Dave,
That's not a bad starting point. You can always add HDDs later on, you'll probably need a good sound card, too. Do a little research like over at dpreview and overclockers websites and you'll be able to OC the hack out of the i7/920, you'll need a good heatsink if you do, though.
Nicholas
I priced my configuration at newegg as if I would build it myself. You know what? The price was the same from AVADirect to the dollar. Plus they build it and give me a 3 year warranty on parts and labor.
I kid you not.
I looked at CyberPower too, Tom, but try getting a little help over the phone for advice. All I was told was go to the configurator and order the darn computer and be done with it. The difference between these 2 companies in this regard was day and night. On the other hand, Puget Computers were just as fantastic with pre-sales help as was AVA, just leave a message or e-mail them your questions, and they would call back very quickly with comprehensive answers. Their prices were slightly higher than AVA and they have nowhere near the vast options for components as AVA.
So although it looks like CyberPower has been doing a little better recently, I didn't like reading that their communications with customers was shoddy at times and getting replacement parts in a timely manner seemed to be a real challenge for them.
So in the end, I boiled it down to AVA and Puget, both are rated A+ with BBB while CyberPower is a C+.
Nicholas
www.copperhillimages.com
Puget is superb with quick feedback and now they have live chat so you can communicate with a rep in real time. Where Puget fails is in selection of components. For instance you have the choice of Kingston RAM and not even their whole line of RAM......just their valueram offering. Very poor options in choosing components from Puget really hurts them IMO. AVADirect has an incredible amount of choices.
At the completion of the order I received an email showing what I bought along with the normal info you get when you have purchased a product on-line.
Oddly.....at the bottom of the email it states the following:
"Important Note: For all orders exceeding $1000.00 and paid using a credit card, we require our customers to fill out, sign, and fax a Credit Card Authorization Form (CCAF) to 1-216-503-6355. This form is required for every credit card that customer have on file with us."
I filled the same form out, Tom, didn't think it was a big deal. There is a threshold with my PayPal account where they will call me directly to confirm purchases over a certain amount. When AVA is charging X-thousands of dollars for their products, it probably aids in confirming these types of charges.
Congrats on the rig Are they going to OC it for you? What kind of monitor will you be using?
I believe your graphic card (nVidia 9600GT) will let you run and benchmark with this DirectX-11 movie, it is awesome: http://www.unigine.com/download/#heaven (check out "Tropics" and "Sanctuary" while you're there).
It's actually good business protection for them. With internet fraud running rampant they do this to protect themselves from theft.
I have a Dell 24 inch 2405FPW (which I love). I'll just profile it with Monico optix XR and I should be good to go.
No overclocking.
Many thanks for all your help with this Nickle S. I have used your copperhill products to clean my DSLR sensor for years. It's pretty cool to see you giving me a hand with buying a PC.
It's actually good business protection for them. With internet fraud running rampant they do this to protect themselves from theft.
I have a Dell 24 inch 2405FPW (which I love). I'll just profile it with Monico optix XR and I should be good to go.
No overclocking.
Many thanks for all your help with this Nickle S. I used your copperhill products to clean my DSLR sensor for years. It's pretty cool to see you giving me a hand with buying a PC.
I am pysched for you, Tom, hope the build goes smoothly, probably take them about 3 weeks to delivery- 1st week getting parts, 2nd, the build, 3rd, the burn-in. Shoot them e-mails through your new account if you have any questions at all. That is a great monitor, your Photoshop will be an entirely different experience with this setup - get ready for Warp-Speed
All the best!
Nicholas
P.S. - A lot of people wonder why I (we) get all worked up about computers when digital photography is our passion. I believe the technology has improved so dramatically that the digital darkroom is muich more important today than it was 4 or 5 or 6 years ago. Case in point, earlier this year I saw a Moose Peterson video of him working some RAW photos in the Nikon software, Capture NX2. One shot in particular was a beach scene that was terribly underexposed, this was a shot that most of us would have deleted, or it would have given us a fit long ago. Well he did his digital magic on that shot in about 2 minutes, turning it into a "perfect" exposure. Could he have nailed the shot better? Yes, but digital has given us new parameters and margins for errors. The purists will not like this state of affairs one bit, but I for one think it is GRAND and see nothing wrong with taking advantage of the technology at our disposal.
From a Nikon point of view, Capture NX can be a little clunky, but it is miles ahead of what was available to us years ago. But to utilize this technology, it's imperative to shoot in RAW exclusively, and those files will keep our computers working very hard. Trading that 4-cylinder Ford Pinto for an 8-cylinder GTO was an exhilerating experience, and it is similar to the quantum leaps in our computers and software. I love digital photography immensely and everything that goes with it. You must strive to get the shot right in the beginning - exposure, DOF, composition, focus, mood, etc., but I think post-processing has become a much bigger and crucial part of the final image today then it was in the past.
I just got the new PC from AVADirect and all I can say thus far is Holy Wow! I have yet to get Photoshop CS4 and am currently running CS3....but.....CS4 is on the way and I will be glad to utilize the Ram I have on board this new box. 12 gigs so PS should scream.
I'll say this for AVADirect thus far. They do an incredible job at building a PC to the specs you want. I takes a couple of weeks but it's worth the wait. The shipping is incredible as well with parts inside the PC stabilized with foam so as not to shift in any way.
So far I'm happy.
I'm using Windows 7 Pro 64 bit and the speed increase in general compared to the PC I was using prior to this one.....is smoking fast. My other PC was no slouch but it was 7 years old.......I build it.....but......7 years is an eternity in PC life.
Best of luck with your new "monster" , can't wait to hear about CS4. I find myself using PS 64bit for basic photo-editing, but I'll throw it over to 32-bit if I need to use a particular plug-in. You probably got a 3-ring binder with the burn-in tests results, there should be another folder with more detailed results right on your C-drive in an AVA folder.
