New computer

[CAPT VIDEO Profile Private message]

The fact that windows XP is no longer being supported, I will most likely be forced to buy a new computer. I have been happy with my current computer ( Dell, XPS, running windows XP) it is now about 6 years old and I continue to receive notices from internet explorer and others that they will also no longer support this OS. Oh well, I guess I must upgrade. I am kinda out of touch with what's now avail. I think I will remain with Dell and get a new desk top with a 24" monitor. Any help with the details will be much appreciated. ( Windows 8.1 or 7, Drive size, RAM, video card, etc.) My main use of this computer will be photo processing, graphics, Proshow Producer and the like. I have seen specs from members in the past but none recent.

Thanks, Rick

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Check out both the Photodex and Adobe sites - both have suggestions for what to look for in the hardware for the system. My preference currently on hard drives is the Western Digital Caviar Black drives - I have about 7TB worth of them spinning behind me with no issues (except filling up ... ). For photo processing stuff, check out the various monitors and see which ones get the best ratings for good color without killing the bank (there are some really expensive monitors out there for the purists ). I'm running Win 7/64 (or XP ) on my machines - I have not seen anything to get me excited about win 8 yet (also have a Ubuntu Linux machine behind me as well )

mikey

[Merlin_AZ Profile Private message]

Intel Core i5 or i7 (if you can swing the extra $100).
8-16 GB Ram.
At least 1 TB hard drive (or big SSD + hard drive if you can afford it).
Nvidia card (I'm partial to them over AMD). Check Adobe's site for compatible ones.

[heckydog Profile Private message]

If you're going to have Dell build it, you might not have as much flexibility as you would hope for. My first choice would be to build it yourself, it's not as hard as you think. In lieu of that look for a local shop that can custom build one for you. It only takes a couple hours at most to build the hardware. You'll spend WAY more time installing your software and tweaking it to your new OS.

If you do that then I would recommend an i7 processor. Intel just came out with their newest i7-4790 so you might be able to get a 4770k at a good price. Definitely get an SSD for your C drive. See how much is on your C drive now and then buy accordingly. Usually a 250GB or 500GB is plenty for your OS drive. I see people buying 1TB or 2TB drives for their C drive and it's just not necessary. Get a 1TB or 2TB mechanical drive for your working files and storage, but not for your C drive. I have a ton of programs and have a 500GB SSD that's barely half full.

I prefer nvidia cards but I have other software that works best with nvidia CUDA cores so I'm partial to that. But also, I have found it's easier to update drivers with nvidia vs AMD. It always annoyed me that AMD would try to slip in a trial version of some game or other that I have zero interest in.

Like mikey, I see no reason to switch to Win 8, but you may have no other option if you have Dell build it.

for reference this is my current setup which I built in March:

Asus Z87 Pro mobo Win7 64 Pro
Intel i7-4770K 3.5GHz oc'd to 3.9GHz
16GB G.Skill Ripjaws X series DDR3 RAM 1866
nvidia GTX 660 2GB GDDR5
Samsung 840 EVO 500GB SSD for OS drive
1TB WD Black data drive, BD burner

The best bang for your buck right now for ProShow would be the SSD.

Joe

[briancbb Profile Private message]

I'm going back a few years now, but I did work for a desktop producer for a couple of years.

Starting from a bare chassis, the girls on the line, could fit Power supply, Motherboard, processor, RAM, video card, and hard drive and have a complete machine on test in 11 minutes. I guess now days, with a larger heatsink to fit, maybe 30 secs longer

It was amazing to watch them, but then everything was to hand, all same size screws, and a power screwdriver.

In my hayday I could manage 20 mins, but now take a couple of hours, like you Joe, afterall I am now paying for the components.

[heckydog Profile Private message]

If you include the time it takes to clear off your dining room table , remove the old components from your case, properly configure your cable routing , and make sure you don't bend any pins when you're installing that $300+ CPU it would still take me a bit more than 20 minutes.

But the satisfaction of hitting that power button and having all your LED's light up on the first try . . . . . . . . .well, that's priceless.

Joe

[Merlin_AZ Profile Private message]

Hey Joe.
Pushing the power button the first time can be pretty stressful.

[briancbb Profile Private message]

Push the button, power light comes on , fans start up , monitor shows it has a signal , and then 'Windows is starting@ logo, absolute ecstasy

[Merlin_AZ Profile Private message]

Fun time a while back with my recent build.
I tried putting all the power cables behind the motherboard, but it's really tight on this case.
The prongs on one of the unused molex connectors was a little long, got close to the case, and arced.
I saw, heard, and felt it.
My system turned off, and I thought I fried the motherboard.
It actually reset, and booted up again.
After I cleaned up the mess in my shorts, I put those power cables back into the main part of the case, where they live today without any issues.
Lesson learned.

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

My preference is to build my own system. One of the things I usually do is spend the extra for a good quality power supply for it with significantly higher ratings than I expect to use. I have run into issues with cheap supplies (or ones running right at the limit). Some time ago, my daughters computer (cheap case/supply I had purchased) went "poof" when she turned it on with the smell of magic smoke in the air. Investigating, one of the caps in the supply had exploded with the result either the 5v or 12 v bus went WAY overvoltage. One of the main chips on the hard drive had a crater in the top of it with 3 legs burned off. Most other boards were fried as well. I have had good results with something like the Corsair TX-750w supply (Antec supplies have not been too bad although I did have one that would periodically reboot the system and it took me a while to find the problem with it. Antec replaced it with a refurbished one under warranty.

mikey

[Marc NY Profile Private message]

FYI: For me it was heck of a lot easier just building exactly what I wanted on the HP website.

I waited for months to land the best deal and then purchased everything I wanted built in to match ALL my needs perfectly.

Just my .02

[Dieter Profile Private message]

Hello Rick,

I remember me that - I think Barbara- has somewhere in the Forum/Link made a chard with PC Performance /Power/Benchmark / CPU etc., only I don't know where.
My PC has i7 and NVIDIA GTX 670 , my Benchmark 254, PSP and EXE runs without stutter and wonderful. That is important.

Best regards Dieter

[heckydog Profile Private message]

there's this link provided by irwin:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... ring#gid=2

and this one to add your specs:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ocCw_l ... 1833533342

[hardsoftware Profile Private message]

My rig is 7 years old now and recently started acting flaky. Looking at the caps on the motherboard, after I took it apart to clean it, tells me the motherboard is not in good shape. Almost all of the electrolytic caps are bulging on their tops and probably will give out sooner than later. Time for a new build. Its a 32bit system so it is time to go 64bit. Still researching the parts I will use to build this new rig, but do you think I should go with Win 7, or win 8? I don't own a Palm Sucking Mobile Device so I am very unfamiliar with all that touch screen crap that Win 8 leans toward. Get this, I've been using Vista (yea, I know) so Win 7 or 8 will still be relatively new to me. So far what I've read in this thread is that Win 7 is preferred to Win 8.

Ben

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

I have had good results with ASUS motherboards, good power supplies (like the Corsair) and Western Digital Caviar Black hard drives. The exact models I have are undoubtedly outdated now (although the WD 2TB caviar black are still a good deal). Not sure if they still make it, but the Antec Sonata? case was nice - the drives had little shock mounted drawers that went in from the side instead of the back, so you could actually work on things or swap drives easily. You might also consider something like the StarTech 3 drive 3.5in removable SAS SATA Backplane - fits in two 5" slots in the front of the case and will let you put 3 drives in it in their own little trays that lock in. This is the one I have - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817998054 -- I have several extra trays with drives and swap them back and forth for backups (not hotswap).

mikey