Best computers for photography...

GregRycroft

GregRycroft

Suspended / Banned
Messages
40
Edit My Images
Yes
My computer is getting old now, and I'm looking to replace it with one that is very capable of handling large photos in photoshop...

I have been looking around for a while now, and am loathed to visit pc world for there "advice" but am now not too sure what to do..

I use a macbook for teathered shooting on location etc and that works well, but id rather stick with PC for my home use...

i've been looking around and i've found a few companies like alienware that make gaming pc's which i guess would be very good...but there quite expensive etc. the other company i looked at was force tek, they seemed to be quite good, wondering if anyone has any experience with them?

thoughts etc would be great.

:)

links
force-tek http://www.force-tek.co.uk
 
whitey said:
i work in IT and would say self build, build one for your specific needs.
Click to expand...


Not everyone is confident enough to do so
 
yeah, I've heard its relatively easy, but im not looking to buy lots of parts, sit down and set it all up etc.. but still want something customish..

thats why that force tek company looked kinda good...

any other thoughts?
 
PsiFox said:
Not everyone is confident enough to do so
Click to expand...

even a local computer shop (away from the big names) would happily build one to your spec

if people lived local i would offer to build one up if they got all parts etc
 
You can pretty much customise most Dells, or even update what you have now.

The best components for gaming aren't always going to be the best components for photo editing either...
 
lol well i think i will email force tek now and see what they could do, because im not really sure what i actually need!

ill let you know what comes of it all :)
 
If you go to dells website you have the option to customize and build.

Also another Company I have used many times before (I work as an IT Consultant so order alot of stuff) is a company called Novatech. They are resonable priced, customizable and trustworthy. They can be found at http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/


Damn I need to type faster.....beaten again!
 
Microsoft says...

"CAUSE
This behavior is the expected result of certain hardware and software factors.

Various devices in a typical computer require memory-mapped access. This is known as memory-mapped I/O (MMIO). For the MMIO space to be available to 32-bit operating systems, the MMIO space must reside within the first 4 GB of address space.

For example, if you have a video card that has 256 MB of onboard memory, that memory must be mapped within the first 4 GB of address space. If 4 GB of system memory is already installed, part of that address space must be reserved by the graphics memory mapping. Graphics memory mapping overwrites a part of the system memory. These conditions reduce the total amount of system memory that is available to the operating system.

The reduction in available system memory depends on the devices that are installed in the computer. However, to avoid potential driver compatibility issues, the 32-bit versions of Windows Vista limit the total available memory to 3.12 GB. See the "More information" section for information about potential driver compatibility issues.

If a computer has many installed devices, the available memory may be reduced to 3 GB or less. However, the maximum memory available in 32-bit versions of Windows Vista is typically 3.12 GB."
 
EdinburghGary said:
Nope, it just pretends to. It might report 4GB, it is however an x86 problem, therefore Vista can't get around it.

Someone feel free to prove me wrong :)

Gary.
Click to expand...

Nope, your right. 32bit vista is a lying, memory stealing swine :D
 
so get Vista x64 :D like me ;)
 
i use Vista business at home and as standard it doesnt, but after sp1 is installed it uses the full 4gb

i found it strange at first to
 
whitey said:
i use Vista business at home and as standard it doesnt, but after sp1 is installed it uses the full 4gb

i found it strange at first to
Click to expand...

It's lying to you :) They did it to stop people thinking their memory was duff and / or windows was bust. Now they just tell you what is physically installed, but not what it can use.
 
that will explain that, i know it uses 3.25, i used to use XP 64x at home with no issues but upgraded to vista as it seemed alot better and stable than XP did for some reason

i dont use half the memory but its nice to know
 
bastic said:
so get Vista x64 :D like me ;)
Click to expand...

Yup Vista64 uses all the memory.

Any PC will be fine for Image editing, you just need 4Gb of memory and a big hard drive to store the files.

The Important Bit is the Monitor, read the reviews and buy the biggest / best you can afford

I build my own, but I've got a watercooled system for running games :p


Just like Lego!!! Except, if you plug the wrong bricks together, you get elecrocuted. Then you die.
Click to expand...

only if you built it in the bath :cuckoo:
 
GregRycroft said:
My computer is getting old now, and I'm looking to replace it with one that is very capable of handling large photos in photoshop...

I have been looking around for a while now, and am loathed to visit pc world for there "advice" but am now not too sure what to do..

I use a macbook for teathered shooting on location etc and that works well, but id rather stick with PC for my home use...

i've been looking around and i've found a few companies like alienware that make gaming pc's which i guess would be very good...but there quite expensive etc. the other company i looked at was force tek, they seemed to be quite good, wondering if anyone has any experience with them?

thoughts etc would be great.

:)

links
force-tek http://www.force-tek.co.uk
Click to expand...

Alienware do make specialised PC's designed as digital media workstations, but they'd be overkill if you're not doing masses of rendering and CG.

I agree that you'd be best off building a computer yourself.

I'd go with a decent but not top end graphics card, mid to high end processor, the fastest mother board, and most ram you can afford. Also consider two HDD's (or even two RAID 0 arrays) one for the system and one for your scratch disk/storage. A setup like that should do you well for years to come.
 
