Need advice on setting PC for Adobe Photoshop

[DieselBimmer]

Hello, this is my first few post in the BMW forum. Im looking for information on later generation videocards that would work good for Pro photo editing. The case is Im trying to put together a desktop system. There seem to be now way to just call Adobe here in Malaysia and ask what they recommend so Im hoping you guys can help me out a little. Im a mac person but I like win too specially win7 which runs very smooth I think anyway. However I personally believe a mac would be easier but they are mildly spoken a bit pricy when it comes to the good stuff they have. In this case its more a matter of performance though so I guess it comes down to on which platform does Photoshop run best and what videocard of the later models should one go for? I have a small company focused on design magazines and public banner display and this PC is for our new designer. The desktop my friend proposed to put together based on an Asus P6t-se, i3 cpu, 1TB 7200rpm harddrive, Asus GT 430 1gb gddr3 videocard and 16gb DDR3 ram about RM1500. I think this is a pretty powerful computer but would a premium branded but used such as Dell Precision 390 with Intel Core 2 Quad processors and 8gb ram plus Radeon HD 4650 1GB is better? It cost me about RM1200. As clone machine are known for their instability also they are noisy.So Im kind lost and any advice you can give would be really great. Thanks

 

[Chrix]

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/570125
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/405/kb405745.html

http://robertoblake.com/blog/2011/07/building-a-photoshop-cs5-computer/

They are from 2010/2011 but gives a good baseline for you to start.

As clone machine are known for their instability also they are noisy.Thanks

My "clone" machine has been running strong since April 08... however the brand new Dell's in my office keeps having hardware failure. The good thing about OEM machine is the warranty.. however DIY PC's costs less (at a certain level). Also most OEM PC's nowadays have their own proprietary form factor, which makes upgrading from off-the-shelf parts almost impossible for certain components, not to mention the shovel/bloat ware that comes pre installed.

I am a little out of touch for the new CPU's & GPU's so I cant give any spec recommendations sorry.

 

[DieselBimmer]

Look like an additional Solid State Drive (SSD) as Dedicated Scratch Disk will help improved the speed. Thanks

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/570125
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/405/kb405745.html

http://robertoblake.com/blog/2011/07/building-a-photoshop-cs5-computer/

They are from 2010/2011 but gives a good baseline for you to start.



My "clone" machine has been running strong since April 08... however the brand new Dell's in my office keeps having hardware failure. The good thing about OEM machine is the warranty.. however DIY PC's costs less (at a certain level). Also most OEM PC's nowadays have their own proprietary form factor, which makes upgrading from off-the-shelf parts almost impossible for certain components, not to mention the shovel/bloat ware that comes pre installed.

I am a little out of touch for the new CPU's & GPU's so I cant give any spec recommendations sorry.

 

[Ecc0]

beware from SSD's as they tend to have total failure without any prior symptoms, what will make you to do safe backup..having said this, it is good idea to use SSD for system files and installations of programs used, so you will gain serious speed increase, but dont throw your data on to SSD's, and just keep them on kevlar discs, in RAID configuration, and you are good to go for many safe hours....

 

[DieselBimmer]

Good tips Ecc0, here another question.

Why CS5 shows max available memory as 3200mb whereas I have 8GB in the Dell?

beware from SSD's as they tend to have total failure without any prior symptoms, what will make you to do safe backup..having said this, it is good idea to use SSD for system files and installations of programs used, so you will gain serious speed increase, but dont throw your data on to SSD's, and just keep them on kevlar discs, in RAID configuration, and you are good to go for many safe hours....

 

[DieselBimmer]

Dont catch what he means

http://robertoblake.com/blog/2011/07/speeding-up-photoshop-cs5/

Optimizing Photoshop (CS5 or otherwise) is something that many designers overlook. Just because you have a great computer to run Photoshop, doesn’t mean you’re taking full advantage of your setup and getting all the speed and power out of it you can. Today I’m going to talk about how you take your Photoshop experience to the next level.

