Photography Rig

[notw.va]

Hey there, I've been researching on what i need and what is feasible for a pc rig which will mainly be used for photography and editing, a little video editing, and some casual gameplay. Main priority is photo editing, and i would start a little bit of HD video editing. Gaming is not important cause i figure with a good photo editing pc, my casual gaming needs will be taken care of. My budget would range between 1,000USD to 2,000USD if necessary. Of course, i'd like to keep the cost low, but if it takes the extra dough to be a little future proof, it'd be worth it.

From what i've read on countless blogs/review sites;
- i would need a fast drive for the OS, a super fast drive for photoshop's scratch disks (a small capacity drive that is not cluttered and frequently defragged), and a third drive for the in-pc storage (which doesnt have to be extravagant...250gb to 320gb should be fine)....

-I would also need an external storage solution, it doesn't have to be as fast as the built in storage, just needs to have a lot of space.

- i need to load up on as much ram as feasible, minimum of 6gb...

- a dual graphic card setup would offer no performance boost as far as photo editing goes, so a single card would do fine. but at the same time, i'm interested in having a 2-screen setup for ease of image editing, one for general purpose, and a second highly rated and calibrated screen for viewing the images. I wouldnt purchase both screens now, so don't really need suggestion for the screen, just mentioned it to make sure the graphics card supports dual display.

in terms of being a little future proof, i guess i'll need a quad core. i'm interested in liquid cooling, but not necessary. I've got no noise issues, so it's ok if there are a "hundred" fans in there

I don't need any peripherals like a mouse, screen or keyboard at the moment.

Oh, and most importantly, I'm in the city of Pune in India. There are plenty of local retailers from whom i should be able to get any of the gear suggested, but incase there are some online buys you guys suggest, it'd be great if the online retailer ships internationally.

I would love all the bells and whistles of having liquid cooling and what not, but i'm trying to be practical with this spend. Would appreciate any input offered. As I understand, the best gaming rig is far from the best photo/video editing rig.

p.s. forgive me for any typing mistakes or false assumptions above...

[glc]

I would wait till April for the revised Sandy Bridge motherboards to arrive on the shelves. All but the very low end video cards support dual monitors these days, and if you are planning on using Photoshop, you should use a Nvidia card to take advantage of CUDA. Something like a GTX460 would be a good choice, and it will also game quite well.

Look at the Western Digital Caviar Black series drives for the best compromise between speed, capacity, and cost. They are available in capacities ranging from 500gb to 2TB.

[Nuclear Krusader]

If you can wait till the revised Sandy Bridge mobos come out, that'd be great. Then you can choose a good Asus mobo and an i5 or i7 quad core.

8 GB of RAM is the sweet spot right now. Buy a 4GBx2 dual-channel kit from Crucial, Kingston, Corsair or A-Data. That way you can add more memory later.

You need an nVidia video card. Since you mention that you're interested in video editing, it's best if you go with a card that's certified by Adobe for use with Premiere Pro. The GeForce GTX 470 is such a card. Yes, it does support dual monitors.

The hard drives is where the fun begins. Buy a WD Caviar Black 640GB for your OS and apps (your OS should be Windows 7 Professional, btw); the Windows swap file will reside in this drive. From there you can go either of two routes and this depends on your budget:

1) Get the largest hard drive you can buy, say a 1.5 TB or 2 TB, and divide it into two partitions: the first partition, make it about 200 GB in size, and this will be your scratch drive; the second partition is just the remaining space on the drive, and this is your data partition.

Or,

2) Buy a large HDD (~1-2 TB) and a small 320 or so GB hard drive. Use the large drive as one partition for your data and the small one as a single partition for your scratch disk.

Of course, regardless of the way you go, all your drives need to be Caviar Blacks.

For external storage you can use an external USB 3.0 or external serial ATA drive: this is the economical solution but has practically no redundance. For something more reliable, invest in a NAS, such as the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+, which you can load with a minimum of 2 hard drives (use at least 3 for a full redundant and fully reliable solution); this NAS comes with its own RAID which is easy to set up and allows you to add/replace drives without the need to redo the array.