Mac pro 8 x 3.2GHz, 32Gb Ram and 4 x 1TB hard drives then budget in for 2 30" Dell 3008 monitors!

Ho hummm


Anyway i've built literally hundreds of computers (going back to the 286!) having been a component level service engineer in a previous life. People are always asking me to build them a computer but to be honest it is no longer as cheap a way of owning one as it once was.

I have looked into both options for several people and come to different conclusions each time! For most people Dell's computers are actually pretty good value and their 2408 monitor is superb too for others you can completely build one to your own spec and get a right cracker!

It would be worth going down the self build route only if you have the experience and knowledge yourself. It is all well and good saying it is easy, it is! It is VERY easy.... UNTIL something goes wrong. Once that happens it then becomes a real drag (if you don't know what you are doing) trying to work out what is at fault especially if it is a compatibility problem. If you have to ask then don't self build.

If you buy a Dell and it goes wrong you ring one number and they fix it. If your software goes wrong you get a re-install disc.

Horses for courses!
 
Don't get Vista....l hate it so much...you have no idea....ohhh how l hate it.

Cannot move files around...cannot burn photos onto discs. Hate it.:bang:
 
My dad always buys Dells, and they are superb at customer service too. They have always built him whatever he wanted....they never fail to keep him happy....and thats not easy, beleive me.
 
You don't need an amazing graphics card for photoshop, as all the actual processing and manipulation of images is done by the CPU. So anything with a fast dual core processor and a big chunk of RAM (4Gb if you're going with Vista) would be fine for photos. If you're not confident putting one together yourself you'll be fine with one of the higher spec Dell ones tbh. Leave enough money for a nice monitor upgrade and a big hard drive if you can!
 
I'm in the Dell camp too, Vista Home Premium, Athlon Dual Core, 2GB RAM, decent 256MB graphics card, card reader, front firewire and usb 2, 320gb drive. £300.

Coupled to a great Smasung 2232BW montior which is cracking at under £200.

More than enough for me to do image manipulation and video editing.
 
I can recommend Dell too, I'm on my fourth top end Inspiron.

I also despise vista, get XP and install service pack 3 much more stable, especially when running power sapping apps like Photoshop.
 
Contact Kustom.co.uk
After answering loads of dumb questions, they built my pc about 8 years ago, with all I wanted, much that I didn't know I would need and since have, but soon after I took it out to Spain, it developed a problem - shipping back was out, so I took it to a local repair man, while waiting for a reply to an email to Kustom.
Kustom replied (And I need to point out that I always dealt with the same person - very important !) and told me to send them the bill for the repair, and they would sort it, no questions.
That sort of customer service is what I wanted and got. When I recently asked about updating my pc, they pulled up the details, went through it all, and were able to quote for a new pc but re-using whatever was still worth keeping, thus saving me plenty. I have not taken them up on it yet, but to me, they give a service that is worth every penny, and while they may not be the cheapest, they do deserve an email..
It has never gone wrong or caused me any trouble, but is rather slow now..
 
AlfaFoxtrot said:
You don't need an amazing graphics card for photoshop, as all the actual processing and manipulation of images is done by the CPU. So anything with a fast dual core processor and a big chunk of RAM (4Gb if you're going with Vista) would be fine for photos. If you're not confident putting one together yourself you'll be fine with one of the higher spec Dell ones tbh. Leave enough money for a nice monitor upgrade and a big hard drive if you can!
Click to expand...

That is no longer the case! CS4 and beyond will use the processing power of the graphics card to speed up floating point calculations.
 
Get an Intel Core2Duo they trounce AMD offerings, 2gb ram minimum but may as well get 4gb as its cheap, big sata2 hard drive, get decent graphics as they do help the system as a whole to work better, and they aren't that expensive for something 1/2 decent, that and a dvdrw drive, also HP's 24" monitor is excellent but if you have the space I really recommend 2 screens, I run two 20.1" screens and it rocks.
 
I was going to say, that the processing power of GPU's are now being used for all sorts of mathematical projects - including IIRC code breaking or something like that.

I would expect software to start taking advantage of this number crunching facility.
 
My advice is go to novatech.

Over the weekend, I built a pc from scratch for a mate at home that really is quite impressive for the price! Here are the links to the stuff

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MBB-P35842
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-96GT
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-DAGON
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-PSU600

Now this came to ~£365 (which is slightly more than he wanted to spend, so budget was tight). If you are happy to spend more, then I suggest telling them you want a better mobo an/or faster/more ram and/or faster CPU. The graphics card will run pretty much everything apart from the very latest of games at full res/detail settings.

I suppose basically what im trying to say is, I have been building pcs for years now, and novatech are the only people I have delt with so far that really know what they are talking about. (I'm not saying others don't, I just may not have any experiance with them yet)
 
andrewc said:
I was going to say, that the processing power of GPU's are now being used for all sorts of mathematical projects - including IIRC code breaking or something like that.

I would expect software to start taking advantage of this number crunching facility.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Folding@home have released/are working on a client that runs on the GPU instead of the CPU to take advantage of massive memory bandwidth and high floating point calculations.
 
if you buy our own bits and build it which i would recommend then look at scan.co.uk, aria.co.uk, ebuyer,overclockers and misco
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top