Which CPU for photoeditting?

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Just wondering what kind of hardware you lot are running for your photoeditting and processing?

Im currently sat using an old Xp3500, which is quite slow when I queue up a few hundred to process in RSP. Im tempted to buy a cheap dualcore xp4400 which should theorectically half the time as RSP would work on the two cores perfectly. This is the cheap option though, £160.... and I realise the system is quite obsolete anyway being Socket 939.

Am I daft spending more money on an old system, should I instead buy the AM2 equivilant or even a Conroe Dualcore setup.

Which is considered the best package for this kind of work?

Also why are MACs so popular amongst photoshop users?
 
My G5 Mac tower has 2x 2Ghz processors and 3 Gb ram and thats fast enough for me.

Macs are excellent for anything creative really.

I wouldn't spend money on an old system unless it was to increase the RAM or add extra hard drive space. If I was to go for another PC I would go for an Intel based system
 
DreederUK said:
Also why are MACs so popular amongst photoshop users?

Cos they look s-o-o-o cool and keep you lovely and warm in the winter :LOL:

Don't know anything about PC chips but....

I have a G5 2.5 dual processor with 2.5 GB of ram. It's pretty fast (though CS2 has a weird memory leak). I also have a Macbook 2GHz dual core Intel and it's FAST. PS is slower on it (because it's not running native) but other apps fly - especially since I upgraded to 2 GB ram. I might set it to dual boot Windoze - apparently this is one of the cheapest ways to get an extremely fast windows lappie ATM.

Now I just need someone to steal the G5 so I can justify a dual dual core Mac Pro ;)
 
Cheers for the mac info, ive got 2gb of ram and 3.4tb of HD space (1.4tb local, 2tb across a wired gigabit network). So im happy with both ram and HD space for now.

Im thinking the X2 4400 will do for now and then Ill investigate properly what makes macs so good, I havent used one for over 10years and at that time it was poo.
 
ive got a Sempron with 1gb of ram(cant recall what speed the sempron is though) and my 1.3ghz laptop runs ps ok too, if a little laggy!
 
DreederUK said:
Also why are MACs so popular amongst photoshop users?

Just industry standard machine for us DTP-iers, has been since I've been in the trade circa 1992 onwards.....
 
DreederUK said:
Also why are MACs so popular amongst photoshop users?

Just industry standard machine for us DTP-iers, has been since I've been in the trade circa 1992 onwards.....Mainly to do with quark and photoshop being produced for Macs first, I believe......
 
No that came in once;) The one before that came in twice :LOL:
 
Personally I'd jump ship and overhaul your machine - when you can afford it.
And then it would be to conroe.
 
don't get a mac yet - wait until Intel powermacs are released :)
 
Well im still no closer to knowing which is the best option for me.....

Either new CPU for current rig £170
New rig using a conroe dualcore ~£1000
New rig from Apple Mac Pro looks nice... ~£2000

I might wait and see how much the camera repair costs then Ill have a clue how much spare cash ive got, as for overhaulling my pc, i dont do that, ive got a long desk with currently 6 older PCs on, I tend to just buy the parts for a complete new PC and slide them down the desk a bit... im not into recycling, I prefer redundancy, that why if my best rig fails for any reason ive got an half decent backup. (all old pcs have a few HDs in for network storage and run DC projects)

Im now edging towards the conroe rig, the only intel CPU ive ever had was my awful celly700 laptop, so id like to see how these new wonderchips perform. But the Mac Pro has 4 cores..... hmmm.... that said the Opteron server I built (then sold) had 4 cores and that was impressive.
 
Just remembered ive got my 100-400L to sell so ive got even more spare cash available for my upgrade, so im definately looking at either a Conroe or Mac setup now. Whats the deal with Intel powermacs, are they going to be faster, cheaper, better then the current macs available? why wait?
 
Apart from G5's all macs have intels now, I think.........

My MD who is a PC man, has got an intel mac lappy, running windows and OSX says its the bees nees!
 
Marianne ... you got an Intel Centrino Duo core processor in your ickle, baby lappie. It wizzes so you get more done! ;)
 
chuckles said:
Marianne ... you got an Intel Centrino Duo core processor in your ickle, baby lappie. It wizzes so you get more done! ;)

fanks Baz....as long as it works and is quick then I'm happy :LOL:
 
Im off to the Trafford centre tomorrow to have a look at the Mac Pro.... ive sort of convinced myself that, thats the best option for me.

