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[F1 9LFG]

Hi all

Thanks to those who gave their advice last week on what I'd need for photo editing/processing and general usage.

If anyone out there is interested in building me a PC could you have a lok below and 'quote me happy' please 

two different specs I'm looking at

1)
 
i7 processor
16gb RAM
1TB Hard drive
Windows 7 64bit
Multi card reader
4 USB ports
Graphics card - ?eg Geforce GT530? something with 1gb ddr3. with HD + VGA output.
Bluray reader/writer.
capability to make the most of a 40mb network connection speed
 
 
2)
i5 processor
8gb RAM
500GB Hard drive
Windows 7 64bit
Multi card reader
4 USB ports
Graphics card - ?eg Geforce GT530? something with 1gb ddr3. with HD + VGA output.
Bluray reader/writer.
capability to make the most of a 40mb network connection speed

Which ever I end up going for I'll need TWO units building (both the same).

Thanks

Rob

[Martian]

You've not told us what your budget is, so I'll assume you are looking to pay as little as possible for the best kit out there (as we all do  )

16GB of RAM is going to be way overkill IMO, and I doubt you'll be using any software that could even get 8GB of RAM going properly.
HDD's are expensive at the moment, but I'd guess that you'll soon eat that 1TB up working with/saving RAW image files.

TB is probably the best bet for links to components suppliers as he's an IT geek for a living, and I'm with him on his recommendation for Intel made motherboards based on my personal experience of them. They aren't as quick as ASUS boards, but ASUS boards are aimed at the speed demon who wants to overclock the granny out of the system.

Having said that, I haven't noticed any speed difference at all between Intel & ASUS when using them for real life apps instead of benchmarking, but system stability is pretty much a written guarantee with Intel made boards IMHO.

[F1 9LFG]

You've not told us what your budget is, so I'll assume you are looking to pay as little as possible for the best kit out there (as we all do  )

16GB of RAM is going to be way overkill IMO, and I doubt you'll be using any software that could even get 8GB of RAM going properly.
HDD's are expensive at the moment, but I'd guess that you'll soon eat that 1TB up working with/saving RAW image files.

TB is probably the best bet for links to components suppliers as he's an IT geek for a living, and I'm with him on his recommendation for Intel made motherboards based on my personal experience of them. They aren't as quick as ASUS boards, but ASUS boards are aimed at the speed demon who wants to overclock the granny out of the system.

Having said that, I haven't noticed any speed difference at all between Intel & ASUS when using them for real life apps instead of benchmarking, but system stability is pretty much a written guarantee with Intel made boards IMHO.

Hi Martian,
No idea as to budget, so waiting for guide prices really. but yes, cheaper the better but not to go super cheapo rubbish!

8gb Ram it is if that'll run things like photoshop elements 10 with ease.

I have external sata drives of 500mb each, safer way to store files so 1TB would be the most I'd need built in, 500mb would probably do.

Cheers

[Martian]

Hi Martian,
No idea as to budget, so waiting for guide prices really. but yes, cheaper the better but not to go super cheapo rubbish!

8gb Ram it is if that'll run things like photoshop elements 10 with ease.

I have external sata drives of 500mb each, safer way to store files so 1TB would be the most I'd need built in, 500mb would probably do.

Cheers

I'd be surprised if Elements ever needed anywhere near 8GB to work with, but memory is cheap enough not to worry too much about the difference between (say) 4GB and 8GB.....so we'll work on 8GB from that perspective.

A Sata 3 500GB HDD is around the £70 mark at current prices for a 7200rpm model, but if you want faster spindle speeds then that will obviously jack the price up.
While a faster spindle speed will improve working times, I doubt the real world speed difference between a 7200 & a 10K will be of any concern to you.

If speed is of the essence (and you said you are saving the final results to another drive) then SSD is the way to go while working with such large files, but you will start to pay a premium price once you start going over 128GB in capacity.

[F1 9LFG]

Hi Martian,
No idea as to budget, so waiting for guide prices really. but yes, cheaper the better but not to go super cheapo rubbish!

8gb Ram it is if that'll run things like photoshop elements 10 with ease.

I have external sata drives of 500mb each, safer way to store files so 1TB would be the most I'd need built in, 500mb would probably do.

Cheers

I'd be surprised if Elements ever needed anywhere near 8GB to work with, but memory is cheap enough not to worry too much about the difference between (say) 4GB and 8GB.....so we'll work on 8GB from that perspective.

A Sata 3 500GB HDD is around the £70 mark at current prices for a 7200rpm model, but if you want faster spindle speeds then that will obviously jack the price up.
While a faster spindle speed will improve working times, I doubt the real world speed difference between a 7200 & a 10K will be of any concern to you.

If speed is of the essence (and you said you are saving the final results to another drive) then SSD is the way to go while working with such large files, but you will start to pay a premium price once you start going over 128GB in capacity.

you see, this is just why I need to discuss what I need with someone who knows what their talking about.

I popped into my local PC shop today, the guy said I'd need min 16gb RAM, ontop of loads of other 'stuff' and I wouldn't get any change from £1k...

As you know what you are talking about and know what I need the PC to do, could you suggest a spec and price it accordingly please?

Also I need an identical PC building for a friend who has also just got into photography. (so any order would be x2)

Thanks for your time

[cem_devecioglu]

I would gor for I5, not necessary more than 4 GB and would never sacrifice an SSD disk (128 GB will do most of the job) and if you need more space for archieve connect a conventional disk to another channel.. 
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2010/02/17/kingston-ssd-now-v-series-128gb-review/1

[D]

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=d006216&c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&model_id=inspiron-620&

Only 6GB of RAM, which I think is plenty, but you can easily add 2GB at a later stage if need be. Blueray read only, but I am sure you can call them and ask for an upgrade. £567

[Rods2]

My brother has owned and run a computer shop in Macclesfield for over 25 years and regularly builds custom PCs for customers. If you want a quote give Tim a call on 01625 434118.

[Martian]

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=d006216&c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&model_id=inspiron-620&

Only 6GB of RAM, which I think is plenty, but you can easily add 2GB at a later stage if need be. Blueray read only, but I am sure you can call them and ask for an upgrade. £567

Dell do make good machines, but they are ba$tards for using proprietary parts.
Many years ago I contacted them to get a replacement floppy drive and could have bought a bog standard one for less than £10 from pretty much any computer outlet. However because Dell used a floppy drive that had external physical dimensions that were non standard, that meant you had to buy from them and that was that.

Dell wanted £55 + VAT for the replacement drive, which was nothing short of daylight robbery.
I don't know if Dell still employ that practice, but it's one to watch out for as a simple PSU failure could end up running in to £100's at that kind of over inflated rate for parts.

[Martian]

I popped into my local PC shop today, the guy said I'd need min 16gb RAM, ontop of loads of other 'stuff' and I wouldn't get any change from £1k...

He is talking utter bo**ocks Rob, I have emailed you with a list of the components that are going to cost the most (CPU, Mobo, Memory,and SSD) and that is currently sitting at £375 inc VAT.
The other parts you wanted (optical drives) are still up for discussion, but if you are only looking at Blu-ray as a backup medium for your data then I'd say go with a DVD burner instead given the vast price difference.

The SSD I specced out is only 128GB, but you did say that the final finished work is being saved to external HDD.
I would personally have a 128GB SSD over a 500GB HDD any day just for the speed difference alone, and it won't matter to your scenario if you drop 350GB or so from the main HDD as the final work is going to a seperate disk (but you will definately see the difference when loading & working with those images in Elements).

Also I need an identical PC building for a friend who has also just got into photography. (so any order would be x2)

How's this sound?

Whatever the final cost of the parts list, I'll put each machine together, install the OS, patches, other software you require for a flat rate of £40 per machine if you get the parts delivered to me.
You are more than welcome to bring them in person if you wish, I'm just thinking about your overall travelling distance and costs.

