Photo processing computer

[cvbinrichmond]

Hello,
I am an amature photograper who is trying to get back into the hobby after about 12 years and a generational gap from doing lab with chemicals to digital now.
My question is...I just bought and not recieved an Epson R 1900 Printer and have an inexpensive Kodak M 580 14 meg.pix to shoot with along with an N 70 Nikon film type camera. I will stay probably with the digital format, but now I understand I may need a new dedicated computer to use. I just want really good pictures, but not particullary professional shots all the time. The largest would be 13X?. Most would be 4 X 6 or 5 X 7. Sometimes an ocassional 8 X 10.
my setup now is an approx. 8 year old HP 3.0 GHZ Maxed out at 1 GB of RAM...160 GB HD DVD+RW/CD-RW...CD ROM 48 X max speed...NVidia GeForce 5200 AGP 8X graphics card with 128 MB
DDR vidio memory.
It is an A450N H.P. I can not put in more ram than the 1 GB. The instructions on the printer say 1 GB, recommended 2 GB or more. The rest is okay except it is a Pentium 4 from yesteryear. Now they have dual and quad processors.
What least expensive, but qualified compter would you recommend? I would like to stay with the P.C. because of price considerations. I would not want to go over around $750 max with a monitor included. I assume that the monitor should be a 1080P capable one?
Also brand may or may not be a consideration, but mostly the specs and the p.c. is what I would like to look at.
Also, do you think that the one I have will perform properly for my purposes?

Thank you for all the help you can give me.

 

[finbarqs]

you may want to up that budget... the monitor alone (to get a good one with good color accuracy) will be half of the price, which will leave you with a decent powered system, but not entirely reliable... (off brand mobo and psu)

 

[rivan]

I disagree with fin that you won't be able to get going for $750.

Something like this (from Slickdeals)
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto..._id=vostro-230
would leave plenty to buy a nice, basic display and be more than capable of processing for an amateur.

OP, you didn't talk at all about what software you intend to use?

 

[twistedlogic]

My question is...I just bought and not recieved an Epson R 1900 Printer and have an inexpensive Kodak M 580 14 meg.pix to shoot with along with an N 70 Nikon film type camera. I will stay probably with the digital format, but now I understand I may need a new dedicated computer to use.

So why do you need a new computer? Because the printer needs 2gb of memory?

 

[Munky]

Your current computer should work with the printer just fine. You'd only need a new one if you plan on doing a lot of photo editing in Photoshop or similar.

 

[finbarqs]

again, i did mention that the OP would be able to meet his requirements if he'd go with an off brand motherboard and/psu, which are some of the key components for a reliable system. Dell doesn't even use solid caps, and i'm sure they're psu aren't even close to 80+ certified.

Anyways, he can build one for cheap, and decently powered, but heavy photoshopping (which is almost required by almost all digital photography) will require something with more heft.

 

[cvbinrichmond]

Thanks to all of you for the input. I am going to see how my outfit works and then if the computer I have with the 1 GB of RAM works ok, then I may possibly look into getting a nice Digital SLR instead, or a nice monitor.
I was thinking of a D3100 Nikon which I saw the other day for about $532 at Ritz Camera.
Hey, Window shopping can be fun too, right.
Again guys, thanks for your input.

 

[ElFenix]

again, i did mention that the OP would be able to meet his requirements if he'd go with an off brand motherboard and/psu, which are some of the key components for a reliable system. Dell doesn't even use solid caps, and i'm sure they're psu aren't even close to 80+ certified.

spcr people are always after dell power supplies because they have low capacity 80 plus gold supplies. maybe not necessarily the basic line, but a blanket statement like that is just ignorant.

your whole contribution in this thread is just



anyway, OP for photo editing if you really want to get into it requires a color calibrated monitor more than anything. for that you'll want an IPS screen rather than the cheap TN panels that are available everywhere. IPS is spendy. you'll also want a calibration tool. between those two items you're looking at nearly $500. you want IPS because it produces much better color accuracy than TN. you want the calibration tool because you don't want your colors that you spent time tweaking on the monitor to come out completely different on the printer.

frankly nearly any computer you can buy new off the shelf these days is going to be a big upgrade from what you've got. the lenovo athlon ii x2 in the fry's ad for under $300 would be a big step up. its up to you whether your current computer offers enough performance.

something else you'll want to consider putting money to is a backup system. i don't like losing photos and neither will you.

 

[rivan]

Anyways, he can build one for cheap, and decently powered, but heavy photoshopping (which is almost required by almost all digital photography) will require something with more heft.

He's working on 14 megapixel images, and not blowing them up much, if at all. That's /not/ heavy photoshop by any definition I've ever heard.

Sure, Photoshop's a pretty heavy install, but given his choice in hardware and stated budget, I doubt Photoshop's in his plan.

Even if it is, it doesn't take much of a machine to handle ~30 meg files.

