Help configure new desktop machine

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texo

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I need to replace one of our workstations, used exclusively for Photoshop and Indesign CS4. I intend running Win7 (64 bit) on it, and would appreciate any advice on finding a price vs performance "sweet spot".

Would a quad core with 8Gigs of RAM be OK? What would be a decent graphics card to run a dual 22 inch monitor setup?
 
I would suggest the following as I had a team of designers using CS3 Web Premium and they liked what I setup for them.

2500 - Q8300
1700 - Asus P5N-D motherboard
1600 - 4 x 2GB Transcend
2600 - 1 x 150GB Raptor (OS)
1500 - 1 x WD 1000GB Black edition (Data)
2000 - 1 x Quadro FX370 or FX570 screen card
4400 - 2 x 2333GW Samsung LCD's
Total - around 17K without case/psu/kb/mouse/dvd writer

If you drop half the ram and the raptor you'll knock off more than 3K. Knock of the 3d workstation card and you'll drop another 2k. You can probably get away with a Radeon or nVidia card under 1k. Take a lower end motherboard and you can knock off another R700.
 
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JUGGY said:
I would suggest the following as I had a team of designers using CS3 Web Premium and they liked what I setup for them.

Q8400
Asus P5N-D motherboard
4 x 2GB Transcend
1 x 150GB Raptor (OS)
1 x WD 1000GB Black edition (Data)
1 x Quaddro FX370 screen card
2 x 2333GW Samsung LCD's
Click to expand...

Plainly they weren't on a tight budget.:)
 
JUGGY said:
That is dirt cheap for a half decent graphics workstation.

The decent ones are dual quad core Xeons with 40k GPU's and RAID SCSI drives.

Those are mainly for 3D rendering though.
Click to expand...

I guess I just see too many xp machines running celerons with 256 Mb of memory. Small town full of octagenarians. Different world, Juggy, different world!
 
Grouter said:
I guess I just see too many xp machines running celerons with 256 Mb of memory. Small town full of octagenarians. Different world, Juggy, different world!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree. When I spec'd our companies PC's everyone doing even mundane tasks got at least an E8200 with 4GB ram and dual screens and 250GB disks.

Tried to future proof as we were a startup. Wanted the kit to last more than 3 years.

I worked at a company a few years back and spec'd their high end workstations at rendering 135k for 2. The guys kissed my ass for giving them machines they could actually render their work in under 20 minutes. They were taking 3 days before on PIV desktops.
 
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JUGGY said:
I would suggest the following as I had a team of designers using CS3 Web Premium and they liked what I setup for them.
Click to expand...

That looks really good, thanks Juggy. Won't need to buy the LCDs, so a price of around R13k sounds good. I think I'd rather get two HDDs, though, to keep OS seperate from files.

The Q8300 looks good -- what about the i7? (Or am I just flaunting my lack of knowledge with that question? :o )

Would 8GB RAM be a waste of money? Would 4 do the job, in your opinion?

cbrunsdonza said:
Not being funny but would a mac not be better suited considering its needs?
Click to expand...

Valid question, but I would prefer not to have to pay for Mac versions of the software we use.
 
texo said:
That looks really good, thanks Juggy. Won't need to buy the LCDs, so a price of around R13k sounds good. I think I'd rather get two HDDs, though, to keep OS seperate from files.

The Q8300 looks good -- what about the i7? (Or am I just flaunting my lack of knowledge with that question? :o )

Would 8GB RAM be a waste of money? Would 4 do the job, in your opinion?



Valid question, but I would prefer not to have to pay for Mac versions of the software we use.
Click to expand...

4GB would do the trick but get a board with 4 slots and populate 2x2GB so you have space for more in case. Go for i7 if you want to future proof althought the 920 entry level processor is around 4k and the mobo is around 4k so that makes it quite expensive.

You can get a very fast drive in the 500GB WD Black for the OS and it 1/4 of the price of the Raptor. Some say it's almost as fast as well.

Instead of going i7 I would just get the Q9550 in place of the Q8300. Awesome processor and only about 1K more.

Do you need a quote or do you have access to suppliers?
 
While we are on this topic. I am due for an upgrade at work some time soon.

I use a lot of AutoCAD and Civil3D. When my current pc really struggles is when I work with big aerial photography backgrounds and large 3D surfaces.

How would a workstation card like the FX370 or FX570 for R2k-R2.5k compare with a gaming card of about the same cost (eg. Radeon HD4850 or GeForce GTS250) in these type of applications?

I was thinking of getting a Q8400 and 4GB of RAM, but the graphics I am not too sure about.
 
gifs said:
While we are on this topic. I am due for an upgrade at work some time soon.

I use a lot of AutoCAD and Civil3D. When my current pc really struggles is when I work with big aerial photography backgrounds and large 3D surfaces.

How would a workstation card like the FX370 or FX570 for R2k-R2.5k compare with a gaming card of about the same cost (eg. Radeon HD4850 or GeForce GTS250) in these type of applications?

I was thinking of getting a Q8400 and 4GB of RAM, but the graphics I am not too sure about.
Click to expand...

Can anyone comment on my question?
 
Sorry for not answering.

The FX is stronger in 2D and can be enabled for 3D as far as I remember when I did the research years ago. I would stay far away from a GTS250 though if I were you. HD4850 cannot be beat in the price range.
 
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