PC advice needed

barrypriddis

barrypriddis

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barry priddis
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My present PC has reached the end of its useful life as is beginning to run very slowly. I now work with large 20mb raw image files, viewed on an apple 30 inch HD cinema display monitor, using Photoshop CS2. All my images are stored on two separate external HD drives. Can anyone advise me of what I need in terms of processor (dual/quad), RAM, graphics card etc to work quickly with these large files. Any help, suggestions would be very welcome. Intention would be to buy "off the shelf" so that if there were any problems they would be sorted out.
 
Are you looking for a tower or a laptop?
 
Hi Ian
Looking for a tower
 
Are you looking to build it yourself or do you want a pre-built unit?

The answer to that will limit you on some things, but you definitely want to look at 4GB DDR3 RAM for running Photoshop and processing RAW files. I know there is some annoyances that Windows can only utilise 3GB RAM but there are benefits of having 2x identical RAM sticks.

In terms of processing power, I'd say a dual core will do you but for the difference in money quad cores are worth it. The new Intel Core 5 or 7 are getting good performance reviews and it allows you more flexibility to have the PC do other things while running PS. Of course that will be limited by the speed of your external HDD.

Graphics cards I'm a little less sure about as I have a MAC and you get little choice with that! I think the processor and RAM are more important for processing the RAW files.

It all comes down to budget, and if you want to build it yourself...?
 
Thanks Dave
Definately will not be building it myself as have absolutely no skills or interest in that sort of thing. Hoping to be able to pick a box "off the shelf", but need to know what the specification needs to be.
 
Keep an eye out for the next Medion pc for sale in Aldi. The specs are normally pretty high and the prices are very good. Plus the warranties are decent as well.
 
Windows 7 will address :

4 Gb in 32 bit or 16/192 Gb in 64bit dependant upon which version you get.

Running in 64 bit you are more likely to have the memory limited by the motherboard

(Space for people to list 'monster' motherboards)

You can never have enough hard disk space or too much memory.
 
You are using an Apple display, you could have a look at an Apple desktop although that might be a little controversial :)
 
I know it's a bit of a cop out but this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/186609

looks like exactly what you're after. Apart from it comes with a monitor which obviously you won't be interested in. But something like that spec. It also comes with Windows 7 64 bit so it can reference that 6GB RAM as John kindly pointed out.

I'd highly recommend an iMac but you'd be looking at £1,400 or just under, and I don't want to start a Windows vs OS X debate.
 
I always use the PC Pro Labs for checking some of the best items on the market - generally they are fairly accurate.

Now I build my own :)

Processor - i5 750 is very powerful and excellent value
Memory -minimum 4Gb DDR2
Unless you play games you don't need a very expensive GPU - A cheap one would do

Buying an all in one system is easy to do but useful to read reviews

Pair with Windows 7 64bit
www.pcpro.co.uk
 
I would say Apple look at the Mac Mini, small and powerful enough to rival the PC's
 
EOS_JD said:
I always use the PC Pro Labs for checking some of the best items on the market - generally they are fairly accurate.
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Yeah agreed, although I think you missed out part of the address - www.pcpro.co.uk

EOS_JD said:
Memory -minimum 4Gb DDR2
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I'd say you want DDR3 these days, simply because it is newer and faster and for the price difference you may as well go for the DDR3

EOS_JD said:
Unless you play games you don't need a very expensive GPU - A cheap one would do
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Agreed

EOS_JD said:
Buying an all in one system is easy to do but useful to read reviews
Click to expand...
yeah always read reviews but always take them with a pinch of salt too. If they are reviews from consumers people often only write to complain about something. But they are definitely useful to read before buying.
 
Have a look at http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/

They have a large range of 'standard' tower units, which can be fully customised so you pick what components go in it. Prices are usually quite good and they often have deals on. They also have a forum which is quite good, usually get a quick reply from one of the team.

I was close to buying a system from them before realising I could buy the components cheaper elsewhere and built it myself.

I'd suggest at least a Intel Core i5, i7 processor preferably. Get a motherboard which supports triple channel memory (Asus X58 motherboards for i7) and get 6GB ram. Windows 7 64bit, maybe 2 1TB hard drives, or one really fast one. Graphics card is not quite as important, ATI 4800 series would be fine.

