Which mobo/CPU combination for Photoshop user on a budget?

[Ilyavich]

Hello all,

I currently have a Dell E521 computer which has all AMD stuff in it. I want to switch to and Intel chipset and motherboard, and I need a lot of help. I want my Adobe Photoshop CS3 to run SMOOTHLY, with no hiccups and slowdowns. I do a decent amount of photo processing, and something in my computer is holding me back for some reason. My questions are as follows:

1) I think the E521 has the motherboard mounted on the wrong side or something like that - is this true? Does this mean I need a certain type of motherboard?

2) My current specs:

* AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Dual Core Processor
* 1GB PC2-4200 DDR2 Memory
* 160GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
* 16x DVD+/-RW Burner
* 19" Dell E197FP LCD Monitor
* NVIDIA GeForce 7300LE Graphics with 256MB TurboCache
* Integrated AC'97 Audio
* 10/100 Ethernet
* Six USB 2.0 Ports
* Windows XP MCE, MS Works 8

Question: This setup, with Windows VISTA, is pretty decent for surfing and such but not for Photoshop. What do I need do make my experience smoother? More RAM as well?

3) I am looking to stay under $400. Please tell me everything that will GREATLY increase my Photoshop speed and productivity.

Thank you!

 

[DarkRogue]

Photoshop is pretty notorious for eating up your RAM like no tomorrow, and then it'll start chewing up your hard drives for pagefile and/or scratch disk use.
A faster processor will also definitely help it along. Certain operations in Photoshop are multithreaded so more cores would help when doing those things as well.

All things considered, more RAM, faster CPU, faster/bigger hard drives would be my recommendation in order of importance.

 

[akhilles]

I strongly suggest you consider an overclocked Intel build. I do photoshopping as well. Lags & slowdowns? Don't know about that, but whenever I apply a filter, it takes some time. Moving a large image around is smooth. Cropping takes some time.

Also, your investment budget won't be $400. More like $500-550, depending on how much return you get back by selling the duplicate parts. Take this as a starting point:

E7200
Xigmatek hdt-s1283
2X2GB DDR2-800MHZ RAM or more
GA-P35-DS3L or IP35-E

That sets you less than $400 back. If there's money left, consider 2 faster small harddisks with the new 320GB platter(s) in RAID 0 setup. 320GB or 640GB. Western Digital.

 

[justinm]

Originally posted by: akhilles
I strongly suggest you consider an overclocked Intel build. I do photoshopping as well. Lags & slowdowns? Don't know about that, but whenever I apply a filter, it takes some time. Moving a large image around is smooth. Cropping takes some time.

Also, your investment budget won't be $400. More like $500-550, depending on how much return you get back by selling the duplicate parts. Take this as a starting point:

E7200
Xigmatek hdt-s1283
2X2GB DDR2-800MHZ RAM or more
GA-P35-DS3L or IP35-E

That sets you less than $400 back. If there's money left, consider 2 faster small harddisks with the new 320GB platter(s) in RAID 0 setup. 320GB or 640GB. Western Digital.

I may take up that RAID setup with those hard disks. I just bought an E7200 and DP35DP mobo setup and have Kingston DDR800 2GB from my DG965WH. I do not O/C also as yocan tell from my mobo choice. I do a lot of chopping for my websites.