Photoshop Computer Build Advice

Hi All,
I am retiring an 8 year old iMac and making the switch to a custom build PC. I'm using Photoshop to dust and color correct large 4x5 scan files (1.2GB 16bit files) for inkjet, digital-c print, and digital silver print output. I am also processing raw files (Sony A7r) using Camera Raw and Lightroom. Most of my files only have 3 - 5 adjustment layers but some can get to 10 or 12 layers if I am compositing or stitching files. I am not doing any 3D or video work. My main concerns are speed when working with large files, longevity of use and (hopefully) long term compatibility with Adobe programs. I also use Indesign, Dreamweaver, Bridge, Office Suite Programs and do your average amount of work on the web. I have a keyboard and mouse and already do all of my working file storage on a CRU DataPort RTX 2-Bay RAID (mirrored with regular disk rotation) using eSATA or Firewire 800.
Here is the build I am thinking about and would appreciate any comments, suggestions, or words of advice:
Intel Core i7-4930K Ivy Bridge-E 6-Core 3.4GHz LGA 2011 130W Desktop Processor BX80633i74930K
ASUS P9X79 LE LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with USB BIOS
EVGA 02G-P4-3751-KR GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card
G.SKILL Trident X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-1866C8Q-32GTX
SAMSUNG 850 Pro Series MZ-7KE256BW 2.5" 256GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (PROGRAM DRIVE)
SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE120BW 2.5" 120GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (SCRATCH DISK)
SeaSonic G Series SSR-550RM 550W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power
Dell U3014 30" Widescreen LED Backlit LCD Monitor
Thanks guys!

http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/files/2012/07/CS6_hardware_recommendations.pdf

Similar Messages

Photoshop Computer build??

My computer is 9 years old with one HDD and pentium 4 processor with 3GB of RAM and has never really been capable of handling Photoshop even though I am still using CS2. Money isn't as tight as it once was so I am finally going to build a computer that can handle PS and I am upgrading to CS5 with the idea that within a year I will upgrade again to CS6. I want to get some opinions on my build to make sure it all looks good.
- Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth Z87
- CPU: Intel core i7 4771 3.5GHz Quad Core
- Ram: 16GB Kingston DDR3-1600 (2x8)
- Video Card: Nvidia Quadro K600 (This is an entry level workstation card that has 1GB of memory but unlike gaming cards, has 30 bit color capability. This is where I had to make a decision or break my budget).
- HDD: Western Digital 2TB 7200RPM SATA (secondary drive)
- SSD: Samsung 512GB 840 Pro 6gb/s SATA (Primary Drive)
-SSD: Samsung 128GB 840 Pro 6gb/s SATA (Scratch Disk)
- Operating System: Windows 7 64-bit
This will not be a gaming computer nor will I be editing video much if at all. 98% of work is done on still photography.
Thanks,

Some people are just not Mac people. I use both Windows and Mac, but I prefer the latter... and I have five PCs fromXP through 8.
As to this statement... "I need a really good machine that will last for many years (4 or 5)"... You're no doubt aware that Macs outlast PCs by about 3 times the lifespan, and the Mac Mini has the highest resale value of any computer for the last four years in a row. My Mini was $599 and I added 16Gb RAM for $120 - Resale value on it is actually $60 more than I have invested in it -
Not to get into a "whizzing contest", but those are just the realities of it.
My opinion is that one should build a custom PC for two things: Professional video editing and/or Gaming. You mentioned you won't be doing either, so you're probably going to spend a lot more FOR a lot more than you'll need by shopping around for hardware a piece at a time. I ran Photoshop CS5.1 Extended on a six-year-old, $299, e-machine, with a Sempron 2.1gHz and 2Gb of DDR2 (667mHz) RAM. It regularly handled files from 100 to 150mb before editing. No stuttering, no crashes, no lag. I had EyeCandy, Flaming Pear and A/VBros plugins I used regularly too.

