photo editing build question

[Mugen_the_lion]

My girlfriend would like to get into photo editing. Photoshop lightroom and cs5, she isnt really sure yet. So we were wondering what a good photo editing rig would look like?
She has acer micro atx case, keyboard/mouse, cd burner, and screen. So everything else plus OS, maybe a new hd. Im thinking a good budget round is $500-$700 for everything else?
Also I know that intel has better intergrated grapics then amd, but if there is going to be a graphics card then would it matter? So let me know which way to look.

[Nuclear Krusader]

For this kind of work you need a multicore CPU, and an nVidia video card (Adobe uses CUDA, so ATi's pretty much not invited to the party).

Windows 7 64-bit is required. I'd advise the Pro version since it allows you more control over the OS, but if budget is tight, the Home Premium should do fine.

Also, you need a hard drive exclusively for your user files. Leave the OS and the apps on a fast but not necessarily humongous HD (the 640 GB WD Black should do fine) and get a 1+ TB WD Black for your files. Yes, you do need a black, because you need to partition it in order to have a scratch disk for PS as the scratch disk must never be the drive the OS is installed to. Use the first partition for the scratch drive and the rest for data.

[Mugen_the_lion]

Whats a scratch disk?

[Nuclear Krusader]

Like Windows, PS doesn't have enough with the RAM that is installed. BTW, 8 GB are the recommendation, don't go with less than 4. So, PS uses portions of the HDD to temporarily store data: this is the scratch disk as design programs denominate it. The faster the drive, the faster PS will run; hence my recommendation of using the first partition, as the sectors in it are closer to the centre of the disk and thus access is faster.

[glc]

I would not reuse an Acer micro ATX case. Here's my recommendation for a complete CS5 build, but it's over $800 (just). This is about as low as I'd go.

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE gz-ph2a3 Black SGCC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Newegg.com - Antec EarthWatts Green EA-430D Green 430W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS 12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Newegg.com - ASUS P7P55D-E LX LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80605I5760

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Newegg.com - LG Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD Burner - Bulk - CD / DVD Burners

Newegg.com - ASUS ENGT430/DI/1GD3(LP) GeForce GT 430 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card

Newegg.com - CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M2A1333C9

Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - Operating Systems

[Mugen_the_lion]

So we have a sata cd burner and a hd. This would save $80 right there. Glc are you saying dont reuse the old case becouse of the full atx board? I was looking at the micro atx boards and they all seem to have intergrated graphics.

How come not an amd build, if I may ask? There quad-core would be cheaper

[glc]

I don't recommend AMD builds because I don't do them and I'm not familiar with what's good or not.

Integrated graphics or not, CS5 almost REQUIRES a discrete video card. It will be a total dog without one.

A micro case is not going to have room for extra components and will not cool too well. Sure, you could put a micro BOARD into a standard case to save a few bucks.

Newegg.com - ASUS P7H55-M LX LGA 1156 Intel H55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

What are the brands and models of the drives you want to reuse? If it's just a CD burner, spend the 17 bucks for the new DVD burner. DVD is required to install Windows 7.

Now, with all this said, can you wait till April? I'd do a Sandy Bridge build for this use.

[Mugen_the_lion]

Not that I wanted to use a micro atx for its onboard graphics. I just thought it was funny none of them came without onboard graphics.

My bad its a dvd burner. Lite-on from last year. The HD is wd sata but it came with the acer.

I just wanted to know what to be looking at for this kind of build. If you say what for the sandy bridge, then that sounds good.

[Nuclear Krusader]

If the WD that came with the Acer is a Black you could even use that for the scratch disk and the two new ones for OS and data.

[glc]

I doubt that an Acer would have a premium hard drive in it from the factory.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Yeah, I think they use Blues, or Greens. If it's the latter, forget about scratching on it.