Ive got some questions about using a mac though.... Im hoping to get answers tomorrow from the instore staff, but, they are trying to sell it to me so may give biassed answers.

Will it work with my existing wired network, as in will I be able to setup shared drives on it, and assess the shared drives on my other pcs from it?

Upgrades, I will I be able to buy ram upgrades directly from Crucial and SATA HDDs from OcUK/CCL rather then paying the stupidly high Apple prices?

What the hell is bootcamp?

Why are they soo damn cheap for a quad core based computer?
 
DreederUK said:
What the hell is bootcamp?

Boot Camp is the software that allows you to dual boot between Windows XP and Mac OS X.

See HERE

The latest versions of OS X will let you share files on any TCP/IP based network and is very simple to setup, also will be able to use any networking you have in place without any problems. You can share files and access shared files on Windows systems.

It should use standard SATA interfaces so any SATA disks would work, could probably get WD Raptor drives for the price Apple would charge for an additional upgrade;)

Memory again should be standard, any doubt go to www.crucial.com/uk and enter the Manufacturer, Type of computer, Model number, and it should give you a list of compatible memory products and their prices - they are tested so you should have no isses and their prices are very good + next day delivery for free in the UK :)

(y)
 
Cheers Warspite, thanks for the link.

Ive asked the same questions on OcUK and from the answers ive had it looks like I will be buying one. I just hope they have them in stock or can build it to my spec whilst I wait, ive not got much patience.
 
That looks good that Warspite links too.

At moment I am using Athlon 64 3700 & 2G RAM. CS2 runs fine.
 
Cheers again Warspite, I checked Crucial and they dont seem to list any Apple Mac Pro upgrades, but if I browse the site I can find 1gb FB-Dimm for £95 each, id want 4 that way ive got 4gb and it will use quad channel, it would cost half what Apple want for there own ram. The only thing is the Apple stuff included large intergrated Heat Spreaders whereas the crucial only has small ones.... Ill ask at the Apple shop.
 
I'm using an Athlon64 3200, with 1.5gig RAM, and it runs CS2 fine, BUT I can't help thinking it could be quicker.

The click to screen update ratio is sometimes quite noticable and that is one thing I HATE is slow screen refreshing/updating.

I've been trying to get someone to swap two of these 512's (3200 DDR) for a 1 gig stick, but no one wants them...lol
(All three slots used in my board which means I'm forced to run at 333 instead of 400)
 
DreederUK said:
Cheers again Warspite, I checked Crucial and they dont seem to list any Apple Mac Pro upgrades, but if I browse the site I can find 1gb FB-Dimm for £95 each, id want 4 that way ive got 4gb and it will use quad channel, it would cost half what Apple want for there own ram. The only thing is the Apple stuff included large intergrated Heat Spreaders whereas the crucial only has small ones.... Ill ask at the Apple shop.

Will be fine
 
Cheers for the help and advice folks, the Apple guys were really helpful and even carried the box out to the car for me, im typing this on my new toy.

2.66ghz / 1gb / 250gb / 7300gt

Its beautiful, Ill be getting 4gb of Crucial FBDimm in the next few days and a couple of 500gb SATAII drives from OcUK.

I also bought Photoshop CS2 and Aperture. Now I just need to learn how to use this thing, it took me 15minutes to find how to open the CD drawer.
 
Nice one......you certainly been on a spending spree of late:)
 
Sounds like a well spec'd system that should see you through for a while (y)
 
Just me again, I was up until 3.40am last night and back up again at 8am this morning, this Mac is very impressive. Also Aperture seems very nice, the interface is quite hard to get used to but im slowly learning the layout.
 
DreederUK said:
the interface is quite hard to get used to but im slowly learning the layout.

LOL - I bet you keep trying to click that other mouse button ;)
 
Erm... I do and it works, ive got right click setup as secondary function button.

It seems very similar to Windows tbh, the big differance ive found so far are the @ is in the wrong place on the keyboard and also there isnt an eject button on the optical drive, instead thats on the keyboard.

The left hand side button is awesome, quickly switching between differant apps and getting a nice split screen showing what each is doing. Even with only 1gb of ram it seems effortless.
 
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