New computer build -- Photoshop scratch drive options

It’s been years since I built my last Photoshop computer, so I’m researching what I want to include in my next build.
I may use this computer for some video editing, but for the most part it will be dedicated to Photoshop. I’m running CS5. I’ll be stitching RAW images, & routinely editing 500+ MB files. The configuration I’m closing in on is as follows:
Windows 7, 64 bit
Intel i5 2500K processor
16 GB’s of RAM
One of the soon-to-be released motherboards utilizing the Z68 Express chipset
My question is about the Photoshop scratch drive, & what’s the best current technology. On my old computer, I originally had a two-drive RAID 0 array, but when the Promise RAID controller started having problems, I reverted back to a single Raptor drive. I see three or four possibilities for scratch on my new computer:
1) Use a SSD as my scratch drive. The question I have is about reliability in this application given the large number of sequential read & write operations required of a scratch drive.
2) Build a RAID 0 array with mechanical drives. Which ones? I’ve read that the top-rated fast WD Caviar Black drives have problems in a RAID 0 configuration.
3) Just go with a single drive – Anandtech tests show a single WD Caviar Black drive is almost as fast as single VelociRaptor when the data is sequential reads & writes.
4) The new Z68 motherboards will support the Intel Smart Response Technology that can make the SSD become the "Cache of the HDD" to boost up the HDD access speed. The idea is to use a small cheap SSD as the cache. This has yet to be proven in a Photoshop environment, & it may run into the same reliability issues I’m asking about in item #1 above.
Can anyone with PS scratch-performance knowledge enlighten me on the current state of affairs?
Thanks,
--Alan

It's my opinion that you want to do all you can to keep Photoshop from having to go to the scratch drive, and when it must it's going to be painfully slow no matter what hardware you have. This is based on the theory that RAM access is orders of magnitude faster than disk (even SSD) and the observation that Photoshop sometimes writes horrendously large datasets to the scratch drive.
You're doing the right thing, going to 16 GB (24 GB might even be better). I have 16 GB and for all "normal" work I find Photoshop to be very fast and not go virtual, even after long editing sessions. In testing, however, I've been able to force Photoshop to go virtual by doing things like:
1. Processing a 1 gigapixel image (e.g., 32767 x 32767 pixels).
2. Stitching fairly huge (substantial portion of a gigapixel when finished) panoramas.
In my case I've chosen to use a single mechanical 1 TB hard drive for scratch, and I've watched Photoshop in case 2 above (panos) actually write more than 200 gigabytes of data to the drive.
I recommend paying a bit more for top quality enterprise class disk drives (e.g., Western Digital RE4), instead of consumer models. They're fast, are built for hard use and much higher reliability, and have additional features (like vibration reduction).
Also keep in mind that a RAID setup effecitvely adds the on-drive RAM caches together, so for example a RAID 0 C: drive, made from 2 RE4 drives each of which sports 64 MB on-drive cache) now delivers 2 x SATA 2 transfer rates with 128 MB on-drive cache. This, along with enabling of Windows 7's highest throughput caching (which is not on by default) means that drive C: access will always be surprisingly quick.
FYI, I recently purchased a powerful dual quad core workstation that implements the above on the cheap... I've described how in these threads. Depending on your budget, possibly worth considering in lieu of a new build...
http://forums.adobe.com/message/3570020#3570020
http://forums.adobe.com/message/3605467#3605467
-Noel

Best way to work w/computer builder???

i am a relative newbie and am
about to get a new system for working w/cs5.
i want to be able to do hd..but nothing too fancy (weddings,sports,training...usual beginning videographer stuff).
i can go along w/harm's advice that the dells and hps etc. will overcharge for the upgrades etc....but i don't want to build it myself...how do i approach and deal with a computer builder...can anyone recommend one....what should i look out for and how can i know they know what they are talking about...
thx in advance...
p.s. ... am working w/@ $3k.

