Computer Help, Picking out new system

[pledosophy]

Hi, I'm in need of some help designing my new desktop system.

 

I will be using it 90% for photowork. I want something that will downlaod large amount of photo's from a memory card fairly quickly, I shoot 40Gigs on average a weekend. I also want something that will process Raw files into Jpegs quickly using a program (CS4 or C1) designed to do so. Would like to be able to flip back and forth between picture files without a delay, my file sizes can be up to 20Mb/

 

Right now I am spending bout 20-30 hours a week just on work flow, trying to cut that way down.

 

Is there a target number I should be looking in terms of processorer, Ram, or video cards.

 

I really know very little about systems.

 

Thanks

[Algae]

I would use at least 4 gigs of ram and run the 64 bit version of cs4 with a duo/dual core Pentium.

If you are transferring from an external I would use an esata external drive.

I am running cs4 on my laptop with 4 gigs ram and duo core Pentium with a usb external. But my needs compared to yours are like a Yugo to a Corvette.

Have you tried the cs4 user group for advice?

Gotta say, I've really liked your past posts.

[snowpunk]

Core 2 quad or the i7 are the only way to go. Maybe think about running dual video cards to split the workload and have that much more memory built into the cards. I think 4gigs isn't enough for your needs. I am thinking 6gig as a minimum and more like 8 to 12. Make sure your running dual channel memory too. I assume your using more then one CF card so you may want to get more then one reader and see if you can't double up on the uploading process(I haven't done this but heard of it). With 2 video cards housing onboard memory and a good amount of ram the computer could easily do this. This is all dependent on what your budget is. If the sky is the limit then just go apple and get away from PC's for photo work. If you can go to apple then you can either get a software program if you are shooting with a Nikon to upload directly, and take the shots with the computer as the viewfinder, or if you shoot Canon apples are already set up to function like this with them.

[pledosophy]

I would use at least 4 gigs of ram and run the 64 bit version of cs4 with a duo/dual core Pentium.

If you are transferring from an external I would use an esata external drive.

I am running cs4 on my laptop with 4 gigs ram and duo core Pentium with a usb external. But my needs compared to yours are like a Yugo to a Corvette.

Have you tried the cs4 user group for advice?

Gotta say, I've really liked your past posts.

 

Thanks for the compliment and the advice.

 

Honestly, I haven't even sprung for CS4 yet. Last I bought was 2, but it is soon time. I am also looking into ACDSee3, might be easier for file management, and use CS4 for conversions.

 

I have never treid any of the adobe user groups. Thanks for the tip.

[pledosophy]

Core 2 quad or the i7 are the only way to go. Maybe think about running dual video cards to split the workload and have that much more memory built into the cards. I think 4gigs isn't enough for your needs. I am thinking 6gig as a minimum and more like 8 to 12. Make sure your running dual channel memory too. I assume your using more then one CF card so you may want to get more then one reader and see if you can't double up on the uploading process(I haven't done this but heard of it). With 2 video cards housing onboard memory and a good amount of ram the computer could easily do this. This is all dependent on what your budget is. If the sky is the limit then just go apple and get away from PC's for photo work. If you can go to apple then you can either get a software program if you are shooting with a Nikon to upload directly' date=' and take the shots with the computer as the viewfinder, or if you shoot Canon apples are already set up to function like this with them.[/quote']

 

Dual video cards? I didn't even know that was possible. I really know very little here.

 

Is DDR3 dual channel?

 

My reader holds 4 cards, I still have 4gig cards, I'll go larger one day, but for nw I can put 16 gigs in and go make coffee. I use a program called Back Up and Burn Pro to facilitate this. It will take about 3 hours on my current P4 system with my 512mb of shared DDR ram.

 

IME both Canon and Nikon can use a CPU as a view finder, PC's had a program back in 04' where you were connected to the computer and it created a green screen backround for you that was visible on the screen instantaneously.

 

I do have a budget. I would like to get out with the computer for less then a grand. Another grand on software. 4 grand on the camera and lens, 2g's on the flash and batteries. Another $600 on transmitters. Then the various light stands, bags, memory cards, etc. The less I spend on the computer, the sooner the rest of my dreams take off.

 

Thanks for the help.

[snowpunk]

Dual video cards? I didn't even know that was possible. I really know very little here.

 

Is DDR3 dual channel?

