Is 4gb enough?

cowboy

cowboy

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Hi
At present I have a quad core Packard Bell imedia pc, it's about 5 years old now. I've just upgraded to 4gb of RAM but it is still struggling with RAW files from the 7d.

I can't add any more RAM as the system wont take anymore.

Do I need to add a graphics card as it only has built in graphics at the moment?

Will I also need to up the ECU as well as this is only 250w?

Or is it time to pass it on to the kids for social media, minecraft, etc and get a decent one for myself?

If so what would be the minimum spec required?

I wouldn't get the minimum spec, I would just like some idea of what I need.

Sorry for all the questions, it's just getting a bit frustrating now. :)
 
Time for a new faster one.

Having the same problem I settled on an i7 2700k setup with a 128Gb SSD to run the OS on (a 256Gb would probably be better), partioned to give me about 70Gb to use as a scratchpad and a SATA3 HDD to save photos to.

More RAM would probably be better but only if you're going to run a 64 bit OS, as neither XP nor WIN 7 32 bit OS' can access more then about 3.6Gb of RAM.

If you wanted to save some money many people on here also recommend an i5 system, but I cannot comment on that as I went straight to the i7 setup from a duo core for the same reasons you now need to - it couldn't cope with the files from my 1Ds MkII.

The onboard graphics would certainly cope as it is the speed of the system which matters for editing photos.

And a PSU of 500W would easily be enough for the setup suggested including a DVD re-writer and fans etc.

.
 
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Start again from scratch. I'm also guessing it's a 32 bit OS too.

What is your budget?
 
Thanks.

I need/want a system I can use without it struggling.

Budget, no idea although I have been looking at an i mac, so I suppose around a grand ish ;)

I don't want to get myself a system that I'll need to upgrade again in a year or two so I am willing to spend a reasonable amount of money on it. Buy once and get what I need rather than make do and buy a few times.
 
Buy complete or build your own?
 
Probably buy one complete as I've only built one and that was about 15 years ago :D
 
daugirdas said:
mac mini i7 with maxed out RAM to 16GB (from Crucial) easily crunches 5DIII files even doing very heavy processing. Not too expensive either...
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+1

Mac mini is one of the best value Mac's on the market at the moment.

I would go for an i7 server model (you don't have to use the server tools, so it is exactly like the standard mini, but with more power/flexibility) and add third-party RAM (16GB from Crucial) and an SSD.

Jigsaw in Nottingham (jigsaw24.com) have some on discount at the moment.
 
cowboy said:
Probably buy one complete as I've only built one and that was about 15 years ago :D
Click to expand...
In which case, wait a few weeks. Intel launched Haswell (their 4th gen processor) yesterday so I would expect to see some 3rd gen bargains.

I build my own, so have never tried off-the-shelf solutions, but Novatech seems to be a well thought of manufacturer. Also look at Dell (especially the outlet store).

As to spec, you should be looking for an i5 processor (i7 won't give you much of a performance boost but will cost £50-£100 extra), 8G but preferably 16G of memory (if you only use Lightroom for example, 8G will be plenty). If you can get an SSD as a boot drive, so much the better. Graphics card is unimportant - you don't really need anything fancy (I'm running an overclocked i7 with all bells and whistles and I have a reasonably cheap graphics card in my system because it is silent and runs my 3 monitors perfectly). If you can find a system that uses the integrated Intel graphics, that too will be perfectly adequate. If you game, you may want to spend a bit more on the graphics card. As to monitor, I'd go with an IPS panel. Dell do some decent ones - cheapest place I found to buy was PCBuyIT (http://www.pcbuyit.co.uk/dell-monitors-above-c-_85_118.html?sort=2a&showall=1) - just make sure it is an Ultrasharp (the model number will begin with a U)

Mac mini is a good piece of kit, but make sure you are happy with the OSX interface before you buy. There is no magic in Macs, they are effectively PCs running different software, so they will be pretty much the same speedwise. Also, they are completely fixed, so no easy way of upgrading things should you want to add a card or add disks etc. It's all external with Macs.
 
Doing some reading today, Haswell looks just to be a small step forward. The price of 3rd gen systems (ones with a product code of 3xxx) probably won't fall much in price - if at all.

Also, avoid AMD based systems. They are not competitive with Intel at the higher end. They do do some very specific things quicker (video encoding being an example) but generally they are not as good.
 
Wait a few weeks if you are thinking of going down the Apple route. The WWDC is taking place next week and some announcements are expected then. Maybe just iPhone and iPad but may include some information on Macs.

The mac mini is a good option, Well under your budget so you could spend the difference on a good monitor. Think about what HD you need. With both USB3 and Thunderbolt ports an external drive may not be so much of a slow down as USB-2 used to be
 
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