R2K Posted October 20, 2009 Report Share Posted October 20, 2009 i am thinking abt adding an extra computer in our store..........its gonna be used for photoediting using photoshop and some video editing work in corel video studio and adobe premiere elements.....can u guys suggest a good computer config that suits the above purpose.....also specify what kinda computers u ppl use in ur store so that i can get a suitable model comparing those Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Dave Posted October 20, 2009 Report Share Posted October 20, 2009 What is your budget ? Do you want to buy a pre-built machine or build one yourself ? IF I COULD AFFORD IT, I'd Build from scratch and get a quad processor Core2Duo (or newer i7), an ASUS motherboard, 6(or12) GB DDR3 RAM, (2) 1TB western digital black sataII hard drives (c: and d: (having windows swap file on 2+ drives helps), or get 4 hdds and do raid5 with a hot spare), and a decent little case for it all. You could then overclock it and either use the on-board video & audio, or get a add-on video and audio card (some video software can use the video card to improve rendering speeds). This would be considered overkill (or a "gaming-rig"), but some people want it. Since I couldn't afford it, I ended up building a computer from "older" tech... The Core2Duo's are now cheaper since the i7's came out. Here's our setup: dual-core Core2Duo (2.5ghz overclock to 3.2ghz), 4 GB DDR2, (2) 80GB WD blue sataII, and using built-in video/audio on ASUS motherboard (total cost <$200 got some parts on sale). We used an old computer case, power supply, card reader, keyboard, monitor and cd/dvd burner. It's fast enough, cheap, assembled and installed in the store in 24 hours, and we do basically similar work on it to what you are trying to do.... simple Photoshop scripts for templates and cropping and making DVD slideshows from photos, but no video editing. We also upgraded our networking cable/switch from 10/100 to Gigabit using a combination of Cat5 (short runs) and Cat5E (longer runs). We had some minor hiccups enabling Jumbo Frames on our NAS, but it's been great since. hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R2K Posted October 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2009 ^^ thanks for the reply........we only have one pc in our store and the whole work was being done on that machine only......besides that it was terriblly outdated and started showing up problems recently........so we thought about installing another pc and create a small network.......btw the config u suggested seems to a over kill for what we do......and we are on a limited budget....... i plan to get a new machine with same config like what u have........ core 2 duo 2.8 ghz...(no intention of overclocking) 4 gb ddr2 ram 500 gb sata hdd internal card reader 19-22 in LCD TFT monitor.(still confused with the size) BTW is there any way we can share a single photo scanner between two workstation.......the same way like we share a printer between 2 computers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philspectrum Posted October 21, 2009 Report Share Posted October 21, 2009 I would look for machines that still run XP - there can be driver issues for quirky lab stuff on Vista most PC's from Dell etc are perfectly well specified for photoshop etc and cost under $500 Even a $500 laptop will be fine, - just be sure to get rid of all the freeware that comes pre-installed. I would prefere two lower spec machines to one super computer. I would also advise a network storage solution - basically a network harddrive running cutdown linux to safeguard your data from visus et al. Max out on RAM, and spend a little more on your keyboard if you have any surplus. P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Dave Posted October 21, 2009 Report Share Posted October 21, 2009 R2K, ^^ thanks for the reply........we only have one pc in our store .....and we are on a limited budget....... BTW is there any way we can share a single photo scanner between two workstation.......the same way like we share a printer between 2 computers I'm pretty sure the answer is NO for the sharing photo scanner, but what kind of connector does it have going to the PC ? If USB, you might be able to use a little powered USB hub, but then you might have device contention issues if PC1 is using it, and PC2 tries to connect and use it. OK, I was adding up how much it would cost for you to build your own PC compared to a $500 Dell. Get the Dell if you don't already have a lot of the computer components sitting around. It does add up. Even with decent parts it's $440 before the OS. -- and Yes, stick with XP for now like Phil says. Stuff you'll NEED for your network: 4 or 8 port network switch - 10/100 or 10/100/1000 (gigabit) (or router if you're also connecting both computers to the internet) - $ 25 - $200 network cable - make yourself - or buy from store Stuff you'll WANT for your network: NAS - network attached storage - NOT those little USB hard drives in a shiny little case (as Phil mentioned, get a NAS box, stay away from the cheaper vendors: ) see here to do more research: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/ http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_nas/Itemid,190 earlier this year (when we had a little cash) we got a Synology DS409+ with (4) 1TB drives, enabled jumbo frames on gigabit ethernet, and it's a joy - I really wanted the ds509, but I got what I could afford at the time, and can always add it later for more redundancy. enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilT Posted October 21, 2009 Report Share Posted October 21, 2009 I would look for machines that still run XP - there can be driver issues for quirky lab stuff on Vista Windows 7 is out and about.. most PC's from Dell etc are perfectly well specified IMHO Dell are crap! Yes good spec, but come to do future inhouse updates <bobbins> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Photographis Posted October 23, 2009 Report Share Posted October 23, 2009 Agree completely about the Dell setup (at least they seem to have stopped glueing components in now!), but as for windows 7...... with all the issues that Microsoft seen to have with new o/s, I wouldn't touch anything 'till at least the second or third update..... IMHO. XP, although almost unsupported, at least seems to have most of the bugs fixed and be stable in a lab environment. After saying that, I played with a gaming machine (similar to the specs above) that had '98 installed as the o/s, and , well, lightning or what? put xp on and it was noticably slower for everything. It seems the computing power is needed more for the o/s than the work. LOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony.T Posted October 23, 2009 Report Share Posted October 23, 2009 Good grief- I thought this forum was in English- I hardly understood a word of this thread ;D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philspectrum Posted October 24, 2009 Report Share Posted October 24, 2009 Neil, are you running Windows 7 on your machines ? Have you seen any photo industry reviews yet Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Photographis Posted November 2, 2009 Report Share Posted November 2, 2009 Hmm, may have to eat my words on this one. Just got a machine under test, seems that this o/s is not as resource hungry. Interesting, I wonder about stability and security? We shall see.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilT Posted November 2, 2009 Report Share Posted November 2, 2009 You are going to be suprised by Windows 7 its good, very good... I call it Vista Update 3, apart from you have to pay for it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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