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Photoshop and casual Premiere users, advice on new system?

imported_mlt

imported_mlt

Member
I'm upgrading my home system and after that building a new system to our office (possibly identical if my new home system proves to perform). Usage is heavy CS5 photoshopping, illustrator, lightroom and some Premiere too.

After days of various google research, I'm still struggling to find right components for my usage. I know there are a lot of photographers and designers here on this board and was hoping to get the latest experiences from you guys!


I currently have components:
- Lian Li PC-8B ATX Case with 120mm scythe slipstreams
- Asus P8P67 PRO B3 Intel P67 LGA1155 ATX
- Antec TruePower New TP-550 550W ATX
- Intel X25-M G2 80GB SATA SSD 2.5"
- OS W7 64bit

Thinking of buying:
- Intel Core i7 2600K, LGA1155, 3.4 GHz, 8MB
- 2x HyperX Genesis 8GB (2x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 CL9 XMP (16GB total)
- Scythe Mugen 3
- Still trying to choose the right (Nvidia) graphics card
- Still trying to choose a disk for photoshop scratch

Are everything ok so far?

I want my home PC to be quiet and the noise level on my current system is fine. Choosing a new cpu heatsink and graphics card is a bit difficult, especially if I want my system to run quiet.

Adobe CS5 takes advantage of CUDA and in Premiere the new Mercury engine is told to be a lot faster with the right GPU (that is supported by Adobe). I do most my work with photoshop but have to edit things with premiere from time to time and currently experience bad performance with c2d and basic radeon HD's. Some say a cheaper GTX that adobe supports will be sufficent, others say you have to go with an expensive Quadro.

I was going to buy a OCZ Vertex 3 120GB but after reading people's experiences, I probably won't see a big difference between performance over the X25-M G2 (which is working like a dream). Photoshop scratch disk is also big mystery, as there are a lot of debate of using a separate SSD or a HDD performance wise.

All the work files will be stored on separate storage system (which we still have to choose for our new small office).

I don't want to pay too much for nothing, but I don't want to save on critical components as well if they hold the system down.

I would appreciate any help guys! 🙂
 
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First Photoshop will run extremely well on even a basic modern build. IMHO if you want the best graphics tool, it's going to be in the workstation class of machines not from a home processor focused one. I am not current on the current market, but replacing a pretty maxed out high-end dell one of our AutoCAD users had with a high-end Precision (we were forced to stick with Dell due to national contracts) workstation was like night and day.

The biggest thing you haven't told us is the type of images you are deal with.

Scratch disk is one of those things those with modern computers don't need to waste time with. Obviously if you can dedicate an SSD to it or a fast HDD there are benefits. If you already use an SSD, it's doubtful another 'better' one will show any difference.

Memory is a big thing and being on a 64 bit platform to use it the next.

In the video world you graphics card will be more a consideration, but if only casual use hardly a concern really.

The question really is something like "I work with 3GB EPS files day to day, my current system isn't very snappy working with them. If I open a 500MB one things rock, what can I do?"
 
Thanks for the answer alkemyst!

Very valid points.

I mainly work with Photoshop, working with big PSD website and interface design files and editing RAW photos. On the worst days I have to have lot of programs and files open the same time, and with 8gb of memory the photoshop scratch file can be around 20-40 GB (on a raptor drive). On photoshop the problem is just slow performance, sometimes the system can't even keep up with me when I'm doing different things quickly with keyboard shortcuts..

I do less video editing but sometimes I have to edit some 1080p videos from our 5D mark II and currently are having trouble for smooth editing preview.

I'm not looking for a ultra high end professional system, just a good enough system without making mistakes on choosing wrong on critical components. I currently run old core2duo e6700 at home and core2quad Q9550 at work, and they both have done their job but could be a lot faster, especially on the video side. I think that a low budget GPU that supports the new Mercury on Premiere would save my day on video editing.
 
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You say your computer can't keep up with you in Photoshop- are you CPU or disk/IO bound? I run Photoshop and I believe the 2600k is not worth the money over the 2500k; you want good multi-threaded performance but you also want the highest single-threaded turbo performance you can get. With 16GB of RAM, you should be good there; as far as your scratch disk, a Velociraptor might have better write speeds but an SSD will do better on reads. Where the SSD shines is seeks because of reads and writes of small chunks of data and multiple r/w happening at the same time. Make sure to put Photoshop scratch disk and Windows swap file on different physical disks if you go with spindle drives.
 
