, but will listen to other recommendations. I need it to have eSATA, 6 SATA 3.0 or better and support at least 16GB RAM.

 

[Numenorean]

Asus P7P55D-e Pro
i7-8xx or 9xx whatever you want your speed to be.
Stuff full with 16GB RAM.

 

[mnewsham]

Amazon still has 1155 parts it WAS NOT a recall newegg and other sites just took down the SB products as a precaution, if you know the dangers and are willing to take the 5-15% chance dont waste money on an 1156 board as you will see a large drop in performance. Besides as it is only an SATA issue buying a PCIe SATA add on card would negate that bug.

 

[DeepFrz97]

I would love to go with a SB 2600k, but it looks like Micro Center and Newegg have pulled the motherboards from their shelves. If I could find a good motherboard locally that supported it I would definitely buy one. I don't have a problem using a separate card for SATA.
I wouldn't be willing to take a chance on losing all of the photos. That could be a killer if I needed to access them in the future. Of course I do back everything up as well. I don't think that would be as much of an issue in my case.

 

[mnewsham]

Always always ALWAYS make an external backup of ANYTHING important. And Amazon has stuff if you want. Or wait a week see how it stands then make a choice.

 

[DeepFrz97]

I have a NAS that I back everything up to, so that isn't a problem.
I am leaning toward an i7-870 right now, but I still don't know which motherboard to go with. It seems like the 870 is the bang for the buck processor now with the SB's out of the equation.

 

[mfenn]

Why would you need 6 SATA 6Gb/s ports? Everything is easy except for that.

 

[Numenorean]

Amazon still has 1155 parts it WAS NOT a recall newegg and other sites just took down the SB products as a precaution, if you know the dangers and are willing to take the 5-15% chance dont waste money on an 1156 board as you will see a large drop in performance. Besides as it is only an SATA issue buying a PCIe SATA add on card would negate that bug.

Sorry but the performance difference between the chips is not as extreme as you make it sound.

To prove the point, I ran the PS retouch artists speed test and got a score of 12.3 seconds.

That's actually faster than what the review on AT has the i5-2500K as (12.6). Some large performance drop there eh?

 

[DeepFrz97]

That was a typo. I want eSATA, USB 3.0, and 6 SATA, not necessarily SATA III.

 

[mfenn]

That was a typo. I want eSATA, USB 3.0, and 6 SATA, not necessarily SATA III.

In that case I would say to get:
i5 760 $205
P7P55D-E LX $115 AR

 

[DeepFrz97]

In that case I would say to get:
i5 760 $205
P7P55D-E LX $115 AR

Is there a reason to take the i5 760 over the i7 870 or i7 875?

 

[Numenorean]

The 760 is 4 cores/4 threads while the 870 is 4 cores/8 threads. If you are going to be doing a lot of multitasking and also video editing, you may want to go with the i7. I went with the i7 because I do a lot of different things - photo/video, etc. as well as programming and working with VMWare.

If it's just Photoshop then the i5 would be sufficient.

 

[DeepFrz97]

The 760 is 4 cores/4 threads while the 870 is 4 cores/8 threads. If you are going to be doing a lot of multitasking and also video editing, you may want to go with the i7. I went with the i7 because I do a lot of different things - photo/video, etc. as well as programming and working with VMWare.

If it's just Photoshop then the i5 would be sufficient.

I will be using Lightroom 3 and CS5 primarily with some other add ons. I think I will go with the i7 then. I didn't know if there was something I was missing that would make the i5 better for some odd reason.

 

[endlessmike133]

it would be downright stupid to buy anything less than sandy bridge right now

 

[Numenorean]

it would be downright stupid to buy anything less than sandy bridge right now

Yeah...because saving that extra half a second is SOOOOO important.

I don't get why people think that suddenly the "old" i5/i7 chips are just abysmally slow or whatever. That's a bunch of crap.

I want a fast computer, but I also want a stable one that I can trust my data with. I'm glad I didn't end up with a SB board because I'd have to be returning it and going with what I got in the first place.