In the NAS unit, you can save money and use Caviar Greens, which are slower than the Blacks but run cooler and use less power. Since your connexion to the PC is already slow, the slower speed of the Greens is not a negative factor, since the NAS is exclusively for backups.

Don't waste your money on liquid cooling. It's not needed and it's a hassle to maintain and you're always with the risk that a leak will fry the system. Instead, buy a good, solid case with at least 4 hard drive bays (trust me, you'll definitely be adding more drives later) and good airflow. Intel-based systems do not need extreme cooling.

Finally, make sure you get a good quality PSU. I recommend Seasonic or PC Power & Cooling (many people here like Corsair but I just don't trust the brand). I'd buy a 750W to future-proof the system, although probably a 620W would be enough for now.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Oh, and make sure you get a card reader; you don't want to be plugging the camera to the PC to download your pics.

[notw.va]

i wouldn't mind waiting for a bit. i checked the GeForce GTX470 and it looks pretty kool. About the WD caviar black 640gb for the OS drive, would that be overkill, coz while i do want a snappy hdd for the OS, i doubt i'll need that much capacity, i currently only use 80bg on my OS hdd.
I've also read that the scratch disk drive should be on an unpopulated drive that is regularly defragged and that a partition wont do the trick, cause since the storage is on the other partition the read/write to the scratch files will get bottlenecked.

Also, could you suggest a good case, i have no constraints on size or noise levels, but cooling down the system is a priority cause i've had bad experiences with heat. It gets pretty hot here in the summers and i'm one to leave the pc switched on days at a time.
I already own a external card reader, so i guess i'm fine on that front.
plus, any suggestions on a decent screen and also any suggestions for an input tablet?

i just read about the Asus' P8P67 PRO mobo. what do you guys think about this one?

p.s. do i need a separate drive for the windows pagefile?

[Strider]

If you get into video editing you will need plenty of Hard Drive storage and I would have at least two separate drives besides the OS hard Drive if you getting into video editing. I am taking a class now that deals with video and it is amazing what a 10 min video can take up on a Hard drive alone. Then you factor in editing and multiple videos the space can be quickly taken up.

[renowilliams]

I would suggest the cooler master HAF 932 case. This case has lots of space,great cooling and tooless design. If you want fast drives then get two intel X-25m ssds and raid them and buy a larger Caviar Black for storage. As suggested I would wait and purchase a Sandy Bridge cpu and motherboard. Here is a link to some pictures of my HAF 932 case


Flickr: renowilliams' Photostream

[notw.va]

i was considering holding off on ssd, cause i've heard that short lifetimes plague these drives. i'm assuming a 10,000rpm hdd should be fast enough, if i'm not mistaken.
the case looks neat...after reading about sandy bridge, i think i'll wait a bit for it...

[renowilliams]

I have two of the intel drives in a raid that I mentioned for over a year now.

[notw.va]

oh...ok, i'll have t look into that then for a scratch disk for photoshop.

i've been checking out the HAF 932 case that you mentioned, and it seems insane.

also, the Intel® Core™ i7-2600 Processor
(8M Cache, 3.40 GHz) has already been released. isn't that a sandy bridge processor?

so, isn't it available in the market? i read that it was released at CES in jan.

[David M]

Originally Posted by notw.va i was considering holding off on ssd, cause i've heard that short lifetimes plague these drives. i'm assuming a 10,000rpm hdd should be fast enough, if i'm not mistaken. the case looks neat...after reading about sandy bridge, i think i'll wait a bit for it...

I would not consider a Raptor (10,000 RPM type drive). They are far more expensive on a per GB basis, they do not have the capacity of WD Blacks, and they are almost on par with a WD Black in their read/write speeds.

I think that for demanding media software that is CPU dependent, Sandy Bridge is definitely worth the wait. What you will be getting is close to the equivalent of Intel's most expensive processor at around $1000 for about 1/3 the cost.

[glc]

We had a member run comparative benchmarks on both a WD Black and a 10k Raptor, and the Black actually tested faster!

500gb is the smallest Black you can buy. P67's have 2 SATA 6.0 controllers, and for top speed, you should use SATA 6.0 drives where you need them the most - the OS drive and one other.

Sandy Bridge is already out, but ALL motherboards you currently see on the market are DEFECTIVE. That's why I said to wait till April when the revised boards are on the market. The one I like is the Sabertooth P67. If you have cooling issues, this is the one to get.

Maybe Nuc doesn't trust Corsair, but they are some of the best PSU's you can buy. Quite a few of them are actually built by Seasonic. PC P&C is a bit questionable now - they got bought out by OCZ and not all models are as good as they used to be. Bottom line, just about any PSU built by Seasonic is top quality. My personal choice would be a Corsair 650 HX modular.

Any of the Coolermaster HAF cases would be a good choice - HAF stands for "high air flow".

[Nuclear Krusader]

NO!
Do NOT use SSDs, especially for scratch disks. And don't put the swap file on any other partition but the OS's. Check this, please.

If you find 640 GB overkill, then go with a 500GB unit but don't go below that.

Now, for the scratch disk, if you can use a dedicated 200+ drive then it's ok (but do note that manufacturers have moved away from such small sizes and the smallest Caviar Black is 500GB, too much for a scratch disk). I'm currently using a partition in a large drive. If you go this route then just use the first partition, as that one is closest to the centre of the disc, where the platter's spinning faster. And yes, nothing is to be put on that partition (Windows will put a System Volume Infomation folder on it, but there's nothing you can do about that). Note that this drive/partition needs not be very large (but do keep it over 100GB); it all depends on the size of the files you're going to be processing: 16-bit files with lots of layers are very large, so choose your size accordingly.

Yeah, after I bought my PSU PC Power & Cooling stopped manufacturing in the US and embraced Chinese outsourcing. Just get a Seasonic. The reason I don't trust Corsair is that they had had a few boo-boos: with their RAM a few years back and recently they started introducing a series of PSUs made by the lowest bidder; most of their models are good, but I don't like it when I have to be being extra careful trying to pick the right one from all that obscure nomenclature. I want to approach a manufacturer and trust that any product from them is going to be good.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Oh, and btw, the tablet's a no brainer: Wacom Intuos 4. Choose the size that suits you best (Note that larger isn't necessarily better: for photography the medium size is good, I use it even for painting and it suits me fine; larger sizes are meant for painting and drawing, and for those artists who use their whole arm for the task). You can have it either wired or wireless.

Check them out.

*Note: don't bother with the Bamboo models, they're not good enough for this kind of task.

[notw.va]

Wow...a lotta stuff I had no idea about earlier. Thnx a bunch glc, nuclear krusader, David, reno Williams and strider...
I've been looking into each of these individual components and trying to get everything organized. I'm gonna wait for a bit until the suggested asus Sabertooth p67 comes out. I'd greatly appreciate it if this thread could be left open until then. Once it's out, I'll post a draft outlay of what I'm thinking of getting and the prices and then u guys could suggest any improvements or cost cutters...
If u hear about the sandy bridge mobos releasing, please do post...
still thinking about stuff like a fan for the processor, and if the psu is sufficient for all the bells and whistles of the final system including the numerous fans on the cooler master HAF 932 case...

Thnx again for all the help so far...

[Kidd]

Originally Posted by notw.va still thinking about stuff like a fan for the processor, and if the psu is sufficient for all the bells and whistles of the final system including the numerous fans on the cooler master HAF 932 case...

Use the stock HSF that comes with the processor, it protects the warranty and saves you cash. Buy after market ONLY if:
-You intend on overclocking OOTB
-You are buying a CPU that doesn't come with HSF (but I don't think that's the way you're going)
-You install the stock fan, and your temps are higher than you like
-You install the stock fan, and it's louder than you'd like

The 650 HX glc suggested should be sufficient for any GPU and CPU combination. These are the largest factors in choosing the right size PSU. The number of fans in the case is inconsequential. I've never heard of a PSU needing to be upsized because there were too many fans.