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Need help optimizing this pre-built PC

L

LightField

Member
1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

I plan on using this with photoshop and a art program similar to photoshop that is 64 bit. It's called Manga Studio - for making digital comics. In these programs you need to zoom and rotate hi res images you are drawing, so I am concerned about the graphics card incorporated in the PC I am considering.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

I have $1000 but $70 for a Nostromo and $80 for Manga studio software.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

US - through Best Buy most likely. I am in San Diego.. the only other place I know of to buy PC and components is Frys.


6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

I have a old graphics card from my old PC, I am wondering which would be better.. the onboard graphics card of the PC I am considering or this old card I have. The old card is a Geforce Galaxy GT430


7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Not sure if I can do this. Inexperienced.

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?

1920x1080

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?

About a week.. this is when I should have the money.

Here is the PC I am considering..

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP---Pav...&skuId=6835576

I was considering maxing the RAM with 32GB of this RAM

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Corsair+...ontent=Default

I was also considering configuring my harddrives like this -

-60GB SSD for OS and programs
-60GB SSD for scratch disk for art programs
-1Tb drive that comes with the PC for storage

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Kingston...lerId=34492929

My biggest concern I think is that the graphics card won't be good enough to manipulate ultra hi res large images well enough. Should I buy less ram and no SSD and get a better graphics card?

Also.. I heard something about adding a graphics card voiding the warranty.. or is that only if I install it myself and if I don't I probably have to pay a lot to have it installed.

Any help would be great.

Also, does anyone know how many harddives I can use with the motherboard in this PC?
 
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If all you are going to do is "zoom and rotate" high res images I really wouldn't worry about getting 32GB of RAM (unless we are talking about extraordinary resolutions). Although I feel that you might be simplifying your usage scenario for the sake of brevity.

That machine doesn't have a graphics card, the 7560D is integrated into the CPU so pretty much any modern GPU no matter how cheap is going to be faster. Although as I said before, depending on exactly how you are going to use photoshop/manga studio you may not need that much graphical "grunt"

I have heard people say that 60GB can be restrictive as a scratch disk depending on the size of the project you are working on, you might be better off buying a 120GB SSD and using it for windows and as a scratch disk or buying 2 120GB drives.
 
Were it me, if I were looking for a prebuilt and was not considering building my own, I'd look at the Dell Home Outlet. Specifically, at the XPS 8500 series. Right now, I'm looking at a XPS 8500 with an i3770, 8 GB of DRAM, and an AMD HD7770 video card for $589.00. This system is a heck of a lot more powerful than the HP. You could add a Samsung 840 SSD and another 8GB of memory and still be way within your budget (just don't buy them from Dell, though).

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnline...arch.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dfh&cs=22&puid=e217ade8

FYI: a "certified refurbished" system is one that somebody bought, turned on, then returned to Dell for some reason. As a result, Dell can't sell it as new. However, it comes with the same standard 1 year warranty as a new system.
 
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Hi puppies. Thanks for the response. Yeah may not be explaining this as well as I could. The thing is when you are working on images in Manga studio you are constantly zooming and and rotating the image while you are drawing. I was under the impression that aspect was controlled by the video card. Plus being at such high res with many many layers I thought the RAM would be a big help.

I will likely have other programs open a lot too like image references and also possibly a script writing software... though I am not sure. For this type of work I was under the impression you could never have too much Ram but I might be wrong.

Also.. I just wanted to make sure all the components I have listed here are compatible.

When do you think you would need 32GB of RAM and is it beneficial to have so much RAM even if your processor isn't that great?
 
Steltek, thanks very much for the info, That is definitely something I will consider.

My issue is that I have always had PCs that had very little RAM... For some reason I have been under the impression that having a PC with as much RAM as possible would be beneficial to me over a more powerful PC with less RAM. IS this totally wrong?
 
LightField said:
Steltek, thanks very much for the info, That is definitely something I will consider.

My issue is that I have always had PCs that had very little RAM... For some reason I have been under the impression that having a PC with as much RAM as possible would be beneficial to me over a more powerful PC with less RAM. IS this totally wrong?
Click to expand...

It depends on what you are using the PC for. 8GB is plenty for a gaming PC. Most photo editing won't use more than 16GB, especially if you are using an SSD for your scratch drive. Going beyond 16GB might only be necessary for somebody doing some heavy duty video editing, running multiple virtual machines, etc.

It doesn't sound like you are doing anything that would require over 16GB (and you might be able to get by with 8GB just fine if you are going to use an SSD scratch drive).

FYI: adding additional memory or a new video card yourself to a prebuilt does not void the warranty. The only thing you have to be careful of with video cards is that the power supply in your machine is big enough to power your chosen video card. That Pavilion at Best Buy only has a 300 watt power supply, so you couldn't add a high-end video card in the future without upgrading the power supply as well.
 
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One other thing I was wondering about.. this PC says it comes with 6 GB of RAM... does that mean that it has 2 3GB sticks and has 2 slots open and I could add 2 sticks of 8 GB RAM.

So the installed 6 plus the new 16 for a total of 22?

Would that configuration work?
 
LightField said:
One other thing I was wondering about.. this PC says it comes with 6 GB of RAM... does that mean that it has 2 3GB sticks and has 2 slots open and I could add 2 sticks of 8 GB RAM.

So the installed 6 plus the new 16 for a total of 22?

Would that configuration work?
Click to expand...

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...portFAQ&prodSeriesId=5295962&prodTypeId=12454

It has four DIMM slots. As a result, current configuration is probably three 2GB modules (most likely this) or a 4GB module and a 2GB module. You won't know until you open it up.
 
I think that you're really overbuilding this. Looking at the system requirements for Manga Studio (http://manga.smithmicro.com/system-reqs.html), they want 2GB of RAM and a Pentium 4. You're already at four times the minimum with 8GB.

Realistically speaking, the computer that Steltek linked will do everything you need and more.
 
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