How much RAM can Photoshop use?
Most of you probably think that Photoshop already is using all of your RAM just because you have 4GB or more. It’s not! By default Photoshop is only using 70% of the available RAM (not including RAM needed for the OS). Also depending on whether you are running a 32bit or 64bit version of Photoshop and/or your operating system, will also determine how much RAM Photoshop can use. Here are the RAM specs for Photoshop CS5:

CS5 32 Bit Version, Windows OS 32 Bit Version: Max RAM 1.7 GB
CS5 32 Bit Version, Windows OS 64 Bit Version: Max RAM 3.2 GB
CS5 64 Bit Version, Windows OS 64 Bit Version: Max RAM As Much As Your Computer Has!
CS5 32 Bit Version, Mac OS: Max RAM 2.1
CS5 64 Bit Version, Mac OS: Max RAM As Much As Your Computer Has!
The info above defeats the argument of Mac’s Being Better than PC’s for Graphic Design, also known as the Mac Myth. In a 64 Bit environment it is completely irrelevant and have no baring on performance.

Photoshop Hard Drive and Scratch Disk
Photoshop reads and writes image information while working on an image, the faster the scratch disk or the disk that contains the image, the faster Photoshop can process image information. To improve Photoshop performance, use a disk with a fast data transfer rate, such as an internal hard disk.

If you’re going to use a dedicated scratch disk, (which I highly recommend) the a Solid State Disk (SSD) is your best bet. Their performance and read/write speeds are better than the average Hard Disk and will work even better if you use more than one and setup a RAID 0 array.

Processing Power
Just get a machine with multi-core processors running over 2GHz, 3GHz or higher is best, Dual core is enough but you don’t need more than Quad Core to work with Photoshop, most of its heavy lifting is done in RAM and Hard Disk space and speed.

Notes:
There is an “Efficiency Indicator” in Photoshop toward the bottom left hand corner of the screen. If it displays less than 90% Efficiency try enhancing your performance setting in Edit > Preferences > Performance… this will let you control what Scratch Disk are being used, in what order, and how much RAM Photoshop is using

 

[Ecc0]

..memory is tied to OS paging system, and thats where limit came from, as well as integration with corresponding GPU...bad thing about photoshop is that, it doesnt fully (if at all) utilizing GPU, where you have PLENTY of pure parallel cores optimized for graphics, and instead, Photoshop uses main cpu cores..reason in past was limited amount of memory on GPU side, what is true, and even today, its still not enough for large files used for DTP..so, thats where paging came, related to OS you running your system..memory limit related to OS 32 bit is because system cant adress that much memory for your file paging, Photoshop use and OS at same time..simply, there is not enough 'numbers' in 32Bit scale to adress all those things..thats why you have limit you mentioned..64 bit version can use 'much as you have' because 64 bit scale is way over resources you can possibly plug in to system, right now..simple as it is..so, for use on 64Bit scale, just make sure that you have set it up like on pic below, and you are good to go..

..use SSD for OS, programs you install, etc..keep data on your RAID configuration and you will be happy..

 

[DieselBimmer]

Good good, clearly said.

..memory is tied to OS paging system, and thats where limit came from, as well as integration with corresponding GPU...bad thing about photoshop is that, it doesnt fully (if at all) utilizing GPU, where you have PLENTY of pure parallel cores optimized for graphics, and instead, Photoshop uses main cpu cores..reason in past was limited amount of memory on GPU side, what is true, and even today, its still not enough for large files used for DTP..so, thats where paging came, related to OS you running your system..memory limit related to OS 32 bit is because system cant adress that much memory for your file paging, Photoshop use and OS at same time..simply, there is not enough 'numbers' in 32Bit scale to adress all those things..thats why you have limit you mentioned..64 bit version can use 'much as you have' because 64 bit scale is way over resources you can possibly plug in to system, right now..simple as it is..so, for use on 64Bit scale, just make sure that you have set it up like on pic below, and you are good to go..

..use SSD for OS, programs you install, etc..keep data on your RAID configuration and you will be happy..