Photo editing PC help

[swedgin]

Hi guys,

I'm looking to buy my girlfriend a new PC for Christmas. She's a keen photographer so needs to be able to edit photos using Photoshop and various other software applications. She's explained to me before that Photoshop, for instance, uses a system of layers which need a certain amount of computer power to process unless you like waiting around for minutes on end.

So, can anybody advise me as to the minimum specs I'd need to look at when buying a new PC? Are there any particular models currently on the market that anyone could suggest?

Any help really would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks guys!

[matty-hodgson]

are you wanting to buy a pre-built machine that will just 'work' once it's delivered?
or are you building it?

what sort of budget are you thinking about?
need speakers, monitor, mouse, keyboard, any other peripherals?

with the new photoshop you can use your graphics card instead of the CPU, so getting a decent graphics card (8800GT or something like that) would be better than getting an immensly powered CPU.

before i can suggest you any kind of options though, we need a budget..

[swedgin]

Many thanks for taking the time to reply! Much appreciated!

As I'm not too confident with computer innards, I'd sooner buy a pre-built machine...so I can take the thing back to the store if and when it goes on the fritz.

Budget wise...I don't really want to go over £600 if I can help it. If that included a monitor, mouse, keyboard etc, that would be great but my girlfriend's not too bothered about those. She's not into ergonomic whatnots and cutting edge speakers...which is a relief.

How much would the graphics card which you mentioned cost, roughly?

Again, many thanks for your time!

[matty-hodgson]

tried Dell?
they're good value and recommended by a lot of people..

the 8800GT can be had for around £70 now-a-days..

[jw007]

The system requirements stated by Adobe for Photoshop Elements 7 are:

# 2GHz or faster processor
# Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 or 3 or Windows Vista®
# 1GB of RAM
# 1.5GB of available hard-disk space
# Color monitor with 16-bit color video card
# 1,024x768 monitor resolution at 96dpi or less
# Microsoft DirectX 9 compatible display driver
# CD-ROM drive

Interestingly I remember reading that Photoshop CS could only access 2GB RAM, can't find any details on Photoshop 7 limits. That would mean that including more RAM may not speed up the processing of very LARGE files, but would help when running multiple applications besides Photoshop.

Its also worth noting that a good monitor displaying a minimum of thousands of colors with resolution set to at least 1024x768 pixels is needed to take advantage of Photoshop's Palette Well.

[swedgin]

Thanks guys!

So the graphics card is vital it seems. I'd been told previously that RAM was more important when using Photoshop...but perhaps not.

Any ideas on the cost of such a monitor?

Many thanks again!

[Hottentot]

Hello



IMO the priorities for photo editing are

1. Screen - needs good colour reproduction and the bigger the better.
2. Memory - 2 Gb is fine.
3. Processor power - any Quad core intel chip will be fine. To be honest any modern system with a Core 2 duo will be adequate.

The trickiest part will be getting a decent screen they don't come cheap. The graphics card is actually one of the least important bits of hardware for photo editing as it is the processor that does all the work.

[staffsMike]

Hello



IMO the priorities for photo editing are

1. Screen - needs good colour reproduction and the bigger the better.
2. Memory - 2 Gb is fine.
3. Processor power - any Quad core intel chip will be fine. To be honest any modern system with a Core 2 duo will be adequate.

The trickiest part will be getting a decent screen they don't come cheap. The graphics card is actually one of the least important bits of hardware for photo editing as it is the processor that does all the work.

That all makes sense to me but I think 4GB of RAM would be nice give it's only around £10 - £15 more at the moment.

I believe CPU cache is quite handy as well.

Graphics aren't important for 2D work particuarly, something like an ATi HD3450 would do and it will also play HD video later on if that becomes another use for the PC as things move on.

Some nice dells here but if you are willing to build your money will become a little more flexable with regard to specs.
http://www.dmxdimension.com/dell-uk/...codes-coupons/

[matty-hodgson]

i only mentioned the graphics card because of Photoshop CS4's new ability to use the GPU instead of the CPU..

