[Rob Barron]

Ok, after listening intently to all your advice, and extremely helpful it was too, I have finally put a deposit on my new computer today. I am having it custom built by a small computer shop local to me who made my last PC (the one I am still using now) and always give excellent support.

As promised, here is the spec I went for. I'll be very glad to hear any thoughts that you more PC-savvy guysm gals have to say about it. I can't change it now so this is it but have I chosen well masters?

Processor: Intel Quadcore Q6600
RAM: 4 Gbs DDR2 667MHz
Hard drives:
1) 250GB Western Digital SATA ll HD - This will be the system drive with all programs
2) 750Gb Seagate SATA ll HD - This will be for all data storage
Graphics Card: MSI NX8800 Ultra - This is an extremely fast and powerful GPU, probably more than I really need but will be great for maxing out Flight Sim X
MoBo: Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus Skt775
All the usual other stuff like DVD Dual Layer rewritable (20x), card reader, etc.

And the OS I finally chose is..... <drum roll>....

Windows XP Pro

I decided against Vista for various reasons: lots of reports saying it is slower than XP, too young, awaiting service packs to deal with bugs, etc. I also want to have the same as I have on this PC as I will be running both side by side and portability from one to the other is very important to me.

This will be powered by a 730W Hiper PSU which I was recommended as being much better than a standard PSU as it supplies each component with continuous power at all times. Sorry, I don't know much more about it but they convinced me this was worth it for not much more money!

I know (thanks to you guys) that Windows XP will not make full use of the 4GBs RAM but it will utilise over 3GBs and I am keeping one eye on the future when I might move up to Vista once it is serviced.

I could see few reasons to go over to a Mac and plenty not too but the primary one was the portability issue as mentioned above.

I am not getting another monitor, I don't need one. Instead I am connecting both PCs to my Dell WFP2007 20.1" widescreen monitor (which i love) via a 2 port Auto KVM Switchbox.

Remember, my primary purpose for buying this new PC is to have the max power for video rendering as well as advanced photographic editing and graphics work (where I sometimes have 50-100 layers open!) as well as audio editing of interviews for my radio show and other graphics work. I will NOT be connecting it to the internet 99% of the time. I will set up a connection purely for updating Windows and drivers but will disconnect most of the time. This will keep the PC ring-fenced away from viruses etc. I am perfectly happy with this PC on the internet as well as my laptop so don't need yet another connection.

Ok, guys, how did I do?

Cheers,
Rob

[stupot]

sounds a cracking system Rob, you should definately notice an improvement with that quad-core CPU

[water]

Originally Posted by Rob Barron

Ok, after listening intently to all your advice, and extremely helpful it was too, I have finally put a deposit on my new computer today. I am having it custom built by a small computer shop local to me who made my last PC (the one I am still using now) and always give excellent support.

As promised, here is the spec I went for. I'll be very glad to hear any thoughts that you more PC-savvy guysm gals have to say about it. I can't change it now so this is it but have I chosen well masters?

Processor: Intel Quadcore Q6600
RAM: 4 Gbs DDR2 667MHz
Hard drives:
1) 250GB Western Digital SATA ll HD - This will be the system drive with all programs
2) 750Gb Seagate SATA ll HD - This will be for all data storage
Graphics Card: MSI NX8800 Ultra - This is an extremely fast and powerful GPU, probably more than I really need but will be great for maxing out Flight Sim X
MoBo: Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus Skt775
All the usual other stuff like DVD Dual Layer rewritable (20x), card reader, etc.

And the OS I finally chose is..... <drum roll>....

Windows XP Pro

I decided against Vista for various reasons: lots of reports saying it is slower than XP, too young, awaiting service packs to deal with bugs, etc. I also want to have the same as I have on this PC as I will be running both side by side and portability from one to the other is very important to me.

This will be powered by a 730W Hiper PSU which I was recommended as being much better than a standard PSU as it supplies each component with continuous power at all times. Sorry, I don't know much more about it but they convinced me this was worth it for not much more money!

I know (thanks to you guys) that Windows XP will not make full use of the 4GBs RAM but it will utilise over 3GBs and I am keeping one eye on the future when I might move up to Vista once it is serviced.

I could see few reasons to go over to a Mac and plenty not too but the primary one was the portability issue as mentioned above.