 

My reader holds 4 cards, I still have 4gig cards, I'll go larger one day, but for nw I can put 16 gigs in and go make coffee. I use a program called Back Up and Burn Pro to facilitate this. It will take about 3 hours on my current P4 system with my 512mb of shared DDR ram.

 

IME both Canon and Nikon can use a CPU as a view finder, PC's had a program back in 04' where you were connected to the computer and it created a green screen backround for you that was visible on the screen instantaneously.

 

I do have a budget. I would like to get out with the computer for less then a grand. Another grand on software. 4 grand on the camera and lens, 2g's on the flash and batteries. Another $600 on transmitters. Then the various light stands, bags, memory cards, etc. The less I spend on the computer, the sooner the rest of my dreams take off.

 

Thanks for the help.

Your dream sounds very inline with my own. I am just a long ways from the cash to do it. DDR3 is what you want but you want to get a speed that is fast also. It's only dual channel if you put it in a motherboard that is dual channel.In other words RAM is interchangeable between single channel and dual channel boards. For $1000 if you watch newegg.com for combo deals you could build a pretty capable machine. Other questions are do you have keyboard, mouse/trackball, monitor, any other things that would be outside the tower that many people often forget to budget for?

 

You should really talk to CA2OR about what would be best for your needs. He really knows his stuff when it comes to this. It used to be his business(still is but he won't tell you that up front:D)

 

Oh, and you can cut software costs by getting student discounts one way or another.(think about it, not trying to rip the makers off, I think they over price all of it way too much as it is.)

[pledosophy]

Your dream sounds very inline with my own. I am just a long ways from the cash to do it. DDR3 is what you want but you want to get a speed that is fast also. It's only dual channel if you put it in a motherboard that is dual channel.In other words RAM is interchangeable between single channel and dual channel boards. For $1000 if you watch newegg.com for combo deals you could build a pretty capable machine. Other questions are do you have keyboard, mouse/trackball, monitor, any other things that would be outside the tower that many people often forget to budget for?

 

You should really talk to CA2OR about what would be best for your needs. He really knows his stuff when it comes to this. It used to be his business(still is but he won't tell you that up front:D)

 

Oh, and you can cut software costs by getting student discounts one way or another.(think about it, not trying to rip the makers off, I think they over price all of it way too much as it is.)

 

You dream of being a portrait photographer? I've been doing it for about 12 years. It's fun. I photograph mostly families, kids. Lots of babies. I shoot 500 - 600 high school seniors a year. Mostly I work in that world.

 

I have photographed many models, done magazine shoots, fashion shows, catalogs, spreads, portfolio's, hair shows, advertisements, etc. At the end of the day, I pay my bills by photographing real people. It's pretty awesome.

 

Thanks for te tip on the website, I will check it out. So far I have only been to fry's, best buy, and Dell. I need something that is built, will work, and has a gaurentee. Basically idiot proof, cause well. N'ough said.

 

I have a nice monitor, I have some calibration software, a mouse, a Wacom, etc. I think I just need a new tower, hopefully.

 

I haven't been a student in 4 years, I don't think they'd take my ID anymore. DOH!

[pledosophy]

This one looks nice on that site

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883107985

[Algae]

If you are looking to just getting PS, by itself the upgrade from cs2 is 190.00 to 200.00. This is assuming you have a non-student, non-corporate version. If you need a real retail registered, 2 computer PS I can link you to a legit Adobe retailer on Ebay that will give you a REAL retail PS cs2 license and the REAL boxed upgrade cs4 for $369. This is what I have. There are way too many flakey, non legit versions out there.

If you sign up for classes at a CC you can get PS extended (which you likely don't need) for $200.00

YOUR needs for computer power is very specific.

I think you will like Adobe Bridge!

Again, the Adobe Photoshop UG knows exactly what you need. There are enough PS geeks out there that would love to pontificate.

[CA2OR]

Hey Pledo, interested in taking pictures of my son?

[pledosophy]

Hey Pledo' date=' interested in taking pictures of my son?[/quote']

 

Ya he's a baby right? I'm down. Family too, or just the kid?

 

Interested in telling me if I need to go with a 64 bit operating system, and if a dedicated graphics card will really make the computer process 20mb CR2 files in less then half a second? Is it necessary to go above 4gig's of DDR3?

