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Help with $1000 build for Photoshop CS5

I

ilsiu

n00b
Joined
Apr 11, 2011
Messages
11
I'm planning to upgrade to a new DSLR as well, thus $1000 is a hard cap for my computer budget :).


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Primarily Photoshop CS5, small amount of video editing. Bluray viewing would be nice but not mandatory.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$1000 for the computer not including tax/shipping; monitor budget is separate.
3) Where do you live?
Minnesota
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Preliminary parts list:
Case: Antec Three Hundred Mid-Tower ATX
CPU: Intel i5-2500
CPU cooling: Xigmatek HDT Gaia
MB: ASUS H67 mATX
Memory: Crucial 8GB DDR3 1333 MHz (2 x 4GB)
PSU: Thermaltake TR2 RX 650W
Optical drive: LG UH10LS20 Bluray/DVD combo drive
Hard drive: minimum 500 GB 7200rpm SATA
OS: Windows 7 Home premium 64bit
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Already have external drives for backup, otherwise starting from scratch.
6) Will you be overclocking?
Don't know
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
24" and 17" (dual monitor setup)
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Sometime in the next month, but willing to wait longer if there are some seasonal good deals.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
Need Firewire, other than that don't know.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
No


For photoshop usage, I would be typically working with ~18 MB raw files; multiple layers and sometimes working on 3~4 files at the same time for panorama or HDR blending. Very occasionally I'll have to work on 400 MB files.

I'd rather not build myself (never done it before), and plan to order from a custom PC builder (avadirect, Puget systems, other?). But, if it's the only way to fit my budget, I'll give building a shot.
Nothing is sacred in my list, I'm completely open to suggestions.

Thanks!
 
I'm not that familiar with custom manufacturers anymore. Someone else will have to advise you on that.

Where do you live in Minnesota? Is the Microcenter in Twin Cities/St. Louis Park too far to drive?

Also, do you use any CS5 plugins that use CUDA? See this review for how much faster CS5 can be with CUDA plugins.
 
Last edited:
tonytnnt said:
I'm not that familiar with custom manufacturers anymore. Someone else will have to advise you on that.

Where do you live in Minnesota? Is the Microcenter in Twin Cities/St. Louis Park too far to drive?
Click to expand...

I do live in the Twin Cities and am familiar with that Microcenter.

Although I prefer not to build myself, I haven't ruled it out completely, so any advice in that direction would be greatly appreciated as well.
 
$300 (price includes taxes) - Intel Core i7 2600k from Microcenter
$140 - MSI P67A-G45 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
$70 (use coupon code EMCKFKC22) - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
$130 - Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W and SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM
$70 - SAMSUNG Black Blu-ray Drive SATA Model SH-B123L
$60 (before $10 MIR) - COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1
$100 - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit English 1-Pack - OEM
$110 (before $30 MIR) - Galaxy 50SGH8HX3QMZ GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) GC Version 1GB

Subtotal: $980 (includes taxes at Microcenter)
Shipping: $9
Total: $989 before MIRs
Total after MIRs: $949

While the GTS 450 isn't on Adobe's officially supported list, I included one so that you could take advantage of CUDA enabled Photoshop plugins and Premiere CS5 with a few easy steps (you can force CS5 to use unofficial GPUs.) See these how tos:
http://www.indiev.org/?p=308
http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5.htm
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/adobe-cs5-cuda-64-bit,2770-3.html
 
tonytnnt said:
$300 (price includes taxes) - Intel Core i7 2600k from Microcenter
$140 - MSI P67A-G45 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
$70 (use coupon code EMCKFKC22) - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
$130 - Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W and SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM
$70 - SAMSUNG Black Blu-ray Drive SATA Model SH-B123L
$60 (before $10 MIR) - COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1
$100 - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit English 1-Pack - OEM
$110 (before $30 MIR) - Galaxy 50SGH8HX3QMZ GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) GC Version 1GB

Subtotal: $980 (includes taxes at Microcenter)
Shipping: $9
Total: $989 before MIRs
Total after MIRs: $949

While the GTS 450 isn't on Adobe's officially supported list, I included one so that you could take advantage of CUDA enabled Photoshop plugins and Premiere CS5 with a few easy steps (you can force CS5 to use unofficial GPUs.) See these how tos:
http://www.indiev.org/?p=308
http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5.htm
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/adobe-cs5-cuda-64-bit,2770-3.html
Click to expand...

