Upgrade time! ...thoughts on this if you wouldn't mind.

[Kym]

Try this...
http://www.ausphotography.net.au/for...tpost&p=305491
Is there an MSY in Tassie?

[pgbphotographytas]

Try this...
http://www.ausphotography.net.au/for...tpost&p=305491
Is there an MSY in Tassie?

No MSY in Tassie, we are very poor as far as PC shops go

[Lani]

Try this...
http://www.ausphotography.net.au/for...tpost&p=305491
Is there an MSY in Tassie?

Yep, been reading that Kym, but I need to have a system built and would like to be able to get back up support.

I sell a lot of that board / cpu combination they work well together
I normally use a Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 4670 video card which is around the same price


Not a fan of hard drive choice, but they are well priced.

What problem is there with this hard drive? I would rather spend a little more to get a reliable system if need be.

No MSY in Tassie, we are very poor as far as PC shops go

Already have a back up drive, Paul. Not a lot to choose from with lots of things.... IT, tech stuff, camera gear , here is there?

[Kym]

I don't think the Quad is of great value, better is a Dual - Quads don't deliver as much performance as you think. Most stuff does not use 2 cores, let alone 4. E8400 will deliver more for Adobe products.

[davwhite]

I built a couple of PC's from the ground up before I saw the light and bought a Mac.
My query would be the motherboard, make sure it can be upgraded down the track. Gigabyte are a average type of MB and I would be looking at a better one, remember this is what runs your system.
I didn't check to see what RAM you are putting in but make sure the MB can handle more than you anticipate.
Sound card not that important.
Graphics card is, spend a bit more to get a real good one.
And of course the screen has to be as good as you expect it, in otherwords you pay for what you get.
A second drive is essential and even a third. With this you have the option of having your main drive mirrored onto the second drive. In case the first fails then the second is the same. The third drive is where you can store your processed pictures.
A computer person could build you a fantastic computer for about the same price as a store brand name.
Remember this, all pc's look the same, like a row of garages in the street, it is not 'till you open the garage door that you can see the difference.

[davwhite]

I just read that you are having 4GB, bit light on I reakon. And make sure that the MB you pick recommends your RAM brand. i.e "Gigabyte recommends Corsair RAM for this MB"

[Tannin]

Samsung make THE best, most reliable hard drives you can buy. No ifs, no buts, no maybes. We have been selling hard drives for 20-odd years now and at one time we were one of the 50 biggest Seagate dealers in Australia (back before I scaled back and got a life, not to mention a camera); I've been keeping detailed hard drive reliability records for most of that time .... and these days, I don't even bother counting failed drives anymore. I just buy Samsumg every single time and rest easy.

[Kym]

I just read that you are having 4GB, bit light on I reakon. And make sure that the MB you pick recommends your RAM brand. i.e "Gigabyte recommends Corsair RAM for this MB"

More than 4GB is only of value if you build a 64 bit system - which means Vista 64 bit - Lani has said she will stick with Win XP for now.

[Lani]

I
A computer person could build you a fantastic computer for about the same price as a store brand name.
Remember this, all pc's look the same, like a row of garages in the street, it is not 'till you open the garage door that you can see the difference.

Yeah thanks Dave, this is a quote for a custom build, but using your car analogy, while I enjoy a luxury car to drive, I sure aint no mechanic.


What about quad v dual core as mentioned by Kym... would going quad core future proof the system a little?

Also with having more than one drive, is that the same thing as partitioning, or do you actually install two?

[Calxoddity]

Disagree the the EP45DS4 is not a good motherboard - it would certainly be on my list if I was building now.

Recommend another hard disk, but not as a backup - instead, put data and swap space on one drive and OS/apps on the other. Speeds things up (long explanation, relates to drive heads being the bottleneck in any disk access). I learned this approach in my days as Unix system administrator.

Regards,
Calx

[wideangle]

Also with having more than one drive, is that the same thing as partitioning, or do you actually install two?

You actually purchase 2 physical hard drives and they are installed into the computer in 2 drive bays. You can then partition these 2 physically separate drives into sections so then you would have virtual drives.

The good thing about having 2 drives is the obvious of having a cloned duplicate of your photos on your OS hard drive as if things go wrong you can access the drive that hasn't been effected. The other benefit of having 2 drives is that later down the track when its full you may want to take that hard drive out of the computer and put it in an external case to access externally. OR you may want to have one 1TB drive in your computer and buy another 1TB hard drive and a case for it (only about $50) and you have yourself an external HDD that you can duplicate your photos onto and store somewhere else away from your computer. When I just upgraded my HDD from a 250B to a 1TB, I took the 250GB out of my computer and put it in an external case. I bought a Vantec case which also comes with an ESATA connection and card to install into your computer which basically means when you connect the external hard drive you are not bottlenecked in terms of transfer speed as you are with USB, Works as fast as your internal drives do....although it also comes with USB connection as well.

[milspec]

I don't think the Quad is of great value, better is a Dual - Quads don't deliver as much performance as you think. Most stuff does not use 2 cores, let alone 4. E8400 will deliver more for Adobe products.

I agree, there aren't many applications that can use quad core technology and it's only good if you do a lot of multi-tasking. If you are going to spend around $300 for a CPU, go the E8500 or if you can, the E8600 (around $370). This should make Adobe products fly ........

Don't forget, you can claim it as a school item if you have kids

[pgbphotographytas]

Already have a back up drive, Paul. Not a lot to choose from with lots of things.... IT, tech stuff, camera gear , here is there?

Glad to hear you have a backup drive, we are very poor as far as choices for that stuff goes