Order Companys

[Rockyw]

Im ready to build a new PC for photo editing. I have found everything I need on newegg.com but was wondering if there are more or better places to buy from. I settled on a duel core 3.2 Intel on an Intel 255 board. I still have not made my mind up on hard drive selection. I do not want to run raid, just SATA drives for main and storage. Raid still scares me because of all the drive failures, raid 5 might be the only consideration. So if any one has any suggestions on good online ordering companys or their hard drive thoughts that would be great. WD and Seagate are the ones I'm thinking about. I have seen more and more reports on Seagates being a bit slow, and many showing up DOA or failing soon after. WD has this problem to but maybe not as much. Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Swampy]

Thought you bought from stonecomputer.com?

I've been going to http://www.allstarshop.com for a while now and have got great service. Might not be the best price in town, but they're local to me so I can will call if necessary or I feel better being able to drive over there to swap/return something if necessary. Out of over $100k of equipment that I've ordered there (not all for me of course), I've only had one bad mobo that they gladly swapped immediately.

Don't forget to re-visit this thread:
http://theswampbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14542

I'm running the AMD fx-57 and don't see any difference in speed between that and the Intel Dualcore 3.4ghz Extreme 1066. The Dual Core AMD might be a bit faster, but haven't played with one yet. I wanted raw ghz and not dual core as I haven't seen many benefits from the dual cores yet for what I've been doing.

I also went with Corsair memory, loooow latency is the key, so I highly recommend it where ever you're going to buy from.

I just topped my system off with a new monitor which I'll post in another thread later.

[Rockyw]

Thanks Swampy for the info. I found out about newegg from a friend and they have great prices and said to have very good customer service when things go wrong as well. As for cases, have you ever checked into these.
http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-tj05.htm
All Silverstone cases get great reviews, all alum. and steel construction and well planned out. I'm getting the 105 as shown on this link. Used Antec many times and thought I'd try something new. As for duel core, for video editing the videoguys.com are doing 2 test systems right now. It will be interesting to see the report for the builds. For photo I think it''s the future and all software will be optimised for duel core if not now soon will be. All tests I have read show the duel cores have an advantage over single core for most apps. For memory, I'm glad you like Corsair because newegg has that and I was thinking of a matched set of 1 gig sticks,=2 gig. Intel recomended DDR2 533 ram for their 3.2 duel core. I,ll let you know how this all works soon. Thanks again. PS great looking screen!!

[High ISO!]

Hi Rocky,
We JUST built a new computer. I just started using it a week ago! Got ALL components from New Egg, as our last computer build was from.

We got a Dual core Athlon64 4800, ASUS AN8-SLI motherboard, 4gig RAM, WDRaptor for OS, another WD Raptor for PS scratch disc, 400gig file storage, ATI video card (you don't need dual or high end video card, because 2D performance is all the same now anyway) Lightscribe DVD drive, A really cool case Lian Li, (with a cool blue light inside!) :D Replaced the CPU and video card fans with Zalman.

Like I said earlier, it was all purchased from New Egg. They have the best prices and the service is OUTSTANDING! Everything arrived within 3 days of the order.

We got the Monitor from Dell (dare I admit it?) It
s a 24" LCD. It was kind of really funky at first, but now that I have calibrated it, it's actually VERY nice! I'm still using my 21" Viewsonic as my second monitor. My old computer is networked to my new system, so I can dig files off there too.

OK Bryan, I know you'll have MUCH to say about the rig I have here, :surrender :surrender :surrender but it's ALL Peter's doing! The ONLY thing I asked for with my new computer was a new WACOM tablet. Intous3 6x11. Which is AWESOME!

Alissa
VERY HAPPY with the new set up here! :getdown: :getdown: :getdown:

[Rockyw]

Hey High ISO, glad to hear everything worked out. Sounds like a well planned PC. I looked at the Lian Li cases and they have some nice looking units. Hows this PC work in photoshop? I am planning a PNY 540 Quatro video card. Its a bit high end for what I need but I do video on my photo PC once in a while and this PNY card works well for DV. My case has a window as well and Im planning adding a blue neon on the inside with a switch so I can turn the light on and off. the case makes the computer dont you think. Good luck and looking forward to hear how your new machine works with PS. Rocky

[High ISO!]

Hi Rocky,
It was well thought out....for the past year or more in the planning stages.

So far, so GREAT! I work in PSCS2 about 90% of the time. I have been having no trouble at all. From what my husband has told me, you probably got a really great video....I really don't know about all the tech stuff...I only know how to get my photos to do what I want them to do....ummmm most of the time! :D He didn't get me a top card, because he says in PS I don't need all that extra stuff. Now if I was playing video games or making movies on here, I'd probably need a higher end card. Part of his job is configuring computer systems to run the machines the company he works at, so I trust his choices for my work flow. So far over the years, he hasn't steered me wrong yet!

I can't wait to hear how your system works out for you! GOOD LUCK, and keep us up to date on your project!

Alissa

Hey High ISO, glad to hear everything worked out. Sounds like a well planned PC. I looked at the Lian Li cases and they have some nice looking units. Hows this PC work in photoshop? I am planning a PNY 540 Quatro video card. Its a bit high end for what I need but I do video on my photo PC once in a while and this PNY card works well for DV. My case has a window as well and Im planning adding a blue neon on the inside with a switch so I can turn the light on and off. the case makes the computer dont you think. Good luck and looking forward to hear how your new machine works with PS. Rocky

[Swampy]

Higher end cards do perform better than mid-grade in 2d. The benefits aren't as drastic as 3d, but our engineers have found, say, an nVidia 7800GTX to be faster at 2d chip layouts than the stock Dell Quadro card. You're not missing much for what you're doing though. Unless you're draging an image around by rolling your mouse around really quick. :)