Budget of £250 to spend for tower PC - advice required
in [Photography]
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From: Richard on 11 Aug 2010 13:17 A friend has �250 to spend for a second-hand tower PC. He prefers Windows XP. What kind of system should he be seeking to get, considering his budget? He is a keen digital photographer, and would like to run a fairly recent version Photoshop. I think he needs at least a Pentium D processor at 3Ghz, and say 1Gb RAM but I don't know enough about PCs and photography to advise with confidence. I've no idea about the video card. He does not need a new monitor. Thanks.
From: Charles E Hardwidge on 11 Aug 2010 13:41 "Richard" <user(a)ntlworld.com> wrote in message news:8cg4a1Fv7hU1(a)mid.individual.net... > A friend has �250 to spend for a second-hand tower PC. He prefers Windows > XP. > > What kind of system should he be seeking to get, considering his budget? > > He is a keen digital photographer, and would like to run a fairly recent > version Photoshop. > > I think he needs at least a Pentium D processor at 3Ghz, and say 1Gb RAM > but I don't know enough about PCs and photography to advise with > confidence. I've no idea about the video card. Got an AMD X2 & ATI 2600 at home. It runs everything. 1 GB will do for Lightroom and Photoshop but if you're doing big stuff more is better. The Pentium D 3GHz sounds fine and I've found dual core helps everything run a little smoother with my AMD. An ATI 4670 is the best bang per buck at the low end now that's also able to run OpenCL. The NVidia GT220 is probably about the closest NVidia equivalent. ATI's tend to have better image quality and run cooler. -- Charles E Hardwidge
From: nm5k on 11 Aug 2010 18:47 On Aug 11, 12:17 pm, Richard <u...(a)ntlworld.com> wrote: > A friend has £250 to spend for a second-hand tower PC. He prefers > Windows XP. > > What kind of system should he be seeking to get, considering his budget? > > He is a keen digital photographer, and would like to run a fairly recent > version Photoshop. > > I think he needs at least a Pentium D processor at 3Ghz, and say 1Gb RAM > but I don't know enough about PCs and photography to advise with > confidence. I've no idea about the video card. > > He does not need a new monitor. > > Thanks. Any of what's been recommended will work. If handy, might consider rebuilding the machine he has with up to date MB/chip, ram, etc.. If he bought the parts, but did the labor, which is really easy, he might get more bang for the buck. I just rebuilt mine about 3-4 months ago. I bought a AMD phenom 2 processor and MB for $115 US.. Added 4 GB of ram which was about $120 US.. I'm using the on board video and sound at this point, which seems fairly decent for being on board. I also added a new power supply, which was not that much. But anyway, for less than $300 US I rebuilt into a new up to date box. This particular chip was a AMD Phenom 2 x2 555 black box, which is sold as a dual core. But my particular chip had four good cores, so I'm able to run it as a quad core. The stock clock speed for that chip is 3.2 ghz, but I run it at 3.5, 3.6 ghz. I overclock.. It can clock faster than that, but I'm only using the stock CPU fan, and don't want to run too hot. I'd need better fans to clock faster. The black box CPU's are catered to overclockers, and the BIOS lets me select how many cores to use, bus speeds, etc.. Not all 2 core black box chips will have 4 good cores. Some will, some won't. I got lucky on this one.. But the difference between 2 and 4 cores is not drastic. Anyway, if he does the install, you can build a new rig for probably not much more than a used one. BTW, I have 4 GB of RAM, but I don't feel that is really necessary for working on photo's. 1 GB RAM is generally enough for that. All the extra RAM might do is make things just a hair snappier as far as loading, etc.. 2 GB RAM would be fine. I use 4 GB because I run a flight simulator, and it helps on texture loads, etc.. But it's overkill for editing pictures. I did just fine in that regard with my old box that had only 1 GB RAM. I had used Intel chips the last 2-3 builds, but went with the AMD chip this time, because the price was right. So far, it's been pretty good, even if I just run two cores. It churns through HD video much better than my old P4 box, but part of that is instruction code in the video card to handle HD video more efficiently. If you watch the ad's, you can find some pretty good deals on the AMD cpu/mb combo's.