I have always done things a little bit differently from Harm's suggestion, but do see the value of that.
I provide a list of desired components, and then we work over each one. I try to be perfectly open to suggestions, so long as the builder can explain and justify his/her choices. Now, I have had some very good builders, and the most recent one has proved to be excellent. I usually end up with about 90% of what I spec'ed. and then allow myself to be talked into the other 10%, with proper justification. Though this gentleman builds mostly heavy-duty medical 3D imaging rigs, he understands NLE and still imaging very well. As he is constantly building, or upgrading the hospital's/research institute's machines, he is able to stay more atop the hardware improvements, better than I can - even with Harm's wonderful input.
Now, before this gentleman, I found myself between builders. One had moved far away, and the other had left the business completely. I did about what Harm recommends, and quickly eliminated four builders in a hurry. One said that XP-Pro could not use multiple CPU's (claimed that only Windows Server 2003 could do this), while another said that only SLI would work for Photoshop. Yet another did not understand why I wanted so many large HDD's. Gone from the list in a hurry. Same complaint when I wanted 4GB RAM - he would only build with 2GB, as XP-Pro could not use even that fully.
Good luck, and when you find the right builder for you, support them, so that they will be around, when you build that next machine.
Hunt

Opinions on Optimal After Effects Computer Build?

Hello all,
Curious to know thoughts on an optimal AE computer build and taking into considering that 3rd party plugins would be used (Red Giant, Boris, Sapphire.) I'm interested in hearing thoughts on Xeon or dual Xeon vs i7. Quadro/Firepro -vs- a top gaming card. And what system would overall get the best results from real time processing to rendering. I would also love to hear some opinions on your current build and how it's working out for you?
Thanks in advance,
Mike

Dual Xeon>i7>single Xeon (assuming you have plenty of RAM).
Gaming card is fine for most folks in AE, but it only applies to third-party plugins that use the GPU (Red Giant Universe, Element 3d, etc.) - stock AE barely uses the GPU at all (barring one, obsolete feature - the ray-traced renderer): GPU (CUDA, OpenGL) features in After Effects Now, it does matter for Premiere and it might matter if, for example, you plan to do a lot of C4D work using the Octane renderer.
This page might help some: FAQ: What computer and components should I buy?
I also found this recorded live event useful to watch: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/event/index.cfm?event=set_registered&id=2490687&loc=en_us In it, Adobe folks from the AE and Premiere teams talk about how the two programs use system resources.
Now, in all of this, keep in mind that there are some major updates in the works in how AE works. The majority of the After Effects team is working on improving the interactivity and render speed of AE. The team has gone on record as saying that it will eventually be able to take more advantage of multi-core systems.
One big difficulty in offering suggestions and comparing computing power is that every project is different. So if everyone had a benchmark project to compare with, it might not help you at all because your workflow might not use what's in the benchmark. For example, having hundreds of layers in a comp including several different layers of MP4 footage, some Cineform footage, and some PNG sequences is going to require different system resources than a project using lots of 3d solids, Particular, depth of field, and motion blur.
And it's odd, but sometimes having a screaming fast processor doesn't do much good because the RAM is the bottleneck, or the system bus, or the hard drive...
General, sum-up advice: fastest core speed you can afford with as many processor cores as you can get (so long as you've got about 4GB of RAM per core). An SSD for your cache is good too. GPU would be dependent on the recommendations of the third-party plugin developers.

NOOB FIRST BUILD ADVICE LIST INCLUDED COMPATIBILITY

Hello,
I’m looking to take a leap and build my own computer for the first time using top components. Any advice, tips, criticisms would be appreciated.
I need to know if the list below will work together. Am I missing anything? Have I chosen something that is really not needed?
I am a photographer and deal with mass amounts of photos, videos, music etc. I also want to play games occasionally, or watch a DVD.
I am starting from scratch, bringing no parts from other places. All new.
How does the following combination stack up? Thank you in advance for any help to the above questions and your time.
First Computer Build
CASE - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133195
Thermaltake Level 10 GT UGK Combat Snow Edition (VN10006W2N-B) Ultimate Gaming Kit White and Black SECC / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case with Tt eSPORTS MEGA G1 Keyboard, Black Gaming Mouse and Shock Gaming Headset
MOBO - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131818
ASUS P8Z77-V DELUXE LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
PROCESSOR - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501
Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K
GRAPHICS - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130768
EVGA 02G-P4-2680-KR GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010
CORSAIR HX Series HX750 (CMPSU-750HX) 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
MEMORY - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233299
CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M2A1600C9
COOLER - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118054
ZALMAN CNPS9900 NT 120mm 2 Ball Low-noise CPU Cooler
HDD X (2)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
SSD - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167086
Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW240A3K5 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
OPTICAL – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136249
LG Black 14X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 12X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA BDXL Blu-Ray Burner with SW, 3D Play Back - BH14NS40
MONITOR - www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260047
Dell UltraSharp U2412M Black IPS Panel 24" 8ms Pivot, Swivel & Height Adjustable LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 2,000,000:1 (1000:1)
CABLE - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119253
Rosewill Model RC-6-HDM-MM-BK 6 ft. High Speed HDMI Cable
OS - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116717
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
SOFTWARE - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116858
Microsoft Office 2010 Professional

