Building a PC for photo editing on a budget..

[Fumesucker]

I'm helping my daughter expand her budding wedding photography business and one of the first things she/we need is a PC strictly for photo editing and printing.. Of course, with the economy being as it is at the moment price is an object so we are looking to get the most bang for the buck (which is why a Mac is most probably not in the cards).

I've been building my own Winboxen for years but mostly on the lower end so I'm not really all that familiar with what is out there as far as real high performance goes. I'd like to get some idea of what I can do at price points of around $500, $750, $1000 and maybe $1500 strictly for the desktop box. Super fast graphics performance for gaming is not important, this is more about image processing and manipulation, the box probably will not even be connected directly to the intertubes.

Any input will be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

[canetoad]

1. I'd go for something like this

Which is around $550 from an Aussie supplier. I think it would be much cheaper in the US.

* Intel Dual Core Processor E5200 2.5GHz
* 2GB DDR2 Memory
* 250GB Storage
* Nvidia 9400GT 512MB Graphic Card
* DVD±RW Dual Layer Multi Burner

A brazillion USB ports are a must as is a card reader. Maybe Firewire if she is doing videos. This may even be a bit over the top for what she needs. You didn't mention which software she is using, and if that needs to be bought too. I'd definitely spend more money on a really good screen that is easy on the eyes.

[Shardik]

2. What size images are you going to be processing?

Will you be using Photoshop?

[Fumesucker]

9. She is using a Sony A100 right now.. 10.2 megapixel..

Yep, Photoshop CS2 ..

[ConsAreLiars]

3. I would get the maximum RAM the OS supports.

XP max is 4GB, although only 3GB are likely to be used without some tricks. Vista 32 has the same limit, and although Vista 64 goes to 8GB some editing programs will be able to use all that and some will not. The reason for this is that editing programs hold each image's data in uncompressed form and the modified previews and steps while working. It adds up. And working on a complex project often means having several open at once. Once the RAM runs out the OS uses read-writes to a swap file on the hard drive, which is waay slower.

Processor speed is, of course, critical as well, and an appropriate motherboard. Everything else can be added via USB ports as needed.

[Fumesucker]

6. Right..

I figured the max RAM that we could use..

Could you elaborate on the tricks needed to use 4 GB with XP?

Or would some flavor of Linux do better?

[ConsAreLiars]

10. Sorry, I don't recall the details.

Using Linux to run CS2 would mean running XP or MacOS thorough an emulator and would only slow things down and use up more RAM.

[Shardik]

4. For what it's worth, here is the system I use for photo editing.

(Your GPU is important as well)

MB: Asus M3N-HT
CPU: AMD Phenom 9950 (you can now get a 45 nanometer at 3Ghz for what I paid for the 9950)
GPU: Two EVGA 8800's in SLI
OS: Vista 64
Memory: 4 Gigs DDR2 1066 (2x2Gigs)
Thermaltake Soprano case
1000W PS
27" Hanns-G monitor and a 24" (both LCD)
A big-ass CPU fan! :)
HD: 2X 500GB SATA 7200

I use Photoshop CS3 as well as several other system hogs and can run everything at once with no problems.

You can also run a third SLI graphics card with this MB witch would give you a total of 4 GPUs.

Checking at ZipZoomFly and NewEgg, you should be able to build this within your budget.

[Fumesucker]

5. Thanks everyone..

Right now Photoshop CS2 is being used and will probably stick with that at least for now.

She already has 2 21" CRT monitors, a Cornerstone and a Radius that have pretty good color, we'll probably stick with those for now..

She also already has an HP color laser and a wide carriage Canon Pixma Pro 9000 for printing, the HP does a decent job and the Pixma is outstanding.

I'm probably going to shop for motherboard, processor, video card and memory later this week.

I have two 200 GB SATA drives and a 250 GB IDE drive that we are going to use for storage, she also has a 500 GB USB drive that we will use for backup.

[Shardik]

7. Well, it sounds as if you have a lucky daughter.

A strong processor, good GPU capabilities and plenty of memory and I'm sure she'll be P'shopping like never before!

I was amazed at the response I got when I changed from a dual core and a single graphics card to a quad core and SLI. It took less than half the time to process large graphics files.

Let us know what you decide on!

[Fumesucker]

8. My favorite definition of "luck" is opportunity met with preparation..

In that sense my daughter is quite lucky.

Yeah, I'm thinking quad core processor.

[Fumesucker]

11. I have bought most of the components now for the photo editing Winbox..

And I thought I'd keep everyone up to date on my progress so far.

Motherboard: Asus P5KPL-CM

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8200

Memory: 2 X 2GB DDR2 PC8500

Video Card: ASUS Extreme N6600GT/TD

Disk drives: 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 200 GB SATA in RAID 0 array plus a Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 250 GB PATA for additional storage.

Once I have received all the parts I'll be putting it together in a week or so, I'll keep you posted..

I'm actually pretty surprised at how inexpensively I could put together such a powerful system, I'll have around $450 in purchased parts when I'm done, that doesn't include the case and power supply which I already had.

[Fumesucker]

12. Finally got the photo editing computer together..

And I have to say that compared to what I'm used to, it screams. Our processing time for images has been cut by about seventy five percent. When you are talking a thousand or more pics at a time that makes a huge difference in how much work you can get done in a day.

Thanks for the input everyone, your thoughts were very helpful.

Even had enough money left over to buy a SATA dual layer lightscribe DVD burner for archiving our pics in the most compact form possible.

Edited for speling.