I am not getting another monitor, I don't need one. Instead I am connecting both PCs to my Dell WFP2007 20.1" widescreen monitor (which i love) via a 2 port Auto KVM Switchbox.

Remember, my primary purpose for buying this new PC is to have the max power for video rendering as well as advanced photographic editing and graphics work (where I sometimes have 50-100 layers open!) as well as audio editing of interviews for my radio show and other graphics work. I will NOT be connecting it to the internet 99% of the time. I will set up a connection purely for updating Windows and drivers but will disconnect most of the time. This will keep the PC ring-fenced away from viruses etc. I am perfectly happy with this PC on the internet as well as my laptop so don't need yet another connection.

Ok, guys, how did I do?

Cheers,
Rob

I have no idea,but it all sounds very impressive and am sure will keep you going for a few years.I am due for a new,more powerful system but will wait to see what the verdict is when the Service Pack comes out for Vista.
I will probably just go for a PC World one.My present computer has 40Gb hard drive and 256Mb Ram so Photoshop chugs along quite slowly and sometimes 'freezes' but I get there in the end!!

[Rob Barron]

Wow Water, you do well to run PS at all with 256MB RAM. Good going!

PC World had a very powerful quadcore-based PC with all the bells and whistles at £1229 but there were some specific things I wanted and somethings on the ready made that I didn't want and I wanted to ensure I was using my budget only on things I would use. I have no desire to watch TV on my PC when i have a TV just 4 feet away anyway!

I have a 5 day wait before I'll actually be getting the new machine but I'll let you know how it performs

Cheers,
Rob

[stupot]

Hope you have a well ventilated room Rob cus those quad-cores chuck out some heat! I'm in the market to maybe upgrade next year so have to give us a review when you get it.

[j sotelo]

good choices just make sure that if youre going to string them together they are the same speed as your configuration will be limited to the speed and size of the slowest drive. (im not sure but I think the ones you picked are)
and fot video editing you cant beat a Mac like I had mentioned in another thread I did video (as a hobby) even before photography and a couple of friends that do video freelancing and sell it to local channels use Macs, heres why.
an Apple Mac Pro costs about $2,500.US Dlls but its powered by 8 core processor wich are


-Two Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors

-Install up to four 750GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drives for up to 3TB of internal storage and stripe them together using Mac OS X RAID for fast access to all of your digital media files.

-Mac Pro provides two optical drive bays. One comes filled with a 16x SuperDrive with double-layer support. Adding an optional second SuperDrive makes it easy to author commercial-grade DVDs in record time

-Up to 16GB of fast 667MHz fully buffered memory provides ample memory bandwidth to compose using an unprecedented number of tracks.

-Built-in optical digital and analog stereo audio ports support both new and legacy hardware, and convenient FireWire and USB ports allow connection to virtually any audio, MIDI, and storage devices.

-Dual-display support in every Mac Pro graphics card provides added screen real estate — perfect for spreading out application windows, tool palettes, and timelines.


-Thanks to built-in support for the 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display, you can edit, compare, rate, organize, and adjust images full screen in Photoshop. And because Mac Pro supports two displays, you can compare multiple images at once to find your selects faster.

-Whether you design for print or for the web, you can realize your ideas as fast as you can conjure them with Mac Pro and industry-standard tools such as Photoshop and QuarkXPress. Both QuarkXPress 7 and Adobe’s new Creative Suite 3 are Universal applications, delivering 100 percent native performance on the Intel-based Mac Pro. And, with Rosetta improvements in Mac OS X v10.4.8, Photoshop CS3 performance on today’s Mac Pro has taken a leap ahead.

and remember you can run windows on these now !!

If youre really serious about video and audio editing this is the way to go.


OHHH Santa Clause I've been good this year...



im pretty sure you will do ok with what you got..

[Rob Barron]

Thanks Sotelo, I did read up a huge amount on the mac v pc issue and I have to say that apart from Mac publications, all the tests seemed to suggest that the superiority of Macs in the graphics world is no longer true as the gap has been reduced to nil and some highly technical reports (a lot of which i admit went over my head) put modern PCs ahead.

Having said that, I should say you have to compare like for like: you can't take a PC with one duo-core processor and put it up against a Mac using two quad-core processors and expect the result to be accurate. Whilst Macs do indeed use extraordinarily high processing power, you COULD build a PC to the same spec and then you'd have an equally powerful PC. having said that, it would cost a fortune, just like macs do!

