New Build For Photo Editing

[Roger44]

Hi everyone,
This is my first post here, so if I make any mistakes I apologise in advance. If possible I would like advice on a new build that an IT friend will be helping me with. I've read the sticky on "New Build Advice" so I will try and give as much info as possible.

I live in the UK and my budget will be around £600 GBP, not a big budget but its all I can afford at present. Intended use will be for photo editing, I dont play games or do video editing
The file sizes will be 300mb to 600mb 48bitcolour film scans, I will be using Picture Window Pro
from Digital light, not Photoshop. I already have a good monitor, keyboard,mouse,speakers and scanner, all I need ( I think) is the tower, the smaller the better, up to midi size.

My present PC is a 2001 Time machine amd xp 2000+ 1GB ram max, and is way too slow.
Dont know if I need more than one hard drive as anything I do worth keeping will be put on an external drive or put to archival discs.

OS will probably be XP Home as Picture Window Pro isnt 64 bit at present. I dont expect lightening speeds at this budget, but a usable system that will not take 15 mins just to load a file, like my present machine.

Many Thanks in advance

Roger

[Khalil]

I dont know about prices in the UK but I would highly recommend going with an M2N-E http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131022motherboard from Asus with an AM2 Opteron processor for video editing.
Any of the Opterons will more than handle the job for you. Here is one that is priced low here in the US not sure how much it would cost you there, should not be that much different http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819105018
Hard Drive I would definately go with WD 500GB YS series http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136143.
You need the master drive to be a WD Raptor, a 74GB is more than enough http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136033. Make sure and get a case you can add several more hard drives for future needs. Sony pretty much makes the best optical drives, they are a bit pricier than the rest but you get what you pay for.
An ATI HD2600XT http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103037 will be a great choice for your machine and they are very well priced.
As far as memory I would stick with Either Crucial or Kingston http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134012 but not the value models, 2GB is plrenty for video editing, specialy with XP Home.
Power supplies, you can't go wrong with a Sparkle or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817103031 FSP http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104935 for a professional machine.

[XenaWP]

Since RAM prices are still pretty low, I'd go with 3-4 GB for photo editing. I have 3 GB in my build, using CaptureNX and PSE5 as my primary photo editing apps.

I don't see how a Raptor is going to do much for you, a nice 320 GB Seagate SATA drive will work nicely.

[Roger44]

Thanks for the replies, one thing I forgot to mention is that this will be my first PC build, which is why I have asked someone to help me.

Khalil,
Over here in the UK the build you kindly suggested will cost approx 630.00 GBP, thats including an OS, and a nsk 4000 antec case, but not any cooling for the processor or extra case fans. I have looked at the opteron processor on AMD 's site and they are rated at 103 watts, as this is not for pro use will it not use a lot of electricity, I see they do "HE" Models of these processors rated at 65 watts but are nearly half the cost again.
As this PC is for Photo Editing and not Video Editing do I need the ATI HD2600XT card you suggest or can I use a less expensive one, also do I need two hard drives if I am keeping any
valuable files on external drives?
Sorry for the questions but just trying to keep the costs down.

Thanks again

Roger