Spec me a system for photoshop CS4 budget £1000 max

spikey57

spikey57

spikey57

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Not really sure where to put a spec me thread for this. But anyhow. I have a friend who has a maximum budget of £1000 preferably spending less, for a pc to run Photoshop CS4.

If possible I'd like a spec that'll run it as good/well as possible whilst spending the least (Reasonable to assume that the minimum will be around the £5-600 mark for the base unit + the cost of the monitor).

It is possible that they will be using it for some light gaming, as well. Price must include case, monitor around the 22" size, OS(64-bit if possible) and all other relevent components.

Thanks in advance!

spikey57
 
apple seems to be popular for photoshop/graphic design crowd, all my creative friends use em and rave on (ie better display etc...). I don't know if it's really true (I don't really care tbh since I rarely use photoshop) but the pros do use em, so there must be some truth to it, I guess :confused:

think I am gonna get flamed on this forum for saying that - flamesuit on
 
This would do you, just need to add kb/mouse if you dont have them, Ive included the antec300 case, its a good case but cases are very much personal choice, so if not to taste then select an alternative - Id be guessing youd want to look at something like a LianLi if this isnt suitable, also note theres quite a few of these components on TWO so if you want these exact components move fast

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Edit: sry I cut the price off bottom but you can see it on RHS, 985
 
lunarwolf said:
apple seems to be popular for photoshop/graphic design crowd, all my creative friends use em and rave on (ie better display etc...). I don't know if it's really true (I don't really care tbh since I rarely use photoshop) but the pros do use em, so there must be some truth to it, I guess :confused:

think I am gonna get flamed on this forum for saying that - flamesuit on
Click to expand...

Not flaming, but Macs really aren't all they're cracked up to be in creative circles; take it from someone studying for an MA in Design and working in the industry :D

A solid PC with 4GB of RAM and a quad core CPU will perform very well in Photoshop and will be a lot cheaper than the equivalent mac :)
 
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Spending far too much on the graphics and not enough on the monitor.
For photoshop work a Radeon 4670 and a 24" Dell Ultrasharp or something would be much better. They're expensive though, I'd drop the PSU down to a 450watt Corsair and motherboard to a P43 chipset one to accomodate.
Good choices on the CPU and the rest though.
 
only upped the gfx card from what i would have recomended because of the TWO (this week only) offer, figured at that price its a steal, I realise less would suffice. The Corsair is again on TWO and for the sake of a tenner its worth it, extra 200W, youre prob right re mobo though
 
I know where you're coming from but you'll really benfit from a pro monitor over a gaming one, I'd sacrifice in other areas for the monitor. The CPU and HD drive are spot on for this sort of work.
 
Thanks for all the input guys, just wondering what MB you would recommend instead of the one in the spec given above (much appreciated by the way 95thrifles :) )

If there was a better alternative that would cut some off the price, it could be put towards a better/ bigger monitor for around the same ballpark figure of the spec listed above.


Thanks,

spikey57
 
This one would save you £30, and then you could look at something like this for your monitor, its £50 more so pushes overall price up by around £20. As discussed above, you could afford to drop the gfx card down a bit, but that one I selected is on sale at moment and excellent value, and it'll last for quite a few years without needing upgrading, your call
 
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I picked the Q8200 over the Q6600 as its new technology and cooler with better overlocking ability should you choose to. The extra cache on the Q6600 means nothing with regards to manipulating images assuming you will be manipulating lare files.

A good 24" monitor for desktop space is more ideal. I did look at the Samsung on offer but not sure if you want cream (:confused:) and also if you are going to be purchasing in the next 5 days.

The OCZ 1066 is good memory but if you want a different manufacturer then I would suggest looking at the Corsair memory as they are compatible with far more motherboards than others. The Akasa 965 cooler is good bang for buck. Its quiet and again gives you some headroom if you want to overclock the CPU.

I chose the case as its a great build and has added esata in case you want to attach an external device.

The 650W PSU is currently on offer and if you dont order here on time or order from somewhere else then maybe look at the Corsair 550W as that will be more than ideal for your setup.

The 4350 is a great card. It will come with a DVI-HDMI adaptor (ones which only ATI make themselves) for playing HD movies on the 24" monitor.

2x500GB hard drives would be more ideal for backup purposes. You dont want to loose that image you took so long manipulating. If you are ordering later, maybe hang on for the Samsung F1 500GB but OCUK have no ETA of the new stock. :(

Oh and its always handy to throw in a few extra 12cm fans into the order as the CM-690 takes 5 12cm just for intake and exhaust. I think the case only comes with 3 as standard.
 
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You've selected a pretty poor HDD there, according to opinions on here theres been quite a few issues with them of late, this is not personal experience just rumour. The 965 is out of stock and Id definately get a different monitor, a proper 24" with 1920*1200 as opposed to that one which only has 1920*1050 and on another point isnt even out yet. also you missed off OS. That mobo youve selected is very poor, the 24pin connector is in a really awkward position (middle of the board) making it very hard to work with. also as you quoted OCZ is not as fully supported, well the main company they reportedly have issues with is Asus so pairing them up is a bit of a no no (I know Im runing both myself ;) ) And as I said before case is entriely personal, find one you like the look of and go for it
 
I will probably be choosing the 1st build option, but maybe swap the 1TB drive with 2 500GB, as it would provide a back up option. The processor in the initial build has been given heaps of praise on these forums (Q6600) and so I would be more inclined to go with that.

The price will probably go up if they're on offer now, as I will be getting confirmation as to whether they want to go through with it in the next couple of weeks.

But please keep the spec suggestions coming. Much appreciated. There will be the generic build thread most likely when it gets confirmed and I get the all the kit through.

Thanks again! :)

spikey57
 
I was aware of the issues with OCZ and Asus boards but all the decent 8500 ram is out of stock. The Corsair XMS2 6400 is ample enough and doeas have some headroom for overclocking. Mine does 1000Mhz and does get hot when gaming but a small 8cm fan hovering over them would keep them cool enough. I did advise to get the Samsung F1's but again, out of stock. Good point on the monitor.

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Thanks for the input guys, just got some feedback from the person whom I'm going to be building the pc for, and if possible they asked me to get a spec built for around the £5-600 mark. Again all in (monitor, Operating system 64-bit & base unit). I should have been a bit clearer in the OP. But I would like to get an idea of two systems. The one posted by 95thrifles above comes across to me as a higher end spec for the job. So if possible could I get an idea of a system towards the minimum system requirements for the software.

Cheers again guys!!

:)

spikey57
 
I thought CS4 was CUDA compatible so in theory should work much better with an nvidia GPU (assuming the gains are real world and not just marketing BS).

I don't really know, I've never needed photoshop.
 
CS4's GPU acceleration works with ATI's too, the NVidia emphasis is more of a joint marketing effort. Even with this, I think a mid range card from either company will be fine.
 
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