Here's my advice:
- CPU: Fine
- RAM: I couldn't find that exact kit, but it has enough adjectives in the name that it is probably a bad deal. Grab a couple of these G.Skill DDR3 1333 8GB kits for $44 each.
- HSF: Fine, but completely unnecessary
- GPU: If you don't mind editing a config file, a GTX 460 1GB is fine for Premiere.
- Scratch: If you're I/O bound with a Raptor, then an SSD like the Crucial M4 64GB is the way to go. Otherwise, just stick with the Raptor.
 
mfenn said:
- RAM: I couldn't find that exact kit, but it has enough adjectives in the name that it is probably a bad deal. Grab a couple of these G.Skill DDR3 1333 8GB kits for $44 each.
Click to expand...

Yay G.Skill fanboi I am thinking. (not that their memory is bad).

Here is what we are dealing with: 2x HyperX Genesis 8GB (2x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 CL9 XMP (16GB total)

2x= 2 qty

HyperX = Kingston (usually), nothing wrong there.

Genesis = OMGBBQ adjective

8GB = 8GB

(2x4GB) = see line above

1600MHz = 1600MHz (that is PC3-12800)

DDR3 = DDR3

CL9 = CL9 (at PC3-12800 speed, yours is CL9 at 10600)

XMP = intel eXtreme Memory Profile, OMGBBQ~!

I'd side with his selection over G.Skill value mem which is only good if ultimate low cost bang for buck is a factor (along with almost all value memory).
 
Mfenn is thinking of this article. Funny thing is, they didn't test Photoshop in that article. They did test video encoding, though.

Bottom line: 1600MHz RAM might provide up to a couple percent performance improvement for $10-$20. Just make sure it's not over 1.575v RAM. Good options include this G.Skill or a bundle.
 
Thanks for the comments guys.

Sorry for the dumb question, but why is the memory voltage important?

The Kingston memory I mentioned states voltage: 1.65 V
 
alkemyst said:
Yay G.Skill fanboi I am thinking. (not that their memory is bad).
Click to expand...

More like not wasting money fanboi. 😉 There is very little difference between fancy RAM and value RAM these days.

imported_mlt said:
Thanks for the comments guys.

Sorry for the dumb question, but why is the memory voltage important?

The Kingston memory I mentioned states voltage: 1.65 V
Click to expand...

1.65V is bad for the Sandy Bridge memory controller. You'll want to get 1.5V memory. The way prices are these days, you don't exactly pay a premium.
 
mfenn said:
1.65V is bad for the Sandy Bridge memory controller. You'll want to get 1.5V memory. The way prices are these days, you don't exactly pay a premium.
Click to expand...
Ok thanks for the info, I did not know that. The G.skill ripjaws are actually more expensive here (finland) than the kingston I was going for. Not a problem, just a note 🙂

Corsair and G.Skill are exactly the same price here, you guys recommend G.Skill?
Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600MHz PC3-12800, 1600MHz, 9-9-9-24. (16 GB Kit)
G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1600MHZ F3-12800CL9Q-16GBRL 9-9-9-24 (16GB Kit)
 
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mfenn said:
More like not wasting money fanboi. 😉 There is very little difference between fancy RAM and value RAM these days.
Click to expand...

In a budget build sure...this guy wants to use an SSD just for scratch disk...I think an extra $11 on memory a full speed range higher and at the same latency is money well spent.
 
imported_mlt said:
Ok thanks for the info, I did not know that. The G.skill ripjaws are actually more expensive here (finland) than the kingston I was going for. Not a problem, just a note 🙂

Corsair and G.Skill are exactly the same price here, you guys recommend G.Skill?
Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600MHz PC3-12800, 1600MHz, 9-9-9-24. (16 GB Kit)
G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1600MHZ F3-12800CL9Q-16GBRL 9-9-9-24 (16GB Kit)
Click to expand...

I'd see if you can get some RAM without silly heat spreaders. You'll find that they don't do anything and just get in the way.
 
alkemyst said:
In a budget build sure...this guy wants to use an SSD just for scratch disk...I think an extra $11 on memory a full speed range higher and at the same latency is money well spent.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, but I just can't see the point in spending extra money where it doesn't really do anything.
 
mfenn said:
Yep.
Click to expand...

Most of the current CS5 people say the more memory speed available the better.

Yes, it's hard to measure by the seat of the pants, but it's measurable. Like mentioned above, if someone is throwing an SSD at pure scratch disk it would make no sense to save $11 on RAM...it may even be practical to go to higher speed memory if they have a motherboard that can use it.
 
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