I'm looking at an Acer with an AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core 5200 + 2.6 Ghz with 3 GB RAM and a 500GB 7,200 rpm SATA HDD. I can pick up the box for about $550 CDN.
Lightroom and CS3 are pretty much the only two applications.
Speed is an issue as during a busy week as many as 4,000 RAW files will be imported and sorted with maybe 700 ending up selected for conversion & post-processing.
Anyone see any performance concerns with the above setup?
Thanks,
Mike
Well in terms of improving your performance and usability of the system...
Add two hard drives, one as a scratch for photoshop, one as a backup, otherwise looks good to me.
Alex Nail wrote:
in terms of improving your performance and usability of the system...
Add two hard drives, one as a scratch for photoshop, one as a backup
Alex
Thanks Alex .. on the scratch drive for PS can I partition the drive it comes with or do I have to add another different hard drive?
We're already using an external drive as a back-up but it's a little small now so we'll be replacing that as well.
If possible, go for the Athlon X2 5000+ "Black Edition". This will be about the same price as the 5200+, but you can overclock it to be much faster without the need for extra cooling.
Otherwise, it sounds like a perfectly fine system. Enjoy!
Mike Mahoney wrote:
Thanks Alex .. on the scratch drive for PS can I partition the drive it comes with or do I have to add another different hard drive?
We're already using an external drive as a back-up but it's a little small now so we'll be replacing that as well.
Mike, the idea of moving work and cache files to another drive it to eliminate contention for for read/write access to a single drive. Partitioning a harddrive does not provide an additional path, it uses the same read/write head and interface connection. Most effective is a separate HD on a separate connection. External drives can do some of these function, but not for system files since the OS cannot depend on the external always being connected.
I love Lightroom. Its not meant to replace Photoshop, but to complement it. Its much better for archiving photos and working on them in large groups. I probably use Lightroom 85% of the time for post processing my photos. The only time I use Photoshop is when I need to use layers or a plug-in. Also, Lightroom is non-destructive, unlike Photoshop.
George I'm deciding on the main monitor now and will be going back to a crt (perhaps an NEC Accusync 120 or Phillips Pro 22 inch) but am just starting to look around.
Two monitors is a nice work area and I'd like to have that as well. The system I gave the specs on above is at a smaller local shop and has an ATI X1250 card. I'm guessing they can change things around a bit if needed.
I'll check on the scratch disk .. any suggestions on the size, etc?
Thanks,
Mike
I think you really want to look at your disk subsystem if you will be working with 4000 RAW files a month. You can get by with a single 500gb... but make sure you get something along the lines of a Seagate Barracuda or the Hitachi GST line of drives.
dan727 wrote:
What is your overall budget?
I think you really want to look at your disk subsystem if you will be working with 4000 RAW files a month. You can get by with a single 500gb... but make sure you get something along the lines of a Seagate Barracuda or the Hitachi GST line of drives.
Budget wise I hope to get the box for inside of $6-700 CDN. I'm unsure of the HDD brand in this model .. it's an Acer machine and the specs are 500GB 7200 rpm SATA .. nothing about the manufacturer. I'll ask them.
I don't know what is available for RAM in the ACER, but if it will go over 3Gb, consider installing the 64-bit version of the OS and increasing the RAM. I think you get your choice or 32 or 64 bit with the Premium, but not sure. I know you do with the Ultimate.
Th 64-bit might require a bit more work with regards to drivers for printers, but for the most part they are available now and you will appreciate the extra RAM.
Mike Mahoney wrote:
Budget wise I hope to get the box for inside of $6-700 CDN. I'm unsure of the HDD brand in this model .. it's an Acer machine and the specs are 500GB 7200 rpm SATA .. nothing about the manufacturer. I'll ask them.
Performance is also based on what type of work is done on the drive so keep that in mind and look at the appropriate benchmarks. If a drive boots up XP in 15 seconds does not necessarily mean it is the one to work on 4000 RAW files.
And go with at least 4 gigs. Every little but helps even though vista premium won't see all of it. RAM is cheap so load up.
One more note....I was running the Dual-core Athlon you mention in your OP until last week. I upgraded to the AMD Phenom 9600 (Quad-core). Seems to be doing nicely, but unless you get an AM2+ motherboard, you will need the AM2 motherboard PLUS the most recent BIOS that will enable it to support the quad-core processor.
I notice it most when I am running both Lightroom and PS at the same time. I also use that machine for my bookkeeping and having all three apps running at the same time does not seem to slow down much at all.
I am still looking at how I can tweak it for best performance. Few people seem to know a whole lot about the AMD quad-core.
The motherboard situation was a bit confusing at first. There are motherboards build specifically for the AMD quad-core processors. They are AM2+ boards. However, many of the ASUS AM2 boards (and probabably other manufacturers as well) will support AM2+ with the correct BIOS version. Since you are looking at ACER, make sure you ask someone what it takes to make that AM2 board support an AM2+ processor or maybe they have an AM2+ options you can upgrade to. I have no idea what motherboards they use.
