Advice Please - system for Photoshop work

HummuH1 · 20 Jul 2010 at 12:32

Hope you can help.

My mum has got into photography in a big way and her current system is really struggling to cope. She's using Photoshop to work on RAW image files which are pretty large.

She's looking to buy a new system and I'd be grateful for any pointers you can give on the following points:

CPU: Quad or Dual? She won't be overclocking so will be running stock, any suggestions for capable CPU's appreciated.

RAM: Will 4gb running on a 32-bit system be enough or is is better to look at 64-bit for higher RAM useage?

GPU: Will a decent GPU help performance at all? I don't think she'd be consciously using any CUDA features, even if it helps at all.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Cheers.

Redmint · 20 Jul 2010 at 12:45

Quad core & 4GB RAM with windows 7 64 bit gets my vote.

I'm not sure how much Photoshop would benefit from the extra cache if you swapped the CPU for the Phenom X4.

Graphics wise, photoshop is 2D so a basic GPU is fine from my experience.

HummuH1 · 20 Jul 2010 at 13:11

Cheers. Not looking for a spec as such just trying to comprehend what a suitable CPU/Ram combo would be to cope with PS, now you've kindly answered the GPU question!

So on CPU, is a quad going to make much difference over a dual for PS work?

Redmint · 20 Jul 2010 at 13:21

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2336860,00.asp

If she's got the CS4 version of photoshop then it seems to be quite well optimised for quads.

adrichardson81 · 20 Jul 2010 at 13:54

One thing that will enormously is a 2nd hard drive. Working from a single HDD really slows Photoshop down.

Get a 500gb Samsung F3 for the OS and Photoshop, and a 1TB F3 for the paging file and photos.

Have you thought about display at all? If she is getting serious about it, she'll want an IPS monitor. You can pick up a 22009wa on the bay for under £180 (incredible value for money).

HummuH1 · 20 Jul 2010 at 14:35

Redmint said:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2336860,00.asp

If she's got the CS4 version of photoshop then it seems to be quite well optimised for quads.

adrichardson81 said:
One thing that will enormously is a 2nd hard drive. Working from a single HDD really slows Photoshop down.

Get a 500gb Samsung F3 for the OS and Photoshop, and a 1TB F3 for the paging file and photos.

Have you thought about display at all? If she is getting serious about it, she'll want an IPS monitor. You can pick up a 22009wa on the bay for under £180 (incredible value for money).

Thanks guys. Very useful, appreciate it.