Suggestions on new build - Using Adobe creative suite, bit of 3d work etc

nigel1210

nigel1210

nigel1210

Associate
Joined
30 Jan 2003
Posts
262
As i'm using windows at work i'm looking at selling my macpro 2009(2.26ghz) and building a pc, looking for some advice on what components to use in it as i've been out of the pc game for about 3 years.

Using it for the Adobe creative suite - Photoshop, illustrator, indesign and going to be doing some work in premiere and after effects.

Also later on down the line might be looking at dabbling with some 3d programs but only starting with google sketchup to start.

Would love to overclock but will sacrifice overclocking features on the motherboard for stability.

Case wise i'm looking for something non flashy, not interested in light or windows. Just something with good cable management and is well built.

Monitor, o/s and mouse is sorted so need the following. Budget of around £700 to £800 but if cheaper the better lol.

Components needed:

Cpu -
Cpu Cooler -
Case -
Motherboard -
Ram -
Graphics Card
SSD -
Blu ray writer -
Keyboard -

Any suggestions?
 
Last edited:
A starting point:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £167.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £154.99
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 460 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.98
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BluRay ROM / DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £59.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Case - Black £48.98
2 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.98 (£79.96)
1 x Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006) £34.98
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £771.96 (includes shipping : £11.75).



No this mobo has had some issues, but I believe Gigabyte are working to fix it. See here:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18361405
Why did I spec it? Because I built a PC with one and it was great, and the other manufactures seem to have problems too.

Specced a 460 because I believe CUDA can be useful for some software?
 
ok, Say if i pushed the budget to £1100

excellent point about cuda forgot to mention that.

sorry need a psu as well, modular if possible.

and say the i7 2600k, as i heard that photoshop can benefit from the extra threads?
 
CUDA is useful in Premier Pro, After Effects and Photoshop because they use the Mercury Playback Engine.
It only works out of the box with:
•GeForce GTX 285
•GeForce GTX 470
•GeForce GTX 570
•GeForce GTX 580

you need to hack it otherwise.
 
Wow. It's not even late and I forgot a PSU :( lol


YOUR BASKET
1 x Gainward GeForce GTX 570 Golden Sample 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £251.99
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £154.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x XFX 650W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £81.98
1 x Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BluRay ROM / DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £59.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Case - Black £48.98
2 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.98 (£79.96)
1 x Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006) £34.98
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £1,078.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Yeah the extra threads is useful for your sort of work.

EDIT: added a 570 because of the above

Case is personal choice, I have this one and love it - good for the price and clean looks I think. Not perfect, but there are plenty to choose from
 
R088ieS86 said:
CUDA is useful in Premier Pro, After Effects and Photoshop because they use the Mercury Playback Engine.
It only works out of the box with:
•GeForce GTX 285
•GeForce GTX 470
•GeForce GTX 570
•GeForce GTX 580

you need to hack it otherwise.
Click to expand...

I dunno about the others, but Photoshop certainly doesn't use CUDA... out of the box anyway. Don't think After Effects does either.
 
nigel1210 said:
The cold boot problem on the gigabyte seems worrying what's a decent alternative board?
Click to expand...

I have build a PC with this board only a few weeks ago and it was fine, though I understand your concern. What about:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=mb-483-as
personally i quite like asus, i think they had some issues with usb ports but not sure about that one.
review:
http://www.kitguru.net/components/motherboard/zardon/asus-p8z68-v-lx-motherboard-review/23/

some would argue gigabyte/msi are better because i believe they have uk based rma services.

cs5 and cuda:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/adobe-cs5-cuda-64-bit,2770.html
 
Last edited:
Thanks for your help beejjacobs really appreciate it. It's has given me a great benchmark to start from.

Also is there any reason my the samsung blu ray writer is better than the top pioneer or lg? or was that just personal preference.
 
reflux said:
I dunno about the others, but Photoshop certainly doesn't use CUDA... out of the box anyway. Don't think After Effects does either.
Click to expand...

I'm not 100% sure on photoshop but After Effects CS5 definately does!

Edit: ok apparently photoshop does: link

Edit 2:
nigel1210 said:
So if I don't really use premiere that much I could go with a cheaper card.
Click to expand...

If your not going to be using CUDA, which only hardcore users do, then you can get away with the HD3000 graphics in the i7-2600k. Will save you quite a bit of £££ as well.
 
Last edited:
Dont know much about the bluray players sorry.

If your not going to be using CUDA, which only hardcore users do, then you can get away with the HD3000 graphics in the i7-2600k. Will save you quite a bit of £££ as well.
Click to expand...

Yeah, so that's an option to save money. It won't exactly be slow in PS with an i7 ;)

From what i read you just need a plug in or something to run CUDA with PS etc?
 
The samsung is a decent blu ray drive, but if you are looking to write to BR-disks as well then you'll need to look at the LG and Pioneer drives.

The most expensive can write to XL blu ray disks, but if you are just looking to read, then the Samsung is a good choice. I have 2 myself!
 
Completly missed it was a rom, yeah looking at the pioneer and the lg at the moment.

Found this info on cuda support, so will probably go for a cheaper card.

"Will Adobe block this unlock procedure in the future?
Adobe engineers have said publicly on the Adobe forums, that they will not block the hack. The reason is, this is how THEY need to additional support for new cards and according to them, they will be in the future. They didn't hard code the video card list into Premiere CS5, the simply have it in a text file. This allows Adobe to add new supported cards easily, without having to rewrite and recompile the code for Premiere CS5. When Adobe does an update on Premiere CS5, they may replace the cuda_supported_cards.txt file like they did when they issued update version 5.02 and 5.03. When that happens, simply unlock the video card again following the above steps 1 through 19."
 
R088ieS86 said:
I'm not 100% sure on photoshop but After Effects CS5 definately does!

Edit: ok apparently photoshop does: link
Click to expand...

I'm still not sure. I've been using Photoshop since v7 and I haven't seen any new features introduced that would take advantage of CUDA since they brought in GPU acceleration in the first place. Adobe themselves make no mention in their official info about CUDA for Photoshop.

I think Nvidia are just riding on the basic GPU acceleration features that Photoshop can run on any modern cards tbh.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom