Seeking advice: Building a Photoshop/Recording PC

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CountryRoad
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:19 am
Location: Australia

Seeking advice: Building a Photoshop/Recording PC

Post by CountryRoad » Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:42 am

This will be my first PC build and I wanted it to be as quiet as possible within my price mark (~$1000). This PC will be used for frequent photoshop and occasional audio recording. I might need it for some video editing in the near future too. I am not a gamer so therefore I don't need a powerful video card. Having said that, I do enjoy occasional (classical) strategy games like the earlier C&C and starcraft. This is what I have research so far:

Case: Antec P182

PSU: Corsair HX620

Motherboard: Asus P5QC

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

RAM: 4 GB DDR2 800 Corsair

Video Card: ASUS 256M 2400Pro

HDD: Samsung HD753LJ 750GB

Optical Drive: 22x SATA Samsung

Network Card: D-Link DWA-510 Wireless

OS: Vista Home Premium 64 bit

A couple of question regarding this setup:
1) Will there be any compatibility issue with any of the above hardware since I'll be using 64 bit vista?
2) Is it recommended for me to OC my CPU based on my type of activity? If yes, what is the safest mark without excessive cooling?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

thejamppa
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Post by thejamppa » Wed Jul 09, 2008 7:41 am

Q9300 might be better than Q6600 for you...

Asulc
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Location: Oregon, United States

Post by Asulc » Wed Jul 09, 2008 10:26 am

+1 for the Q9300

Also, I would believe that the HX620 is a little over the top. I am still learning the ins and outs of power supplies, but I believe that a HX520 would do the job just fine.

ame
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Location: Israel

Post by ame » Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:51 am

+1 again for Q9300. It runs cooler than Q6600 and offers about the same preformance.

PSU could be enermax MODU82+ 425 or 525 or Corsair VX450 or HX520. but really 400W range is more than enogh.

Consider Antec Solo. Its better airflow and quieter right out the box without any modding. The P182 has 3 fans + PSU fan so 'out of the box' its essencially twice as loud and also needs to be modded a bit IMO.

I dont see a CPU cooler on your list. A decent heatsink with a quiet fan is a must if you plan any type of quiet yet high preformance setup. check out the recommended list.

OC is not a must and you will likely notice it only in reduced rendering times in PS. Since this CPU is allready a killer, it would likely be a split second of a diffrence. I personally preffer running coller and quieter rather than hotter and louder... maybe even a slight undervolting

peerke
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Location: Leiden, The Netherlands

Post by peerke » Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:59 am

As this is the exact use I want a new PC for I will be following this thread very closely.
I have a few questions for you:
Is there a special reason you chose this particular motherboard?
For your audio recording what sound card are you considering or will you be using onboard sound?

Another question I am hoping to get answered is what is the optimal setup for the hard disk(s). Where is the best place to put the Photoshop and Windows scratchfiles and how much performance (especially in Photoshop) can you gain by using a second or even third harddisk.

Almost forgot:

Welcome to SPCR

suzyj
Posts: 33
Joined: Fri May 30, 2008 9:38 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Post by suzyj » Wed Jul 09, 2008 2:06 pm

This is what I use my main machine for.
  • Generic cheapy mATX case with lots of sound deadening added
    Asus P5B-VM motherboard
    Corsair XMS2-6400 RAM (2x 512mb sticks)
    Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU (2.4GHz)
    Ultra-120 extreme CPU cooler, without fan.
    400Gb Seagate Barracuda ES 7200RPM 3.5" HDD
    M-Audio Delta-44 PCI sound card
    Sparkle Power SPI220LE 220W power supply (modified to go into an ATX box with an 80mm nexus fan)
    Nexus 120mm case fan at 12V
    Ubuntu Linux
The M-audio Delta-44 is the ducks guts for recording. When I replace this machine I'll shell out the extra for a Delta-1010 though :)

I'm wondering why you're even bothering with a video card. I use the integrated motherboard graphics, and with the singular exception of modern OTT games (which I generally can't play anyway because I run Ubuntu) integrated graphics is oodles. Newer motherboards often have DVI or HDMI connectors, too.