4GB RAM
Quad Core
decent monitor (22 or 24" preferably)

[Viper81]

From Adobe's webite:

"For Photoshop to access the GPU, your display card must contain a GPU that supports OpenGL and has enough RAM to support Photoshop functions--at least 128 MB of RAM--and a display driver that supports OpenGL 2.0 and Shader Model 3.0."

Doesn't look like you need anything too meaty but then again your graphics card can never be _too_ meaty

[matty-hodgson]

an 8800GT is hardly anything meaty..
i have 1 myself and it's a good card (especially for the price these days), but i'd like something much much better.

(ordering a GTX260 and another 24" monitor sometime in the week )

[Saracen]

Graphics card has never been a top priority for Photoshop. Many photographers buck the trend and go for the likes of Matrox, because they have traditionally been good at colour accuracy. The more expensive consumer cards, typically from ATI and nVidia, are expensive because of the processor power they contain, but that is aimed firmly at gaming and, typically, make NO difference in Photoshop.

CS4 changes that a bit because of support for GPU processors in some situations, and with the limitations about OpenGL and Shader Model 3 already mentioned. Don't forget that CS4 Extended has 3D capabilities that will appeal to some designers but are of limited (if any) interest to photographers. Personally, GPU support wouldn't be high up my priority list for a photo PC.

What would would be a decent processor, a decent amount of memory, and at least TWO hard drives, if not three.

Processor? A decent Core 2 Duo, or perhaps a Core Quad like the Q6600. But while Photoshop supports multiple cores, only some Photoshop functions will benefit from it. Many won't, and according to Photoshop's software designers, probably never will, because the tasks involved are too linear and it just doesn't help. So, a Dual with a higher clock speed might be a better bet.

Memory? Personally, 4GB makes sense unless you're editing fairly small files. Going from 2GB to 4GB adds about £30 (if you buy iy yourself), so it makes sense. You'll need to be using a 64-bit OS to use all of it though.

If editing large files (such as high-res large scans), and especially if using lots of layers, you want as much memory as you can get. That might be 8GB, or more. And you also need that 64-bit OS.

As for hard drives, you want a "scratch" disc for Photoshop. You certainly don't want the OS on the same disk, and personally, I keep essential OS stuff on one drive, apps (like Photoshop) on a second, and most data off on the network .... with a drive for Photoshop scratch files.

With any reasonably modern PC, and a bit of careful specifying, you'll get all of that easily. What's not so easy to get is that the single biggest restriction on Photoshop now with any modern PC won't be any of that, it'll be memory bandwidth. And for that, you'll need to do careful checking of what motherboard is used, or more specifically, what FSB it has. Then, think about what processor architecture is used, and how caches work.

And, if serious about photo editing, careful choice of monitor is essential, for accurate colour rendition, as is a decent colour calibrator.

[swedgin]

Huge thanks guys for all your advice and contributions! I can now start looking for models with some semblance of an idea as to what's going to be suitable.

The monitor might prove a bit more expensive than what I'd budgeted for but it seems as though I'd be wasting my time getting one thrown in with those combo deals you see.

Thanks again guys!

[matty-hodgson]

Huge thanks guys for all your advice and contributions! I can now start looking for models with some semblance of an idea as to what's going to be suitable.

The monitor might prove a bit more expensive than what I'd budgeted for but it seems as though I'd be wasting my time getting one thrown in with those combo deals you see.

Thanks again guys!

unless you go for a Dell.. their LCD monitors are very good quality and have pretty good colour representation.

[colmo]

unless you go for a Dell.. their LCD monitors are very good quality and have pretty good colour representation.

I gave some tips about monitors for photo-editing here:
Monitor help thread

You may want to budget for a screen calibrator, too:
Photo editing PC thread

[arthurleung]

unless you go for a Dell.. their LCD monitors are very good quality and have pretty good colour representation.

unless you go for a Dell.. their Ultrasharp LCD monitors are very good quality and have pretty good colour representation.