Photoshop Rig for £500ish

Martin SH

Martin SH

Martin SH

Associate
Joined
16 Jan 2008
Posts
84
I am currently putting together a computer for Photoshop and Lightroom use. I am a photographer.

I posted a similar request a few months ago but have held off..... unfortunately my current machine is on its last legs

My budget for just the tower is £500.

Some musts:

Minimum 4 gig ram.
64 bit Vista Home?
What do you think, duo or quad core?
One 750 gig HD disk (I have others for backup).

I have considered an iMac 24 inch but think I can put a better machine together for less money.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Martin
 
Quads are cheap and photoshop is one of the lucky apps that uses all 4 cores. I presume LR does too. Well worth it.
Plus 4Gb is dirt cheap as well, and to use all of the ram 64bit Vista Home Premium should be the one to go for I guess.
For specific component recommendations perhaps posting/reading the sub forums
 
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4gigs of RAM
Quad Core
Vista 64
And a extra HDD to use as Photoshop's scratch disk.

Also, get a monitor calibrator for your screen.
 
if your not a pc nut and dont play games and have to upgrade everytime something new comes along. Then iMac is my vote all in one machine perfect for any photographers needs.
 
ichabod crane said:
if your not a pc nut and dont play games and have to upgrade everytime something new comes along. Then iMac is my vote all in one machine perfect for any photographers needs.
Click to expand...

I was almost convinced about the iMac until I went onto the Mac forum where the one of the largest posts is people having problems with the 24 inch screen. It seems it is brighter one side than the other, not a great advert for a photo machine, So I am going to self build.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Martin
 
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) - £70.49
Asus P5K SE Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - £62.26
Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD753LJ) - £68.14
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM - £133.94
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK) - £61.09
Akasa AK-ZEN-01-WH Rev.2 Zen White Case - No PSU - £28.19
LG GH20NS10 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM - £16.44
Akasa Ultra Quiet 400W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.2 PSU - Black Nickel - £41.11

Total: £494.52

Didn't know if you needed a new graphics card (do you already have one?). If you do you may struggle to get a quad core and a decent graphics card (plus everything else) for under £500.

Hope that helps anyway :)
 
Might be worth getting a graphics card if he plans to upgrade to CS4 as it's apparently going to use the GPU to speed up processing - link, although by the time it's released in october there will probabaly be better cards available for the same money.
 
 
i doubt a 8800GT will be needed for non-gaming/photosop use. maybe a 8600GT or a HD3600. If you do get a iMac, and want 4gb RAM, get it from OCUK, half the price than from apple ;)
 
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