+1 to the P67 + GPU for CS5 acceleration.

If the OP is interested in OC'ing stick with the K, otherwise save money and go with the normal one.
 
Ultima99 said:
+1 to the P67 + GPU for CS5 acceleration.

If the OP is interested in OC'ing stick with the K, otherwise save money and go with the normal one.
Click to expand...

Take off $30 to get a non-k Core i7-2600. You won't be able to freely overclock though.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys!

What would overclocking buy me in terms of Photoshop performance? If it's not very dramatic, then any cost I can shave off would go into more photo equipment :).
 
tonytnnt said:
$300 (price includes taxes) - Intel Core i7 2600k from Microcenter
$140 - MSI P67A-G45 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
$70 (use coupon code EMCKFKC22) - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
$130 - Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W and SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM
$70 - SAMSUNG Black Blu-ray Drive SATA Model SH-B123L
$60 (before $10 MIR) - COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1
$100 - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit English 1-Pack - OEM
$110 (before $30 MIR) - Galaxy 50SGH8HX3QMZ GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) GC Version 1GB

Subtotal: $980 (includes taxes at Microcenter)
Shipping: $9
Total: $989 before MIRs
Total after MIRs: $949

While the GTS 450 isn't on Adobe's officially supported list, I included one so that you could take advantage of CUDA enabled Photoshop plugins and Premiere CS5 with a few easy steps (you can force CS5 to use unofficial GPUs.) See these how tos:
http://www.indiev.org/?p=308
http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5.htm
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/adobe-cs5-cuda-64-bit,2770-3.html
Click to expand...

Thanks for the recommendation. I see that Microcenter has the i5-2500k for $100 less. Saving $100 from the computer budget means adding $100 to my photo equipment budget :), but will I be giving up a lot of performance without i7 hyperthreading? Anandtech Photoshop benchmarks don't show much difference between 2500k vs 2600k.
 
ilsiu said:
Thanks for the recommendation. I see that Microcenter has the i5-2500k for $100 less. Saving $100 from the computer budget means adding $100 to my photo equipment budget :), but will I be giving up a lot of performance without i7 hyperthreading? Anandtech Photoshop benchmarks don't show much difference between 2500k vs 2600k.
Click to expand...

Nah you won't be giving up much at all, especially in Photoshop.
 
ilsiu said:
Doh! You're right of course, but is the stock HSF adequate if I decide to overclock?
Click to expand...

It'll be ok for a small overclock. However if you intend to get a high OC:
$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
 
tonytnnt said:
Nah you won't be giving up much at all, especially in Photoshop.
Click to expand...

True.

If on the other hand the user were running Premiere Pro, then that i5-2500(K) would have been about 20 percent slower than the i7-2600(K) at equal clocks. Which is why the i5 is more than adequate unless you're doing heavy-duty video editing/encoding.
 
I'm almost ready to pull the trigger.

Here's component list rev2, mainly based on tonytnnt's recommendations. I made two changes: substituted 2500k for 2600k and went with a cheap video card. At this point, I very rarely do video editing and don't think I'll use any plugins that take advantage of CUDA; but if that changes I can also upgrade the video later.

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500k from Microcenter
MB: MSI P67A-G45 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
PSU: Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W
HDD: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM
Optical: SAMSUNG Black Blu-ray Drive SATA Model SH-B123L
Case: COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1
OD: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit English 1-Pack - OEM
Video: Gigabyte N84S GeForce 8400 GS 512 MB​

Sourcing the parts from Microcenter/Newegg is ~$808 including shipping/taxes. Getting almost exactly the same config from avadirect.com is ~1001 including shipping (avadirect doesn't offer G.Skill RAM, so I had to substitute Crucial).


Here's component list rev3 with different MB, RAM, and optical drive:

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500k from Microcenter
MB: ASUS P8P67 LE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
RAM: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)
PSU: Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W
HDD: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM
Optical: LG Black 10X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Disc Combo Model UH10LS20
Case: COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1
OD: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit English 1-Pack - OEM
Video: Gigabyte N84S GeForce 8400 GS 512 MB​

I created this rev because now I can get exactly the same config from Newegg ($843) and avadirect.com ($984).

