upgrade for photo editing

[06Skywalker]

Hello everybody!

I have recently (ish) been getting more and more into photography, nothing serious, just for personal use. I have been using lightroom 3 and photshop CS5 to do all my editing. I built my own pc about 5 years ago (not 100%) with a couple of upgrades along the way.

Im happy in general with my pc until i get into editing, lag frustrates me! its not ridiculous but its annoying, i was considering upgrading my RAM to get more memory for the photo processing, i just wondered on your opinions on this? i will give my current setup below. Im looking for the best improvment on a low budget, i dont have the money to spend i did back then

if you feel my money would be better somewhere else please give me ideas

My current motherboard has 4 ram slots so i figure i could get alot of memory? i cant remember if 32bit systems are limited to 2 gig of ram processing? if they are how do i make my system 64bit? on the lightroom website they recomend 4 gig ram as a min

Motherboard - ASUS M2N32 WS PRO

Chip - AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual core 6000+

RAM - Corsair XMS2 DDR2 1024 x2 800mhz

Graphics - ATI Radeon HD 4850 512mb

HD - Western digital - WD1500adfd Raptor 150gb SATA

still running XP Prof

Thanks for your time people

 

[PP Mguire]

To use anymore than 3GB of RAM you need a 64bit operating system.

An SSD and more RAM could help you with your current machine but really rendering will still be slow until you upgrade to a faster CPU. DDR2 is kind of pricey now since it has aged.

 

[06Skywalker]

To use anymore than 3GB of RAM you need a 64bit operating system.

An SSD and more RAM could help you with your current machine but really rendering will still be slow until you upgrade to a faster CPU. DDR2 is kind of pricey now since it has aged.

hi there thanks for the reply, could you recommend a CPU which would make a big difference? not current market, something i could pick up second hand?

so if i want to use more RAM i really need to buy windows x64?

im not sure what SSD is but i will research and find out

 

[PP Mguire]

hi there thanks for the reply, could you recommend a CPU which would make a big difference? not current market, something i could pick up second hand?

so if i want to use more RAM i really need to buy windows x64?

im not sure what SSD is but i will research and find out

Isn't many CPUs that would make a difference. I think the best deal you could go for is a used Phenom 2 940BE.
Watch this Ebay link. Make note, I would not pay anymore than 80 bucks for a used 940be.
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ Quad Core - CPU ONLY | eBay

Yes, you need a 64bit operating system for it to recognize anymore than 3GB of RAM.

An SSD is a much faster drive that has no mechanical parts. They are a bit pricey but load times are super fast and help a ton with the programs you use.

 

[06Skywalker]

hi guys, so ive been doing some research and im amazed at how much things have moved on! lol, its my birthday in 2 months so im considering treating myself to some new hardware and have a bit of an upgrade,

ive found a kit on ebay which i like the of, could you give me some advise if its good stuff?

im now running windows 7 ultimate so RAM restrictions wont be an issue

its as folllows - INTEL i5 2500K QUAD CORE
8GB CORSAIR VENGENCE RAM
ASUS P8Z68 MOTHERBOARD


i will also purchase a new SSD - OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 SSD 2.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Read 550MB/s Write 500MB/s 85,000 IOPS

OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 SSD 2.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Read.. | Ebuyer.com

I may not have money left for a graphics card so may have to stick with what i got for now?? im not 100% sure how new (Technology wise) that bundle is and what range of graphics card would suite? could i buy one in the second hand market or should i just stick with myn??

my last question is PSU, i currently have a hiper 580w psu, would this be ok in the new system? i have no idea how i find out?

I would need to power the bundle above, graphics card (Current or new, not sure yet), new SSD and current Raptor HD, also dvdRW + DVD

Edit : - ive just been looking on ebay and i could get another HD 4850 for £50, could i then run two cards in SLI would this be a good idea/option?

i would be using this new build to run BF3 and crysis 2 ect

 

[PP Mguire]

hi guys, so ive been doing some research and im amazed at how much things have moved on! lol, its my birthday in 2 months so im considering treating myself to some new hardware and have a bit of an upgrade,

ive found a kit on ebay which i like the of, could you give me some advise if its good stuff?

im now running windows 7 ultimate so RAM restrictions wont be an issue

its as folllows - INTEL i5 2500K QUAD CORE
8GB CORSAIR VENGENCE RAM
ASUS P8Z68 MOTHERBOARD


i will also purchase a new SSD - OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 SSD 2.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Read 550MB/s Write 500MB/s 85,000 IOPS

OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 SSD 2.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Read.. | Ebuyer.com

I may not have money left for a graphics card so may have to stick with what i got for now?? im not 100% sure how new (Technology wise) that bundle is and what range of graphics card would suite? could i buy one in the second hand market or should i just stick with myn??

my last question is PSU, i currently have a hiper 580w psu, would this be ok in the new system? i have no idea how i find out?

I would need to power the bundle above, graphics card (Current or new, not sure yet), new SSD and current Raptor HD, also dvdRW + DVD

Edit : - ive just been looking on ebay and i could get another HD 4850 for £50, could i then run two cards in SLI would this be a good idea/option?

i would be using this new build to run BF3 and crysis 2 ect

That SSD is going to eat your Raptor for breakfast speed wise lol.

The bundle sounds good and if the price is right (you didn't link) I would say go for it. I'm running a 2500k and it will demolish any task I throw at it for a while.

Yes you can Crossfire (SLI is for Nvidia) the 2 4850s together, and if by hiper you mean Hyper I think the 580 should be fine.

Don't forget you will need to include Windows 7 64bit in there to utilize all that RAM. Also, I thought this was for photo editing? Crossfire 4850s will maybe play BF3 at lower res and all low options.

 

[06Skywalker]

That SSD is going to eat your Raptor for breakfast speed wise lol.

The bundle sounds good and if the price is right (you didn't link) I would say go for it. I'm running a 2500k and it will demolish any task I throw at it for a while.

Yes you can Crossfire (SLI is for Nvidia) the 2 4850s together, and if by hiper you mean Hyper I think the 580 should be fine.

Don't forget you will need to include Windows 7 64bit in there to utilize all that RAM. Also, I thought this was for photo editing? Crossfire 4850s will maybe play BF3 at lower res and all low options.

Hi pp mguire,

You know what its like, boys and their toys! i initially thought about a "small" upgrade but now i want to upgrade big time, lol. I will use the computer for photo-editing, but not professionally, just for my personal use, i am a gamer and if i built a new pc i would buy BF3 which i currently use on the ps3, my current pc is ok with BF but not great so i don't bother at the moment.

Does that motherboard support crossfire? i remember when i purchased my current motherboard you had to buy a compatible board for either SLI or crossfire depending on what card you had? is this still the case or are the boards universal these days?

Would two hd4850 run all the latest game really well or just "ok" ??

you are correct with the PSU itis the one you say, 580w do you think this would still be ok with two HD4850's as well as everything else?

eBay - The UK's Online Marketplace this is the link, i can save about £15 buying the parts separately

EDIT:- I have already purchased windows 7 ultimate of a friend so im all good on the OS front - loving it aswell, its improved my current system alot!

 

[PP Mguire]

2 4850s will just run the game "ok" unless your resolution is low.
That PSU should be fine for the setup, and yes that board will run Crossfire.

 

[06Skywalker]

ok thanks, so the next dilema is i just found a new pack with same board and chip but xms3 ram rather than vengence, both are corsair and both clock at 1600mhz, there is a £27 difference, is there a difference in performance?

 

[PP Mguire]

The timings may be different but you probably wont notice the difference. Just make sure the voltages are good on the XMS3.