Photo Editing PC Spec

[PeteSmith]

I have seen a couple of these threads, a friend of mine is after a new PC to process images from his digital SLR camera. He imports them in RAW format from the camera or card reader, then processes them in Picasa. I'm not a camera person as you may of picked up so could use some help putting together a new machine for him. It doesn't have to be cutting edge, just something capable, efficient and competitively priced.

Were talking serious hobby, not semi professional photographer, budget ties in with this. Off the shelf PC or custom built - i'm happy to build it for him if thats the best option.

Has anyone done a similar build recently, or know of any good current deals for 'of the shelf' base units?

Many Thanks

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Budget?? What parts are needed?? Do you need a colour accurate monitor?? Do you need an OS??

[PeteSmith]

Budget?? What parts are needed?? Do you need a colour accurate monitor?? Do you need an OS??

< £1k, Full Base Unit & Monitor, I would probably yes, yes he will need the OS included.

I'm thinking something along the lines of:



I included a external HDD for extra storage or backup purposes (he hasn't explicty asked for this yet)

Your thoughts please?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would be spending £200 to £300 on a colour accurate monitor and perhaps a colorimeter for a £50 to £70. The monitor you listed has a 6 bit TN panel and you should be looking at one with an 8 bit MVA,PVA or IPS panel. The 6 bit panels employ dithering which makes them a pain if you want to get accurate colours in prints.

I would also look at an AMD based build too. An AMD Phenom II X4 955BE is as fast as a Q9400 in Photoshop and is around £120 to £125:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/defau...p=88&p2=76&c=1

You could also get a 785G motherboard with the HD4200 IGP too.

[PeteSmith]

Thanks for that, i will see what i can spec based on your input. Any suggestions on which monitor to go for?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I can come up with an AMD based components list for you if you want.

There are two monitors I would look at:

1.)The Dell 2209WA:

http://www.pcbuyit.co.uk/advanced_se...eywords=2209WA

This is a 22" 16:10 ratio monitor with a 1680X1050 resolution and an E-IPS panel.

2.)NEC MultiSync EA231WMi:

http://www.pcbuyit.co.uk/advanced_se...1WMi&x=18&y=16

This is a 23" 16:9 ratio monitor with a resolution of 1920X1080 and an E-IPS panel. I would consider this a better monitor than the Dell.

These are the colorimeters I would look at:

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-...rator/p1012117

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-...press/p1033745

A decent monitor will last for years and is a good investment IMHO.

[PeteSmith]

Thanks for those monitor recommendations. As you suggest there is no point building a image editing spec machine if the monitor is not suited for the task at hand.

Based on your AMD suggestions i have the following (no inclusive of monitor):



I have not done any price checking yet, just want to get the spec right. Would you make any alterations to the above?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would at the following parts:

AMD Phenom II X4 955BE ~ £125

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190673

The stock cooler is quite decent although it is supposed to be a bit noisy.

This is the latest C3 stepping which can run 4 banks of DDR3 at 1333MHZ and has lower idle power consumption.

8GB 1333MHZ DDR3 ~ £160

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/178943

ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO ~ £71

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/170277

This has 128MB of DDR3 on the motherboard has 128MB of dedicated DDR3 for the HD4200 IGP.

Antec Mini P180 Black MATX Case ~ £63

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140996

Samsung F3 500GB ~ £38

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146252

I would use this as the system disk.

Samsung F3 1TB ~ £60

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804

I would use this disc for storage and also have a dedicated scratch partition on it too.

SATA DVD rewriter ~ £18

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/177398

NEC MultiSync EA231WMi ~ £282

http://www.pcbuyit.co.uk/product_inf...roducts_id=870

http://www.pcbuyit.co.uk/product_inf...roducts_id=923

Corsair HX450W ~ £58

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/450W-...-year-Warranty

This is made by Seasonic.

Windows 7 Home Premium Retail ~ £94

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Micro...-32-and-64-Bit

Excluding postage the total is around £969.

With Scan you can get free postage:

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...tup-guide.html

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...0-07-08-a.html

Ebuyer has free postage too and postage from pcbuyit will be around £8 to £12.

Here are some external 1TB disk drives:

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?page=1&...=128&ea19=1+TB