Need a new PC - DPChallenge Forums

03/26/2010 10:11:38 AM · #1

The PC I am currently using went out. I built it 6 years ago with parts friends had laying around. It was very crappy to say the least. It ran PS CS2 very slowly but I dealt with it. Well she finally gave out on me and my 80 Gig Hard drive was full so it's time to upgrade. I figured I'll need a new hard drive, mother board with a good processor, video card, power supply, and tower but I don't know what is good. What should I be looking for in a decent set-up for a photographer in these items? How much does the video card play into how I see my images on my monitor? Would it be possible to get these items in the 200-300 dollar price range? I figured tiger direct or new egg would have decent prices and I could piece a new one togther cheaper that way. My CD and DVD ROM's or still good and probably could keep my old tower too, but figured if I bought the tower maybe the company could send the parts already installed for me?

03/26/2010 10:32:12 AM · #2

I think you can do something in that range, though you will have to make concessions in some areas. It will still be an upgrade over the 6 year old box. Do you have a Fry's near you? They frequently have decent component for really nice prices.

Here is an article from Maximum PC, about a year back with an article on building a budget PC. Their budget is $500, but it may give you some ideas. Here is their back issue archive, (free PDF downloads) which has many articles and reviews for the build it yourself crowd.

If you go with the integrated graphics on the motherboard, that will save you some $ and should be sufficient for photo editing. (You can always add a descrete graphics card later on.) I would say to at least get a decent motherboard and power supply. Make your concessions elsewhere. I used an Asus for my current machine and never had a build go so smoothly. The previous one I built in '03 had a bargain motherboard (MSI, I think) and I always had difficulty getting the audio drivers to work when ever I did an OS install.

Message edited by author 2010-03-26 10:33:44.

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

03/26/2010 10:41:41 AM · #3

Looking aver today's Fry's sale ad, I see a 1.5 Terabyte SATA drive for $89, 500Gb SATA drive for $49, a Biostar motherboard with quad core Athlon CPU (2.9 Ghz) combo for $79, 2Gb of DDR2 800Mhz ram for $49.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

03/26/2010 04:34:20 PM · #4

For the really budget-constrained, it's hard to beat some of the Athlon options out there. The Intel processors are faster, but they are more expensive because they are top dog right now.
It may well be possible to buy a low-cost "bare-bone" box and finish the build with some of your old parts (like CD & DVD drives) but do be aware that 6-year-old drives probably use ATA interface, and you'll need to confirm that they will be usable in the new system.
I would suggest *not* using your old case and power supply, because power supplies do tend to age, sometimes not gracefully. The old supply may also not have the power to drive the newer hardware.
Photoshop CS4 can take advantage of the GPU to greatly enhance speed, but CS2 does not have this feature.

Citadel

Nikon D7500

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

03/26/2010 04:54:00 PM · #5

Originally posted by Yo_Spiff:

I totally misread that at first. I thought you said you could get the drive for $89,500. *sigh* Thank goodness its Friday.

03/26/2010 05:03:20 PM · #6

Originally posted by Citadel:

I totally misread that at first. I thought you said you could get the drive for $89,500. *sigh* Thank goodness its Friday.

That's the cost of 500Gb in 1987

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

04/04/2010 10:23:53 AM · #7

I found this and with my limited knowledge I think this looks like a good computer setup. I can reuse my DVD/CD drives and probably my 80GB hd drive (which is full right now) and upgrade later. Do you guys think this is a decent setup for the price I am looking for?

bare bones computer

edit: I also have a my own copy of XP so I should be able to put the operating system on it too. I think the XP copy I have is good for 2 computer's. How do they know that the computers are different? If I install my old hard drive will it already have the OS on it, then when I get a new HD can I just have both installed?

Message edited by author 2010-04-04 10:26:50.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

04/04/2010 10:33:55 AM · #8

Couple things... make sure that if your CD/DVD drives are ATA, there is a connection for them on the motherboard. I don't see ATA support listed (only SATA), and it may well not be there.
Second, you will want to increase the memory to at very least 2GB. Even WinXP will not really perform optimally in 1GB unless all you do is web browsing and e-mail. 2GB will enhance performance significantly. 4GB would provide some additional benefit if you tend to run a lot of apps at once, or you edit really large files. Keep in mind that a 32-bit OS will only use about 3.5GB of the 4GB, however.

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

04/04/2010 10:39:52 AM · #9

My drives are newer then the other 6 year old parts. I have a Sony CD drive, which if that doesn't work I can find a newer one for cheap these days, and my DVD drive is a HP lightscribe which is no older than 3 years I believe. Right now I am running with I believe 512 memory so either way this would be an upgrade. Will this system allow me to expand the memory later?

Also, here is another that I was looking at. Does it seem any better than the last?
another bare bones

edit: looks as though I can get 2 more GB of Ram in the future for around $50.00. I really need to get my system up now for the budget that I am on. I will probably pull the trigger on one of these by tonight.

Message edited by author 2010-04-04 10:42:54.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

04/04/2010 10:39:59 AM · #10

Originally posted by SEG:

edit: I also have a my own copy of XP so I should be able to put the operating system on it too. I think the XP copy I have is good for 2 computer's. How do they know that the computers are different? If I install my old hard drive will it already have the OS on it, then when I get a new HD can I just have both installed?

