Good PC for photo editing?

[Crescent13]

My dad has this nikon scanner which he uses to scan negatives and put them on the computer in hi res. He will probably be editing them too. Will this be a good PC? I found all the cheapest prices from trusted stores on dealtime.

MOTHERBOARD: Intel Desktop Board D915PBLL - $149.99 @ Tiger Direct

PROCESSOR: Intel Pentium 4 630 - $235.00 @ ZipZoomFly

VIDEO CARD: EVGA Nvidia GeForce 6200 - $108.00 @ NewEgg

MEMORY: Corsair VS512MBKIT533D2 - $93.00 @ ZipZoomFly

HARD DRIVE: Maxtor U150 250GB 7200RPM 8MB MaXLine Plus II - $135.00 @ ZipZoomFly

CASE: Antec P160TRUE480 - $211.02 @ PC Nation

T.I.M.: Arctic Silver 5 - $9.99 @ ZipZoomFly

OPTICAL DRIVE: Plextor PX-712SA/SW - $102.50 @ NewEgg

FLOPPY DRIVE: Sony FD MPF920Z161/131 - $13.50 @ ZipZoomFly

DISPLAY: Samsung SyncMaster 793 MB - $159.99 @ J & R Music & Computer World

SPEAKERS: Logitech X-230 - 33.97 @ Mwave

OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows XP Professional - $136.00 @ Vio Software

TOTAL: $1,387.96

 

[mshan]

Will anybody be gaming on this computer or will it be for photo editing and general use (e. g. websurfing) only?

 

[bob4432]

why not look into a skt754 amd and save some $$$ and get 1GB of a value select type ram.

 

[Pixle]

Get something along this. Should work out to around $1000 if done right and would blow that system away.

MOTHERBOARD: DFI NFORCE 4 Mobo

PROCESSOR: 3500 A64 AMD

VIDEO CARD: EVGA Nvidia GeForce 6600gt - or 6800gt (if price allows)

MEMORY: Corsair Value Select 1gb (2x512) Get a Gig!

HARD DRIVE: CC has a 160gig WD for $60 AR now - or if you get a PM you can get it for $20

CASE: Antec P160TRUE480 - $211.02 @ PC Nation

T.I.M.: Arctic Silver 5 - $9.99 @ ZipZoomFly

OPTICAL DRIVE: Plextor PX-712SA/SW - $102.50 @ NewEgg Nec 3520A (thxs airfoil) should be around $60 and well worth it.

FLOPPY DRIVE: Sony FD MPF920Z161/131 - $13.50 @ ZipZoomFly

DISPLAY: Samsung SyncMaster 793 MB - $159.99 @ J & R Music & Computer World or Dell 2405 24" LCD for 860 deal at dell. If price allows. Photo editing should require a big screen.

SPEAKERS: Logitech X-230 - 33.97 @ Mwave

OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows XP Professional - $136.00 @ Vio Software (if your a student you could get this cheaper.)

TOTAL: Look up

 

[airfoil]

Get an NEC 3520A 16x for $60 instead of the Plextor.

Also, your dad will surely like this floppy drive / 7 in one card reader.

For the OS, you may as well buy Windows XP Media Center 2005, it offers all that Windows XP pro offers and then some.

 

[mechBgon]

Crescent13, what's your signature say?




BTW, get more RAM. 1GB minimum.

 

[mshan]

What's your dad going to use for photo editing? What program (Adobe Photoshop?)*

Also, any video editing or just photo editing?


* GIMP for Windows is a nice program and is FREE!
http://www.gimp.org/windows/

 

[TRUMPHENT]

Which scanner/interface? Which software will be used to process the images?

Get a bigger monitor!

A second hard drive will benefit Adobe Photoshop.

Newegg sells the same mainboard for a dollar less and won't kill you with shipping like TigerDirect will.

 

[mshan]

Why not a plain jane Pentium 4 "Northwood" and 865 or 875 chipset?

I would guess that it is plenty powerful for photo editing and may be what a company like Adobe optimized their software around (total guess).

And what about a dual head video card and dual monitors instead of buying all of that bleeding edge hardware?

If you dad is going to do any video editing, these guys put together a nice system for about $1000: http://www.videoguys.com/DIY.html

 

[mshan]

A couple of really cheap options to build around (e. g. change video card, add monitors, Windows XP):

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=381140

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=40&threadid=1542341&enterthread=y

Leaves lots of money for monitors, printers, software, etc.

 

[KoolDrew]

Go AMD. You will save a bit of cash and get similair or better performance. Also if no gaming is going to be done you could even go cheaper on the video card. Maybe a 9200?

For the use of this computer get 1GB of RAM.

Get a MUCh cheaper case. There is also no reason for Arctic Silver 5 if no overclocking will be done. Just buy the retail package for the CPU.

Get the NEC 3520A to save some cash.

You could also save a bit of cash by going with XP Home. It is likely you do not need the extra feutures of Pro.

 

[mshan]

I used to own a Radeon 9000 video card. I am building a video editing computer for my dad and bought an Nvidia Quadro4 280 NVS video card (dual monitor capable) and the picture was just much much sharper for 2D applications.

I also just bought a Matrox RTX.10 suite for video editing, so I decided to pick up a Matrox G450 video card (dual monitor capable). Again, a much much better 2D picture than my Radeon 9000 or even my Radeon 9700 Pro (2D image alone).

I think the Nvidia has better DirectX and OpenGL support than the Matrox (DirectX 6 and OpenGL 1.1) but for pure 2D image they are both great and dual monitor capable.

