AMD & PS CS

[es136]

i will be buying a new PC in week or so. some friends suggested that i buy AMD based PC. i always used Intel boxes and would need this PC primarily for image editing with PS CS.

is there anything that i need to worry about.

thanks

Eddie

[noidea]

Not at all.

Only problem may be cooling ... those babes get hot!

I'm using AMD for years. And if you build your machines yourself you save a lot of money with them.

Wanna start flaming? ;) (j/k)

:cheers:

[Wichita Wayne]

Noidea is correct. If your machine is running too hot it will spontaniously reboot over and over and over again. The cure is to get the biggest cooling fan you can buy and do not overclock the chip. If the processor mounts in a socket be sure to use plenty (not sloppy) of heat sink compound between the chip and the fan. Do not believe anybody that tells you that you do not need the heat sink compound because you do. I haven't put together an AMD machime since the old System 7 motherboards so I am not up to date on the current issues. However, I am using an AMD based laptop right now, and I would not hesitate to build another AMD system. You can usually get a little more bang for your buck with AMD.

[robinp]

Building an AMD based machine is the only sensible option as the Pentium 4 is overpriced and has only had success through the mighty power of Intel marketing.
Two important things to know about the cooling of modern PC's - its necessary to have a fan ensuring air flow through the case and thermal compound must be applied very sparingly but evenly.
For a good read on the cooling subject see
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_869_4348%5E1065,00.html
Just for the record I run my photo software on a PC with Athlon XP2500+, 1GB Ram and 80GB Maxtor HDD with 8MB cache.

Cheers, Robin

[Rockyw]

Morning es136

I run all AMDs and have for a while. I have a duel 1800 for video editing, and a 2400 for photo. Both have 1 gig or ram, that's the lowest you want to go on ram. PS likes ram and even 1 1/2 or 2 wound'nt be to much. On the heat sink grease, AMD wants the little pads used. They are small pads you peel off one side, stick it to the chip, and then peel off the other paper coating. That leaves just the right amount of grease on the chip. You can buy heat sink grease at radio shack but AMD does not support that. AMD is a solid base for a PC, they have much improved over the old k6 and k7 chips of the past. If your building your own, look into the Asus mains boards as they are very good boards to build on. Good Luck

[Wichita Wayne]

AMD not only told me to use the grease they told me to get it at Radio Shack. Go figure! I think the only thing that matters is that you get some kind of positive connection between a big fan and the chip. I think that the good fans come with the stuff that Rocky is talking about. If not then you should be able to find it at the place where you get your computer parts. Another thing to watch for is when the fan starts to squeek. Replace it at once or you could have all kinds of heat related problems. It is fare cheaper to replace the fan or the power supply if it's fan is making noise than it is to replace processors. I have only lost the processor on laptops that had bad fans but I assume that the same thing can happen to a desktop box also.

[VA_Shooter]

I've never used an Intel processor on any of my workstations . . . and have always used AMD processors. HOT, HOT, and more HOT! Use the compound that comes with the processor and as big a cooling fan as you can get for the processor and you should not have any difficulty with an AMD processor. Also, I put an additional cooling fan in the front of the case to pull more air through the case. Intel, Shmemtel. AMD processors rock.

[jknights]

There is a heat issue with AMD processors compared with Intel but this is not an issue with a good quality cooler/fan assembly and a properly designed case.

Also something else that is not well publicised is that AMD number crunching is not as good as Intel. This is only really noticeable if you are doing high powered calculations but unfortunately this is exactly what Photoshop is doing sometimes. This is very much a %age thing and the differnece is small but measurable.

Comparing the costs Intel v. AMD there is a noticebale bias to go AMB as Intel does seem more highly priced for the same performance.

I am waiting for the new Athlon64 chips to become more standard as I would like to build a twin Athlon FX51 as this should be an absolute screamer for Photoshop.
Photoshop is one of the few programs available on the PC platform that really uses multiple processors effectively.
It would be even better if there was a 64bit version of Photoshop !!.

[Wichita Wayne]

The OpenBook 1735 laptop I use came with XP and I ask myself everyday why I don't reformat the thing and load Win2k. I guess the thought of having to serach the internet for the drivers would take days of trial and error hassles that I just do not want to put up with right now. The computer was OEM with ME and I have all the drivers for ME but the person that I bought it from installed XP and went to a lot of trouble to get everything to work. If things would speed up I would change to Win2k quick, but I have also been told (by a pro) that the machine will run just about the same on XP as it does on Win2k.

[noidea]

Wayne, I hope you are talking about XP Pro.
I tried XP home and gladly went back to W2K.
Don't get me wrong. XP is a nice system, but with all those fancy gimmicks built in you need a lot of power to run it and that's a thing I'm not willed to invest in - my 5 year old system is fast enough to run what I need and I don't want to build something new, just because of a new OS.
Maybe that's bad for economy, but in any case good for my wallet ;)
With the latest patches from Microsoft (release 4) there is IMHO no reason to upgrade to XP.
I know my W2k and I'm not interested to start up tweaking XP .... I have better things to do :D

There are times I dearly miss my old C-64:o

Sorry for the rant.

:cheers:

[Wichita Wayne]

And when I get the time I will probably go back to Win2k.

[robinp]

Every time a new version of Windows comes out there are folks moaning about it and saying "I'll go back to version X" but in truth XP is the closest Microsoft have got to an ideal operating system.
I never found much use for W2000 but then I'm an oddball who was very happy with Win Me!
The secret to a happy computer is running software of the same age as the hardware - i.e. don't expect a trouble free time with XP if your machine is too old (or if you didn't do a clean install).

Rant over, Cheers, Robin

[Wichita Wayne]

I have used Windows since Version 1.0 and each change has brought much complaining. Kind of like the Fuji S3 Pro's introduction has brought to the internet. And if you want to iknow the truth I would probably get the best performance out of my laptop if I did go back to ME. I used it without too many problems for several years. To tell you the truth I have had very little trouble with Windows since ME was introduced. The real problem is that I have a Windows 2000 Pro P2P network in my home and I would like to have all the computers on the same operating system. That may be a goal that I never reach due to the fact that I have computers of various ages and setups.

[Jester]

Try to get a system that has a fan in the side of the case above the CPU. It blows cool air straight onto the hottest part of the thing. You should be able to run with temps in the very low 40's C depending on ambient temp.

[Rockyw]

I tried XP Pro when it came out but I could not edit video with it. I put Win2000 back in. XP pro and XP home are the same except Pro will work with twin CPUs. Home will work with a single CPU only. There are a few other utilities with pro but thats about it. The one you need depends if you have a duelly or not. I still like 2000 best and will stick with that for a while yet.

[jknights]

Windows 2000 Pro is 'essentially' XP without some of the extra twiddly bits and wizards and the horrible gaudy desktop.
However some of the wizards is XP are a real pain in the b*%^&*.

Also since it is my day to day business to know how the IT all works I don't want soembody at Microsoft double guessing what I am trying to do as frequently they get it wrong.

I run Win2K Pro on my office and home networks and the servers are Win2K Advanced Server. I have little or no problems on them and they are all at SP4 plus selected Windows Updates - Security pacthes mainly.

I wont be moving to XP as I find no need.

Longhorn in 2005,6,7 that is a different game. By then we will have PS?11? which will be hopefully 64 bit.

Are there any Mac users out there with twin G5 machines?.
Does PS run in 64bit mode on that ?