The copy of XP that is on your old hard drive is useless as installed. It has all the configuration and drivers for you old system. It will not boot properly in the new system. You need to install "clean". You want to do that anyway, just so that you don't carry along six years worth of registry bloat.
If your old hard drive has both your OS and data on it, you need to be certain you have that data backed up elsewhere if you intend to re-use it for a bootable drive. I strongly suggest a new drive for the OS and apps, and use the existing one for data.

04/04/2010 10:46:29 AM · #11

Thanks, I will pick up a new drive for it also. Probably hit best buy or some place like that to get it. I can't believe 6 years ago I was the shit with my 80GB HD now I can get a 500 for cheaper. Never thought I'd fill that 80 up either. Thank god for a backup external that I picked up on Black Friday to back up my images!

04/04/2010 11:17:06 AM · #12

Another question: I can still use my 80 GB (old) HD in the new computer to get some of the important stuff off of it right? Maybe as a partitioned drive? How do I let the OS know which one is new and which one is the old one that I only need for data?

04/04/2010 12:33:37 PM · #13

Originally posted by SEG:

The old drive can be installed to get the data off of it. Your new computer should have hard disks with the new serial ATA (SATA) interface, while the old computer is going to be the earlier IDE (sometimes called Parallel ATA) drives. As long as your motherboard has both interfaces, you can install the old one to access the files. If your computer only has SATA connections, then you will have to put the old drive in an external case and connect it through USB.

04/04/2010 12:42:02 PM · #14

Leaving to see what best buy has to offer. This sucks. I havent processed any images in over 2 weeks and can't acess any of my business info. I have so much building up on me because of this issue.

04/04/2010 12:50:10 PM · #15

Originally posted by SEG:

I have so much building up on me because of this issue.

Having withdrawal symptoms?

04/04/2010 01:06:38 PM · #16

Originally posted by Yo_Spiff:

Originally posted by SEG:
I have so much building up on me because of this issue.

Having withdrawal symptoms?

Most definitely!!! I want to enter the black on black challenge but if I order online it probably won't make it to me in time. I have internet acess but not acess to my PS.

04/04/2010 04:42:09 PM · #17

Aw fiddlesticks! It's Easter and everythings closed.

04/04/2010 09:27:03 PM · #18

Originally posted by kirbic:

Couple things... make sure that if your CD/DVD drives are ATA, there is a connection for them on the motherboard. I don't see ATA support listed (only SATA), and it may well not be there.

Do some not hook up with IDE cables anymore?

Well I wound up buying this one. It has the 4GB memory that you recomended and was cheaper to buy together and I added a 500GB Western Digital internal hard drive. Hope everything works out with it.

the one I bought

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

04/04/2010 09:32:10 PM · #19

I read over the specs. The motherboard does have one set of IDE headers, which can support up to 2 drives of that older type.

cowboy221977

Canon EOS-60D

04/04/2010 10:26:30 PM · #20

I just built a pc not to long ago...It screams. I have a dual video card (absolutely a great feature), a 1 TB hard drive 3 gigs of ram a good motherboard and processor... All this cost about $700 - $800 U.S. dollars minus software I happen to have a copy of windows left over from my buisness. Also I was able to download(for free) some other software to add to it. Anyway what is your budget and I will talk you through purchasing and building a great PC.

RamblinR

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III

Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro

04/04/2010 10:30:10 PM · #21

Hey YoSpiff,

I'm currently creating one computer out of two. (one was 4 years old and dying the one I'm moving to it about 2 years old)

It has an LGA755 Intel Desktop Board - DP35DP
It currently only has 1 gig of ram (two sticks)
I want to add 2 gigs of ram (two sticks) can I put them all in together so long as I keep each compartment even (eg 1 gig sticks in the blue slots and 500mb sticks in the black slots)?

Also, will that amount of ram make topaz run faster or is that a processor thing?

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III

04/04/2010 10:58:59 PM · #22

Originally posted by RamblinR:

Hey YoSpiff,

It has an LGA755 Intel Desktop Board - DP35DP
It currently only has 1 gig of ram (two sticks)
I want to add 2 gigs of ram (two sticks) can I put them all in together so long as I keep each compartment even (eg 1 gig sticks in the blue slots and 500mb sticks in the black slots)?

Also, will that amount of ram make topaz run faster or is that a processor thing?

I would have to look at the manual for the motherboard to see what RAM configuration it can take. RAM is not going to help Topaz specifically, though going from 1 Gb to 2 will help out a some with everything. Some of the Topaz products are multi-core aware and will take advantage of additional processor cores.

RamblinR

Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro

04/04/2010 11:09:32 PM · #23

The processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E6550 @ 2.33Ghz

Is that pretty good?

This machine already had 2 hard drives.
Can I add an extra one. I have put it in the slot and have a pink ribbon lead that connects to the motherboard and a slot in the motherboard to take it but I need a lead that runs from it to the power. The case I took it out of doesn't have a lead that just does that it seems to be all interconnected. Can I just purchase this small lead?

Message edited by author 2010-04-04 23:12:15.