Hi,

I am planning to buy a new computer and after some research i have come to the following configuration. There are some open question. Can some one help.

Intel i7 920 2.66 ghz
Intel Mother Board ( Wx 58 BP or Dx 58So any one can guide whaich one is better or what is the difference )
WD 3000BKFG /SAS/6GB /sec / 10000 RPM/16 Mb Catche or WD Velociraptor 1500BLFS - Hard Disc
Corsair Rams 3x2 GB or 3x4 GB What is optimum RAM required for CS4 . is it possible to use one 4GB at this moment and add the rest lateron. Will it work that way or i need to put all the 3 RAM together. Again the i7 920 supports only 1024 MHZ so in that case is it worth buying 1333MHZ RAM.
NVDIA Quadro FX 580 Graphic card. Does I7 920 works without a graphics card and can i put the graphics card later.

Monitor Dell Ultra sharp 22" 2209WA flat e-IPS monitor. Cant afford W2410 IPS.
What is the SMPS required for this configs.


Another confusion what would be your suggestion about AMD Phenom 965 3.4GHZ. This has higher Speed. Cheap , its Quad Core , 45 nm tech used in the chip... but still people are saying its not comparable to i7 920 . What is the difference and where exactly i7 is superior.

Thanks.
Sounak.

Don't give so much on Ghz -
What you write here is much power for sure - any i5 or i7 is great -
Velociraptor is a great hard disk, if you want maximum speed build a Raid 0 with 2 disks - it's a higher risk if one gets a defect but the working speed in picture processing is amazing. Better take a smaller CPU but pay attention you buy a good motherbood -
For the RAM remember that you only can use +4 with a 64bit OS ....
For me your config sounds more like a gaming power machine than a power workstation :)

8gb minimum, 16 better, you can add more later if you don't fill up your slots with lower capacity now. Buy the biggest simms you will ever want first that way you have open slots to add more later. More expensive now, but you will save money in the end.

Don't know about Intel chips so much, I have AMD quad 64. My son just upgraded his gaming computer and bought one of the newer Intel chips, he thinks they are the "bomb"


The CPU doesn't care if you have a graphics card or not. If you're not going to buy a card to start you MUST make sure that the motherboard you buy has on-board graphic capability.

Considered the 27" new iMac ? Have it since recently, and the screen is soooooooooooo nice.
If you look at it - you actually almost get the computer itself for free ;-)

But you can't get rid of this stupid apple on it! *crouch'n'run* ;)

Well... I once saw a guy who cracked open a Macbook Pro, started hobby'ing with a saw, and actually made the light-up-logo into a banana :-)
I'd pay extra for one of those!!!

:-)

Go for MAC! And you no need think about this what you wrote anymore!

Robert

Yeah, Robert, but if he builds his own PC he will have money left for a new lens...

Hi i am not much familiar with mac and i think it will be good to stick to PC. Again cost is beyond my budget for i mac 27" , with similar configuration of i7 etc PC is much cheaper and i can upgrade the same when required.

For i7 920 what is the motherboard suitable that will have onboard graphics card . So that i can buy a better graphics card later on.

Considering the above what is your opinion.

There are many different RAID. Which config is better. Shall i spend on 2 different normal hard drive for RAID 0 or on a single WD Velociraptor. Which one will give better performance..?

I'wouldn't use an onboard graphic but buy a cheap one, you don't need an expensive card if you don't want to game - Any 50-70 ? Nvidia/Ati will be fine!

Regarding Raid - actually raid is made for assurance to give a backup if one HD breaks - Raid 0 does not give you safety but you spread the data to both harddrive - I use this way since 5 years as it gives +30-40 % to all data operation which is really great for Photoshop.....2 normal 7200rpm HD's in Raid 0 will be faster than one 10000 rpm Veloci - But Velo's are expensive. If you take care on a good backup concept, R0 ist just fantastic!

I work with a 4 years old Powermac G5 - 2 Ghz Dual, CS3 with 2.5 Ram, I open PS images from more than 250 MB with many (+-15) layers and it works fine:-))
When I worked with a recent Medion PC (laptop) with 4G Ram and CS 4, after 3 layers he was bocked?

