Build for Photographer/Photoshop Use?

Martin SH · 8 Feb 2008 at 14:02

I am currently putting together a computer for work (I am a photographer) I need a system that will can handle large Photoshop files. What do you think of this build? Will not have a dedicated graphics card hold me back? Will I see advantages use a Quad care?

Thanks.......

Antec NSK 4480 Mini Tower Case – 380 Earth Watts PSU £54.04

Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R Micro ATX £70.49

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 2.40 Ghz £170.36

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 £58.74

Vista 64X Home Basic £56.39

Samsung SpinPoint T 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD321KJ) £51.69

Pioneer DVR-115DBK 20x DVD±RW IDE Dual Layer £17.61

Total: 479.32

Cheers

Martin

rpstewart · 8 Feb 2008 at 14:12

You should be fine with onboard graphics, it's not as if it's a gaming machine. Photoshop is multi-threaded as are most of the filters so it's fairly sensible to go with a quad. You've gone with 4Gb of RAM which is sensible, no point in any more since even CS3 is still a 32 bit app.

One question - what's your backup plan? You've only got one disk in there and if you're makig a living out of this having only one copy of anything is frankly madness.

semi-pro waster · 8 Feb 2008 at 14:18

I might change the optical drive for a SATA model but other than that the specification looks sound to me.

Martin SH · 8 Feb 2008 at 15:37

rpstewart said:
One question - what's your backup plan? You've only got one disk in there and if you're makig a living out of this having only one copy of anything is frankly madness.

Thanks for the input I use extenal hard drives in pairs one stored off site. I have been looking at the DROBO system.

Regards

Martin

Hodders · 8 Feb 2008 at 15:58

If the motherboard supports Raid1 get a second disk and raid them. With backups you really never can have too many copies !

I have had my butt saved many times by having a mirrored pair.

Martin SH · 8 Feb 2008 at 18:18

Is using a quad core overkill, would I notice a big difference over a Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) whilst using photoshop?

Thanks Martin

tommysdad · 8 Feb 2008 at 23:02

I have the quad core 6600 GO .I use CS2 and Capture One 4.Batch processing Raw files is a lot faster. Turnaround time from photoshoot to client has been reduced.CS2 loads in about 5 seconds,no I don`t think a quad core is overkill.However I have my Q6600 overclocked to 3.7 ghz over the standard speed of 2.4ghz

Backup,
Sometimes I shoot tethered to a macbook pro burning pics to disk on site.I then transfer disks onto pc and always leave pics on memory cards until I have a tested backup.I always burn 2 of everything I give a disk to the client and I keep one, guarantee the client will lose it,or break it.!!

tommysdad