Photoshop Build $700-1000

[battlemarz]

Approximate Purchase Date: 1-3 Months (Buy parts over time. Sales etc.)
Budget Range: $700-1000 (Lower is better)
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Photoshop CS5, General Use, Possible future video editing (Adobe Premiere?)
Parts Not Required: Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg.com, Amazon.com (No Micro Center near by)
Country of Origin: United States
Parts Preferences: AMD CPU
Overclocking: Maybe
SLI or Crossfire: No
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080, 1920x1200
Additional Comments: This build is for a friend of mine, I have limited knowledge of what is required for Photoshop PCs. Help with parts compatibility, alternate selections for better performance, and price cutting changes would be appreciated.

Current Parts Selection: (Newegg Wishlist for those who prefer it)

CPU: AMD Phenom X6 1090T $170
Thinking about waiting until Zambezi FX-6100. Thoughts? $???

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ $100
AM3+ For future

Ram: CORSAIR XMS3 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 $105

PSU: Corsair CX500 V2 500W $60
Unsure if the 500W will be sufficient. Can change it up to the CX600 V2 600W. +$10

GPU: GIGABYTE GV-N450D3-1GI GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit DDR3 $110
For CUDA acceleration in Adobe CS5. Any more information on this would be helpful, just started reading up on it.

SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC SSD $199
For OS and Photoshop Scratch Disk.

HDDs: Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s $110 ($55 x 2)
Also unsure about best storage setup for Photoshop work. Along with above SSD, possible RAID0 storage drive or 2 single 1TB drives for redundant backup.

Case: Xigmatek ASGARD II $30
Case not crucial as long as it is decent quality and not flashy.

CD/DVD: LG DVD Burner 24X $19

CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus $27
Potentially unnecessary, but I prefer aftermarket coolers.

Total Cost: ~$929

Driving the cost down would be nice. $800 would be amazing, but want to stick with an SSD for sure and 64GB seems quite small for OS and scratch.

All selection from Newegg for simplicity. Will shop around and wait for specials (Cyber Monday, etc.)

Any input is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Outlander_04]

You can use a cheaper motherboard .
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131757 $120
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128521 $100
will have identical performance to the part you have chosen . The difference is that neither can suppport multiple graphics cards .......which you dont want either .
The Asus has the perceived advantage of the UEFI BIOS and probably over clocks better thanks to the heat sinks on the VRM's. Other than that buy the gigabyte .

If its just going to be used for CS5 then a 64 gig SSD is probably fine . You will only install windows and that single application on the boot drive .

 

[battlemarz]

You can use a cheaper motherboard .
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131757 $120
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128521 $100
will have identical performance to the part you have chosen . The difference is that neither can suppport multiple graphics cards .......which you dont want either .
The Asus has the perceived advantage of the UEFI BIOS and probably over clocks better thanks to the heat sinks on the VRM's. Other than that buy the gigabyte .

If its just going to be used for CS5 then a 64 gig SSD is probably fine . You will only install windows and that single application on the boot drive .

Thanks for catching that. I'll change to one of those cheaper motherboards. I'll have to speak to the person this is built for about the 64GB SSD.

 

[battlemarz]

Bump. Anyone else have thoughts?

 

[battlemarz]

Best answer selected by battlemarz.