From: Darren Addy
I've never tried to build a PC before, but I am now and it should be
done by sometime this weekend (if not before). I'm a bang-for-the-buck
guy so I'm pretty pleased with how inexpensively I will be able to
build this thing, with pretty decent capabilities.
The box itself is right at $300, mostly possible because I got a 580w
power supply, case and CD/DVD drives from some computers being given
away on Freecycle.
My motherboard is a "last years" good model, which I got for $42
(including tax). It's only limitation was that I had to use DDR2
SDRAM, which is now costlier than the faster DDR3. I got 4 GB (2x2GB)
of dual-channel 1066Mhz for $65 (and plan to double my RAM to 8 GB for
another $65 in the near future). I got an AMD Phenom II 955 3.2Ghz
Black Edition processor, which a lot of guys have overclocked
successfully to near 4Ghz. Added a super cooler to make that possible.
My Sapphire graphics card will be just $50 after rebate, but it has
1GB of onboard DDR3 and 400 simultaneous streams, so should be great
for Photoshop/Lightroom work. A Samsung Spinpoint F3 harddrive allows
me to put a quiet reliable 1TB drive inside for $60. I also plan to
add some SATA to eSata transitions so I can plug in external eSata
drives. (My motherboard has 6 SATA connectors).
I agonized over the monitor, but went bang-for-the-buck again when I
found a 21.5" Samsung backlit LED monitor on clearance at the local
Best Buy for $149 (tax included). I'd love a larger IPS monitor, but
will see how long I can get along with this one. Apple Cinema Displays
are backlit LEDs, and this Samsung has great reviews.
I got a 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium OEM disk for $94, and this will
be my first Windows 7/64-bit experience. (We are still on XP even at
work). I'm an old Mac guy, but Windows 7 is the first Microsoft OS
that I can tolerate looking at.
: )
I'm hoping to finally get to learn Lightroom after I get this up and
running and start my "learning to post-process" phase. Looking forward
to the digital darkroom.
Darren Addy
Kearney, NE
I've been that route & am now in the process of specing my next
Photoshop Computer. I expect I will install Lightroom on it, but I'm
optimizing for Photoshop.
I'm still looking at bang for the buck, but that's less important than
"building the perfect beast". I've got a working Photoshop system, so I
can take this in stages, buying parts & assembling it without having to
get everything at one time. If it takes me 6 months to accumulate what I
need to get it going, I've still got my current system to work on while
I build it.
Currently I'm thinking about having 3 drives - one for the OS &
software, one dedicated to Photoshop's scratch disk, and a fairly large
drive for my working files. I'm looking at solid state drives for the OS
& scratch disks.
What I'm wondering about is if I put my Photoshop scratch disk on its
own drive, how large should that drive be? For now, I'm looking at about
60GB because the price point for that is right under $100, but is that
big enough? At 90GB I'm looking at about $120, and at 120GB I'm looking
at around $170.
That's actually a bit in the future, so maybe prices will come down
before I have to buy.
I already have the case. According to the online calculator at New Egg I
need a 620W power supply, and I've already picked out an 850W unit.
Next up is Motherboard, CPU & RAM. I'm looking at a Gigabyte
GA-X58A-UD3R, Intel Core i7-960 3.20 GHz, and 24GB DDR3 (6x4GB) for
around $600. That's going to be the largest outlay I have to make at one
time.
Then it will be time to look for my boot drive. I'm considering a PCIE
SSD for that, and I should be able to get Win7 Pro 64bit OEM along with
the drive.
Haven't made up my mind about video yet other than I want at least 1GB
DDR & latest version OpenGL support.
So, again, QUESTION: How big does the Photoshop scratch disk need to be?
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