I have 5 HD's in my case and 2 2-HD RAID arrays hooked up via eSATA outside my case. Having only 2 reliable SATA connections on a motherboard would be worthless for me. I realize that the flaw hasn't been explained in enough detail but if there is a flaw that could corrupt data on my drives, it's not worth the chance.

 

[Numenorean]

I will be using Lightroom 3 and CS5 primarily with some other add ons. I think I will go with the i7 then. I didn't know if there was something I was missing that would make the i5 better for some odd reason.

No the i5 wouldn't be better than the i7 other than the fact that it would save you money.

 

[endlessmike133]

Yeah...because saving that extra half a second is SOOOOO important.

I don't get why people think that suddenly the "old" i5/i7 chips are just abysmally slow or whatever. That's a bunch of crap.

I want a fast computer, but I also want a stable one that I can trust my data with. I'm glad I didn't end up with a SB board because I'd have to be returning it and going with what I got in the first place.

I have 5 HD's in my case and 2 2-HD RAID arrays hooked up via eSATA outside my case. Having only 2 reliable SATA connections on a motherboard would be worthless for me. I realize that the flaw hasn't been explained in enough detail but if there is a flaw that could corrupt data on my drives, it's not worth the chance.

First off, the flaw wouldn't corrupt data on your drives; second off, you could've always just bought a PCI-E SATA expansion card.

And the fact of the matter is still that going with SB is just the only choice right now, the old i5/i7s aren't slow by any means; but you'd have to be an absolute imbecile to get those over Sandy Bridge.

 

[Numenorean]

First off, the flaw wouldn't corrupt data on your drives; second off, you could've always just bought a PCI-E SATA expansion card.

And the fact of the matter is still that going with SB is just the only choice right now, the old i5/i7s aren't slow by any means; but you'd have to be an absolute imbecile to get those over Sandy Bridge.

An expansion card is just a band-aid and not something that I want to do. It's not a solution. There is no reason to use an expansion card to replace something on a motherboard that should work. It's simply not the proper way to do it. Spend $80+ for functionality that should already exist? Yeah...

The flaw, last I saw, said that it affected performance and functionality. They don't say how though.

Please do the world a favor and don't build or recommend any systems where reliability is critical.

 

[endlessmike133]

An expansion card is just a band-aid and not something that I want to do. It's not a solution. There is no reason to use an expansion card to replace something on a motherboard that should work. It's simply not the proper way to do it. Spend $80+ for functionality that should already exist? Yeah...

The flaw, last I saw, said that it affected performance and functionality. They don't say how though.

Please do the world a favor and don't build or recommend any systems where reliability is critical.

You act like waiting for the new fixed mobos isn't an option; it is, and it's entirely worth it as opposed to getting something inferior.

 

[Numenorean]

You act like waiting for the new fixed mobos isn't an option; it is, and it's entirely worth it as opposed to getting something inferior.

The P55/i5/i7 is NOT inferior. Why you are brainwashed into thinking that is beyond me. You must pour over meaningless benchmarking numbers and if something is half a second faster or 100 meaningless "units" "better" then instantly everything else is obsolete. Just because something new is out doesn't mean that this hardware is suddenly worthless or inferior or not up to the task. That's ridiculous.

If you need a computer now and you need that computer to be stable and problem free, your best bet is the P55/i5/i7. If you can wait for the new boards, that works too.

Please go post in OT where it's fine to post nonsensical crap.

 

[Sp12]

The P55/i5/i7 is NOT inferior. Why you are brainwashed into thinking that is beyond me. You must pour over meaningless benchmarking numbers and if something is half a second faster or 100 meaningless "units" "better" then instantly everything else is obsolete. Just because something new is out doesn't mean that this hardware is suddenly worthless or inferior or not up to the task. That's ridiculous.

If you need a computer now and you need that computer to be stable and problem free, your best bet is the P55/i5/i7. If you can wait for the new boards, that works too.

Please go post in OT where it's fine to post nonsensical crap.

I disagree with you entirely. SB brings not only significantly more performance/dollar, but also several key new features and an upgrade path. P55 is inferior in that it makes little sense if you can get SB.

Frankly, if you can find a 1155 board, I'd get it and add a PCIe Sata card if you don't think you'll have it RMA'd in a month or two when the replacement chipsets are out.