Yes Mac is expensive, but if you put he same material in a PC, he will as expensive.
(I don't advice you to buy a Mac, because if everybody does, some will create viruses for Mac.)

Consider about two top 20 inch monitors side by side instead of one large ;)

NOT true at all. If you build a PC with similar spec's and performance to any given mac, you will spend @40-50% as much. You will just spend more time and emotion maintaining it and installing everything on it. If you buy pre-built pc's like Dell or HP you savings will be more like 30% for same performance. I have home built pc at home and high end Mac Pro at work. Lately we are having just about as much problems with the mac's at work as I have at home with my pc. Apple opened Pandora's box when they went to bed with Intel...

be very, very careful if you consider buying a new imac, especially the 27" models.

The screen is gorgeos and the specsare impressive with its 2560 x 1440 resolution and ips led panel,
but they unfortunately have some serious problems.
I returned mine after I had a yellow tint over one third of the screen.
It wasn't really that obvious but for a photographer and especially a pixelpeeper it is annoying
and unacceptable imo.
You just can't expect a trustfull color reproduction with a colorcast like that.
I updated the drivers, installed new drivers for the ATI HD 4850 GPU, without results.
I also installed windows xp on the Imac with bootcamp but that didn't solve the problem.
I did some research on the internet and found many topics about this issue as well as the flickering and banding issue
wich now can simply be solved with an update.
Unfortunately there is no update for the yellow tint issue and I think that it can't be fixed by a firmware update.
I think it is a hardware problem.
Recording to the different articles'I've read it does not depend on what configuration you have.
It is there with the IE5 and the IE7 as well as with the different GPU's.

After putting a hold on the production of the new Imac's to solve the problem Apple
has send a new batch to Europe and I bought an Imac from this new batch
but gues what, the problem still exists...
I returned it and got my money back.
The salesman asked if I wanted to try another one but I checked some of the showroom models
and they all had the problem so I passed on the offer.

I'ts a bummer because if you put the tint issue aside it really is a great system if you can live with the glossy screen, that is...
I gues I will stick to a pc for the time being and will invest in a good IPS panel based monitor.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sounak, your configurationsounds like more than sufficiant for most needs.
The IE7 is a great performer.
I would suggest a RAID configuration as well Like Sven allready mentioned.

What do you think about AMD Phenom II x 4 965 as a processor. If i choose i7 920 then can any one guide me regarding the choice of motherboard. many are suggesting NVIDIA quadro FX as graphics card, but its costly. Is there any alternative that is less costly.

Sounak, I had 2 AMD's in the past and I always had an impact that they were not the right choice, I heard many good things in gaming related stuff but for powerful working I'd always prefer Intel, the current Intel Cpu's are amazing - For the board I like Asus most as I always had good experiences, well socket 1366 boards are still very expensive, the best as fars as I know is the Rampage II Extreme but the P6T should be also great.
How much do you plan on this, you have a lot of money ? You're in a very high price region, would make more since to not go for the very top

I would put highest priority on ram, as much as you can afford, then of course a 64 bit operating system. Win 7 pro works well for me.
I have set up a new system recently. I went for the i5, to save some. Asus motherboard, A cheap graphic card with 1G of ram, 8G of ram on the motherboard (4x2G). I will upgrade to 16G as soon as the prices on 4G ram cards goes down. The monitor is a HP 2475w which is based on IPS panel. Calibrator has to go into your package too, I use a Spyder 3pro.
I did not set up raid, some computer nerd told me there was nothing to gain. He don't know what he's talking about.. My 6 years old raid 0 machine is saving faster than the new one..
A good setup of disks might be, system on 2 drives with raid 0, then 2 drives with raid 0 as working drives, then some good back-up system with raid 1 or 5, but the price will go up a little.
I work on files that sometimes reach 4G, and very often will be around 2G, so I'm in need of power. The i5 does the job well, I wouldn't spend money on an i7. My US$ 60 graphic card is very stable too. I don't think it is worth spending a lot more on that part either. I planned to swap the graphic card with my "kitchen computer" which have one of the fancy ones, but I never found a reason to.

I just set up a similar system at work for photo editing, but had to save some money. Bought only 4G of ram. It is very slow at Photoshop compared with my 8G thing at home. The other specifications are similar, and the processor is the same. Put your money on ram!