PC config for Photoshop performance?

[photobug]

I plan on upgrading my PC (buying a new one) in the next couple of months. In particular, I would like the new machine to run Photoshop CS2 better than my current machine (Dell Dimension 4550, 2.5GHz, 1GB PC2700 memory). I don't have the budget for an "extreme" machine and prefer to get another Dell (perhaps Dimension 8400).

Can anyone offer recommendations on what configuration options would help the most with Photoshop performance? Obviously I'll need at least 1GB of memory (and am thinking of bumping it up to 1.5-2GB), but what else will make a noticeable difference?

Memory speed? (e.g. 533Mhz vs. 400Mhz)
DDR memory, dual-channel memory?
Second disk drive? (for Photoshop scratch disk)
etc?
Is the choice of graphics card at all a perfomance issue? (I run my monitor at 1900x1200, so won't be using a bargain-basement graphics card)Thanks for any recommendations!

= photobug

[David_S85]

Adobe is offering the Bigger Tiles plug-in at:

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/331372.html

There is supporting text on how it works + how to install and use it
there.


I plan on upgrading my PC (buying a new one) in the next couple of months. In particular, I would like the new machine to run Photoshop CS2 better than my current machine (Dell 4700, 2.5GHz, 1GB PC2700 memory). I don't have the budget for an "extreme" machine and prefer to get another Dell (perhaps Dimension 8400).

Can anyone offer recommendations on what configuration options would help the most with Photoshop performance? Obviously I'll need at least 1GB of memory (and am thinking of bumping it up to 1.5-2GB), but what else will make a noticeable difference?


Memory speed?
DDR memory, dual-channel memory?
Second disk drive?
etc?
Is the choice of graphics card at all a perfomance issue? (I run my monitor at 1900x1200, so I won't be using a bargain-basement graphics card)
Thanks for any recommendations!

= photobug

I'll be interested in reading information others post here, since I'll also be upgrading to a new machine this year too (still running a 400mhz, PII, WIN '95 machine. eeeek!).

[pathfinder]

I plan on upgrading my PC (buying a new one) in the next couple of months. In particular, I would like the new machine to run Photoshop CS2 better than my current machine (Dell 4700, 2.5GHz, 1GB PC2700 memory). I don't have the budget for an "extreme" machine and prefer to get another Dell (perhaps Dimension 8400).

Can anyone offer recommendations on what configuration options would help the most with Photoshop performance? Obviously I'll need at least 1GB of memory (and am thinking of bumping it up to 1.5-2GB), but what else will make a noticeable difference?




Memory speed?
DDR memory, dual-channel memory?
Second disk drive?
etc?
Is the choice of graphics card at all a perfomance issue? (I run my monitor at 1900x1200, so I won't be using a bargain-basement graphics card)
Thanks for any recommendations!

= photobug
What's your budget?

[David_S85]

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1004&message=13562166

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1004&message=13323144

[wholenewlight]

I'm in the same dilemna as you but more urgent when a power surge (I use a supposedly good surge protector) trashed my desktop last Thur. Hope I can salvage some recent, non-backed up images off of my HD! My unplanned purchase needs required spending less than I would have liked. I see all the ads for cheap pcs ($600) but I know that they don't have the horsepower to do the minimum of what I need to.

So, last night I ordered one from Dell. I used a techbargains.com (they are great!, i've used them for years to find the better deals) coupon code (3MGZK7SWFGHS1?) so I good the current dell offers (free ship, 19" flat screen, and more) + 25% off.

My bare minimum sys requirements:
pentium 4
minimum 1gb ram - hopefully faster, dual channel sdram
dvd burner
cdrw burner
ms xp pro (NOT the new home media edition)
flat panel monitor - bigger the better
non-integrated graphics

I know this is pretty much a minimum system - 1gb ram will be upgraded soon - it can hold 4gb ram. But it is a lot faster (dual channel ram 533mhz) and more memory than my system that died.

