With the D7000/D800 @ 14 Bits It seems that many computer systems are going to be stressed. When I got my D7000 my Fast 4 core just didn't cut it for large pano's or ACHD processing. Since my computer is my darkroom/video lab I consider it just as important as my gear and I only image in RAW.
I had to upgrade to a 6 core with 16 Gig's of memory to get reasonable ACHD performance and to handle large HDR pano's (stiched) from my D7000. How many of you are going to have to upgrade your system for 36 Meg files?
I forgot to mention the cost of HD's. I was lucky and upgrade to 4 TB's in my system when prices were still cheap. Now it's expensive to add HD's compared to a year ago.
I'm semi-retired but still get a tax break on my system, but the point is (for me at least), every time I get a new camera (about every five years), I have to upgrade my system to maintain the same level of "darkroom" performance.
How often do you upgrade your digital darkroom/video production computer?
I7, nvidia gt540m 1gb, 6gb memory, 500gb hdd and a 500gb external hard drive <- That is my laptop. still contemplating on either building a "faster" pc at home or purchase the D700.
Just built this monster in the middle of last year: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T, 16 GB DDR3, 500 GB hybrid OS drive, 4TB RAID 10 array. Just saving the pennies for a back-up 4TB external RAID10 array at the moment.
My wife nearly had a fit when the huge Corsair case arrived for it! She's gotten used to it now, and the big, low speed fans keep it nice and cool and really quiet.
I build my own computers and have since the early 90's. So about every year or so I get the biggest, baddest MB and CPU I can find. Tons of memory, add another T of HD space and just keep on trucking.
I rock a 4.5 GHz quad core processor, SSD, and 8gb of low latency DDR3 dual channel memory, a 2gb 6970 and I still don't think that my rig would handle 36mp files with ease. Maybe just single file alterations in LR, but no pano or HDR work. That will be pretty slow. Unless you have enough SSD storage to run your OS, LR/PS/NX, and your actual raw files all on SSD, you are going to be heavily bottle necking your system. RAID isn't going to fix that either. I'm still waiting for SSD prices to come down before I can place even half my current catalog onto an SSD drive. That will be the day.