My suggestion would be to build two separate PCs - one for editing, the other for games. This is because (as Harm Millaard mentioned) games have absolutely no place at all whatsoever in an editing system because many games install unnecessary and performance-degrading bloatware that could make that ultra-fast system run as slow as or slower than the average six-year-old PC with one-fourth as much RAM.
But if you can't afford (or don't have enough room for) a second PC, you'll have to make compromises. Which is more important? Editing/rendering/encoding performance or gaming performance?
With that said, what you have is a bit of a "penny wise, pound foolish" type of build. Especially when the motherboard and CPU combo is almost as expensive as some X79 and i7-3930K combos. The P8Z77-V Deluxe costs almost $300 by itself, and doesn't perform all that much better (nor do they overclock all that much higher) than far cheaper ($150-ish) Z77 motherboards. And 16GB of RAM just isn't quite enough total RAM for Premiere Pro CS6; you need 24GB or 32GB for CS6 to run at its best. In fact, I had tested CS6 on my main i7-2600K system with a GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 with 1.25GB of VRAM with the system equipped with 16GB and again with 24GB (the latter adding two 4GB DIMMs to the existing two 8GB DIMMs): Adding that extra 8GB of RAM (making it 24GB) actually improved the MPEG-2 DVD performance in PPBM5 by roughly 40 seconds. Instead of 113 seconds with 16GB, I achieved a result of 73 seconds with 24GB.

Yes, another computer build but with a specific purpose.

Firstly, I thankyou if you have even opened this thread. Forgive me if my question seems innane!
I am planning a new computer build for the following purpose
PS CS6 - working files at 2GB plus
Premiere CS6*
*My video work is very specific. Projects are atypically less than 5 mins in duration and often 30sec TVC type spots.
Source material is AVCHD, PNG and in near future uncompressed files from the Blackmagic Cinema Camera (10bit)
Final output is to be broadcast HD quality at top end and many at web level via YouTube.
I try to be 'tidy' in my editing and keep track numbers to 4 (if that makes any difference?)
I am not the most tech savvy guy by a long shot, compared to Bill and Harm I'd be luck to rate .2 on the richter scale.
My thoughts thus far are this:
Full tower
3690 proc
64GB of ram
MOBO? Not sure if to wait for 'Blunderbolt'
****Numerous HDD's as required
GTX680
Win 7 64
****So the question I know will roll your eyes! Mother look away now... This may get ugly!
Given the short durations and 10bit source, can I avoid RAID? I know enough that a few layers of 10bit must be a huge amount of data (back to no other way than raid) but wondering how it compares to different intensive compressed codecs such as AVCHD? Should I put on my tin foil hat and hide?
I would really appreciate your thoughts.
Regards,
Peter Lloyd Culley.
http://www.nitromediasyndicate.com

I do not know enough to answer your question regarding RAID. However, I did notice that you wanted to get an i7-3960 CPU. I may not be a guru but from my experience with the i7-3930 and what I have read since those processors came out, there is not enough of a difference between the two chips to make up for the price difference. I'll even risk to say that you'd be paying an extra $500 just for bragging rights. The i7-3930 is just as good, just clocked a bit lower and has 3 megs less L3 cache. Once you overclock the 3930, it basically performs just as well as its much more expensive brother.
Save money on your CPU and put it somewhere else where it will make more of a difference to your system.

