Building a Photo and Video editing PC

hip33

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Jul 11, 2007
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Hi,

Wanting to build a PC for Photo and Video editing, and watching DVDs (no gaming).

So far I've listed following specs:

- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz LGA775
- Motherboard: Gigabyte (GA-965P-DS3 PRO) ATX LGA775
- RAM: Corsair (Twin2x2048-6400C4) 2 x 1GB DDR2-800, unbuffered, 4-4-4-12
- Video Card: Albatron 7600GT 256MB DDR3-PCIE
- HDD: RAID 0. 2 x Western Digital (WD3200YS) Caviar Hard Disk Drive 320GB, 7200RPM *16MB RAID EDITION cache, - SATA-300 (SATA-2)
- Display: Dell 2007WFP 20" UltraSharp Wide Screen Flat Panel LCD Monitor
- Case: Not sure yet. I want something plain and simple, with good air flow
- Power supply: Not sure yet. Enough to supply power to the above components

Obviously I'd like to spend as less money as possible.

--> Would you recommend any additions or replace any over-kill components? (I am not planning to overclock this system.)
--> Any latest on Intel's price cuts? (I am planning to get this at the end of July/early August.)

I'd really appreciate any comments from Photoshop and Video editing users, re: Photoshop scratch disk, OS page files on RAID, or is WD Raptor better, etc.

Thanks.
 

williamtheface

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Hello hip33 :), I can suggest this case as something plain and simple with good air flow. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119068

As for a power supply I have this and it works great http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817128002 but it might be overkill so this might work as well http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817128006

They're both modular which is always nice to have for cable management. Someone else can suggest something better/cheaper most likely for your situation.

Best of luck with your build.

-William
 

babybudha

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Definitely wait for a Q6600. Video and Photo editing are two of the few things that take advantage of multiple cores. Also get 4Gbs of ram if you can. As again, Video and photo editing are amoung the few things that really benefit from having more then 1-2Gb of ram.

Also, for those apps, it would be better to get 4Gbs of cheaper RAM, then 2Gbs of high quality. There is not much difference in performance with RAM (1-2%) from decent quality to high quality.
 

croc

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No mention of OS.
 

hip33

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Thank you all for suggestions/recommendations.

OS will be XP Pro. May be Vista in few months time.

Would love to have Q6600 but still too expensive here. I am planning to use this machine for next 3 years or so and then I'll go Quad. Photo and Video editing is just a hobby, not a profession, so can't afford to spend too much money. So I will have to go with E6600 and but I will still wait until July 22.

And I think I might go with 4GB of A-Data RAM rather than 2GB of Corsair. It'll definately be faster, right?

Thanks.

 

babybudha

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Get a 4Gb Dual Channel memory kit (2x2Gbs) of 800Mhz. Try to get at least CAS latency timing of 5 (lower the better, but not a huge performance diff.)

Where you at anyway? What country?
 

Gh0stDrag0n

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If you don't plan on OCing get DDR2 533, 4 gigs (runs at 1:1fsb with a 1066fsb processor). Definatally go with a quad core. Photoshop will love you for it ;) If you can't afford it the E6600 will work fine.
The Raptors will be fast but you can raid 0+1 four 160GB 7200rpm drives for about half the cost of a 2 disk raid 0 raptor 150Gig setup. :eek:
Check out Seagate's Perpendicular Recording Technology drives http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140 they are quite speedy for a 7200rpm drive. :)
 

alpha_channel

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I'd change the monitor to a Samsung 215tw, I've just recieved mine and the quality of the image is spot on with no banding of the colours, no back light bleed and blacks are black and the display running at 1680x1050 @ 75Hz (plus you can rotate it through 90 degrees for working on portrait images and hook up a nex gen console without faffing on with adaptors, the connection options are fairly comprehensive with s-video, component, composite, DVI and VGA all on there).

This single screen has changed my view on TFT's (until now I was never a fan of them). :)
 

hip33

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Decided to go with Quad Core Q6600. Now I am not sure about the chipset? 965P or P5?

What motherboard will accommodate Q6600 the best?

Best RAM to compliment this processor? DDR2-533 or DDR2-800? Or something else?

Thanks.
 
Instead of the 7600GT, I would get a Geforce 8500GT, 8600GT or a 8600GTS. These cards have better video decoding performance than the older GeForce 7xxx series. This is important especially if you plan on watching Blu-Ray or HD-DVD in the near future. This will decrease the load on the CPU.

You'll need to look for a card that supports HDCP (High bandwidth Digital Copy Protection) which HD content will use. Not all 8500GT or 8600GT will have HDCP so you need to carefully check the specs. All 8600GTS supports HDCP, but it is also geared towards the mainstream gamer as well.

Also due to a limitation of a 32-bit OS, Windows XP will not be able to recognize all 4GB of RAM. The OS will be able to see a little over 3GB. Once you switch to Windows Vista 64-bit, you will be able to use all 4GBs.

 

hip33

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At the moment, I will just get 2GB and add another 2GB of RAM once I get 64-bit OS. Same with the graphics car, I will go with 7600GT and then upgrade to 8600GTS when it comes to watching lot of HD movies, etc.

I still need to know what chipset, best motherboard for Q6600, and what kind of RAM (DDR2-533 or DDR2-800?)

Thanks.