Oh, and Artic Silver Ceramique is $3.99 shipped at SVC.com.

 

[n yusef]

Any nVidia or ATi card that has two outputs (VGA/DVI or dual DVI) is dual moniter capable mshan. Matrox will have better 2D IQ though.

 

[Crescent13]

mechBgon, even though I don't like intel I thought it would work better for multimedia.

 

[Crescent13]

Originally posted by: mshan
What's your dad going to use for photo editing? What program (Adobe Photoshop?)*

Also, any video editing or just photo editing?


* GIMP for Windows is a nice program and is FREE!
http://www.gimp.org/windows/

He is going to be scanning and editing photos of protiens from his lab. (he is a biochemist)

 

[Crescent13]

Originally posted by: TRUMPHENT
1. Which scanner/interface?

2. Which software will be used to process the images?

3. Get a bigger monitor!

4. A second hard drive will benefit Adobe Photoshop.

Newegg sells the same mainboard for a dollar less and won't kill you with shipping like TigerDirect will.

1. Scanner interface is Firewire.

2. Software will be nikon software that came with the scanner.

3. Too expensive.

4. Too expensive.

 

[Crescent13]

Originally posted by: mshan
Will anybody be gaming on this computer or will it be for photo editing and general use (e. g. websurfing) only?

No gaming.

 

[karlreading]

Im a self proclaimed amd fanboi, but i would be going p4 for a photshop rig. My personal view is that p4's lend themselves a little better for 2d / desktop tasks, specially with HT.

Having said that, make sure its a 6xx cpu, i wouldent buy any processor without AMD64 support ( sorry, how rude of me, i mean EM64T. credit where credits due :roll: )

now that intel has gone go go ga ga for 64bit, 64bit i s gonna be a VERY important feature, very quickly.

karlos

 

[mshan]

I personally think all you need is a 32 MB Matrox G450 video card: beautiful 2D picture and like $20 - $25 shipped on Ebay. You can also get the Matrox VGA to composite / S-video cable for under $8 and use the second VGA output to output to a plain TV. If you want to splurge, the Matrox P650 (either dual DVI or dual VGA) go for around $100 on Ebay.

I would just get a plain jane Pentium 4 "northwood" because the Intel 875/865 chipset is probably what the major software makers like Adobe optimized around (someone told me this was true for their video editing software; may also be true for photo editing). Asus P4C800-E rev. 2 Deluxe is a damn nice mobo, although it is still expensive. 2 x 512 MB dual channel kit Kingston Value RAM PC3200 has been as low as $100 after rebate at Outpost.com recently.

Then splurge on a nice truly flat Trinitron CRT monitor and be very, very happy. (19 inch brand new is probably less than $250)

Unless your dad really needs that massive hard drive, perhaps two Samsung SP1614c 160 GB SATA hardrives (slightly under $100 a piece at NewEgg) in RAID-1 would be a better choice?

This is a nice computer case with a pretty quiet, quality 350W power supply and front / rear 120 quiet Globe mm fans: http://www.coolcases.com/cart/case_compucase_lx6a19.php

Other thoughts:
- it may be more important for your dad to have a completely stable, reliable, and most likely to be compatible with all software used system rather than a bleeding edge system (having to redo work from random crashes)
- your dad may also appreciate a very quiet computer rather than a bleeding edge one. http://www.silentpcreview.com is a great resource.

 

[jackschmittusa]

For a Photoshop-centric rig I would choose Intel w/HT, 1-2mb ram (nothing fancy needed, Crucial or Kingston Value will suffice) and a Matrox vid card.

Photoshop can take advantage of HT. Matrox produces very high quality 2d for a bargin price (the 450 is fine). For best performance, consider what should be able to load in ram without disk-swapping: XP, Photoshop, plugins, the original image (hi res as you said), and the manipulated image (again, hi res). These can consume a lot of ram.

The NEC mentioned is a good choice for a burner too.

I would also spend some extra money to buy the 16mb cache Maxtor 250 or 300mb drive.

 

[wisdomtooth]

Agreed with the Matrox... There is absolutely NO NEED for the extra hundreds of bucks those 6600s or 6800s would cost because their 3D acceleration capabilities will NOT be used at all by Photoshop.

P4 Northie HT is the best bet. Don't bother running Photoshop under EM64T yet until 64-bit Windows comes out and has been fully debugged (i.e. at least until Service Pack 1).

HTH.

 

[Crescent13]

I'll look for a Matrox, but if my dad wants to look at something like this, will the matrox run it?

 

[mshan]

Do you know what the resolution on that screen is?

I'm no expert on video cards, but 32 MB of video memory may not be enough if you want to run high resolutions. The Matrox P650, which has 64 MB of video memory, may be a better choice for your dad's needs (http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/comp_chart/home.cfm). I think they go for over $100 used on Ebay.

You could also just try the 32 MB Matrox G450 and see if you can run the resolutions you want without the interface being too sluggish. If not, you can probably resell it at minimal loss and upgrade to the Matrox P650.


Matrox dual head technology also has a nice zoom feature where you select an area of the main screen and can zoom that onto the second display. Look at the details of the Matrox dualhead technology on their website; it's pretty nice.

 

[wisdomtooth]

That Sony LCD HDTV displays 1280x768.

A 32MB Matrox can handle that yep, but it's only AGP4x. The higher Matrox cards have AGP 8X though.

 

[mshan]

Hi widsdomtooth:

Is the quality of a Matrox G450 as good out of the DVI input as the VGA output (i.e. are they just different connections, or is there a lot of processing going on in that little blue VGA connector?)?