HELP Please - Check My Spec - ASUS machine...

Gadget13769 · 12 Aug 2007 at 10:36

Okay, I haven't built a new machine in a while, so bear with me...

Here is my outline spec - any major observations / problems /suggestions?...

MOBO: Asus P5k Deluxe
OS: Vista HP 32
CPU: Quad 6600
COOLER: Noctua 12
CASE: Antec P182
PSU: Corsair HX6200
HD: Hitachi T7K500 500GB
DVD-R: Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x Lightscribe
FLOPPY: Scythe Floppy / Card Reader Combo

GRAPHICS: ?

RAM: 2Gb of ?

Suggestions for the last two items welcome. I'm not a hardcore gamer, or overclocker - I mainly need pro level processing power for Photoshop and Sonar (music multitracker, for those who don't know), so a last generation card would be fine.

Crucial's website seems to recommend 5300 RAM - any thought?

...and a graphics card (preferably under £100 for now)?

Thanks in anticipation...

(I've also posted this in the P5K mobo thread)

DavidB · 12 Aug 2007 at 10:45

The crucial ballistix 5300 ram, good ram and im sure it will be more than happy in that spec. Good to overclock too if you plan too at all. You may want to go to 64bit and 4gb of ram if your a big photoshop user, but then i hear 64bit has issues with music programs.

this
is a good value graphics card at the moment, but probably a little overkill if you dont play any games.

bcjames · 12 Aug 2007 at 11:02

I just bought the card mentioned above. Like yourself, my main PC use is music (cubase and all associated software). It really seems like the card to go for thats a good price, but still offers good performance that will last a while still.

Gadget13769 · 12 Aug 2007 at 12:43

Thanks guys. I had seen that card and thought it looked good - seems it might be the one to go for.

How does 64bit help with Photoshop and will my system / OS be able to properly use the whole 4GB RAM if I opted for that (I hear differing views on this)?

Thanks again.

the shadow · 12 Aug 2007 at 12:58

How about a 1950 pro card.

DavidB · 12 Aug 2007 at 13:13

How does 64bit help with Photoshop and will my system / OS be able to properly use the whole 4GB RAM if I opted for that (I hear differing views on this)?

I think photoshop is optimised for 64 bit, which will make pretty much everything faster. Windows xp tends to only recognise 3-3.5gb of ram, but theres a massive grey area on how effective it actually is beyond 2gb. A 64bit OS can handle up too 128gb of ram, which will be enougth for a while

Untill someone really does a benchtest with 4gb of ram in vista 64 compared to vista 32, i dont think we will ever know how much difference it makes to ram management.