This is an almost embarrassing situation. I teach Digital Design and Digital Photography (secondary level...9th, 10th, and 11th graders). I'm 27, and have been teaching for 5 years, and while I'm very adept with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign (as well as some Premiere and Dreamweaver thrown in), I'm still using the PC I built as a junior in high school😵 Not really sure why...I suppose partially because I'm also a big hands-on guy, and got into a lot of wood working and construction once I bought my home a few years ago and most of my money went to that.
Now that I've bored you with my little back story, I was in the process of playing with Photoshop CS6 Beta, and after having several major crashes (not attributed to the Beta version), and the lack of GPU acceleration support in my older video card, I'm considering upgrading.
I do have flexibility in my budget, and I will use this computer for 95% photo editing/processing/storage. I tend to do a lot of memory/gpu intensive work in PS (synchronous Raw processing, batch processing, full res smart object editing, HDR, etc.). The other 5% will be browsing the internet (maybe some video editing, but nothing major. NO GAMING whatsoever, or intentions of overclocking (I played with this in high school, and really have no desire these days).
So, to stay true to the recommended format, here we go:
1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
95% Photo Editing/Processing (Batch processing, HDR work, some panorama creation, synchronous RAW editing, image storage), 5% surfing the net/word processing.
2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
Like to keep it under $800 if possible. I know it states no more than a 20% spread, but around $600 would be nice depending on what sacrifices might need to be made.
3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
United States
4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
No preference beyond Intel (possibly Ivy Bridge)?
5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
22" LCD, Logitech Solar Keyboard, Microsoft Mouse, Klipsch 2.1 Speakers. Current Seagate 7200RPM will be used temporarily as a backup.
*
7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Default.
8. What resolution will you be using?
1680x1050, but looking to upgrade to a 24" IPS panel (probably 1920x1200)
9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.
Within the month then, I suppose🙂
X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?
Need Windows 7 (have XP, but want to upgrade...but I can get pro for $65 with my educator discount), already have CS5, and currently testing CS6 beta. Everything else is good to go.
Now that I've bored you with my little back story, I was in the process of playing with Photoshop CS6 Beta, and after having several major crashes (not attributed to the Beta version), and the lack of GPU acceleration support in my older video card, I'm considering upgrading.
I do have flexibility in my budget, and I will use this computer for 95% photo editing/processing/storage. I tend to do a lot of memory/gpu intensive work in PS (synchronous Raw processing, batch processing, full res smart object editing, HDR, etc.). The other 5% will be browsing the internet (maybe some video editing, but nothing major. NO GAMING whatsoever, or intentions of overclocking (I played with this in high school, and really have no desire these days).
So, to stay true to the recommended format, here we go:
1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
95% Photo Editing/Processing (Batch processing, HDR work, some panorama creation, synchronous RAW editing, image storage), 5% surfing the net/word processing.
2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
Like to keep it under $800 if possible. I know it states no more than a 20% spread, but around $600 would be nice depending on what sacrifices might need to be made.
3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
United States
4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
No preference beyond Intel (possibly Ivy Bridge)?
5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
22" LCD, Logitech Solar Keyboard, Microsoft Mouse, Klipsch 2.1 Speakers. Current Seagate 7200RPM will be used temporarily as a backup.
*
7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Default.
8. What resolution will you be using?
1680x1050, but looking to upgrade to a 24" IPS panel (probably 1920x1200)
9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.
Within the month then, I suppose🙂
X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?
Need Windows 7 (have XP, but want to upgrade...but I can get pro for $65 with my educator discount), already have CS5, and currently testing CS6 beta. Everything else is good to go.
Last edited:
