Photographers Delight

[hollies]

Just put together this spec for a pc mainly for using Photoshop CS5 with large image files and general office work (Ms Office 2010, Word, Excel, Access etc) but will require some HD video editing. Also use Dreamweaver CS3 for web editing.

How is it looking. Appreciate any constructive advice.


Case COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7-2700k Quad Core (3.50GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard ASUS® P8Z68-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTS 450 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 120GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 130MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
3rd Hard Disk 2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply 600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio (£32)
Network Facilities ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options 4 PORT USB 2.0 INTERNAL PCI CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Firewire & Video Editing 3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Miscellaneous FREE Battlefield 3 with 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ Processor-K (Not Wanted - not to be installed.)

This will be connected to 2 digital Samsung Syncmaster 22in monitors.

Many thanks, Rob

 

[mantadog]

If it were my build i would be tempted to go for the standard i7 2600, the 2700k is +£30 more and you really wont be able to tell because unless you overclock, it will only be ever so slightly quicker than the standard i7 2600.

The gts 450 should be plenty as you don't plan to game with the system, should run 2 monitors no problem.

If your spending the money on a SSD i would go for the Kingston or the intel 510 series, both significantly faster and that why you buy a SSD. The kingston is the same price as your current drive. Where you could save alot of cash is by switching one or both of your caviar blacks to caviar greens. I would switch one to a green and use that for storage of anything that was just to be kept long term as it is SLIGHTLY slower than the black but its hardly anything to be concerned about. Keep a black for anything you don't want to clutter up your SSD with but equally want to be launced quickly.

Soundcard can be ditched, unless you really have a good speaker setup and an ear for sound, onboard sound is generally good enough.

Thats my 2 pence anyway

 

[hollies]

Hi Mantadog, many thanks for your swift response. I have commented below.

If it were my build i would be tempted to go for the standard i7 2600, the 2700k is +£30 more and you really wont be able to tell because unless you overclock, it will only be ever so slightly quicker than the standard i7 2600.

The configurator only shows the 2700K, there is no option for the 2700.

If your spending the money on a SSD i would go for the Kingston or the intel 510 series, both significantly faster and that why you buy a SSD.

Which of these is the better?

Where you could save alot of cash is by switching one or both of your caviar blacks to caviar greens.

One drive will be for photo imaging work whilst the other will be for Video editing and office work etc. So, is there any benefit in reducing one drive other than cost? (£76)

Soundcard can be ditched, unless you really have a good speaker setup and an ear for sound, onboard sound is generally good enough.

Although only £32 it is perhaps not worth having as I generally play cd's through a stereo system and only listen to music clips from the internet. There is the Video editing though but as I understand it, what I will hear through the speakers will not be what is laid down on the track.

 

[mantadog]

What i was suggesting was sticking with the standard i7 2600. If you went with the 2700k what you would be getting would be a .1Ghz increase in speed for £30 vs the standard i7 2600 chip.

As far as which drive is better, im not sure. Kingston looks like a winner for the money though.

If you plan to spilt the drives like that, one for photo and one for video then you may be better of sticking with both as caviar blacks. The prices are normal more similar, but due to floods in thailand prices of hard drives have rocketed. You will find the caviar black drives being recommended alot on these forums because they are a very good drive. PCS have to pay more for these due to the floods where as they still seem to have stock of the slightly less popular green drives from before the floods, so for now they are alot cheaper. If you can afford the money for the drives then i would still recommend getting them, but £70+ per drive is quite a chunk. Greens are perfect for general office work and storage, it looks like it takes roughly 30 seconds longer for a green drive to load windows vs a black. If thats any help at all....

Onboard sound is more than enough for most people, even video editing will be fine on onboard. It's mostly people who are really serious about audio that go for the high end soundcards.

 

[hollies]

I haven't bought a pc for 5 years or so, so not really sure of what the latest specs are etc or prices for that matter. As I am trying to make the system relatively "future proof", another 5 years, I would sooner go a little bit over rather than under.

I will see if I can go with the 2700 but as I said in previous post, the option is not there on the configure page. I will give them a call tomorrow.

Thanks again for your help. Very usefull.

 

[mantadog]

Maybe I am not being clear enough in my previous posts. Get the i7 2600 NOT the 2700 as that is indeed not listed. The 2600 is the same chip as the 2700k really just £30 less, of you re read my previous posts this may mean more.


If you can afford the caviar blacks I would get them for sure

 

[hollies]

Sorry Mantadog. my mistake. Should have gone to specsavers!!

After much deliberation here is my final spec ready to order. Hope it's a good one!


Case COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard ASUS® P8Z68-V: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, NVIDIA®SLI™, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTS 450 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
3rd Hard Disk 2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply 600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Firewire & Video Editing 3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)


Cheers, Rob

 

[mantadog]

thats the easy part done, now all you have to do is sit back and wait. It will feel like forever

enjoy

 

[hollies]

I know, I ordered it this afternoon. Why is it taking so long!!!!!!

 

[NMEBowen]

the kingston ssd is good for the money but the intel 510 will last alot longer but both are great aslong as you dont get a OCZ drive as they are full of glitches.

overall looks a good setup just to point out though you will mopst likely have a built in firewire on your motherboard but i suppose for your use the more the better, also aslong as you have a optical hifi or surround sound the motherboard you selected has spdif so you would be hard pressed to get any better sound quality.

now its all about the wait personally it took mine 14 working days to come through best thing is to check your order every couple days and right at the top it normally tells you if something is out of stock which will obviously slow the production down if there is no messages the lead times are normally stuck to.

 

[hollies]

Thanks for your comments.

Ordered at 16.39 yesterday. Had an email at 10.02 this morning saying built and is awaiting testing and configuration. Had another email at 12.05 saying entered the testing and configuration process.

I am very impressed so far.

 

[AndyL]

the kingston ssd is good for the money but the intel 510 will last alot longer

Can I ask where you get this information from?

 

[mantadog]

Can I ask where you get this information from?

SSD's have a limited number of writes the can perform, i don't remember the numbers of the top of my head but the 310 series being the older generation has far less than the 510 series. It's not really a problem as the numbers are quite high for your average user anyway.

 

[hollies]

It's getting closer! Email at 06.05 this morning saying "now awaiting dispatch". They must work night shifts!

I have three different names on the order for the Builder, Tester and Qaulity Controller. I hope the machine is as good as the service appears to be.

 

[AndyL]

SSD's have a limited number of writes the can perform, i don't remember the numbers of the top of my head but the 310 series being the older generation has far less than the 510 series. It's not really a problem as the numbers are quite high for your average user anyway.

I know that SSD's have limited wirte cycles, just wasnt sure why you thought that the 510 had more of them?

 

[NMEBowen]

cant remember the site as i was directed to it also but im sure that the intel 510 series has the most write cycles for a ssd currently on the market.

 

[AndyL]

cant remember the site as i was directed to it also but im sure that the intel 510 series has the most write cycles for a ssd currently on the market.

This is interesting as i never really though about the possibility of them having different amounts of write cycles. oh well, something else to look into now, lol.

 

[hollies]

I called the office at 9.15 this morning and asked when the delivery would take place and they said it was just being boxed and would be collected by the carrier this afternoon and delivered on Monday. That is great service by any means from placing the order on Wednesday at 16.39.

However, I just couldn't wait so I went to Brockholes and collected it myself. Got it back home at 2.30 this afternoon. Made very welcome at the factory, product extremely well packed with some very thoughtful little touches which make it stand out from any experience I have had with other manufaturers.

Will play with it over the weekend and start the task of installing loads of programmes and transferring many thousands of files from my old pc.