Time to upgrade 5-yr-old rig, need to build for photo and video editing.

[Maximus96]

Its finally time to throw in the towel and build a new machine as my current rig is feeling slow handling my photo editing software and raw image files. I use lightroom and photoshop cs3. I want to try video editing/rendering with the new build as well using either primier or some other video software.

I’m planning to re-use my old harddrive for storage, but want to explore the possibility of a SSD drive for the OS. Will there be any significance improvement in speed with a SSD OS drive?

I need to upgrade the CPU, mobo, memory, video card, and power supply. I don’t have time for games much but I think I would try some especially on a new computer. My current one is too old for anything these days. I will also need on-board sound, lan. Firewire would be a bonus, otherwise I’ll buy a card. I have a soundblaster with built-in firewire but it’s the old version (6 pin?)

Can this be done for about $700-800. going over this budget is not much concern. Its just a number I pulled out of the air. I want best or close-to for photo/video editing. Gaming is a very distant second. Thank you for your suggestions.

 

[biostud]

i7-860/p55+ 8gb memory sort of combo

 

[imported_NoGodForMe]

Your building a whole new rig at this point. SSD will help if you run Windows 7 with the trim function. The good news with the new system is you'll get a huge 2TB drive for all your files. But it's going to cost more than $800 to build something that's fast.

All you have to do is hang out here for a couple weeks reading the sigs of the messages to get an idea of what to build. People will also post their system specs in Newegg review of products. For example, go on Newegg and read the review for an Intel I7-920 CPU. In the "Other" section of each comment, most post their system specs.

I have a 20D with a 24-70L lens.

 

[elconejito]

Pick either s1156 based i5 750 ($200-ish) or i7 860 ($280-ish) based on the budget you want to spend. The 860 is better performer in both CS3 (due to higher Ghz) and CS4 (due to more cores/threads) but the i5 750 is no slouch and is surely a huge improvement over whatever ur running now. If for some reason, you're looking at a very extreme workflow and need more RAM, or will be *definitely* doing heavy duty video work later on then the i7 920 on the s1366 platform may be a better buy.

I don't have a specific mobo to recommend, but just find a mobo you like with the features (like usb ports, firewire, # of PCI-e slots, etc) you want/need for $100-$150.

Load up with 4GB or 8GB of RAM depending on your workflow. Check your scratch usage in Photoshop (not memory usage in windows task manager) to see if you really need 8GB. Although if you don't mind the cost, IMO you can never have too much RAM.

For video, since you're using CS3 it totally doesn't matter. If at some point you plan on upgrading to CS4 then you'd need a recent video card that supports OpenGL (which is almost all of them). You don't need much horsepower in CS4 so an ATI 4350 for < $50 and usually around $30 is a good bet. If you'll be gaming, then you'll want a bigger/badder card.

Now, the hard question is the SSD. Anything that loads off of the SSD will be real quick... but since the capacities are so low, they aren't much use for media work. So if you use it for your OS drive, Windows will open up really fast and so will Photoshop. But it won't help much with opening your image files unless you put them on the SSD. So if you feel the cost is worth it for your applications to load then go for it, but keep in mind it won't help if you don't keep files on it.

 

[joseps75]

Hi Maximus96
I just want to share what I built the 3 nights ago Jan 31:

1) intelCore i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model $289
2)Kingston 4GB DDR3 (2 X 2GB) 1600MHz CL8 240-PIN DIMM, DUAL HYPERX $110 3)Zalman CNPS10X Quiet CPU Cooler $60
4)COOLMAX 700W ATX CU-700B 120 SILENT FAN, SEMI MODULAR CABLES $65 5)OEM RADEON 4650 ATI RADEON 4650 DDR2 1GB VA4652NHG1 $80, My total cost=$840
I re-used my old mobo, 2 hdd with existing Vista ult & Win 7 rc, dvd-rw. In my first boot, every thing works except that I have to update both OS. Updating was automatic for each OS. With Vista OS, I activated it by phone and explained to Microsoft rep, that I just updated my old cpu&mobo to Intel core i7 860 &mb-MSI P55 gd65. My system was activated ok. Runs very cool.
Its not the top of the line, but I am very happy with it. To check its 8 thread performance, I use it in distributed computing with Rosetta@home and World CommunityGrid on Vista Ult os. In WCG, 8 threads are running 8 work units. But I am not successful with R@H. Server can not download wu.
I do not OC or play Games. I will use it for photo editing, spreadsheets/word, internet, email, music and DC. Very fast at 2.9ghz. Running only on dedault setting.I hope this gives you an idea of cheap builb.
joaeps75

 

[betasub]

Nice build, joseps. Are both Vista and Win7 64-bit installs? Do you run any virtual machines?

 

[Maximus96]

thanks guys, after looking around the forums, i nailed down some of the components. it will be a i7-920/asus p6t deluxe v2/radeon 4670 (for minimal gaming on an old monitor). I still need to figure out the memory (3x2gb of some kind) and power supply (enough to overclock the cpu and run the low-end graphics card). what do you recommend for these two?

the SSD is something i'm not sure about. will a 40GB be enough for win7 + applications and leave me about 15gb to dump my raw camera files to?

 

[VirtualLarry]

thanks guys, after looking around the forums, i nailed down some of the components. it will be a i7-920/asus p6t deluxe v2/radeon 4670 (for minimal gaming on an old monitor). I still need to figure out the memory (3x2gb of some kind) and power supply (enough to overclock the cpu and run the low-end graphics card). what do you recommend for these two?