New Computer Build, Please Help

Hello everyone,
I am new to the forums and also to MSI Mobo's. This will be my first computer build and I was hoping that some of you guys would be willing to pass judgement on my choice of components.
AMD 64 X2 4800+ Toledo
1 GHz HT Dual Core
2.4 GHz
Zalman 120mm 2 Ballbearing Cooling Fan w/ Copper Heatsink
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
MSI K8N Diamond Plus
Cosair XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-pin
SDRAM DDR (PC3500) Unbuffered Dual Channel
2 - XFX GeForce 7600GT (590 MHz) 256 MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x 16 in SLI Configuration
Thermaltake Silent Pure Power ATX 12V/EPS 12V 680W Power Supply
Dual 12V, 24-Pin Main Connector
Thermaltake Eureka Silver Aluminum ATX Full Tower Case
What I currently have:
2 - 74 GB Raptor Drives, Raid-0
600 GB Maxtor III Easy Touch External Hard Drive, Raid-0 (storage) w/ 800 firewire
Audigy 2ZS Gamer
How does everything look as far as compatability? I know the MSI board has a 24-pin connector and so the power supply should mate up just fine. What I was concerned about was the power supply and dual graphics cards running in SLI. From what I understand, the Diamond Plus requires 450 Watts by itself but I am not too sure if the power supply would be enough to power the rest of the computer, especially dual graphic cards in SLI mode. Also, does anyone know how much room is left over on the slots after hooking up dual graphic cards, room for a 800 firewire and a sound card?
If I missed anything or if I am completely off-base with something please feel free to pipe in. Also if you have any suggestions in regards to cooling this thing down such as fans, RAM heat sinks, or anything else...again, please let me know.
This is my first build and I want this to go as smooth as possible.
Thank you very much....

Quote from: Richard on 15-April-06, 00:13:51
Well no matter what you think I am smoking (I do not smoke btw) ATI likes the Power Supply TouGe listed for the X1900XT Crossfire:
CrossFire Certified Power Supplies
Here is another review of the PSU:
Thermaltake PurePower 680W Power Supply
Richard
Uhm, no crossfire. The graphic cards are Geforce.
So you guys are telling me a 520W single rail has enough power to support everything I listed better than a dual rail 680W power supply. I don't mean to annoy anyone here but I want to make sure before I order anything from Newegg.
Regards

Dave's Monster Video Editing Computer Build

Just as a way to say thanks to all those that helped me on my first computer build, I created a video to share. I thank Harm at the end of the video.

Looks similar to my system (on the inside). I went with the GTX670 but of course the 680 is a better board. The savings on the card paid for another feature I wanted.
I spent a lot more, but I didn't have to build it, ADK did it for me, and they tested it. Extensively. They also loaded the Creative Cloud but that was just a little extra that had to be done in order to make sure it all worked.
I don't see your results posted to PPBM5.com - I was hoping to see how it all worked out in the end. I figure your score should be pretty close to mine (Stven Gotz) if you are running CS6. If you arranged your drives correctly, then just above mine a bit.
By the way, I want to mention the production values on the video. I understand that you are a photo and video guy, but still, the lighting in the situation was extremely well done. Achieving the high quality audio is something I can do, but the lighting is something I have not yet invested in because outdoor photography and video is the bulk of my fun. However, the more I see videos like yours, the more I think it is time to invest in some decent lights. From what I can tell, you diffused it very nicely but it seems like there had to be an awful lot of light, or a very large softbox (or two)?
The shadows are just so soft, and your face is so well lit. I figure you shot it with a DSLR because of the DOF being deep enough to get everything in but the wall behind you is slightly out of focus. Just as it should be, of course.
I just subscribed to your YouTube channel and watched a few minutes of a review between the T4i and the 60D. I am not interested in either (I am happy with my choice of the Panasonic GH3), I just wanted to see if the videos were something I really wanted to subscribe to. At 2:04 in your video, I got a bit of a laugh. I spent a lot of time shooting water with long exposures on my vacation to Hawaii, and you showed a nicely shot image of water running over rocks while you were discussing really fast shutter speeds. The image was unrelated to what you were talking about, but because I have been studying and practicing that type of shot, the disconnect caught me by surprise and elicited a laugh. I am a newbie at photography. A raw beginner. But I have probably 20 hours of practice with water shots now. My favorites are the really, really long exposures.
Exposure: 1/2 sec
ISO 200, f/20, focal legnth 41mm (translates to 85mm for a 35mm camera)

