Photochop machine for friend

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Bullhead

n00b
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Jan 13, 2004
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I've got a friend who is looking to upgrade his workstation, he primarily does photoshop editing on it, and some starcraft2. I primarily need opinions on what processor to go with, as that will drive the motherboard/memory (I'd like to get him into 8gb (2x4) of ram if the budget allows). He's not a fanboy of either camp, but likes the sound of the multicore AMDs. If I need to clarify any of the more vague details let me know.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Photoshop/light gaming (SC2)
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
~$500
3) Where do you live?
Florida
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.
CPU
Motherboard
Memory
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
650Watt PSU (unknown brand)
Thermaltake V9 Case
ATI GTE 5250 (I can't find anything on this, comes up as a mobile chipset?. He clarified with "I know it's 1gb, Crossfire, DDR3. I think it's a Galaxy card, but I could be wrong. It's less than a year old."
6) Will you be overclocking?
No
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
unknown
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
next two weeks (refund money burning a hole in pocket :) )
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
Sata, crossfire, usb 3.0
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
64bit O/S will be purchased separate from this (but at the same time. It just has its own budget).
 
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Find out what PSU he has. For all we know, he could have a 650W PSU that's only capable of 200W of power.
 
If you are using 32bit Vista,8 gigs is not possible to fully use.
 
$500 for Processor, Ram and Mobo only? i7 860 all day long. The AMD's dont even compete with the i7's in photoshop. Gaming is one thing, but photoshop loves hyperthreading.
 
Danny Bui said:
Find out what PSU he has. For all we know, he could have a 650W PSU that's only capable of 200W of power.
Click to expand...

Corsair TX650, so he should be good

DrDoU said:
If you are using 32bit Vista,8 gigs is not possible to fully use.
Click to expand...

Doh, had overlooked the obvious - clearly we'll be upping to 64bit then (and win 7).
*edit* He confirmed he was already planning to do this and has a separate budget for it.
 
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The P55 chipset doesn't support USB 3.0.

When are you upgrading to a 64-bit version of Windows?

Which version of Photoshop are you using?
 
tiraides said:
The P55 chipset doesn't support USB 3.0.

When are you upgrading to a 64-bit version of Windows?

Which version of Photoshop are you using?
Click to expand...

64bit move will be happening with this build (just updated the post, sorry).

I'm checking on PS version, will edit in shortly. *edit* CS4, not planning on upgrading until 6 hits.
 
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Bullhead said:
So, something like:

i7-870
Asus P7P55 LX

That fits the budget nicely, although no USB 3.0 (does the P55 chipset not run that? I didn't see it on even the RoG boards).
Click to expand...
I recommend this setup instead:
$402 - Intel Core i7-870 CPU + Asus P7P55D-E LX Intel P55 ATX Motherboard Combo

$16 less but now you get SATA 6.0Gb/s and USB 3.0. The above mobo is basically the updated version of the mobo you chose with SATA 6.0Gb/s and USB 3.0.

tiraides wasn't wrong when he said "The P55 chipset doesn't support USB 3.0." He just forgot the "doesn't support USB 3.0 natively" part. Quite a few P55 mobos comes with USB 3.0 support provided by an add-on chip.
 
Danny Bui said:
tiraides wasn't wrong when he said "The P55 chipset doesn't support USB 3.0." He just forgot the "doesn't support USB 3.0 natively" part. Quite a few P55 mobos comes with USB 3.0 support provided by an add-on chip.
Click to expand...

Translation: tiraides was wrong. Listen to Danny.

I don't know whether or not Photoshop CS4 supports GPU acceleration; that feature only works on Nvidia cards with CUDA support. But it's a moot point given your meager budget.

If you can, try to find out which specific video card your friend has. It would help if you could find out what monitor/resolution is being used as well. IIRC, the HD 5250 is an onboard GPU; the HD 5450 is the cheapest 5-series video card that's sold by retailers.
 
tiraides said:
I don't know whether or not Photoshop CS4 supports GPU acceleration; that feature only works on Nvidia cards with CUDA support. But it's a moot point given your meager budget.
Click to expand...

CS4 uses CUDA for some things, but doesn't take it to the same extent CS5 does. Mainly things like image rotation and panning, zooming, color correction, mapping/matching HDR tones, etc.

An i7 CPU will be able to handle any of those chores as quickly as a CUDA enabled GPU. If he was using CS5, that's different...but if he's sticking with CS4 for now, he shouldn't worry about it.
 
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