I simply couldn't justify the ludicrous price of a modern Mac (probably a lot more expensive in the UK than over there in the US) and I WOULD have major portability problems. Yes, I could use my major software on both but I have an awful lot of other things that I use for which either there is no Mac version or I'd have to go and pay again.

Thanks for the heads up on the HD speeds. I think that is going to be fine as they are both SATA ll drives and the company building it are excellent at that area of things so i am sure they will match them up appropriately. Good call though and something I'll check.

Cheers for your detailed reply on the Mac side of things. I know Maccies can be somewhat evangelical in their support of their machines but I do understand why Macs are extremely good.... just not why they are so expensive!

Cheers,
Rob

[silkstone]

I'm having this Mac v. PC debate myself at the moment, so doing nothing right now seems the safest option.

Rob - That system looks impressive but I do wonder about the cooling and noise. I don't use my Windows machine much, but it has one of the D-series dual-core processors (before the Core-2-Duo E-series came out) and they run very hot. The upshot is that it needs a huge CPU heatsink and fan and is quite noisy. The only cure would be water cooling, but as I say I'm likely to replace it sometime in the next year or so. If your PSU delivers full power all the time, that could run hot too. And then there's the electric bill....

[Steve]

I would change the power supply having seen many reports of the Hipers going pop and taking many of the other pc components with them.

Take a look at the Seasonic M12 Modular Silent ATX2.0 range or go for a Corsair HX520 or HX620 which all have rave reviews, are very well made, come in various power output levels and should be competitively priced. The Seasonic are very quiet and the Corsair slightly louder.

You'll not need anywhere near 700w unless you plan on running dual GF cards in SLi mode. You can further reduce the power consumption, heat output and chose a suitably quiet cooling option if you go with the latest Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" lower power consumption, quad core CPU. Any decent dealer will be able to supply one of those as Intel are shipping them currently.

I would also look into possibly go with more bigger drives in faster Raid setup to increase the speed for the video processing. Again chose the makes carefully to make sure you get drives that can handle the load.

Do a google search for the best prices on all of the above.

[Rob Barron]

I must say Steve's comment about the Hiper PSU is a bit worrying as I was sold that on the basis it was much more suited to such a machine. I had the chance to listen to a system almost identical to mine (just the HDs were different) and it was remarkably quiet, far quieter than the relatively basic machine that I am currently using, so I am not overly concerned on that point. The heat factor is definitely one to consider and I'll make sure that does go in an area with an unrestricted airflow, thanks for the reminder.

The graphics card is, from everything I have read, a bit special and one of the most powerful generally around (should be considering it costs on its own more than an entire entry level PC!) but that almost certainly means I'll be underusing it most of the time as the processing power for the rendering of video comes from the CPU not the GPU but at least I'll enjoy 'flying' with max detail, traffic and stuff in Flight Sim. What a shame I'm not into games like Oblivion and the like as I gather this card is the beesknees for that sort of thing LOL.

Steve, I am not sure what I should have done really on the HD front. At first I was offered 1TB raided so that one was a mirror of the other for backup purposes but that effectively left me with just 500Gbs instead of the TB I want. I discussed this with them and they said if I went for two good HDs, one smaller to use as the main system drive for programs and windows and a larger drive for data storage, this would be good as it would mean a system crash would only affect the system drive and leave my data drive safe.

I should point out I also have two external 320Gb HDs which I use for back up purposes to store customers photos and videos on. This is why I didn't go for a mirrored drive set up, feeling fairly safe in the data back up department. If I have made a big mistake here, let me know quickly as I might be able to get them to change that before they put the thing together. They had a couple of bits out of stock so won't start building until those are in tomorrow.

My current system has two 160Gb HDs that are raided together but to give 300Gbs, not 160Gbs mirrored. I am desperately low on space for major video work and so have gone for bigger drives to ensure I have plenty but should I even add a third drive internally? I don't know how that would work out logistically, can you put three drives in without any problems? If so, maybe I should add another 750Gbs drive giving me a total of 1.5TBs of data storage.

You'll probably tell me I should go for another 750 but have it as a mirrored back up drive but not sure whether that is right to do or not.

Must admit I am slightly confused now but no doubt it will turn out right in the end

Cheers,
Rob