6x PCs for Adobe CS5 - build help please

[Guardsmon]

Good afternoon all,

I have been asked to put together prices and specs for 6x PCs in our Art Dept (we are a school) that can be used for Photoshop and Premier. We do NOT game so this should not be taken into account.
Currently they have 2x 27" Macs which we don't like very much so my boss has gone ahead and orders 6x Hazro 27"'s (same panel as the Mac's I believe) to show them what PC's can do instead. Personally I think they are a little overkill and its bitten into my budget, but hey.

• Currently I have £600 inc. left to spend each.
• The screens will be running at 2560x1440.
• We will not be upgrading to CS6 any time soon. A Blu-ray writer would be ideal.
• My boss has requested it has a 120GB SSD after installing one in his PC.
• Storage HDD of 1TB+ is preferred, but if pushing the budget can be added later.

I am aware if I was gaming I should be looking at a GPU with 2GB dedicated for this resolution, and that premier can be quite GPU hungry, but how much is it really necessary? Should I be looking at a i7 and less GPU or i5 and slightly better?

Please if you've had experience with this let me know.

Currently I'm looking down the lines of:

• Intel i5 3450 Retail
• OCZ Agility 3 120GB SATA3
• 8GB DDR1600
• Nvidia GTX 560 2048Mb version - is this really required?
• 1TB HDD SATA2
• Intel B75 chipset motherboard
• Blu-ray writer
• 500W+ PSU
• Silverstone Precision PS05 USB3

This is coming in slightly over budget. Allowing £620 absolute max, (would have to be clearly better) please present any ideas.

Kind Regards

Guardsmon

 

[Enjoi]

Hi There, I shall sort this out for you and email yourself with a quote once i have confirmed price, and i shall answer the questions you have asked Direct to your email

 

[arad85]

You do NOT need a high performance graphics card for Photoshop unless you make use of the 3D accelerations (and I don't know how much that truly uses it, see: http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/gpu-opengl-features-preferences-photoshop.html). Premiere Pro can work quite happily on much lesser hardware than a 560. I have a 450GT (passive) and that makes my overclocked i7 look like a toy for the tasks it can accelerate. You need to "hack" the support in (i.e. edit a text file) as long as your GPU can support Premiere Pro (most "decent" cards can be).

i7 vs i5 - at the same clock speed, you'll get about 10% quicker encode performance from an i7, for heavily automated photoshop you'll get around the same. For interactive photoshop the differences will be negligible.

Personally, I'd look for a better SSD (Crucial M4/Samsung 830), putting in a decent PSU and possibly looking at what it would take to overclock (i5-xxxxK and a Z77 board with "decent" heatsink) depending on preferences where you are.

 

[Guardsmon]

Hi Arad85,

Thanks for your help. I have read a few of your posts in similar threads previously and I can see you like scaremongering people out of high end GPUs for Photoshop But I do appreciate the advice.
As we are a school we will not be overclocking in anyway - would love to, but we won't.
I didn't know how much the added dedicated memory onboard would help with the rendering, but it appears I don't need to worry about that.

I'll take a look tonight and tomorrow and see if I can come up with a better idea with a less expensive GPU - the quote Enjoi came back with was well over my budget unfortunately.

 

[daver]

How come you have a need for 1TB on each PC, do you not store most of your data server side?

Do they have to be identical - you could get a couple with a decent graphics card then the rest with a low-mid range one?

 

[arad85]

Thanks for your help. I have read a few of your posts in similar threads previously and I can see you like scaremongering people out of high end GPUs for Photoshop But I do appreciate the advice.

Scaremongering - ha - I like that Sorry, was a tad rushed when I wrote that. It wasn't the best worded reply.

As we are a school we will not be overclocking in anyway - would love to, but we won't.

I did wonder, hence the "depending on preferences where you are".

 

[nickeverett]

I'm currently running CS6 and LR4 with

i5 2500k
16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz RAM
Samsung 830 128GB SSD (OS & CS6/LR4)
Seagate 3TB 7200RPM SATAIII HDD (Pictures)
Asus PA238Q 23.5" IPS Monitor

I don't think a separate GPU is necessary unless you're doing 3D work. I use the iGPU which works perfectly atm.
I would suggest getting 16GB RAM rather than 8GB. I started off with 8GB, but frequently maxed it out when running Photoshop and Lightroom at the same time.

 

[nickeverett]

Just noticed the 2560x1440 resolution. Although the iGPU some 1155 boards will support this resolution, not all will. So if you choose to go down the integrated graphics route, make sure your motherboard can supply the required resolution.

As an example; the asus P8Z77-V boards support upto 1920x1200 on HDMI and DVI-D but 2560x1600 on Display Port.




edit: 26500 changed to 2560

 

[Guardsmon]

How come you have a need for 1TB on each PC, do you not store most of your data server side?

Do they have to be identical - you could get a couple with a decent graphics card then the rest with a low-mid range one?

We don't have unlimited space on our SAN and from experience we've found the students like to create a LOT of work that they use once and then don't want to keep, but leave in their folders anyway. This way they can store as much as they want on the local drives and once they are happy they have the product they are happy with they can move it across to their networked My Docs.

Its not that we couldn't put it straight onto the network - its more it would cost us a LOT more to buy an additional left-hand SAN just for the Art departments storage

Just noticed the 2560x1440 resolution. Although the iGPU some 1155 boards will support this resolution, not all will. So if you choose to go down the integrated graphics route, make sure your motherboard can supply the required resolution.

As an example; the asus P8Z77-V boards support upto 1920x1200 on HDMI and DVI-D but 25600x1600 on Display Port.

Thanks, I'm now looking at something like the Zotac GeForce GTS 450 Zone which can run passive and should easily provide us with enough ummmmph should we need it Its now a case of getting it all within the very tight budget I have.

 

[arad85]

Thanks, I'm now looking at something like the Zotac GeForce GTS 450 Zone which can run passive and should easily provide us with enough ummmmph should we need it

That's EXACTLY the card I have . I bought it as it appeared to be the best (i.e. most performant) passive Nvidia card I could get at the time. Really not up on gfx cards, but it has done everything I've asked of it (I'm sure the faster cards will do more for Premier Pro, but you have to ask will they do that much more for you).

 

[Guardsmon]

That's EXACTLY the card I have . I bought it as it appeared to be the best (i.e. most performant) passive Nvidia card I could get at the time. Really not up on gfx cards, but it has done everything I've asked of it (I'm sure the faster cards will do more for Premier Pro, but you have to ask will they do that much more for you).

I'm looking at atleast that as I had a GT 440 in my work machine a few months ago and it was CACK!! I've now nicked an old 9800GT I found and it is much smoother..