 

[yhelothar]

Question: How much of an advantage are IPS monitors over TN monitors with a color calibrator?
Anandtech's review rates a calibrated TN well above an uncalibrated IPS.
And a calibrated IPS is only marginally better than a calibrated TN.
Plus there's still always PVA.
What about a color calibrated cPVA? Reviews says there's a gamma crush, but color calibrators seem to adjust for that.
Here's a Samsung 23" cPVA for $160 no tax/shipping. I'm tempted to jump the gun.

http://www.macconnection.com/IPA/Sho...ci_sku=9986591

 

[yhelothar]

I'm a huge photo enthusiast and I do a loot of photo retouching. I don't think photoshop is processor intensive for regular photoshop work. If you run automate on full galleries often, then yes a faster processor will come in handy. But regular photoshop work is not CPU intensive at all.
I had a 2.8GHz Core2Duo and now I'm using a 3.4GHz Core2Quad. It feels about the same.
I have a 1.5GHz Pentium M and most retouching feels about as quick.

But sometimes photoshop lags A LOT and everything is really slow. Thus RAM is VERY important for photoshop. I'd make sure you have 4GB at least, 8GB if you frequently have several high megapixel photos open with many history states.

SSD would help a lot too since large megapixel photos are very hard drive intensive. However, it is important to note that it is very expensive to use SSD to store photos.

That PC should only need to cost $300 about.
I believe you could at least find a decent PVA for $300 if the cPVA can't be corrected with a calibrator.
But honestly, I don't even find a calibrator important unless you print. In fact, maybe TN isn't a bad choice either since your retouches would look good on most people's monitors. I have a perfectly color calibrated IPS and a lot of my retouches look horrible on a lot of my friend's TN screen. If I retouched on their screen, I could get it to look good on there. I find TN screens, especially laptop ones set considerably cooler.

 

[angry hampster]

Question: How much of an advantage are IPS monitors over TN monitors with a color calibrator?
Anandtech's review rates a calibrated TN well above an uncalibrated IPS.
And a calibrated IPS is only marginally better than a calibrated TN.
Plus there's still always PVA.
What about a color calibrated cPVA? Reviews says there's a gamma crush, but color calibrators seem to adjust for that.
Here's a Samsung 23" cPVA for $160 no tax/shipping. I'm tempted to jump the gun.

http://www.macconnection.com/IPA/Sho...ci_sku=9986591

From my personal experience, the difference is marginal at best. Out of the box (uncalibrated), my Samsung 2433bw (TN) produced EXTREMELY accurate colors, even compared to a massive 21" NEC CRT that was calibrated.

 

[finbarqs]

I have 2x NEC 20WMGX2's and out of the box, they are phenomenal. I have several different profiles on my monitor, one to match Costco's printers, my own printer, and my school's printer.

I use photoshop pretty frequently, and though I had a q6600 w/ 8GB and a 74gb raptor, it was actually very decent. But now, with my i7 @ 3.8 12GB of RAM and G2 160, CS5 FLIES. Especially during the painting portion!

 

[Smoove910]

Something like this should fit your bill, and leaves a little extra for an IPS monitor (maybe from Craigslist?).

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...S&Sp=C&topnav=

I deal with alot of photo work too, Photoshop Elements, Photomatix Pro, Neat Image, Irfanview, etc. My triple core Phenom II handles the loads pretty well, which is why I linked you to a Phenom II Quad. You can never go wrong with 8gb ram with Photo editing, especially if you start diving into the RAW format.


I would not use an SSD for your work, especially to store and edit pics. The constant writing/erasing to the SSD will lower it's lifespan dramatically. This is why people typically use an SSD for their OS, then used a large standard 7200rpm Harddrive to store all their pics on.

Good luck regardless of which way you roll...

 

[finbarqs]

watch out for craigslist now... too many spammers.... I replied to an e-mail on craigslist once, and had to black list 50 email addresses!

 

[Smoove910]

True, but it all pays off when a greedy lawyer is upgrading his systems and offered up a new Dell 2407 monitor for $25. It all pays off if you play your cards right.

Also, how do you get spammed if you are the buyer on CL? You definitely get spam if you are the seller.

 

[randomlinh]

True, but it all pays off when a greedy lawyer is upgrading his systems and offered up a new Dell 2407 monitor for $25. It all pays off if you play your cards right.

Also, how do you get spammed if you are the buyer on CL? You definitely get spam if you are the seller.

a) that is one hell of a deal

b) you have to email the seller... they have your email... boom.

 

[Munky]

I wouldn't touch a TN panel for any task where image quality matters. On a big enough screen, I can see hue shifts comparing the top of the image to the bottom, completely unacceptable.

 

[ElFenix]

a) that is one hell of a deal

b) you have to email the seller... they have your email... boom.

this is why you create yet another gmail for all CL transactions

though i can't remember mine. guess it doesn't really matter. just make another!

 

[bobdole369]

I wouldn't touch a TN panel for any task where image quality matters. On a big enough screen, I can see hue shifts comparing the top of the image to the bottom, completely unacceptable.

I agree. On my cheesy work monitors (I'm only amateur and do IT work so it doesn't matter at work) - the TN panel color change is completely unacceptable. Fine for counterstrike though.