And get a good power supply as well, cheapo ones can damage your whole PC if they go wrong.
 
Forget Aldi Medion machines, they use the cheapest of components. I'm in the process of fixing one for a mate.

Open the case and there's almost b****r all in it, the hard disk is quiet but the DVD drive is as noisy as hell. The mainboard is MSI and has built in graphics that share the main memory.

Decide on a spec and maybe look at the latest Dell machines, the quality seems to have gone up again of their desktops.
 
ChrisH said:
The mainboard is MSI and has built in graphics that share the main memory.
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Non of the ones I have had or seen have on-board graphics.
 
CanonFodder said:
Yeah agreed, although I think you missed out part of the address - www.pcpro.co.uk
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Woops! Sorted.

CanonFodder said:
I'd say you want DDR3 these days, simply because it is newer and faster and for the price difference you may as well go for the DDR3
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Yes you're right - so long as the board accepts it. I think mine is stuck with DDR2 but I doubt there's a massive difference - but yes go with the DDR3


CanonFodder said:
yeah always read reviews but always take them with a pinch of salt too. If they are reviews from consumers people often only write to complain about something. But they are definitely useful to read before buying.
Click to expand...

Yes very true. No matter the product someone somewhere will have an issue. I'm buying a food processor for the girlfriend. Read a couple of reviews and my max budget of £60 doesn't touch the better ones and reading even those reviews you need to spend hundreds!

Look at the range your budget is and stick to it as much as you can :)
 
Not gonna Argue with you there Woblee that Akoya ( Medion ) does have a graphics card not built in.

Anyone buying a Medion would be wise to double check that though as most have MSI mainboards of lower spec.

The one I'm sorting is only a month old and had Vista on it, ran like a dog and the guy hated it.

Now runs XP like a little wippet but does lack OFFboard graphics :D
 
Woblee said:
I've looked at that link and can't find where it mentions built in graphics. Am I missing something?
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See the one I posted above :) Second line down on the specs

Brilliant ATI Radeon® HD5670 Direct® 11 graphic card with 1024 MB graphic memory and D-Sub VGA, DVI-I and HDMI interface (HDCP support)
 
EOS_JD said:
See the one I posted above :) Second line down on the specs

Brilliant ATI Radeon® HD5670 Direct® 11 graphic card with 1024 MB graphic memory and D-Sub VGA, DVI-I and HDMI interface (HDCP support)
Click to expand...

I still don't get it :shrug: Best off just leaving it.



As said above, you're best off sticking to your budget and go hunt down the best spec you can for your buck.
 
IMac 27" with your 30" as a "second" screen! Sorted! On a serious note, I resisted the transfer to mac and was using cs2 but couldn't afford cs4 or cs5 so stuck with my pc. I eventually took the plunge and have found that PSE8 does most of what cs2 can do. I don't regret the jump so far....

With pcs I'd agree that the graphics card only needs to be high end for games and I'd spend as much as I can justify to get the best processor and most RAM possible. It will be out of date tomorrow whatever you get!
 
neil_g said:
i think an idea of a budget from the OP might be a good idea before the mac lot start with pricey kit.. ;)
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Pricey but oh so sexy! They make you more attractive to the opposite sex too! Lol:lol:
 
As the others have stated, a budget would help. The company I work for has built machines for customers as far as Anglesey before. We could build one to suit any requirements, but I don't know if I'm breaking the rules by posting our name/numbers/email adresses here.

If budget wasn't a major problem, I'd be suggesting something like an I7 930, 6gig (3x2gig) of ram, a relatively low end graphics card, big hard drives in raid 1 (mirrored) for storage, plus say a 60 or 120gig solid state drive for the OS+applications. By the time you've factored in a decent PSU+case I wouldn't expect to see much change from £1000

If you changed some of that to an I5, 4gig and dropped the solid state then you could get down nearer £600, using quality components.

I mainly do repairs rather than sales, so my prices may not be correct, but they'll be in the right ball park.
 
neil_g said:
that sounds like a separate graphics card rather than one built into the motherboard
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My mistake - Not reading properly!!!
 
Thank you so much to everyone for your suggestions and comments. Ideally, I would not really want to spend more than £500 - £600 for the box. At least I now have a starting point to research further. Thanks once again. Any further comments more than welcome.
 
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