tc71

I am going to get a new PC soon. I will use it for mainly editing pictures and video. I would greatly appreciate any input from anyone as to what some good editing programs are and what operating system would work better, (AMD vs Intel) or anything else I should look for when buying my PC. I am hoping to spend less than $800. Thank You

gemlenz Loc: Gilbert Arizona

I just got a new windows 8 system at Tiger Direct for under $600. It has 2 tb storage, 12 gb ram and a 1gb graphics card. It's an Intel CORE i5 processor. Seems to be working fine for me.

There are free photo editing programs like Gimp and Picasa, or you can pay for Photoshop and/or Lightroom. Check the forum here for posts on those products.

Good luck.

IR Jim Loc: St. Louis

I would stay away from mainstream stores like Best Buy, etc. You'll get more bang for your buck from Fry's or Microcenter, I'll link them below.

As far as specs go here is a quick rundown.

CPU - AMD vs Intel is like Ford vs Chevy, get whatever fits you budget, they are both good. If you want to upgrade in the future make sure the socket type is LGA2011 or LGA1150 for Intel and AM3+ for AMD. Stay away from other socket types because they are either phasing out or not upgrade friendly.

RAM - LOTS! I would not settle for less than 8GB of RAM. The more ram you have the more pics and larger files you can have open at once. 12GB is a good amount to shoot for.

HDD - A solid state drive will cost you bucks. Try and get a 7,200 RPM HDD. 1TB is the most I would get. It would be a good idea to get 2 smaller drives and run raid1. If you don't want to mess with that just make sure you backup your data well.

Graphics - If you're not a gamer and not running 3d modeling you can skimp on this. Integrated graphics will be fine. Spend the money you save here by getting more ram or better CPU.

Ports - HDMI, USB 3.0, and most importantly a media card reader.

http://www.frys.com
http://www.microcenter.com

JR1 Loc: Tavistock, Devon, UK

My son has just spent a month researching the market and is now ready to build his, I have been into IT for 30 years and I think you may just be expecting too much for the money.

Image editing needs a good graphic card and processor.

These are the components he has decided on.

(intel)£251.99
http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/Intel+Core+i7-4770K+3.50GHz+(Haswell)+Socket+LGA1150+Processor+-+Retail+?productId=55835 £251.99

Amazon intel - £260.94



(case)
coolermaster storm trooper(scan) - case £119.94


https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/s261x260/988609_690888894260844_1734272032_n.jpg

VVVVVV sellers of the motherboard VVV motherboard first..

www.awd-it.co.uk - mother board 194.99£
http://www.ebuyer.com/507041-gigabyte-ga-z87x-ud5h-socket-1150-hdmi-dvi-i-displayport-atx-motherboard-ga-z87x-ud5h
http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=MBG-Z87XUD5H
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/57303
http://www.novatech.co.uk/search.html?s=gigabyte z87 ud5h
http://www.micro-p.com/products/INTEL-MOTHERBOARDS/GIGABYTE/p2014604/GIGABYTE-Socket-1150-Motherboards-INTEL-MOTHERBOARDS-GA-Z87X-UD5H.aspx?mscssid=%7B759670F4-13B6-4EE2-8ACF-0FD1BE0E2256%7D&flNoRedirect=0&flPackageOnly=0&lbCategory=INTEL+MOTHERBOARDS&referer=/catalogue/catProductList.asp

JPL

You need fast processor and lot of memory as others have already told you. In addition I would highly recommend an extra monitor for you computer if you can include it in you budget. It makes the work much easier to have the picture you are working with on one monitor and all the programs and other windows on another monitor.

Mason Jar Loc: Mason, OH

Everyone seems to be recommending PC, but I just bought an off lease, factory refurbished Mac and added 4GB ram to get to 8GBs with a retina display (very high resolution) for $699 at Microcenter. It has worked out perfectly. Running OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.8). It has iPhoto which allows sorting of the pics by as many ways as you can think of. ID a face in a picture and you can sort by that face! The retina display is better than the eye can see so is perfect for photos. iPhoto has editing like red eye, blemish correction, light adjustment, saturation of color, B&W, Sephia, and other effects, cropping, text, and more. All the basics. Add aperture at $80 and you get aa application that competes well with Lightroom. The result: Easy to use, logically organized, great results and very reasonably priced. Go to the nearest Apple store and you can try out the program on one of their computers free! It has worked very well for me and is easier to learn and use and quicker and actually fun. July 2013 issue of MacLife has a great article about photography using a Mac with compare and contrast with PS and LR. (Available at most libraries)

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

I recently put together a power house at CyberpowerPC out of California. You can spec out any thing you desire. You won't have any money left over for editing software so go with the free stuff.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

I would advise an Intel processor, have an AMD desktop and an Intel laptop, refer to my AMD as Absent Minded Dummy, really has trouble doing more than one thing at a time, new laptop I went back to Intel, at least 6 meg ram, as big of HD as you can, USB 3 ports, BTW because of performance issues laptop does all photo editing, Bob.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Gemlenz is spot-on. You can add a few things also - make sure it has a card reader - about $20. If you have the money for a HDD (hard disc drive) you can load your programs on that and they will run faster. ($200 for a 256GB HDD) I added a blue-ray reader/burner for $80 so that I can put 25gb of back-up files on each disc. Rather than the HDD, you could also ask Tiger Direct to put an extra disc drive in your computer in a Raid 1 format. For only $80 you have two drives working as one - you don't get twice the capacity, but one drive automatically mirrors the other - so it is faster and you always have a back-up and you also lose nothing if/when one drive fails. Which it will!