Honestly, if you are never going to use a high-end gaming card, then any good 500W would be enough for that rig, but I'm not sure you want to lock yourself into a limitation like that. Otherwise, consider something like a 750TX from Corsair or like.

the SSD is something i'm not sure about. will a 40GB be enough for win7 + applications and leave me about 15gb to dump my raw camera files to?

No, 40GB is really only big enough for Win7 itself, and possibly a few apps like photoshop. Especially if you have a lot of RAM, and therefore large paging and hibernation files.
You could consider a VelociRaptor drive for your media files.

 

[joseps75]

Nice build, joseps. Are both Vista and Win7 64-bit installs? Do you run any virtual machines?

No, I am running 32-bit and not running virtual machines. I wish I can run 64-bit Win 7. But I am afraid the 64-bit OS is not supported in Distributed Computing. I just run my boxes on distributed computing for medical research for human disease cure, its my volunteer work.
I believe the disadvantage of 32-bit is that only 3gb of ram mem is recognized and useful.Thanks.
joseps

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

No, I am running 32-bit and not running virtual machines. I wish I can run 64-bit Win 7. But I am afraid the 64-bit OS is not supported in Distributed Computing. I just run my boxes on distributed computing for medical research for human disease cure, its my volunteer work.
I believe the disadvantage of 32-bit is that only 3gb of ram mem is recognized and useful.Thanks.
joseps

can u run DC in VM?

 

[elconejito]

thanks guys, after looking around the forums, i nailed down some of the components. it will be a i7-920/asus p6t deluxe v2/radeon 4670 (for minimal gaming on an old monitor). I still need to figure out the memory (3x2gb of some kind) and power supply (enough to overclock the cpu and run the low-end graphics card). what do you recommend for these two?

the SSD is something i'm not sure about. will a 40GB be enough for win7 + applications and leave me about 15gb to dump my raw camera files to?

Honestly, if you are never going to use a high-end gaming card, then any good 500W would be enough for that rig, but I'm not sure you want to lock yourself into a limitation like that. Otherwise, consider something like a 750TX from Corsair or like.

No, 40GB is really only big enough for Win7 itself, and possibly a few apps like photoshop. Especially if you have a lot of RAM, and therefore large paging and hibernation files.
You could consider a VelociRaptor drive for your media files.

Agree on the PSU. You should be totally fine with a 500w, but there are several reasonably priced PSU's from Antec, Corsair, etc in the 600-700w range if you need or want the headroom.

For the Hard drive, I just don't think it's feasible to run your OS, applications AND have data on it.

The way I see it...if you don't have that much data where it fits comfortably on the SSD then really it can't take that long to process thru lightroom/photoshop. If you have a substantial amount of data where you really CAN use the speed of an SSD, then you're going to be constantly moving data onto and off of the SSD to make room for the latest files you're working on... which in my mind completely negates the advantage the SSD brings.

If you're really set on using the SSD maybe you could use it as a working drive. So get a regular drive (WD 1TB black for example) as your OS/apps and then use the 40GB SSD for files you're currently working on. You'll eventually have to move them off of the drive though.

 

[dmw16]

For your usage I don't think I'd spend the money for an SSD and if your budget really is $800 then you won't be able to get an SSD and be within budget anyway. I think a great alternative is the 2TB Black Series from Western Digital. Supposed to be a great performer. It's pricey, but still good considering you are getting 2TB.

I also agree that a 500-600W PSU is fine. I am running an i7 860 w/ a Radeon 5870 on a Corsair 520W PSU and things seem fine.

If you want help selecting actual components post up a fairly solid budget and we can all help more from there.

 

[mfenn]

No, 40GB is really only big enough for Win7 itself, and possibly a few apps like photoshop. Especially if you have a lot of RAM, and therefore large paging and hibernation files.
You could consider a VelociRaptor drive for your media files.

If you're running an SSD with a bunch of RAM, either turn off the page file and hibernation or at least relocate pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys! Not only are you wasting space on your SSD, but you are wearing it out with unnecessary writes.

If you workload is such that you regularly have to hit the page file, the time lost due to swapping is killing your productivity. First order of business in that case would be to up the RAM..

 

[Maximus96]

so far i ordered the following

Asus p6t deluxe from zipzoomfly, i imagine the ones now are all v2?
6gb ocz ddr3 1600 'gold'
noctua hsf / arctic silver 5
sapphire 5750 gpu
corsair 650hx psu

i'm going to pick up the i7-920 from microcenter this weekend

still torn on the ssd. i do think 40gb is too small. amazon is out of the intel 80gb...

edit: pulled the trigger on a 150gb velociraptor since there is no way for me to get the intel ssd before i start building this weekend.

 

[elconejito]

Oh man, can you still cancel the order on that raptor? The WD 1TB Black runs neck-a-neck with it. The new Samsung 1TB (F3? F1 I forget) is faster than the WD Black. Plus you get like 8 or 9 times the space.

If I were in your boat, I'd skip the SSD. Period.

But if you've just got to have it, be a little patient and hold out for the 80GB (or whatever it is you were looking at). 40GB is too much of a compromise no matter which way you cut it. The WD 150GB raptor has been surpassed by just about everything. The only Raptor worth considering at this point is the 300GB, but at that price point it's a toss up whether you get the increased speed/decreased size of a SSD or the decreased speed/increased size of a traditional drive. It's literally the middle man, but a very expensive one.

 

[joseps75]

can u run DC in VM?

Hi
I am not sure if DC can run in VM. I have not heard of anyone doing it. I think it 's kind of new. If you are interested in DC, you can check with Rosetta@Home or World Community Grid and inquire about it.
joseps

 

[jae]

Thread jackers!

You bit the bullet too quick. You shouldve consulted with us before you placed that order. Atleast you got a good PSU