Hopefully you'll have smooth sailing, but if it has any hiccups at all, their tech-support should be right there with you.
I got an HP with an i7 quad core intel processor and 8 gigs of RAM with a 23" monitor for $999 at Costco. It flies through my 5D2 RAW files like a hot knife through butter. True I could have gotten maybe 10% more performance if I had spent twice as much, but the cost/benefit equation doesn't justify it.
Tom, glad to hear you've gotten your new computer. Since you started this thread I too have built my new pc. It has very similar specs to yours (i7 920, 12GB ram, intel SSD) and I could not be happier. Editing 2GB panoramas in CS4 64bit is a complete breeze. I have enough head room I doubt I'll be needing to setup any scratch disks any time soon. Rendering 20 image panoramas with Auto Pano Giga took close to an hour on my old machine. On the new machine it takes 3-4 minutes.
ChrisDM wrote:
I got an HP with an i7 quad core intel processor and 8 gigs of RAM with a 23" monitor for $999 at Costco. It flies through my 5D2 RAW files like a hot knife through butter. True I could have gotten maybe 10% more performance if I had spent twice as much, but the cost/benefit equation doesn't justify it.
One interesting thing to note about Windows 7 and Photoshop CS3. That combination causes you to lose your internet connection. It is due to the "Bonjour" service Photoshop installs. You must disable the "Bonjour" service in order for Windows 7 to connect to the internet.
ChrisDM wrote:
I got an HP with an i7 quad core intel processor and 8 gigs of RAM with a 23" monitor for $999 at Costco. It flies through my 5D2 RAW files like a hot knife through butter. True I could have gotten maybe 10% more performance if I had spent twice as much, but the cost/benefit equation doesn't justify it.
Chris Miller
www.imagineimagery.com
How is the colour on that monitor?
Tom K. wrote:
One interesting thing to note about Windows 7 and Photoshop CS3. That combination causes you to lose your internet connection. It is due to the "Bonjour" service Photoshop installs. You must disable the "Bonjour" service in order for Windows 7 to connect to the internet.
billk55 wrote:
Sorry - should have noted that the Bonjour service is currently running as well
Awesome. I'm running CS4 trial version right now and it is so incredibly fast on this PC it is stunning. What used to take me minutes on my old PC now takes seconds or as fast as I can click the mouse. I'm upgrading to CS4.
To be honest any computer with a good amount of RAM, reasonable GPU and reasonable CPU will run PS just fine. I have a mid range acer laptop with Win 7 and I can use pretty large files with multiple layers and it does not break a sweat. If you had a desktop with an obviously better GPU than my built in intel one then you should be fine. It is possible to go overkill on PC specs when much of it will not significantly improve your experience. For instance I would be surprised if an SSD will make much difference in PS especially if you have a good SD card to use as readyboost. As CS4 can now use GPUs for much of the image processing even a Core2Duo will be fine as even a mid range GPU will be more than powerful enough to handle image processing (after all they manage to throw around a lot of graphics in the games). With PCs the more expensive they get the less bang you get for your buck, the key is to find the tipping point where any extra power is not really much of a benefit.
Coolblue2000 wrote:
To be honest any computer with a good amount of RAM, reasonable GPU and reasonable CPU will run PS just fine. I have a mid range acer laptop with Win 7 and I can use pretty large files with multiple layers and it does not break a sweat. If you had a desktop with an obviously better GPU than my built in intel one then you should be fine. It is possible to go overkill on .
Coolblue,
I agree with you for the most part, but Tom has sevaral things going for him with his custom-build. I'm going to assume he settled on the components listed on page #2 of this thread.
I've had HP and Gateway computers before this AVA build and I can tell you that the materials and workmanship are like night and day. Their custom wiring leaves the unit with plenty of air-space for cooling the interior, off-the-shelf PCs cram parts and wires and cables in with no regard for this. We bought an ACER/Gateway for my wife last year and although it performs sufficiently in PSElements, the grade of the parts used will no way hold up as long as what you get with a custom-build. You also have a multitude of upgrade possibilities not available to stock PCs, including changing BIOS settings.
And running a power-packed rig like this, you MUST have a capable heatsink, and Tom and I have the Noctua NH-U12P. My temps stay between 36 and 42 degrees, which is amazing for an air-cooled 3875MHz system. Even the stock Intel heatsinks are barely sufficient to keep a rig stable.
I watch a lot of DVD's and video streams while I work, and a great GPU and chip (and monitor) make a huge difference in the quality of the display, so it is more of a multi-dimensional computer, if I was a "gamer", I'd be pretty happy, too.
I've had experience with ACER's tech-support with 2 Gateway PCs, and, again, it is night and day compared to AVA's. A custom-build of this quality is more of an investment than your stock computers. The i7 chips will hold their own for our Photoshop purposes for many years to come. But maybe the cycle of replacing a PC every 3 to 5 years is more the norm for digital photographers, in which case, stock computers do suffice.
Coolblue2000 wrote:
To be honest any computer with a good amount of RAM, reasonable GPU and reasonable CPU will run PS just fine.
Not if you are working with massive tif files and multiple layers.....or...doing huge panorama merges or working with 7 image HDR. Today's DSLR's can run 21 megapixels or more......that can grind Photoshop to it's knees without some serious PC power.
From my own personal experience I can say that the build I just had AVADirect make me absolutely flies with Photoshop CS4. Some tasks used to take minutes.....now they take a second or a few seconds.
BTW...AVAdirect does build a gorgeous PC. You can compare a custom build from a reputable dealer to off the shelf PC's. IMO anyway.
