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 p.2 #15 · Build the ideal PC for photo-editing | |
Interesting topic, and such differences between what everyone seems to think is the optimal for Photoshop workstation, be it PC or Mac.
But lets stay with the PC side of things, since this is what the OP asked about.
Lets start from scratch or there about.... :-)
Windows, uses ram and a page-file to store current data, which it will swap in and out as it needs it (server version of windows does this better then non-server ms-OS)
We will assume that you will use the fastest device your money can buy....
So you will need to accommodate this requirement first, the more ram the less windows will use the page-file. There are different theories about what is best here, lets just say that windows will at some stage use this page-file, so it would be good to locate this page-file on a separate hard drive or array such as RAID-0 and not any other raid-type, because this is not any data you will care about once you turn off your computer.
Do NOT locate your Page-file on the same hard-drive or array as your OS or Photoshop's scratch disk(s)
The faster the hard drives are the sooner you can feed your ram and the faster your ram is the sooner it can feed your CPU's and soon your graphics cards will start to play a more important role when working with photoshop, but that is currently not official AFAIK.
Photoshop, loves ram and loves fast hard drives, basically anything that is fast! Photoshop works a little like your OS, it works in the CPU's memory, then into your ram and finally it is off to your hard drive, known to Photoshop as Scratch disk. Secondly, Photoshop loves hard drives that can write really fast, like really really fast! So it can off load its saved files, especially when you are batch processing.
So where are we at, at the moment, well, we know that Windows likes to have a startup disk, this could also be on an array, like raid-0, something fast, but for simplicity lets keep it to a single fast drive, such as a Western Digital Raptor which is a 10 000 rpm fast hard drive. (SAS or SCSI 15k drives would be better!...and I have not tested Solid State Drives yet!) it is really just down to how much do you want to spend.
Your OS drive can be 74, 150 or 300GB but it is really only to hold your OS! so 74Gb is still enough atm :-)
Now your page file, add two drives and RAID them together in RAID-0 approx 100GB in total is fine. That takes care of the OS, now it is Photoshop's turn. It will be installed on the OS partition, which is fine. but now we need drives for our scratch disk or disks! You can have multiple scratch disks, again here, I want to use a RAID-0 in two or more disks stripped together, to improve the speed. and you can repeat this for as many scratch disks you may need.
Lastly but not least important is the hard drives here you store your final data and therefor your livelihood, here we need two things, really fast writes but also a sense of security :-) so, here RAID-0 would be nice because if will give us fast writes, but it offers no security or redundancy so we have to come up with something, that offers redundancy, such as RAID 0+1 or RAID 5 or 6. Here we will probably have to compromise somewhere and decide what is most important, speed or security.
The speed of your RAID 0+1 or Raid 5 or 6 depends alot on your drives as well as the controller you choose to use, NB: your onboard raid controller isn't going to offer the greatest speed here, so you will have to buy one you plug into your PCIexpress port.
Now, you have completed your photoshop machine, in terms of internal hard drives. All you have left to do with hard drives is to attach something like a Network attached Storage unit, to back up your work, that is separate to your computer.
RAM: You should fill your computer with as much ram as it can accommodate and that your OS can support. Faster is gold! Now on some workstation main board you will have to use ECC ram, which is not as fast as your Desktop ram, but they do offer you a cleaner data stream into your CPU's and that is not a bad thing, so again quality over speed penalty here
Graphics cards, they didn't use to be important, but it looks like they are going to play a part in the heavy lifting in the future versions of Photoshop, since CS4 is not officially released yet, I am only speculating :-) but i will put my money on it anyway. How this is going to be implemented is the interesting part, but I have two Quadro graphics cards and they didn't seem to mind :-)
Ooops this wasn't the optimal- uber photoshop workstation, just the ideal, well to me, that is the same thing.
Finally, you can have the super fastest computer, but if your workflow sucks, sucks as in slow too many clicks to get the job done, it doesn't matter how fast your computer sits and waits for you, unless you are contributing your unused cpu-cycles to bigger and better things, such as Climate-predictions :-)
You first and foremost need to look at your workflow - good workflow will compensate for a lot of poorly spend hardware dollars.
Just one more note on the actual computer - and that is your power supply it has to be able to supply you with enough juice, or should I say clean juice, as in no sparks in the power supplied, and better yet, if it can do so quietly.
Unlike my own Zippy 850W workstation power supply, super clean but man it is noisy.
Good luck....
Henrik
PS: btw....what are you going to be looking at?? Hopefully something with a good gamut, so you can see all that processing didn't go completely to waste. EIZO, NEC and Samsung makes some excellent products and also some really shitty one's but if you stick to the first lot! you should be fine. Monitors in the middle of the road, there are Dell's which can be had for a fair price, but they are no EIZO nor are they NEC's
like with anything, you get what you pay for....but my money would be on a NEC 2690, which I think will be a good compromise and if you have more money and need the very best, well, then, it will have to be the EIZO CG-series like the CG-221.
Having said all that, how about a high dynamic range monitor, that can display more the EV 21....mama !!! Ouch!!! ...but nothing to output it onto!!!
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