 

Toshiba laptops any good? I guess I can plug them into my desktop monitor and have a desktop at home and a laptop on the road.

 

[Jay]

Ya he's a baby right? I'm down. Family too, or just the kid?

 

Interested in telling me if I need to go with a 64 bit operating system, and if a dedicated graphics card will really make the computer process 20mb CR2 files in less then half a second? Is it necessary to go above 4gig's of DDR3?

 

Toshiba laptops any good? I guess I can plug them into my desktop monitor and have a desktop at home and a laptop on the road.

 

 

When choosing your computer its best to look closely at the motherboard. If you buy a smokin processor and lots of high end ram then dont get a quality motherboard then it wont be near good as if you got a quality board. Remember that its the motherboard that has to handle all that data and you can spend 50 bucks or you can spend 300 on a motherboard. I have built over 2000 computers working as a tech in Moses Lake and have repaired as many or more. Trust me....research the motherboard and dont be cheap.

 

Motherboards.org is a good place to look.

 

Go with Asus or Intel or Gigabyte. Asus has my vote. All the machines I have built lately have had Asus boards. They just work and work...and keep working rock solid stable. Balance power and speed with stability very well.

 

Just a heads up... Hope I helped. If you want I could spend some time and come up with a good combo. I would also look in the adobe forums like someone else said. See what the pros are useing for their photo and video editing machines today. I havent built in about 4 months so I would have to look at all the brands and models to make a decision.

 

Jay

 

Jay

[pledosophy]

Dude you are so above my head right now, you would laugh.

 

I won't be piecing a system together. I'm more likely to buy a system from Best Buy kind of guy. Seems like Laptops are quite nice and affordable these day, so getting one that I could use for both travel and home editing would be ideal. I was looking at this one.

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9371556&type=product&id=1218093379440

 

It can plug into my LCD monitor at home as well which is a nice bonus. I might consider upping the Ram to 8gigs from the get go.

 

I looked at a more expensive model, but it seems this will do everything I need. Apparently it being 64bit OS, and having a dedicated graphics card is a huge plus?

 

I really know very little about computers. Any input you have would be awesome. If you build computers, maybe we should talk.

 

As far as what the pro's are using right now. I have a Dell Inspiron 4550, with 512 DDR ram, and a 80 gig hard drive. I have some type of video card, no graphics card. I believe the computer is a P4. It's been fine until I started shooting outside predominatley and using Cr2 files instead of Jpegs.

[Twitterbait]

If you go with a laptop you will not get anywhere near the power for the money and they can overheat with high end applications. I do like toshiba right now if that is the direction you go.

 

As far as a desktop is concerned i think the best option is to build one. Don't waste you money on some pre-built POS. You can do very good on Newegg and stay in your budget IME. I Highly recommend Gigabyte for the motherboard and I am an AMD fanatic. they are priced better and have a higher front end bus speed which means faster processing of your data. you will need to make sure you are getting a seperate video card if you want to have the high speed picture processing, if you go with an on-board video you will have speed problems if your doing a lot of work.

 

If you need some help building the system let me know. i would be happy to help.

[pledosophy]

Thanks for the offer I might take you up on it in a few months. I'm really lost on the whole issue.

 

For now I went with the Toshiba. So for all is well. I haven't upgraded the RAM to 8gigsw yet but don't know if I will. This thing is pretty fast. I can scroll through 20mb picture files with no delay. I'm pretty stoked so far. Hope it continues.

 

This sounds corny, but the guy at Best Buy, Jonathon, was so helpful. He knew exactly what I was talking about and steered me in the right direction. Gotta give out some props.

[Krux]

you wont be able to get 8 gigs in a laptop for any less than about 375 dollars, the chips are just too new and arent being produced in any quantity. also unless you are running a 64 git operating system, it won't make a difference how many you slap in there.

 

if you ever do get a desktop, make sure it has a beefy video card, the new offloading feature in cs4 makes a huge difference in file processing speed, especially in a windows 7 environment (can't attest to xp or vista, dont have them on any of my boxes).

 

When you have a grand saved up again look at an i7, a nice asus board, 12 gb of ram, and a 4790 video card. there should be enough left over to get a nice 7800 rpm 1tb hard drive and a small ssd hard drive, especially if it is a couple months down the road. aside from maybe some hard core gaming, you will not be able to make that system stutter in a work environment.