Building a photo editing pc

M

macnmore

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Jun 7, 2009
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I'm looking for suggestions on a Motherboard/CPU combo. I've looked at TigerDirect but I'm not sure what all the new equipment is(built my last computer 7 years ago). I know I need at least 8GB RAM and I'm not planning on overclocking or anything crazy.
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Photoshop
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? $200-$250
3) Where do you live? Missouri
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? Motherboard, CPU, and eventually RAM
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Case-not sure what brand
6) Will you be overclocking? No
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have? Dual 19" or 22" wide
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? within the next month
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? Raid 0/1 would be nice, but not a deal breaker
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? XP 64 bit, might look at upgrading to Windows 7
 
You want 8GB of ram and you want it to cost $200 to $250. These are not really compatible. I mean since the price of DDR2 has doubled from summer lows of $50 for 4 GB you will probably pay $200 for the ram alone. If you buy it from dell probably $400 as an upgrade from the base 2GB.
 
Basically you are building a new machine with a budget of $250 max with shipping? Not that it is impossible but you are better off spending more money. What is the max budget you can handle. Reason being is that you will need some processing power to do that kinda stuff, not necessarily lots of memory. So MINIMUM you would want is a dual-core, but suggestion would be quad.
 
You will not be able to get worthy components for $250 total. It just won't happen.
 
^^ ya, dream on

$500, you can get something "okay" but for what you seem to want, i would look more in the $600-$1k range.
 
gwarren007 said:
No, just mobo/Cpu
Click to expand...

That "and eventually RAM" part of the OP is confusing.

@ OP
If $250 is just for the mobo and CPU, will you be reusing RAM? If so, what's the RAM? If not, are you just buying the PC part by part over time or something? If so, that's a very very poor use of your money.
 
will you be reusing RAM
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I do not see that happening with a 7 year old machine. The only reusable parts are the case (probably not the power supply), the monitor, the mouse and the keyboard. Every thing else is not worth reusing or incompatible with current technology.
 
If you really truly want to cheap out you can run photoshop CS3 or 4 on a single core processor and ddr or 3200 ram. Many times you will experience some slowdown, but it is definately possible. I do freelance work at home on a low end system ( not my main system mind you) and its doable.
 
I assume he still has a 7 year old hard drive which will be slow and highly likely that it will die soon.
 
Just to clarify, $200-$250 is for the MB/CPU. I'll get the RAM after I figure out which MB to get. I'll have another $200 or so to get RAM. Thanks for the responses so far. I'll start going through them.
 
MrGuvernment said:
^^ ya, dream on

$500, you can get something "okay" but for what you seem to want, i would look more in the $600-$1k range.
Click to expand...

If I had $600-$1k to spend on a system, I would...but I don't and that's why I'm asking for suggestions in the $200-$250 range for MB & CPU. I've seen several Dual core kits in that range. My current system is a 2.6MHz single core from roughly 7 years ago...so just about anything will improve my processing speed at this point. I'm not looking for the best of the best...just better than what I have.
 
DDR2 is being phased out in favor of DDR3. To illustrate this: a 4GB DDR2 800 kit was $45 back in October -- the same kit is now $85, nearly the same price as a 4GB DDR3 kit. Since you have a $250 budget for both the CPU and Mobo, I'd go with g's first suggestion:

gwarren007 said:
For the Mobo/ cpu use this:

M4A785TD-V EVO / 945 $233
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.334827
Click to expand...

BTW, don't buy parts piece by piece... its better to save up until you have enough money for the whole build. We can even help with the whole build if you let us know how much in total you'd have to spend.
 
Danny Bui said:
That "and eventually RAM" part of the OP is confusing.

@ OP
If $250 is just for the mobo and CPU, will you be reusing RAM? If so, what's the RAM? If not, are you just buying the PC part by part over time or something? If so, that's a very very poor use of your money.
Click to expand...

How's this a poor use of money? I have $250ish today to spend for MB & CPU, then I'll have $200 or so in 2 weeks for the RAM. I have a case, power supply, hard drives, etc already purchased. I'm not strechting this out over 6 months or anything. All parts will be purchased within a 2-3 week period.
 
Over a 2-3 week period is fine, but anything longer isn't typically worthwhile. Over time, prices tend to go down more than they go up. However, its currently opposite for RAM prices right now, but RAM has always been very volatile compared to everything else. Also, while you're saving up, you may run into some really good deals. ;)

Again, I'd advise against a DDR2 setup, simply because when it comes time to get more RAM for your system in the next year or so, DDR3 will most likely be cheaper than DDR2, and higher densities will likely be more available as well.
 
macnmore said:
How's this a poor use of money? I have $250ish today to spend for MB & CPU, then I'll have $200 or so in 2 weeks for the RAM. I have a case, power supply, hard drives, etc already purchased. I'm not strechting this out over 6 months or anything. All parts will be purchased within a 2-3 week period.
Click to expand...

Enginurd echoed my thoughts exactly.

Also, there's a combo deal right now where you can get the DDR3 version of that mobo for about the same price as its older DDR2 brother:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.335024

Wait a minute: What PSU will be you be using with this setup?
 