I think I'm ok with the extra $140 ~ $200 to get a pre-built system.

But, do you see anything foolish in my revised lists?

Thanks!
 
If you aren't worried about CUDA, then go with the HD 5450 instead of the 8400 GS. The 5450 is a Direct X 11 card, making it a more appropriate choice for a Windows 7 machine.

I see two potential issues with the Asus P8P67 LE over the MSI P67A-G45. First, the P8P67 LE is Asus' entry-level P67 ATX motherboard, so it will have less available overclocking features than the P67A-G45. Second, there have been numerous reports about users having stability issues with Asus P67 boards in general. Most of us here have been recommending MSI for that very reason.

What will you be using the BD-ROM drive for? If it's an OEM model (as I suspect), then you'll need to also buy some BD media playback software. You should expect to spend at least $60 for such software.
 
The 8400 GS is garbage for a lot of reasons. The integrated graphics on the 2500k are faster (but you'd have to get an H67 board to use them, which would remove any overclocking opportunities.)

I noticed no one answered your overclocking question before. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find too many good reviews where they used an overclocked chip with Photoshop. Do you usually work on one file at a time, or do you do batch jobs?

If you're willing to forgo overclocking, you could save a bit of money by getting an i5-2400 at Microcenter for $150, and then getting an H67 motherboard (which is usually cheaper than a P67 board.) This would allow you to use the i5-2400's integrated graphics.
 
After some more consideration, I'm going to drop the BD-ROM and go with standard DVD. I had visions of ripping my collection to run on a media streamer, but I can always add in a BD-ROM drive later.

Regarding overclocking, I haven't see much specific comments. In the DPReview forums some say it makes a big improvement. Since I'm comfortably under my budget, I'm leaning towards staying with the 2500K/P67/Radeon 5450 combo. I think it will give me some flexibility should I find other uses for this system a few years from now.

Latest config rev4:

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500k
MB: MICROSTAR, P67A-G45 (B3), LGA1155, Intel® P67
RAM: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)
PSU: Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W
HDD: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM
Optical: SONY, AD-7261S Black 24x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ Lightscribe, SATA, OEM
Case: COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1
OD: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit English 1-Pack - OEM
Video: Asus EAH5450 SILENT HD5450 512 MB​

Total: $929 shipped from avadirect.
 
If budget isn't as much of an issue then by all means keep the P67 and 2500k. The 5450 is a decent card for what you're looking for too. Oh, and Crucial makes very good RAM too. Using that instead of G.Skill won't be an issue.

$140 for them assembling it and the 3 year warranty is a fair price, especially when they allow you to customize with such an exhaustive parts list. I might keep them in mind for when friends ask me about buying a new computer, but don't want to assemble it themselves or want a comprehensive warranty.

I like this build a lot. It seems very well rounded. It should be great for Photoshop, and you could even pop a $240 graphics card in there and get an excellent gaming computer. Let us know how it turns out!
 
I just placed the order with AVAdirect for the rev4 config. Final total: $922.33 (somehow the component prices dropped ~$7 since I placed a quote ~6 hours ago).

I plan to post a followup when I receive it.

Big thanks to everyone who provided advice :D.
 
Quick followup:

I received the computer from AVAdirect on May 10; took me a few days to install all my programs, setup peripherals (printer, scanner), transfer photo/video files, etc. I've been using it for its intended purpose for a little over 2 weeks now.

Impressions:

- My previous PCs were from HP and Gateway. I love the lack of bloatware on this machine.
- Case is pretty large.
- Internal wiring was very neat; no loose strands anywhere.
- Boots up/shuts down very quickly
- Play with a 400 meg scan in CS5 - difference between my old PC and this one is night and day. Even simple things like rotating or rescaling took ~40 seconds on my old system; now it's just 1~2 seconds.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with the performance. Haven't run into any issues yet (knock on wood), so I'm hopeful I won't need to evaluate AVA's customer service.

Again, thanks to everyone who offered advice on this build.
 
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