Computer Build for CS5,

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone would be able to check this computer build and make any recomendations. I am about to start video editing, in both DV and HD. I don't need the best system as it isn't for work, and I would like to try and keep the price down, however it would be nice to 'future proof" it.
This is what I was quoted so far:
CPU Intel Core i7 950 [3GHz/4.8GT QPI/8MB/LGA1366] [BX80601950] 1 359.00
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 [Intel X58/LGA1366/DDR3/ATX] 1 359.00
RAM Kingston 6GB Kit (3x2GB) DDR3 PC-10600 1333MHz DIMM [KVR1333D3N9K3/6G] 2 189.00
Hard Disk Drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 3.5" 1.5TB 7200rpm 32MB SATA [ST31500341AS] 1 109.00
Hard Disk Drive OCZ Vertex 2 (E) 2.5" 60GB SATAII Solid State Drive [OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G] 1 199.00
Power Supply Antec TruePower 650W ATX Power Supply [TP- 650] 1 149.00
Case Antec P183 "Performance One" Black Midi Tower No PSU 1 185.00
MicroSoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit DVD OEM 1 169.00
Graphics Card Leadtek NVIDIA Quadro FX 580 512MB DDR3 PCI- Express 1 275.00
DVDRW and BLURAY Drives LG 22x Internal DVD±RW SATA - OEM – Black [GH22NS50] 1 39.00
I read somewhere here that it would be better with Microsoft Windows 7 Pro. I am also a bit unsure about the graphics card: a friend said to downgrade and save money, or is it better to upgrade to a Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce GTX470 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express2.0 [N470UD-13 or something similar.
If anyone has anytime to make any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated.
Jimmy

Jimmy,
The FX 580 is a waste of money. Get either the GTX 460 or 470.
Up the memory to at least 12 GB, either 6 x 2 or preferably 3 x 4 GB, so you have future room to grow.
The PSU is a bit small, 650 W is probably not enough. Look here eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Pro v2.5
and get the Pro version, set CPU load to 100% and capacitor aging to 30% and then add 10 - 15% for safety.
Get a big tower instead of a midi tower. Better cooling, more expansion room, easier installation and better cable management.
Get some more disks. Look here: Adobe Forums: Generic Guideline for Disk Setup
Use Win7 Pro.
Consider a BR/DVD burner.

First time computer builder - using K7N2G-LISR

Here is my story:
I am a first time part by part computer builder, I have installed every product except a CPU and Motherboard seperately. This was my first time buying each part on its own and assembling it myself though.
The parts I am using are:
MSI K7N2G-LISR motherboard
Athlon XP 2400
512 MB 2700 DDR Corsair XMS Ram
40 GB Western Digital 7200 RPM HD
Sony 32x CD-Ron
Integrated Graphics
400W Power Supply
Vantec Aeroflow heatsink
I had some trouble installing the heatsink. I had both paste and thermal pads, since it was my first time doing this and thermal pads seemed alot easier, I tried out one of them. I continued putting the PC together and everything was working just fine.
I got to the BIOS and messed around with the settings a bit. I realized I accidently set my HD as slave to the CD-Rom. I also set it to High Performance, and allocated 128 MB of ram to the onboard graphics. Before exiting out of the bios, I checked my CPU temp and it was a whopping 64C/148F. After I powered down, I fixed my HD/CD-Rom to the proper settings, and took off my heatsink.
I removed what was left of the thermal pad and scraped as much away as I could. I then put a little layer of thermal paste on top of the CPU using the credit card method. I had a little trouble putting the heatsink back on, using its side clip.
The computer refuses to boot up at all now.
The diagnostic lights will vary depending on what settings I have, between:
(R= Red, G= Green)
R G
R R
(Memory Detection Test)
I don't know how long it is supposed to sit there, but I gave it a minute. This was the first hang-up I encountered. I had two sticks of 256 MB so I alternated between the two sticks in different DIMMs, but nothing worked.
After screwing around and putting the original settings back (with the HD/CD-Rom) I got this message:
G G
G R
(Testing Real Time Clock)
It hung there for a while too.
I left the HD/CD-Rom configuration, removed the ram, and got:
R G
R G
(Testing base and extended memory)
Again, it just sat.
No matter what I do, I can't seem to get past this stage.
My question is this:
Did I fry my CPU? If not, could you think of something else preventing me from starting up?