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Bob, "Absent Minded Dummy" is what AMD really means? Really, NO!!! you use a blanket statement to demean a product, like the old FORD "Frequently on Road Dead" etc...

The computer for serious graphics processing is usually custom built which in today's world may come as a package with alternative upgrades. Both AMD and Intel make great processors, but usually Intel is the better, but how good does better have to be. For most people the $/performance issue is important, obviously AMD is the choice for that issue. Better to spend the money on the top line "last-year" gaming graphics card and 16 gig of fast memory.

Intel Core i7 X 990 @ 3.47GHz 9,372 $1,459.00
Intel Xeon X5690 @ 3.47GHz 9,258 $1,550.00
Intel Xeon W3680 @ 3.33GHz 9,233 $606.99
Intel Xeon E5-1620 @ 3.60GHz 9,198 $360.72*
Intel Core i7-3920XM @ 2.90GHz 9,164 $1,096.00*
AMD FX-8350 8-Core @4.20GHz 9,128 $194.66
From: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
Humm big price difference! :thumbup: :thumbup:

You have a choice of graphics cards that ALL are good for graphics.... after all, they are Gaming cards ...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-2.html

Which OP system is best... depends...
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2406668,00.asp
Maximum ram for various systems is discussed:
http://didyouknow.org/maximum-ram-on-windows-7-and-windows-8/
The author comments there:
"you’re a home user planning to do some advanced picture or video editing, you should also consider upgrading to the 64-bit Windows 8 platform. Another way to make your PC faster still is to replace your HDD (hard disc drive) with a SSD (Solid State Drive). Typically, the read/write seek time on a HDD is anything from 2.9 ms to 12 ms while that of a SSD is a mere 0.1 ms (milliseconds)."

Running a 64 bit OP system you use the Max Ram supported because:
" ... Photoshop CS6 running in 64-bit mode, the program can directly access as much RAM as the computer supports ... "
http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace/2012/10/how-to-tune-photoshop-cs6-for-peak-performance.html#memory

IN SUMMARY: To have a good system for PS or for PSP or GIMP editing, it is a mater of money and the return for the money invested and I hate to go against the flow.. what you really need... personally i have a hard time thinking of micro seconds... seconds sure, but not minor differences of a second or two to mod my photo. There is no one combo of parts for that new desk top computers and where you put your money is a preference game... oh, wow love the new mod cases with psy lighting from xoxide... oooooo wow aaaa!!:thumbup: :roll:
http://www.xoxide.com/watcoolkit.html
PS: Bob, use 2 HD one for storage of photos,,, aaa another for backup. There is a great pushbutton system for turing the on and off. I can run 4 smaller ones,,, less chance of disaster with HD failure... happens you know... and the bigger the more expensive and pushing the limit can be more problematic,,, not sure if HD with TB are more failure prone...
Have a good day ,,, have a good photo day and a good computer day. d/p

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

[quote=dpullum]Bob, "Absent Minded Dummy" is what AMD really means? Really, NO!!! you use a blanket statement to demean a product, like the old FORD "Frequently on Road Dead" etc...

Not to start a war but, my experience with AMD, Advanced Micro Devices, is not good, replaced an old Intel Dual Core with a newer machine with an higher rated AMD dual core, bad choice, just my experience OK
BTW from a former Ford mechanic
FORD = Frequent Overhaul Rapid Decay or
Fix or Repair Daily,

and the mechanics prayer

Ashes to ashes,
Dust to dust,
if it wasn't for Fords,
our tools would rust.

VBG
he also had a few sayings about GM, Chrysler, etc.

WAL

USB 3 is what to watch for. Usually it is coded blue. Still a lot of USB 2 stuff around some computers that have both in one model. .USB 3 is much better and the computer companies seem to want to get rid of the USB 2 stuff w'o making it obvious.

This is still an area where purchasing is far more confusing than it should be. My experience is salespeople that don’t care or don’t know. Like dealing with car salesmen.

Buy

cheineck Loc: Hobe Sound, FL

MAC, MAC, MAC, MAC!!!!!!

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Cheineck, is that the Aflec Duck sound? :)

Yep the USB 2/3 while no big deal regarding USB is a red flag regarding the latest technology. But that discount for the older USB 2 can be applied to better and more RAM and Video card.. remember the following:
"To be sure, the video card is the single most important component, but RAM—or, at least, the lack of enough of it—can throttle your games." The article is an excellent rundown or runup or runwith or running on various components and component combos....
http://www.computershopper.com/feature/2013-shopping-guide-the-best-gaming-processors

IR Jim Loc: St. Louis

Just FYI the video card is only important if you are gaming, rendering 3D, or encoding video. Newer MOBOs have Nvidia or Radeon integrated graphics, one of those are cheaper and just fine.

Linked below is a FAQ from Adobe in regards to photoshop CS6 GPU usage. You will find that it only uses a GPU for a select few features and only 256MB at that. (512 needed for features to be enabled but only utilizes 256). That's big and bad CS6.

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/979969

Also go with a quad core CPU, you will get more bang for your buck vs. 2, 6, or 8.