Here's what I bought:


Dimension 8400 Series, Intel Pentium 4 Processor 630 (3GHz)w/HT Technology and 2MB cache


Qty: 1

Unit Price: $1,256.00



Dimension 8400 Series, Intel Pentium 4 Processor 630 (3GHz)w/HT Technology and 2MB cache

1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz

Dell Quiet Key Keyboard

19 in (19 in viewable) E193FP Flat Panel Display

128MB PCI Express x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X300 SE

160GB NCQ Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)

No Floppy Drive Requested

Dimension Dell Support

Image Restore

Dell Media Experience 3.0 Basic

Microsoft Windows XP Professional,Service Pack 2, English

Windows Media Player 10

Dell Owners Manual installed on your system,click on icon after system set-up to access

Dell USB Optical Mouse

Intel Pro 1000 Integrated PCI NIC Card

56K PCI Data Fax Modem

Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0

48x CD-RW and 16X DVD+/-RW

PowerDVD Software Decoding forDVD Drives

Integrated Audio

Dell A215 Speakers

No Security Subscription

Music Match 9.0 Basic 7 day OnDemand

Paint Shop Photo Album 5.1 Standard

Dell/My Way Home Page

NETZERO ISP

AOL for Broadband

Broadband Icon for Inspiron

MS Worksuite 2005

Type 3- Third Party At Home Service, 24x7 Technical Support, 1 Year Extended

2 Year Limited Warranty

Soft Contracts - Banctec

Technical Support, 1 Year Extended

Technical Support, Initial Year

Type 3- Third Party At Home Service, 24x7 Technical Support, Initial Year

Thank you for choosing Dell

Quickbooks 2005 Special SimpleStart Edition

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE





Subtotal: $1,256.00

Shipping and Handling: $0.00

Tax: $75.35

Total: $1,331.35

My unreasonable target was $1K and with discounts it comes in at $1.3k. Plus 6mos no interest.


I'm pretty happy and believe with a little more ram, it can be a grreat system for me.

[wxwax]

Note the bit in the links to dpreview where they say CS2 runs slower. I have 1gb of memory, and it's fine for CS. But CS2 runs a great deal more slowly. That tells me it's a memory hog. :bluduh

[tlittleton]

Adobe is offering the Bigger Tiles plug-in at:

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/331372.html

There is supporting text on how it works + how to install and use it
there.




I'll be interested in reading information others post here, since I'll also be upgrading to a new machine this year too (still running a 400mhz, PII, WIN '95 machine. eeeek!).
Thanks for that post David. That works great! Of course, I have 3GB in my system, which probably helps a bit...

Also, if you're buying the Dell with a 19"LCD, and you can spare $100 extra, go for the 1905FP. It has a much better contrast ratio. It also has 4 USB 2.0 ports, which come in very handy.

[ian408]

I belive there's a knee in the processor speed curve above which it doesn't
make sense to buy the fastest processor. Right now, it's probably around
3 to 3.2GHz. That said, buy the fastest processor that fits your budget.

A second disk helps a great deal. For best performance, do not allow
PS to use the OS disk for scratch/temp files. I would consider a second
disk mandatory for running PS.

2Gigs of memory should be enough for most things. DDR would be good.

Bus speed matters as well. It does no good to have fast disks, fast memory
and a fast CPU if you cannot transfer data between them.

In the end, it's better to have a nicely balanced machine whose components
compliment one another than to have the fastest CPU/oodles of memory.

Ian

[photobug]

First, I want to thank everyone who has responded to this thread. It helped me discover new info and served as a good "sanity check" for what I was planning to do (too bad I don't have $2K+ for a nice Mac G5 system -- but that wouldn't run all my apps (yet)).

I was delayed in posting back to it because of a very busy week ...

last night I ordered one from Dell. I used a techbargains.com coupon code so I got the current Dell offers (free ship, 19" flat screen, and more) + 25% off.
I know this is pretty much a minimum system - 1gb ram will be upgraded soon - it can hold 4gb ram. But it is a lot faster (dual channel ram 533mhz) and more memory than my system that died. Here's what I bought:



Dimension 8400, Pentium 4 630 (3GHz) w/HT & 2MB cache
1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz
19 in E193FP Flat Panel Display
160GB NCQ Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
Microsoft Windows XP Professional,Service Pack 2, English
48x CD-RW and 16X DVD+/-RW
2 Year Limited Warranty
Total: $1,331.35



My unreasonable target was $1K and with discounts it comes in at $1.3k. Plus 6mos no interest.
I'm pretty happy and believe with a little more ram, it can be a grreat system for me. Dell has another "Outrageous Deal" on Dimension 8400s which ran for about 2 days, through Wed Jun 8th (thanks to Techbargains.com for the heads-up on that!). When all the dust settled, I dropped $978 ($1518 - $529 discount - $100 mail-in rebate + $82 tax) for:



3.0GHz dual-thread (HT) P4 630 w/ 800MHz front-side bus
512 MB DDR2 (double data rate, dual-channel) 533 MHz memory (PC2-4200) ... and I'll add another GB of aftermarket memory for $100 or so
19" E193FP monitor (which I'll give to my wife, so I can keep my 24" CRT monitor)
128MB ATI Radeon X300 SE video card (the default card, which will drive 1920x1200)
160GB SATA hard drive
DVD+/-RW burner, dual format (+/-), double-layer write capable
10/100/1000 MB/s ("gigabit") Ethernet
Win XP Home
Acrobat Elements (for writing PDF files)
no floppy, no ISP, no extended service (may purchase service later)
last-minute addition: Dell offered 3-yr service for 50% off, $127, so I added that on, too (raising total to over $1K)
The link to Dell for the "Outrageous Deal" is:
http://www.techbargains.com/u.cfm?id=45350&u=1
(I suppose that link gives Techbargains a small percentage referral fee, but they really deserve it)

Poster wholenewlight specifically helped because he clued me into the availability of 533 MHz memory -- an option which I hadn't even noticed before. It increases the max memory bandwith from 6.4 to 8.4 GB/sec -- which probably helps when Photoshop accesses large image files in and out of the processor, and only cost $20 extra. I'll get 533MHz memory for the later 1GB aftermarket memory.

[jhn397]

First, I want to thank everyone who has responded to this thread. It helped me discover new info and served as a good "sanity check" for what I was planning to do (too bad I don't have $2K+ for a nice Mac G5 system -- but that wouldn't run all my apps (yet)).

I was delayed in posting back to it because of a very busy week ...

Dell has another "Outrageous Deal" on Dimension 8400s which ran for about 2 days, through Wed Jun 8th (thanks to Techbargains.com for the heads-up on that!). When all the dust settled, I dropped $978 ($1518 - $529 discount - $100 mail-in rebate + $82 tax) for:


3.0GHz dual-thread (HT) P4 630 w/ 800MHz front-side bus
512 MB DDR2 (double data rate, dual-channel) 533 MHz memory (PC2-4200) ... and I'll add another GB of aftermarket memory for $100 or so
19" E193FP monitor (which I'll give to my wife, so I can keep my 24" CRT monitor)
128MB ATI Radeon X300 SE video card (the default card, which will drive 1920x1200)
160GB SATA hard drive
DVD+/-RW burner, dual format (+/-), double-layer write capable
10/100/1000 MB/s ("gigabit") Ethernet
Win XP Home
Acrobat Elements (for writing PDF files)
no floppy, no ISP, no extended service (may purchase service later)
last-minute addition: Dell offered 3-yr service for 50% off, $127, so I added that on, too (raising total to over $1K)The link to Dell for the "Outrageous Deal" is:
http://www.techbargains.com/u.cfm?id=45350&u=1
(I suppose that link gives Techbargains a small percentage referral fee, but they really deserve it)

Poster wholenewlight specifically helped because he clued me into the availability of 533 MHz memory -- an option which I hadn't even noticed before. It increases the max memory bandwith from 6.4 to 8.4 GB/sec -- which probably helps when Photoshop accesses large image files in and out of the processor, and only cost $20 extra. I'll get 533MHz memory for the later 1GB aftermarket memory.

I go to www.dealgain.com (http://www.dealgain.com) that saves me a few bucks

[photobug]

Another follow-up note ... after buying the Dell Dimension 8400 mentioned eariler in this thread (with 0.5 GB of 533 MHz PC4200 DDR2 memory), I added a gig of aftermarket memory, for a total of 1.5 GB (2 x 256MB plus 2 x 512 MB).

Last month, I snagged a special at Frys for 2GB of 533 MHz PC4200 DDR2 memory for $99 after rebate. I pulled out and sold the original 0.5GB of memory, so now have 3GB of memory on the box.

I didn't think the increase would make a whole lot of difference; after all, 1.5 GB is a pretty respectable amount of memory! To my surprise, it did make a noticeable difference, esp when running Photoshop. Files load faster and Camera Raw pops up faster, too. I did expect it to improve response when I edit multiple images, and it did that, also -- the machine doesn't bog down as much because it can keep more in active memory instead of swapping data out to disk. So Photoshop is pretty memory-sensitive, and more than 1.5GB does help, even for a "weekend Photoshop hacker" like me.