Well it's certainly possible that you did fry the CPU but I don't think so at this point...
Do this:
UNPLUG the machine
UNPLUG the MB from the PS
Ground yourself if possible otherwise make sure you have touched METAL on the case prior to unplugging it. And don't walk around on the carpet or shuffle your feet.
Set the HD on the Primary IDE as Single Drive/Master
Set the CDROM on the Secondary IDE as Single/Master
Take off your Heatsink and clean it really well and get ALL of the old goo off of it and the processor. Use Orange Clean as I've found it really does the best job. Put the paste (Arctic Silver II if you can get it) back on and install the fan/heatsink again.
Install 1 stick of memory in slot 3
Plug in the Floppy
Plug in the system fans and the power hookups
Plug in the MB to the PSupply
Find the jumper to reset the CMOS/BIOS and set it to clear
wait the amount of time it says in the manual and set it back. sometimes you have to remove the battery to get it to reset so you might just do that first and then do the jumper
Plug in the PS and start up the system and see what happens.
If it doesn't start you may have fried any number of things in the machine so you'll have to start replacing them one by one to figure out what the problem is.
Hope it works tho!! 8)

Photoshop CS6 Computer Build

Please review and critic; but most importantly please help solve the Controller issue.
CPU                      i7 3960
MOBO                  Intel DX79sr (perfered or Asus P9x79 Deluxe
Case                     NZXT Phantom w/front fan 140MM
Cooling                Corsiar H100 w/cougar replacement fans
Power                  Antec HCP Platimum HCP-1000 ATX12V Crossfire ready
Video                    XFX Double D FX797GTDFC Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition
DVD+/-RW          LG 24X Sata DVD+/-RW
Storage                2) Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB
4) Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
2) Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW180A3K5 2.5" 180GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Controller            Adaptec 6805
Memory               (64 Gb) 8) Crucial 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model CT102464BA1339
I am building the ultimate Photoshop CS6 PC desktop for my photography. I want to have it last for 4 years and be ready for the Adobe CSx upgrades and Windows 8. No overclocking, no gaming, very little video editing.
The (4) 3Tb drive will be run in Raid 5 and the (2) 1Tb drives will be run in Raid 1. I want all drives to run with 6Gb through put.
I have a problem that I can’t overcome in that I am told that the Adaptec controller card won’t run on either motherboard, partly because of uFEI and the X79 chipset.

Sorry for posting to a relatively old thread, but I've been going through my own re-building process and this thread is among the more informative/interesting.
Noel, you've put together an amazing system through some rather extraordinary modifications to your Dell T5500. A few questions:
How did you come to putting (4) 480 GB SSDs into a RAID 0 configuration? Did you compare or research running the drives separately? In the past, you couldn't use TRIM on SSDs when they were in a RAID configuration. Intel recently made allowances for this (http://www.anandtech.com/show/6161/intel-brings-trim-to-raid0-ssd-arrays-on-7series-mother boards-we-test-it). Are you taking advantage of this new capability?
What "enterprise class" drives did you use?... Western Digital Red drives?
The biggest beef I have with all of the workstations and workstation-like laptops out there is that they include a CAD-oriented "professional" (i.e., expensive) graphics card with them. I take it you replaced whatever was in the T5500 with a "consumer" based graphics card?
What OS are you running?... Windows 7 Professional 64-bit?
Rmumba, you got some really good advice. What did you end up building? IMO, the Core i7 3960K CPU is also a bit of overkill (certainly the 3970K is), but that's me. I think a 3930K would be better if you want/need to stick with the X79 architecture or go to a XEON like Noel if you don't. The XEON E5-2687W is ultra expensive (and a dual CPU setup with TWO of them would put most of us into bankruptcy), but it absolutely rips through Photoshop. Check out http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/xeon-e5-2687w-benchmark-review,3149-6.html for a comparison.
Finally, if you're still researching how to build this computer by yourself, you could always get a system builder like Origin PC to do it for you. It's obviously more expensive, but they can also help you with questions about power supplies, cooling, and other issues you didn't get into here. As ex-Alienware guys, gaming systems are their claim to fame, but they can certainly build you a nice Photoshop rig. They even have a Professional line if you want to go the XEON route.
-AM

Premiere Pro CS5.5 $3000 Computer Build Specs & Advice?

