need advice on new photoshop rig

[smmorrison]

hi loooking for some advice on a image editing, photoshop cs2 upgrade...I do light gaming, multimedia develepment, but a lot of large image post processing so thinking its time to upgrade, dealing with RAW files on my current machine is a chore.

I have HD's, vid cards, etc already

I am thinking about an athlon 64 3000(supposed to overclock well)...ive noticed there are 2 different kinds of these, is there any difference

not sure what 939 mobo I need, any suggestions, would like future compatability with dual core processors

thinking 1-1.5 gigs of ram depending on budget...what type of ram will this rig need?

if anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know

something else I was thinking about was picking up a SATA drive for the photoshop scratch disk and storage, something like a used raptor

 

[RichUK]

just get a good spec'ed Dell their P4's will suffice over 939 for you needs

 

[smmorrison]

i already have all the secondary equip I need, HD'S, DVDRW, case, vid card, etc
just need a mobo, cpu and ram
I like building my own anyway

 

[smmorrison]

any other ideas?

 

[GratefullySaved]

I'm a photoshop pro that has worked on some big budget projects of national exposure.

I use macs, but build my own PC's as well, but I don't have any expert advice for you on this one, although I just built an Athlon 64 myself. Best bet is probably just to read the anandtech reviews of 939 mobos. Asus, Chaintech and DNI make some great 939 boards..and I remember one article mentioned that the dual cores were working well in one the recently reviewed mobos.

Whatever you choose you'll be happy, but once you get to try a dual-processor G5 with 3GB RAM...you'll want one of those too.

Good luck with your build,

GS

 

[KoolDrew]

How much are you willing to spend?

 

[Dubb]

I'd get something with multiple processors (or cores)...and as much ram as possible. ram will make a bigger difference than processor speed, I'd shoot for at least 2 GB.

the 4400+ looks to be a killer budget workstation chip, xeons and opterons are getting cheaper as well with the introduction of dual core chips.

me, I'm waiting on quad core socket F, unless intel comes up with something amazing before then.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

i would go with a dual core p4. and 2GB of ram

 

[SVT Cobra]

2gb of RAM for sure...

Could you wait for dual cores to come down in price and up in availibility...an X2 in a year or so will give you some great benefits...

Also if you have a a lot of money to spend there is always opertons

 

[gobucks]

I think in the long run, the Athlon 64 X2 is the best bet. The 4200 and 4400 (especially the 4400) would work wonders in a photoshop workstation. The X2 basically retains all the strengths of the A64 (Gaming, math apps) while beating Intel's single and dual cores in most multithreaded apps which were previously intel only territory (video encoding, etc). Unfortunately, the downside is that they currently cost upwards of $500.

The Pentium D is probably not gonna be a good investment, since it is basically just a roadmap placeholder for Intel. It is poorly designed, runs very hot, overclocks poorly (which is important cause it's only running at 2.8GHz), performs poorly in single threads relative to the A64, and in multithreaded apps it falls behind the X2. On top of that, they require a new, currently expensive mobo based on the 945/955 chipsets, and Intel plans to phase out the Pentium D very shortly to be replaced with Presler and/or Yonah, so your upgrade potential is quite limited.

Your best bet might actually be the 3000+. It's only $140, so it won't break the bank. Furthermore, nice nforce 4 Ultra boards are around $100 (chaintech's Ultra is only $89). You will be able to upgrade to a dual core when they release slower spead grades and/or lower prices, both of which I imagine are less than 2 months away. The 3000+ definitely overclocks well. I have the older winchester core, and still managed a 750MHz overclock (2.55GHz). I've heard venice cores can sometimes even hit 2.8GHz. Make sure you get a venice, though, since it will give you better memory flexibility (you can run 4 sticks in DDR400 at 1T). You really need to run dual channel, so I'd probably get 2x1GB sticks now, and leave your last 2 slots open for later down the road, maybe along with that X2 upgrade. I think you can get Corsair Value RAM 1GB sticks for like $90 online.

 

[smmorrison]

hey guys thanks for the ideas...I am thinking of this as a rather inexpensive, placeholder upgrade until the dual cores come down in price

I think I'll probably go with a nforce ultra, 2gb ram and the 3000 and try to overclock it a bit...that should be a sub $400 upgrade which is in the ballpark of what I wanted to spend...then down the line I can try a dual core

the 939 boards will be compatible with the dual cores correce? is the chaintech ultra a 939?

thanks again for the advice