Need a new PC. looking for suggestions

NYSpeed Automotive NYSpeed Off Topic
1

ok, so my system is getting a little outdated. it is ok for general web browsing etc. i do not do any gaming. but i am doing a good amount of photo editing in lightroom and photoshop. processing RAW images of about 20MB really kills my system.

here is what i have:
win 7
4gb ram
AMD 64 X2 7850 2.8G AM2 CPU
i can look at other specs if need be too.

couple of questions:
what is my best option for photo editing? more cores or faster processor? does the video card factor in to it?

i would like to swap out the Mobo, cpu and ram and try to keep everything else. is that a good idea?

any suggestions or help would be appreciated. thanks.

2

was this home build to begin with? or bought from a store?

3

home build. so i would like to keep my case, HD, and dvd burner in tact if i can. not sure how the drivers will transfer over.

4

Case, HD and DVD Burner should be fine to re-use.

For Lightroom and Photoshop best performance, a 4-core system, with at least 4gb of memory, but I would suggest 8. Also it would be very helpful to do your processing on a SSD drive. Not sure what your budget is like but here are some part suggestions…
Intel Core i5 3550 (for 20 more the 3550k can be had but it is only useful for overclocking
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H (really any Asus or Gigabyte Z77 board will do
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB
SanDisk Extreme SSD 240 GB SATA 6.0

5

that looks way above my budget haha. im thinking $250ish. i would love a SSD, but i have like 300gb of pics. i guess i could do them temporarily on the ssd then move them over when im done. but it seems like a pain. what would be a good AMD equivalent? someone is selling a quad core phenom x2 rig on CL for $200. but i thought i might as well spend the extra money on hardware and not duplicate case dvd drives etc.

i have an i7 HP elitebook for work, but i would rather not use that. though i guess it might be a possibility.

6

Gigabyte blows ASus is way better

7

AMD’s are not in the same performance league, I think you won’t get much out of that one, but if you are insistent there is always something like this combo http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1064768

---------- Post added at 02:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:25 PM ----------

Another one that is a bit more.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1064771

8

i guess the real question is, how much performance will i gain? even if i have a top of the line system, will i still have to wait around for things to process? is that just the nature of photo editing? i am very impatient…i would love to have a mac, but i cant justify that much for a computer right now.

9

Typically your biggest bottleneck is IO. But check this and Optimize Lightroom performance and this Optimize performance Photoshop out

10

good reads. thanks. seems like where i am storing the pictures might be a problem. it is a SATA hard drive, but i think it is only 5400 rpm. maybe i can improve a lot more with just switching to a SSD. i will have to research and see if i can have that as a slave or if i need to have my OS on the SSD to realize the bump in performance.

---------- Post added at 04:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:49 PM ----------

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227551&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction--na--na-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=404255&SID=272579

how about this one? seems like a good price.

---------- Post added at 04:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:23 PM ----------

hmmm. reviews are garbage.

11

You need to have you OS on the SSD to get better performance

12

Not necessarily with Lightroom and Photoshop but overall it will be helpful.

Vertex 2 aren’t all that great.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006EKJCWM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tonymacx86com-20

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167092

But you could also look at the Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drives, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148591

13

THe SSD is going to help load the program. A good CPU is going to help more with all the actions, rendering, etc. The video card isn’t as important. I’d throw AT LEAST 8GB of ram in, since memory is stupid cheap now.

14

If you decide to get an SSD, which you should, the only choice right now is Samsung 830. Any capacity is fine, 256 would be preferred.