Ditto about the power supply. The HX620W is overkill. Go for something much smaller. Big power supplies running on modest systems are typically pretty inefficient. My little 220W Sparkle is heaps for my machine, and generates naff-all heat, so it doesn't add to the cooling problem. For an off the shelf power supply, something like the smallest Modu 82+ or an S-12-330 is probably the go. Probably cheaper, too.

The one thing about my system that I want to change is the hard drive. I've mounted it with elastic, and done all manner of stuffing around with it, but it's still by far the noisiest part of my system. I'm planning on using a 2.5" drive, because I used a couple in my HTPC box and they're far quieter.

frankgehry
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Location: New York, NY

Post by frankgehry » Wed Jul 09, 2008 5:13 pm

You should read this from adobe:
optimize performance of photoshop cs3 on windows xp and vista

disk 1 = OS + applications
disk 2 = dedicated photoshop scratch disk
disk 3 = files

CountryRoad
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Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:19 am
Location: Australia

Post by CountryRoad » Wed Jul 09, 2008 7:40 pm

Thanks everyone for all the constructive input!
Firstly, to answer peerke's questions.

Is there a special reason you chose this particular motherboard?
This motherboard contains the latest P45 chip and it is capable of supporting both DDR2 and DDR3 memory. I might swap my DDR2 with DDR3 in the future when I see the need to.

For your audio recording what sound card are you considering or will you be using onboard sound?
Sorry I haven't research much on this yet because I won't be able to afford a soundcard anytime soon. I'm guessing it would either be Emu or M-audio.

Another question I am hoping to get answered is what is the optimal setup for the hard disk(s). Where is the best place to put the Photoshop and Windows scratchfiles and how much performance (especially in Photoshop) can you gain by using a second or even third harddisk.
I think frankgehry addressed this already.

Following frankgehry's response, I have a new questions here:
Is it really necessary to have 3 separate disk? I'm thinking of just partitioning it into 3 and dedicate each partition to either OS, scratch disk, or files.

I agree with you guys, I probably don't need the extra power in Corsair HX620. I was trying to make it more future proof but since power efficiency is becoming more popular these days, there is no need for a 620W PSU.

Regarding the case. The Antec SOLO seems more attractive to me due to the lower price tag and lack of front door. But most of the comparison reviews I read from forums seems to favour P182 more. Is it really true that an unmodded SOLO runs quieter than P182? How different it is between the two in terms of cooling and loudness?

frankgehry
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Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2004 5:00 am
Location: New York, NY

Post by frankgehry » Wed Jul 09, 2008 8:51 pm

It's best to have 3 physical drives, not just 3 logical drives. When you open an image, photoshop is writing temporary files to a scratch disk. The OS uses disk space for page files. You can read/write data faster using three drives than one drive with three partitions.

The scratch disk doesn't have to be very large, so you could partition a large drive to contain a scratch disk. But still use another drive for loading and saving with photoshop, and another for the OS and applications.

Are you sure you need a quad? Read this:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/568/1

fri2219
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Location: Forkbomb, New South Wales

Post by fri2219 » Thu Jul 10, 2008 1:25 pm

The only thing I'd add that hasn't been mentioned previously is you might want to consider a faster, distinct, drive for scratch files when using Photoshop. (e.g. Raptor, RAM Disk, or SSD)

For reasons too Geschke to discuss briefly outside of an ACM forum, Adobe took it upon themselves to write their own virtual memory system- and it makes heavy use of the disk.

While it isn't a strict requirement, it would definitely be nice to have from a performance standpoint- nice to have, but not necessary if you're not doing contract piecework with an emphasis on getting as much product out the door as fast as possible.

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