new build ? dual core v single

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tom McGrew
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Tom McGrew

I want to build for the first time. No gaming. just Photoshop work on a professional scale, occasional video work. Dual monitors. Should I stick with a fast single core (AMD) or go for a dual core? How high of a video card do I need? Should I go to the nvidia 7xxx series or is the 6xxxx adequate?( with dual DVI of course) Plan on a raptor HD, at least for the boot disk. How about mobo; should I go for the Asus $200 board, or would a $ 125 board serve me well?
Thanks for your advice as well as your 2 cents worth.

TRM
 
My advice, even though I don't do Photoshop...

Lots of RAM, dual core processor. Wait for a Conroe or AM2 processor, if you can. Get a cheaper video card if you need to in order to get more RAM. If you want an NVidia card (even though I'm not a fan of theirs), get a 7xxx card instead of a 6xxx, although you probably won't see any real benefit. You'd only see the benefit later when when running Vista or games (much the same :) ). And get lots of RAM. At least 2GB, if not 4. Probably doesn't matter much which motherboard you get, but get a decent name-brand one. Make sure it supports lots of RAM, and get as fast of memory you can get.

I guess you can probably tell what I think is most important. :) I'm not familiar enough with the the HD issues with Photoshop to comment on the best setup for that. I'd guess as fast as possible, but I think there's also some scratch disk space to get set up somewhere. Possibly having multiple drives to try to split stuff across multiple drives.

Do you have a budget in mind?

Clint
I want to build for the first time. No gaming. just Photoshop work on a professional scale, occasional video work. Dual monitors. Should I stick with a fast single core (AMD) or go for a dual core? How high of a video card do I need? Should I go to the nvidia 7xxx series or is the 6xxxx adequate?( with dual DVI of course) Plan on a raptor HD, at least for the boot disk. How about mobo; should I go for the Asus $200 board, or would a $ 125 board serve me well?
Thanks for your advice as well as your 2 cents worth.

TRM
 
Thanks, Clint. I need to stay under $2000. I was planning on 2G of RAM, and at least a 500W power supply. You must like ATI better for a video card. I would like to stay under $200 for that./
TM
My advice, even though I don't do Photoshop...

Lots of RAM, dual core processor. Wait for a Conroe or AM2 processor, if you can. Get a cheaper video card if you need to in order to get more RAM. If you want an NVidia card (even though I'm not a fan of theirs), get a 7xxx card instead of a 6xxx, although you probably won't see any real benefit. You'd only see the benefit later when when running Vista or games (much the same :) ). And get lots of RAM. At least 2GB, if not 4. Probably doesn't matter much which motherboard you get, but get a decent name-brand one. Make sure it supports lots of RAM, and get as fast of memory you can get.

I guess you can probably tell what I think is most important. :) I'm not familiar enough with the the HD issues with Photoshop to comment on the best setup for that. I'd guess as fast as possible, but I think there's also some scratch disk space to get set up somewhere. Possibly having multiple drives to try to split stuff across multiple drives.

Do you have a budget in mind?

Clint
I want to build for the first time. No gaming. just Photoshop work on a professional scale, occasional video work. Dual monitors. Should I stick with a fast single core (AMD) or go for a dual core? How high of a video card do I need? Should I go to the nvidia 7xxx series or is the 6xxxx adequate?( with dual DVI of course) Plan on a raptor HD, at least for the boot disk. How about mobo; should I go for the Asus $200 board, or would a $ 125 board serve me well?
Thanks for your advice as well as your 2 cents worth.

TRM
 
I want to build for the first time. No gaming. just Photoshop work on a professional scale, occasional video work. Dual monitors. Should I stick with a fast single core (AMD) or go for a dual core? How high of a video card do I need? Should I go to the nvidia 7xxx series or is the 6xxxx adequate?( with dual DVI of course) Plan on a raptor HD, at least for the boot disk. How about mobo; should I go for the Asus $200 board, or would a $ 125 board serve me well?
Thanks for your advice as well as your 2 cents worth.

TRM

(my reply)

Anything you build now should be dual-core. Nvidia 6xxx series should be fine for video. Any $125 mainboard will work well. I'd specifically steer away from Asus, though. Many people will disagree with me on that, as they are the most over-hyped brand available. But they have poor reliability, which you would know if you serviced them professionally. Better brands are AOpen and DFI. These usually cost less, too. -Dave
 
I would go with better MB with raid, 0 for performance or 10 for both: performance and security.

boba vankufer
I want to build for the first time. No gaming. just Photoshop work on a professional scale, occasional video work. Dual monitors. Should I stick with a fast single core (AMD) or go for a dual core? How high of a video card do I need? Should I go to the nvidia 7xxx series or is the 6xxxx adequate?( with dual DVI of course) Plan on a raptor HD, at least for the boot disk. How about mobo; should I go for the Asus $200 board, or would a $ 125 board serve me well?
Thanks for your advice as well as your 2 cents worth.

TRM
 
I want to build for the first time. No gaming. just Photoshop work on a
professional scale, occasional video work. Dual monitors. Should I stick with a
fast single core (AMD) or go for a dual core? How high of a video card do I
need? Should I go to the nvidia 7xxx series or is the 6xxxx adequate?( with dual
DVI of course) Plan on a raptor HD, at least for the boot disk. How about mobo;
should I go for the Asus $200 board, or would a $ 125 board serve me well?
Thanks for your advice as well as your 2 cents worth.

Dual core for Photoshop, since it is SMP aware.

Fancy/expensive video cards are for 3D work, and don't do much for 2D work like
your Photoshop stuff. Spend the $$ on a fast HD system (more/bigger Raptors)
and more RAM (2 GB min; 4 GB may help in extreme cases).
 
John Weiss said:
I want to build for the first time. No gaming. just Photoshop work on a
professional scale, occasional video work. Dual monitors. Should I stick
with a fast single core (AMD) or go for a dual core? How high of a video
card do I need? Should I go to the nvidia 7xxx series or is the 6xxxx
adequate?( with dual DVI of course) Plan on a raptor HD, at least for the
boot disk. How about mobo; should I go for the Asus $200 board, or would a
$ 125 board serve me well?
Thanks for your advice as well as your 2 cents worth.

Dual core for Photoshop, since it is SMP aware.

Fancy/expensive video cards are for 3D work, and don't do much for 2D work
like your Photoshop stuff. Spend the $$ on a fast HD system (more/bigger
Raptors) and more RAM (2 GB min; 4 GB may help in extreme cases).
Click to expand...
Good advise. For the price of a high end video card he could set up a couple
of nice and large raid arrays which would help a lot with his video and
photo work.

Ed
 
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