Hey everyone I am building a video editing computer I do alot of YouTube videos using my Canon T2I DSLR camera & use plugins like magic bullet looks all the time which can put alot of stress on some computers. I have compiled a list of everything I plan on getting for my new build and I am open to advice & thoughts. I will be using this computer strickly for after effects and premiere pro cs5.5 & possibly in the future for programs like maya or 3d max type programs. Here is the specs of my build..
1. Case: Lian-Li Case Pc-A77F Full Tower $300
2. Mother Board: ASUS P9X79 DELUXE Intel X79 Motherboard $375
3. CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K BX80619i73930K Unlocked Processor - Six Core, $560
4. CPU Cooler: N126-1028 ::Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 CPU Cooler for Intel - 6 Heatpipe Dual Radiator, 140mm and 120mm Fan, 12V, MTBF > 150,000h(5.2 lbs) $90
5. PSU: CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX1200 $300
6. 1 SSD (for OS/Programs/Software)250gb samsung 840 series $200
7. 3 x 2TB Hard Drives: TSD-2000AS4 ::Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB Serial ATA Hard Drive - 2TB, 7200RPM, 64MB, SATA 6Gb/s(1.2 lbs) $300
8. RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) $159
9. Windows 7 Professional $140
10. Battery Backup: CyberPower CP1350AVRLCD Intelligent LCD 1350VA 810W with AVR Ultra-Quiet Tower $150
11. Card Reader: Ultra U12-40529 Aluminus 3.5" Internal Card Reader with USB and eSATA - 3 Port USB 2.0, 1 Port USB 3.0, 1 Port eSATA, 6 Slot Card Reader, Steel(0.65 lbs) $40
12. DVD burner $20
13. Mouse & keyboard $20
Hopefully I have everything and are ready to go... let me know?

Several drawbacks to that iMac:
1) Slower, less powerful CPU - fewer cores and fewer threads. Plus, no iMac can be overclocked at all; they are permanently locked at stock speed.
2) No RAID support or capability whatsoever.
3) Can only accommodate a single internal fast disk - period. That disk, unfortunately, is used for the OS and programs. The only viable outputs on that iMac are the Thunderbolt ports - and they, too, are limited as to the number of disks that can be connected.
4) The 3TB disk is normally way, way, way overkill for an OS disk. However, given the complete lack of internal upgradability and the lack of internal space, Apple might as well install the largest-capacity disk it could get its hands on.

Flat Panel LCD Computer Monitor Advice

I'm building an FCP workstation and have been thinking about what type of computer monitor to purchase. My current monitor is a bulky CRT, so if anyone has any advice as far as what to look for in an LCD or good brands that have worked well for you it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Zap
Dual 2 GHz Power Mac G5 / 2 GB Ram Mac OS X (10.3.9)

hi ya, zappie!
i've been going through this same thing in my head in preparation for a mac pro in the spring. plus, one of my vga monitors is nigh on ten years old and needs to be retired.
i've looked into the dell monitors and the sony's and the apple 23 inch models. can't say that i'm overly impressed with any of these and especially the apple displays when reading posts about past and present color cast problems and other imaging issues.
one model i need to demo before i purchase anything is this particular display, http://www.eizo.com/products/graphics/ce240w/index.asp
read some nice reviews on this display and the five year warranty is nice as well.
cheers!
zeb

Photoshop computer criteria?

I'm buying Mac Book Pro and want the best for Photoshop and someday Final Cut Pro. I have been told that a matte screen is best for Photoshop. I have been told that I should NOT get the 200gig model because its rpm is slower and that I should look at the 160gig with the 5400rpm. Are there any other things I should consider? Its been 6 years since last purchase and I'm a bit behind on my computer-foo!

Max the RAM is my #1 piece of advice whatever drive you go with, if you're not editing live video then the drive speed isn't so critical. FWIW I went with the 7200 rpm and is IS zippy ...

Photoshop Computer Build Advice

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