Thanks. I missed the "I use Photoshop a lot" bit... I focused too much on the "power is wanted".
Why not a 260 then? He gets CUDA and the power he wants, and they are about the same price as a 4890...
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After the first Raven case did so poorly in the heatsoak testing performed by CustomPC mag I can't recommend any Raven until it's proven that Silverstone have built a case that matches the design concept.
It should be superb - the first generation case didn't appear to make it work.
... finally at a fully featured browser. Kinda hard to do links and stuff on my iPhone ya know?
Anyway... there is this Asus GTX 260 worth considering, which will have CUDA support (obiviously, being nVidra) which will help with Photoshop, and if you get a program of the likes of Badaboom, video transcoding and, with the right configuration of KMPlayer, video playback. Slightly more expensive than the 4890, but still reasonable, at £134.85.
The thing is with an i7 running the system you have enough power not to worry about needing a CUDA enabled card, just it does help. So if you have already orded the 4890 you will still get decent performance out of your system.
That's only if he uses CS2 or better, if he's using an older version (I still use my copy of 5.5 and my otherhalf uses CS1) the he needs very little in the way of graphics power indeed.
I think it's more of a case of thinking he needs gpu power.
It's the reason I sugested the Gainward "Green" at £70 it's half the price, at 128 streams it may be half that of the gtx260 but should still be enough to get a decent level of acceleration in cuda if he has it, while giving a lower power consumption and less heat.
If he doesn't have CS2 or better, then you could cut it right back to an ATi 4550 for around £35
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB...-D-Sub-S-Video
And reduce the overall cooling requirements of the case by a good margin.
True, but he did say he wanted a powerful machine. Considering that he is already under budget, I think we're doing pretty well. After all, it's not a Spork he wants. Still, saving the money on the graphics card paves way for improving other things, like replacing his current moniter with a S-PVA for better colour definition when handling photos.
Speaking of which, what kind of panel do you have ag55?
Hey guys, nearly ready to order everything in a few weeks time.
I have adobe photoshop cs4, and your right in saying i wanted a powerful machine.
my screen is a samsung syncmaster 2493hm, only a year old and its perfect for the pc and playstation, 1080p with 5ms response and hdmi.
Good to hear. I aplogise it seems that special Scan were having on that 4890 has ended. Instead I would recommend you get this 260 instead. Or look at Today Only when you come to order. There might be something on special there.
Since you have CS4 if possible get an nV GPU as you will get GPU accerlation when doing photo-editing.