Advice needed about commisioning a custom PC

missimaxo

As a small business we are looking at commissioning a PC for a very specific purpose, but have very little knowledge of actual current specs/ parts needed. Can anyone advise?

We need a PC to run Adobe Photoshop CS4, possibly some other imaging software eg HDR, and with a very fast processor for handling lots of large RAW/ JPEG images. A built in Compact Flash Card reader would also be useful. We do a lot of batch processing and photo editing which currently takes hours.

We don't need internet, sound card, monitor and other peripherals or massive internal storage (as we use external harddrives for on/offsite storage).

We have a budget of £400 and obviously would like to spend the money getting the fastest computer we can, hence not wasting money on bits we don't need (we have 2 other computers to do normal stuff). I was going to approach 3 or 4 firms and get them to quote, but would like some advice on what to ask for so I don't sound like a complete duffer! I'm not sure what other extras we would need like operating system.

Many thanks

Lil306

When you are video / photo editing and processing large files, one main aspect I'd look at would be Multiple Core CPUs and a hefty amount of RAM (2gb at least)

It's not really that hard to get PC's cheap now a days, you can get a decent spec for around £200-300

By the way, this isn't directly going to a vendor, but have you thought about looking into barebones systems or motherboard upgrade kits. It's perfectly suited to yourselves and could possibly work out cheaper

You can get barebones kits on sites like ebuyer.com and novatech.com for usually around 200. I bought mine for £170 which was a Dual Core CPU (2.8ghz) and 2gb of RAM. I also got a new PSU and Graphics Card.

I'd suggest trying to find a Quad-Core CPU and 2gb of more RAM for your budget. If you are prepared to swap the parts over yourself, or have someone who could do it I'd recommend looking down the route of motherboard upgrade kits.

Additionally, sorry but I missed this bit out, regarding your Compact Flash. Most drives don't come with JUST a compact flash reader, but you can buy an internal drive which reads multiple card formats or an external USB powered one, both for around £20-30.

The multiple formats would be better anyway as if you have some customers who share digital cameras it would look a lot more professional IMO if you could open their digi memory cards. Even so, if it's just for yourselves you are still looking after the future expansion by being able to read different technologies

Hope that helps.

missimaxo

Thanks for your reply - I'll have a look into the bare bones kits - but to be honest the thought of changing things (and possibly breaking things) really puts me off.

Is a quad core CPU the largest you can now get? And sorry to sound stupid, would 4gb of ram be enough or would we be better with more? I think our current PC is only dual core CPU.

missimaxo

Re. the CF reader - we have a multicard reader already for our laptop - but it seems slower than the one built in to the front of our desktop. Is our current slot just a USB one in disguise? I always presumed there were some magic gubbins inside it making it faster lol!

Lil306

Hi Missi,

There are different types of barebones kits, but the most common usually come in one of three formats.

1 . A complete PC (hard drive, CPU, memory, etc) minus the monitor. These are basically designed to be a straight swap or upgrade over existing PC whilst retaining your own monitor

2. A complete barebones (case with PSU, M/B, CPU, Memory) and you fit the HDDs yourself

3. A motherboard upgrade kit (you basically get a M/B, CPU and RAM). You have to source the Powersupply and any additional components yourself, making sure that the systems are matched up, and fitting it yourself. These are more for system builders, but providing you do your research it's really not that hard

Desktop PC's dont come with any faster than Quad-Core as far as I know, there are 6-core systems in development but I think that's only for the future and would cost you a bomb!

4gb of RAM is more than sufficient, but be careful. Depending on what version of Windows you have the computer may not see it. Windows XP in 32-bit edition can only see 3.5gb, you need the 64-bit to see more. It is possible to see more with alterations etc but it's more hassle than it's worth

missimaxo wrote: »

Re. the CF reader - we have a multicard reader already for our laptop - but it seems slower than the one built in to the front of our desktop. Is our current slot just a USB one in disguise? I always presumed there were some magic gubbins inside it making it faster lol!

Not sure what type of card reader you have inside the laptop, but it's possibly a PCMCIA one, or if it's built into the laptop itself some form of expansion module. The speed will entirely depend on how it connects to the laptop and what speed the BUS is, but I'd ignore that as I'd doubt you'd be able to take apart the laptop and salvage it anyway, unless it's USB powered, but you'd know that as the connections would be external and plug into the back of the laptop

If you already have the card reader, you can actually keep it and simply swap it over to your new machine if you want to save every penny and your happy with it. For the prices things are now it's sometimes cheaper just to look into future expansion

4743hudsonj

quad core cpus are indeed the largest out atm.

But be careful, in regards to intel cpu's, there is there "intel core 2 quad" which is now being superseded by the i7 and i5 ranges. At current just one of the i5's are quad core(the rest dual core) and all of the i7's are quad core with the 6core gulftown being released this march).

So when you ask for quad core you need to decide, core 2 quad? i5 quad? (better) i7? (best)

I would have thought, with your current kit you will be looking at the core 2 range rather that the i ranges.

Lil306

4743hudsonj wrote: »

quad core cpus are indeed the largest out atm.

But be careful, in regards to intel cpu's, there is there "intel core 2 quad" which is now being superseded by the i7 and i5 ranges. At current just one of the i5's are quad core(the rest dual core) and all of the i7's are quad core with the 6core gulftown being released this march).

So when you ask for quad core you need to decide, core 2 quad? i5 quad? (better) i7? (best)

I would have thought, with your current kit you will be looking at the core 2 range rather that the i ranges.

Agreed, I'd suspect i5 / i7 would be out of the budget anyway as the prices haven't come down as much yet

Here's some links for barebones / CPU bundles to give you an idea on prices too

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/barebones.html

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/bundles.html

Andy_L

Do you have a copy of Photoshop? Thats your £400 gone straight away if you haven't

missimaxo

Many thanks for all the advice - I'm off now to have a good read up on all the stuff. In respect of Photoshop - we currently have CS2 and are looking to upgrade to CS4 in the next few months so that does not have to be bundled in to the price factor. This is part of a major overhaul of all our equipment in the next 12 months and CS4 is not essential until we upgrade the camera bodies too! But the PC has to have capability to run it

Marty_J

If you're going to be working with video and photos, you really should consider a Mac. They're widely used in both those industries.

They're a bit out of your budget though, so if you don't want to spend more now, it's maybe something to think about for the future.

turbobob

missimaxo wrote: »

Thanks for your reply - I'll have a look into the bare bones kits - but to be honest the thought of changing things (and possibly breaking things) really puts me off.

Is a quad core CPU the largest you can now get? And sorry to sound stupid, would 4gb of ram be enough or would we be better with more? I think our current PC is only dual core CPU.

Judging by what you are asking I think you are going to struggle for £400. £400 is basic PC money, not a professional graphics workstation.

You could build/spec a no frills quad core PC with 4gb memory for £400. That would be a Intel Core 2 Quad or an AMD Athlon/Phenom II X4. There would be some economies to get it to that price, such as low end graphics card, and a cheap generic chassis and power supply. Aldi were selling one of this spec on a special offer recently..

If you were looking to get something with significantly more CPU power and memory you are going to have to spend a lot more.