Is This Worth $700?

[HulaMike]

Ok, I'm finally ready to pull the trigger on a decent work station. Bye bye WIN98! So Long 384 MB RAM!!

It will be a Dell XPS. I've priced it out two ways and want to know if the following upgrades are worth the additional $700:

Processor:
upgrade from Pentium 4 with HT 3.2 GHz/800 MHz FSB
to
Pentium 4 with HT 3.6 GHz/800 MHz FSB

Memory:
2GB Dual channel DDR SDRAM @ 400 MHz
to
2GB Dual channel DDR2 SDRAM @ 533 MHz

Video Card:
128 MB DDR ATI RADEON 9800 Pro Graphics Card
to
256 MB PCI Express x16 ATI RADEON X800 XT

Need to get feedback today if possible as I can cash in on an online discount today.

Thanx

[Eddie the Gnat]

Although I'm not sure of US prices, I'd say it probably is technically worth the extra. On the other hand the cheaper system will be very fast (definitely fast enough - I'm still happy doing serious work on much lesser systems) and you could spend $700 on something else. The graphics card upgrade would be great for 3d games, but might not make much difference to Photoshop unless you're running multiple monitors at huge resolution. The increase in processor and memory speed will make a difference, but I don't know how much.

Hope this is of some help. If you're upgrading from 98 then you're definitely in for a treat (teething troubles aside!) :)

Best wishes,

Eddie

[HulaMike]

Thanks Eddie. I think I'll save the money and go with the lesser system, just wanted someone knowledgeable to help me make the decision.

Final question: I believe many suggest dual hard drives, one for programs, one for data and a swap disk for PS. Have I got this pegged right? Currently I have two 80 gig HDs as a part of this system. If one would get me by, I could trim another $100.

Thanks in advance.

[Bill C]

If it was my new system, I'd keep the extra HD - you will have so much more flexibility.....swap drive for PS, extra backup perhaps.... I keep system and program files on one drive, and 'data' on the other drive. Be sure to check with them how much 'useable' disk you have as the XPS can come with various 'RAID' options (Raid 1 is mirroring in which your useable would really be more in the area of 40GB) ....
Bill

[HulaMike]

Thanks Bill. Double HDs it is. I don't know about the RAID options nd there's nothing on the web site to help there. I guess I could call Dell.

[HulaMike]

Thanks for looking in, Bill C and Eddie set me straight. I bought my new toy this afternoon. Dual HDs, dual burners, settled for slightly less speed than the upgrade. Can't wait to stop twiddling my fingers while EX or PS are working....... :cheers:

I also want to thank Connie (VA Shooter) who helped me immensly even though he was very busy. Great Guy! Thanks to all of you.
-------------------

NEW CRISIS

Read post above, "New System what HDs"

Thanks again.

[Rockyw]

I love getting new toys, as far as factory PCs go Dell it a good maker. One place you can cut down is video card. You don't need 256 or 128 for working with images. My video computer is top rate but I have a 32 MB video card. My PC for images has a 64 and that's more than enough. I do recomend 2 or even 3 hard drives. My video machine has 6 hard drives and my image PC has 4. Once it's all working and all your software is in, ghost your C drive with norton. Thats the only norton I have in any pcs but I like ghost. if your C drive gets a bug or a corrupt file you can re ghost in 10 min. and your back in business. One PC is ghosted on 5 CDs the other with one DVD. Your PC will boot from the ghost backup and reinstall the entire C drive in no time. Add or change the C drive and just make a new ghost backup. Its been a real time saver for me. And never never put anything but your operating system and other programs on the C drive. All data should be on other drives. Good Luck

[HulaMike]

Thanks Rocky. I'm pretty much set up like this now and only need to get Norton Ghost for backups.

One final question for you and the group. I tried to set up my Win paging file and PS scratch disk on my secondary drive, the drive I use only for temp data storage and the PS scratch disk. Photoshop didn't like that at all. I now have my WIN page file set to the primary C drive and my swap file on the secondary drive D drive. Is that a good configuration?