Building a new computer - could use some recommendations :

[Blooze]

My laptop that I've been using for the last four years kicked the bucket last week (GPU is fried I'm pretty sure) so I'm in the planning stages to have a desktop built this fall. I need to quit using my work laptop for PP before I get in trouble I already have someone lined up to build it who has a brick and mortar store and does it for a living. I will be going with the core basics to start with as funds are limited, but I could use some insight as to if what I think I want is what I really need.

The basic system he sells has the following for $749, but I can get it for less as this covers his overhead and parts price fluctuations:

• Logisys Ruby Red Case with Cooling Fan
• 500 Watt Power Supply with Cooling Fan
• GIGABYTE Motherboard with Video and Audio
• AMD FX 8320 Black Edition 8 Core Processor @ 3.5 GHz
• 8GB DDR3-1333 Memory
• 1TB 7200 rpm SATA Hard Disk Drive
• CD/DVD Combo Drive, + All in One Card Reader
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
• One year warranty on parts and labor

I was thinking of upgrading to:

• i7 3770K @ 3.5GHz w/AGA-Z77x P8Z77
• 750 Watt Power Supply with Cooling Fan
• Additional 1TB 7200 rpm SATA Hard Disk Drive as an internal backup (mirror)
• 12-16 GB DDR3-1333 Memory
• 128GB SSD for OS and software storage

This will be almost exclusively for photography as I'm going to pick up a Nexus 7 for goofing around on the net and previewing photos when I'm away from home.

Any suggestions or experiences would be most welcome!

 

[ScruffyJones]

I would say go with the upgraded one for the most part. To cut the costs a little though I would say 8GB of RAM is enough at the moment. More than 8GB is not efficiently used by the OS and kind of goes to waste and is not really needed unless you're going to have 3 instances of Photoshop open at one time with 2GB projects in them. Having a SSD for the OS and software would be good. You're going to want more than 1TB of storage space.

 

[Sawblade]

The upgrade looks good, but I'd recommend against using a mirrored drive as your only backup. That helps against a single drive failure, but theft, accidental deletion, viruses, or a bad RAID controller could still mess your stuff up.

Backing up to a portable is a way more sound option.



8gb of RAM is plenty...unless you do a lot of stitching in Photoshop. Then, I'd go bigger.

 

[Blooze]

The upgrade looks good, but I'd recommend against using a mirrored drive as your only backup. That helps against a single drive failure, but theft, accidental deletion, viruses, or a bad RAID controller could still mess your stuff up.

Backing up to a portable is a way more sound option.



8gb of RAM is plenty...unless you do a lot of stitching in Photoshop. Then, I'd go bigger.

Yup. I have three external drives right now. My laptop got all the photos from the CF card then those got backed up to one drive immediately after culling the really poor shots. My initial PP attempts were then done on the laptop and added to this hard drive. Once I got all my PP done I then copied all those to another drive. Once a month I bring a drive I keep at work home and back everything up one more time. I also save all my original sized processed jpgs to a private folder on my website.

I basically want the second drive to use as a redundant copy. I'm not sure I'll do RAID1 on it, but just a scheduled sync using it more like I would an external drive.

I was waffling about 8gb or 12gb, as RAM is pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things.

 

[ScruffyJones]

How long are you planning on keeping it? On second thought since RAM is cheap you might ought to get 12GB RAM. It would save you the problem in the future if you were trying to add more RAM and the same RAM modules you already have were no longer available.

 

[Blooze]

How long are you planning on keeping it? On second thought since RAM is cheap you might ought to get 12GB RAM. It would save you the problem in the future if you were trying to add more RAM and the same RAM modules you already have were no longer available.

I'll be keeping it till it dies or can no longer do what I need it to do . I'm not really a trade up, latest-greatest person.

 

[Dad3*3]

Why not build it yourself? Doesn't really take that long and you will learn a lot along the way. You'll save yourself some money (that never really works cause you end up buying better components). You'll learn how to upgrade components in the future. And there are plenty of online tutorials to help if you get stuck.

Once you decide on your hardware, you can have it up and running in at a relaxing pace over a weekend.

 

[Ashley Rosser]

I run an AMD A series chip for my photography and it works very well.
The only thing I would suggest to your basic set up is a dedicated video card and definitely faster RAM such as 2133 or 1600, trust me it will make a difference to your processing speeds and the price difference between 1333 and 1600/2133 isn't that much if anything.
Maybe a USB 3 card reader as this will speed up D/Ls of your photo's.
Good luck and let us know what you get.