The above assumes you actually want me to assemble the machines for you. I'm not trying to angle for your business as i'm a sparks by trade (or I will be when the doc lets me go back to work), and my IT "knowledge" is simply what I have learnt over the last 15 years of doing it for myself, family, and the odd neighbour.

[TheBoy]

I agree with Martian, 16Gb is overkill.  8Gb is fine (if dual channel controller), or 6Gb is tri channel.

SSDs are too expensive for storage.  For a transient area to work from, speed benefits can be seen, but I doubt its worth the cost in this instance.

As for i5 v i7, firstly is much be Sandy Bridge (these offer a decent boost over 1st gen i5/i7), my experience with (admittedly older versions) Photoshop is that hyperthreading doesn't really make much difference.  Both i5 and i7 have quad cores anyway, major difference between the 2 is that i7 has 2 threads per core (Intel's Hyperthreading), i5 has one.  In this instance, I'd probably go for a faster clocked i5 than a more expensive, slower clocked i7.

Nobody has stated anything about what version of Windows. Although any version except Starter (which is 32 bit only, and not available in the UK anyway), should be fine with this.  Cheapest being Home Premium, which is around £130 from memory (I preordered bucketloads when they were £50 )

[cem_devecioglu]

I agree with Martian, 16Gb is overkill.  8Gb is fine (if dual channel controller), or 6Gb is tri channel.

SSDs are too expensive for storage.  For a transient area to work from, speed benefits can be seen, but I doubt its worth the cost in this instance.

As for i5 v i7, firstly is much be Sandy Bridge (these offer a decent boost over 1st gen i5/i7), my experience with (admittedly older versions) Photoshop is that hyperthreading doesn't really make much difference.  Both i5 and i7 have quad cores anyway, major difference between the 2 is that i7 has 2 threads per core (Intel's Hyperthreading), i5 has one.  In this instance, I'd probably go for a faster clocked i5 than a more expensive, slower clocked i7.

Nobody has stated anything about what version of Windows. Although any version except Starter (which is 32 bit only, and not available in the UK anyway), should be fine with this.  Cheapest being Home Premium, which is around £130 from memory (I preordered bucketloads when they were £50 )

yep.. important point.. as pixel rendering and calculations will work on a single thread alone..

[TheBoy]

I have emailed you with a list of the components that are going to cost the most (CPU, Mobo, Memory,and SSD) and that is currently sitting at £375 inc VAT.

Is that list public? Assuming that OP and yourself have no objections?

[F1 9LFG]

I have emailed you with a list of the components that are going to cost the most (CPU, Mobo, Memory,and SSD) and that is currently sitting at £375 inc VAT.

Is that list public? Assuming that OP and yourself have no objections?

I have no issues. once i'm at a PC i'll copy the spec to this thread. very interesting learning what the different bits detailed above do and how they are used.
I'm very grateful for all your views, advice and explainations.

Rob

[Martian]

I have emailed you with a list of the components that are going to cost the most (CPU, Mobo, Memory,and SSD) and that is currently sitting at £375 inc VAT.

Is that list public? Assuming that OP and yourself have no objections?

No problem at all with posting the parts list Jaime, the more input the better IMO (especially as you do it for a living).
The following parts/prices are from Novatech, but if you know of cheaper then shout up.

Asus P8Z68-V LX Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) Motherboard
Intel Core i5 2400 3.1GHz (Sandy Bridge) Socket LGA1155 - Retail
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
Corsair Force Series 3 120GB SATA 6Gb/s SSD - Retail

That lot comes to £375 inc, but if Rob is happy with a bog standard 500GB 7200rpm HDD then you can shave £60 off that.
The OS is going to be Win 7 64bit, but can't confirm the actual version as I don't know whether he intends to use it standalone or on a domain.

I did say to Rob in my email that I'm quite confident the onboard Intel HD graphics will more than suffice for his needs so no need to throw £60 (or thereabouts) on a GT530.
Rob intends to supply the case & PSU, so the only thing left to add is an optical drive.