I mean, Intel's own literature says it'll be at least 6 months before realworld usage causes the sort of degradation they were getting in their thermal chambers.

 

[Numenorean]

I disagree with you entirely. SB brings not only significantly more performance/dollar, but also several key new features and an upgrade path. P55 is inferior in that it makes little sense if you can get SB.

Frankly, if you can find a 1155 board, I'd get it and add a PCIe Sata card if you don't think you'll have it RMA'd in a month or two when the replacement chipsets are out.

I mean, Intel's own literature says it'll be at least 6 months before realworld usage causes the sort of degradation they were getting in their thermal chambers.

Sorry, performance differences between the "old" i7 and SB are not that large.

And I seriously doubt there is a real upgrade path. Intel is not known for that.

The fact that I would have to purchase a PCI/PCIe SATA controller would also negate any cost savings that SB would normally present. So your price/performance goes out the window there.

If you're just some gamer then fine get the stuff now and don't worry about it. But if you have important stuff on your computer, I would wait.

 

[DeepFrz97]

I appreciate the advice and as always the banter between people with differing opinions. In my situation the data corruption could cost me money and isn't an option. Also, time is money in business, so i think I will be going with the i7 instead of the i5. It sounds to me like the P55 option will suffice for sometime and I can upgrade to something newer in a couple of years when SSD is out of its infancy and a new Intel solution is working and stable.
With that said, does the P7P55D-E LX and i7-870 sound like a winning option to everyone except endlessmike?

 

[Sp12]

Sorry, performance differences between the "old" i7 and SB are not that large.

At stock speeds at the same pricepoint it's ~33% faster for photo editing.

And I seriously doubt there is a real upgrade path. Intel is not known for that.

At the very least you have Ivy Bridge.

The fact that I would have to purchase a PCI/PCIe SATA controller would also negate any cost savings that SB would normally present. So your price/performance goes out the window there.

Or you could consider the money saved with using SB's integrated GPU on an H67 board. A Sata card is ~25$ for a fourport PCIe card on Newegg, which would still leave you in the green before even considering any of the speed advantages.

In my situation the data corruption could cost me money and isn't an option.

So spend 25$ on a Sata controller card for your data drives, and run your boot/SSD off of the Sata3 ports. Frankly I'm much more scared of a hard drive dying and eating all of my RAW archive than a Sata port burning out. At least the sata port will give you pretty definitive performance loss for a few months before it goes.

Also, time is money in business, so i think I will be going with the i7 instead of the i5.

If time really is money, then I don't see how you can afford to spend the same money for less performance.

 

[Numenorean]

At stock speeds at the same pricepoint it's ~33% faster for photo editing.

How so? My i7-870 system got a quicker result than what AT had for a SB chip. Sorry but saying 33% faster when that "faster" ends up meaning a second or two is misleading.

At the very least you have Ivy Bridge.

That's just a die shrink. I don't upgrade that fast. It's not worth it to spend $1500 on a new setup to save 2 seconds. By the time I would upgrade I doubt there will be any way I could keep the motherboard.

Or you could consider the money saved with using SB's integrated GPU on an H67 board. A Sata card is ~25$ for a fourport PCIe card on Newegg, which would still leave you in the green before even considering any of the speed advantages.

Please find me a 4-port PCIe SATA RAID card from a reliable manufacturer for $25. Post the link.

If you are so keen on performance, why settle for an integrated GPU? Will an integrated GPU run dual 30" monitors at 2560x1600? Will the performance in CS5 on the IGP match that of a discreet card? I haven't seen any benchmarks test this, but considering that I saw a performance increase by moving from an 8600GTS to a 460GTX, I'm not so sure it would.

So spend 25$ on a Sata controller card for your data drives, and run your boot/SSD off of the Sata3 ports. Frankly I'm much more scared of a hard drive dying and eating all of my RAW archive than a Sata port burning out. At least the sata port will give you pretty definitive performance loss for a few months before it goes.

Backing up data doesn't do any good if it gets corrupted in the process. I haven't seen detailed information on the flaw posted that would indicate there is no way corruption could occur.