Ok, so I bought this combo kit and now I need some RAM. My dilemma is whether to get a 2x2GB kit of RAM or go for the 4GB single stick. If I do the 2x2GB option, I'll only be able to get 8GB in the system...which will probably be enough. I know CS4 can use 7+GB RAM and if I have 8GB in the system, will I see a significant decrease in speed with CS4 open? Most of the stuff I do in Photoshop I have setup in actions, and on my current system, those actions can take 5-7 minutes per picture. I'd like to drastically reduce this time. Is this a decent option for RAM? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231310&cm_re=ddr3-_-20-231-310-_-Product
 
macnmore said:
I know CS4 can use 7+GB RAM and if I have 8GB in the system, will I see a significant decrease in speed with CS4 open?
Click to expand...
More RAM = Good speeds.
macnmore said:
I'd like to drastically reduce this time. Is this a decent option for RAM? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231310&cm_re=ddr3-_-20-231-310-_-Product
Click to expand...

Price wise, it's crap for the money considering that you can get a 3x2GB set of RAM for $5 more. The specs are fine but the price is just bad.

Up to you whether or not you really want that ability to get 16GB of RAM to get ripped off on the RAM.

Also, WHAT PSU WILL YOU BE USING WITH THIS PC?
 
I think I'm finally set on a total of 8GB for now. I've been reading up on CS4 and memory usage and it seems as though 8GB will be more than enough to get me by. I'm looking at this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231275
As far as Power Supply, my original one died around 2 years ago and the one I currently have is a 400W unit. I'm hoping that will be adequate, but I'm not sure. As far as hard drives like someone asked. I have 2 74GB Raptor's that I pulled from a system at work. I'll just be using them to run the OS and CS4 as that's really all I'll have on this computer. I also have 2 internal 1TB drives and 2 external 1TB drives that are less than 4 months old. This is where I store my images. One is used for a specific type of photograph and the other internal for another type. I then have a nightly backup job that replicates the drives out the the external drives.
 
Give us the brand and model (number) of the PSU, as well as its age. Your reluctance in doing so makes me believe that you don't want us to tell you to buy a new one. Well, if the 400W PSU you're talking about is about two years old, as you "suggest" in your last post, you might as well consider a new one. You should consider something like the Corsair CX400 or the Antec EA-380D unless you can find a more powerful PSU at a better deal.

The RAM kit that you're considering is a fine choice, but since you're not considering overclocking, you could get away with using a cheaper kit like the Patriot 2x2GB DDR3 1333 dual channel kit. While the G.Skill kit is only about $10 more than the Patriot set, if you're counting your pennies, every little bit helps.
 
My "reluctance" to do so? As I "suggest". Just maybe I was at work earlier today and didn't have access to my computer? When I have a sec to get into my computer, I will verify exactly what it is. I'm assuming with you posting this, 400W isn't adequate anymore?
 
macnmore said:
I'm assuming with you posting this, 400W isn't adequate anymore?
Click to expand...

No it's not that. If you check the links that tiraides provided, you can see that those are 400W PSUs and below.

A 400W PSU would be adequate IF the PSU can actually provide 400W of power. However, there are plenty of 400W PSUs out there that can only provide 200W or even 100W of power under real world conditions.

So basically we want to know if that 400W PSU you have is a good quality 400W PSU capable of actually providing enough power for your setup. Until we know so, it's safer to assume that you have a crappy 400W PSU and suggest a new PSU like the ones Tiraides linked to.
 
macnmore said:
My "reluctance" to do so? As I "suggest". Just maybe I was at work earlier today and didn't have access to my computer? When I have a sec to get into my computer, I will verify exactly what it is. I'm assuming with you posting this, 400W isn't adequate anymore?
Click to expand...

My mistake; I didn't realize that you were at work during that time and had no access to your system.

Danny Bui pretty much said what I wanted to say earlier. But I didn't want to say anything (else) until I was sure that you actually needed a new PSU.
 
It seemed like reluctance because you took quite a few days to answer (Danny asked back on Feb 12th, post#24). ;) Relax, sometimes we just get irritated having to ask the same question over and over, multiplied by numerous other threads. :p Sorry, its nothing personal. We really are trying to help you. :)
 
I appologize for sounding like a dick. I had a bad day at work and shouldn't have posted anything until I had calmed down. I do appreciate everyone's help on this site. I still haven't had a chance to get the specifics on my PSU, but will make an effort tonight and post what I find. Once again, thanks to everyone for helping me figure out what I need.
 
Ok, so my current PSU says:
TurboLink
Model: CWT-420ATX-12V (420W Max)

Do you need any other specs? Will this run my new setup ok? What I got was the Asus M4A785TD-V EVO w/ the AMD Phenom II x4 3.0GHz True Quad Core, Socket AM3
 
macnmore said:
Ok, so my current PSU says:
TurboLink
Model: CWT-420ATX-12V (420W Max)

Do you need any other specs? Will this run my new setup ok? What I got was the Asus M4A785TD-V EVO w/ the AMD Phenom II x4 3.0GHz True Quad Core, Socket AM3
Click to expand...

No. You're gonna need a new PSU. Turbolink is one of the lowest quality PSU manufacturers out there. Some of their PSUs are typically bundled with Apevia cases. So definitely get a new PSU.
 
Thanks for the info. As far as RAM goes, can someone differentiate all the settings?
1066 vs 1333 vs 1600
PC3 8500 vs 10600 vs 10666 vs 12800
Cas Latency
Voltage
I don't understand the differneces on these and how 1 will benefit me over the other. I don't need the best of the best, but I'd like to get a setup that will last a while.
 
DDR3 1066 is PC3 8500
DDR3 1333 is PC3 10600/10666
DDR3 1600 is PC3 12800

Virtually no performance difference in real world apps and games between those RAM speeds.However DDR3 1600 does let you have a higher overclocking headroom than DDR3 1333 or DDR3 1066 RAM.

CAS doesn't mean that much these days.

Voltage: Just go with RAM whose max voltage is 1.65V and below and you'll be set.
 
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