From: Charles E Hardwidge on 11 Aug 2010 19:14 <nm5k(a)wt.net> wrote in message news:916dbd5f-bf2a-4978-8fcc-9ad51277404e(a)l20g2000yqm.googlegroups.com... > The stock clock speed for that chip is 3.2 ghz, but I run it at 3.5, 3.6 > ghz. I overclock. It can clock faster than that, but I'm only using the > stock CPU fan, and don't want to run too hot. I'd need better fans to > clock faster. > > BTW, I have 4 GB of RAM, but I don't feel that is really necessary > for working on photo's. 1 GB RAM is generally enough for that. Lots of good comment. I don't do and never recommend overclocking. It's really a specialist activity and comes with its own issues. For an X percent advantage you run the risk of bit flips, instability, and shorter lifespan. Where I disagree with Dave is I wouldn't penny pinch on the CPU. Mine is an AMD X2 4200 and it's good enough. 1 GB of memory is workable but Photoshop is happier with 2 GB. It's easier to plonk more memory in later than pulling out then installing a new CPU. Exactly how much memory you need really depends on usage. I tend to have other stuff up when I dive into Lightroom. I don't use Photoshop much but if I do tasks like HDR or stacking it thrashes the memory. If you could spring for 2x1GB paired memory it's probably worth it. Oh, yeah. And get a cheap graphics tablet if there's any cash left over. -- Charles E Hardwidge
From: nm5k on 11 Aug 2010 20:06
On Aug 11, 6:14 pm, "Charles E Hardwidge" <bo...(a)invalid.invalid> wrote: > > Where I disagree with Dave is I wouldn't penny pinch on the CPU. I tend to agree.. For me, the CPU is 98% of the battle. For flight simulator, CPU power is ultra critical. So I always try to get the most CPU bang for the buck I can. It's also why I overclock. Overclocking lets me approach the upper end CPU powers at chump change prices. But yea, it's not for everyone. But I consider it pretty safe as long as one is up on all that, and does not get carried away with it. I do lots of speed vs stability testing after each new build. And I'll use the fastest speed I can that still gives me a stable box. This one at 3.6 ghz is perfectly stable. But I have a big honking fan on the side of the computer that cools everything including the RAM and hard drives, etc. The patriot memory I'm using has heat sinks on the sides of the modules which helps RAM stability. I've overclocked the last four or so machines I've built. I'm sure it does reduce the lifespan of the CPU a tad being as I run hotter, but it's never really been a problem. I'll upgrade to a new box before I ever get around to frying one. I ran the last overclocked P4 box for quite a long time. It was a 2.4 ghz that I usually ran around 3.0 ghz. Actually, it still works, and I'm considering rebuilding it to use as a stand alone HDTV and recorder. Anyway, for my sim, the CPU and video are the most critical, with RAM being third.. And like you say, it's easy to plop in new sticks if need be. Another thing to consider on the new boards is the HD support. Most of the new ones let you run more SATA drives, but often less EIDE drives.. My old box let me run 2 SATA drives and 4 EIDE drives. The new one lets me run 5-6 SATA drives, but only 2 EIDE drives. So I couldn't run all the drives I used to. I juggle the old ones around if I need to grab files off one currently not in use. They will slowly be phased out as I convert to solely SATA drives. My main boot drive at the moment is a 1 TB SATA drive. I had another 1 TB SATA drive, but I killed it by accident.. :( I had it laying loose a the bottom of my case, and I knocked a TV remote control off the top of the puter case.. The danged thing fell just right so it hit a corner of the HD as it landed.. Not really that hard either.. But it killed that drive.. #$%^!! Just does the head click routine now.. I lost some good movies I had recorded on that drive.. :( |