Help me spec a photography computer!

zackiedawg

zackiedawg

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Staff member
Knock on wood, my computer's running fine...but it's 6 years old, and I'm bumping up against the capacity of the harddrive soon with all the photos. ; My external backup drives are getting full too - one is already just 1GB more than my photo files as of this evening's backup.

So the inevitable has come, when I know I need to be starting the new computer search. ; I'm not into building my own, as in the other thread - I don't know enough and don't trust it...so I'd rather go with a Dell or somesuch where I can at least spec it out as I need and have it be factory built and warrantied. ; I will be sticking with Windows vs Mac - I just have always used them, and feel comfortable and familiar with them.

Where I need help is in how to build it up, as I'm not a computer tech and don't really know enough about the architecture of these. ; What I do know is how fast I need and that I want lots and lots of security for my photos and other personal files.

I'm thinking that I want 4 drives - each 1TB. ; Ideally, I'd have the operating system and most essential files on one drive (with some media storage overflow), with a second drive being just for media storage. ; Then I want each of those drives to be mirrored to the 3rd and 4th drive in whatever RAID arrangement would be necessary for that (I don't know about RAID numbering). ; That would give me two 1TB mirrored drives. ; I need reasonably fast and good RAM - probably at least 4GB...not sure if I should go 8GB. ; No gaming needs for me - just lots and lots of photo editing and storage, and some basic media streaming and playback. ; Processor? ; No idea what the going speeds are...I've always had Intel chips except for my first computer which was AMD - the AMD was glitchy and the Intels were always problem free, so I lean that direction...unless I should consider otherwise. ; I intend to do external HD backups as well - I always like 3 points for my media storage - so despite the mirrored RAID drives, I like to have an external too. ; I've used USB hookup, but they're slow - I keep hearing about faster ways to hook up external drives for data transfer, so what would I need for that? ; I would only be plugging in the external drive to manually backup every few weeks or so, then unplugging and shutting down - it wouldn't be running full time.

Ideas, advice appreciated! ; I'd love to be under $2K if possible - but I don't know what that type of RAID array would be going for nowadays.

Thanks guys.
 
you can get a 2tb raid 0/1 setup in a box for about $209 (drives included) from b&h. ; i have one and love it.
Click here
 
I like that, especially for my external solution. ; I might even consider going for a system with just two 1TB drives with a raid mirror setup, and maybe something like that unit for the second two drives (also mirrored). ; I'd probably still do a third external manual backup every so often though with a drive that stays cold most of the time.
 
i keep that buffalo drive cold except for when i need it. ; i store my finished and raw files on it, and keep a work folder on my computer. ; my comp. has two internals, the OS & programs drive and a ; 1.5 tb storage drive.
 
Just a few quick thoughts: ; It looks like you have a pretty good idea of what you need. ; I would suggest looking at the Dell Optiplex line. ; They're made for businesses and are a little more robust than the home systems. ; Buy as much RAM and CPU as you can afford; it will keep your system from becoming obsolete for at least two weeks. ; ;)

For an external drive, look for RAID-5 instead of mirroring (RAID-1); it spreads the data across multiple drives. ; I've used a Netgear ; ReadyNAS, which connects via the network. ; (I recommend a Gigabit LAN if you go this route.) ; Others around here recommend Drobo, which is a high-end external drive.

I believe the faster external drive interface you've heard of is eSATA, which is basically a way of hooking up an external drive using the SATA interface used internally. ; Drobo offers this.

Don't understand the acronyms? ; Google is your friend.
 
I don't know much about RAID, but I did buy a DROBO and love it. ; I also use the two hard drive setup in my computers... one for windows and programs only and the other for my files. ; 2TB drives are coming down in price, so I would look at one of those since it will give you plenty of room to grow.

"zackiedawg" said:
I need reasonably fast and good RAM - probably at least 4GB...not sure if I should go 8GB. ; No gaming needs for me - just lots and lots of photo editing and storage, and some basic media streaming and playback. ;
Click to expand...

I like to max out the ram when I buy the machine, but its easy to upgrade it later. ; Just keep in mind that when you upgrade later, you might need to throw out your old ram and put in all new. ; In the past if you bought 2GB of ram, you got 4 sticks of 512MB. ; Since there were only 4 slots in the computer, if you wanted to upgrade, you needed to replace all of it. ; Now some companies will let you specify that you want a certain amount of ram and to only use 2 slots, but in my opinion they overcharge for that.

"zackiedawg" said:
Processor? ; No idea what the going speeds are...I've always had Intel chips except for my first computer which was AMD - the AMD was glitchy and the Intels were always problem free, so I lean that direction...unless I should consider otherwise. ;
Click to expand...

I also prefer Intel... ; I've always used them and never had any problems. ; I don't know what the speeds are now, but I like to buy the one that makes the most sense economically. ; Typically you'll see a couple of levels of processor upgrades for relatively small jumps in price and then a big jump to the next level.

If you use a monitor calibrator or are thinking about getting one and you use two monitors, keep in mind that you can't have separate monitor profiles for each monitor on most video cards[nb]I think there are a few that allow separate profiles, but I'm not sure[/nb]. ; If you want to profile each one separately, you'll need two video cards.
 
jack that bad boy up with all the ram you can get, 24 gb is never too much, i'm using 8 right now with this macbook pro as my home unit, eventually it will get replaced by the desktop, probably the one that allows up to 32gb ram, and i intend to use all of it.and as far as the usb raid hookup, if you only light it up to load photos, set it to do the work and go to bed, who cares if it's slow as long as it's all done by the next day, and done properly
just my .02 worth
 
I didn't even know they go up that high on RAM...shows what I don't know about computers! ; I though 8GB was a lot. ; If I can get it up to 16GB or so, I think I'd be solid for any and all needs for the next 5-10 years anyway. ; I've been working off 1GB for the past 6 years!

I'm torn on the USB hookup thing - I think I like the firewire stuff, but I'm guessing computers don't come with those ports unless specified, so I'd need to make sure to add that to the spec? ; My problem is I am scared to run my backups blind - I just don't trust it to work unless I'm sitting there watching it, ready to jump in if a problem arises.
 
if you go over 4 gigs make sure you use 64 bit windows. 32 bit only uses 3.5 gigs. Tim went 64 bit win 7. he will tell you what a difference it made running 8 gigs of ram with cs4, oh and make sure you editing program can run in 64 bit if you go that route. I use PS elements and it only runs in 32 bit
 
And if you wait 3 weeks, you too can dole out some more money and get CS5!

I wonder if Adobe is going to lock out 5DMk2 files on the old firmware from CS4.... ; ::) [nb]Joke. ; Stemming from Adobe locking out users of PS Elements from doing RAW conversions of modern cameras...unless you upgrade.[/nb]
 
Just one note. ; If you go with an Intel Core i7 CPU you might be able to go with triple threaded memory, which means memory in groups of three instead of two, which, well, means 6 gig makes for a nice moderate total. ; Twelve could get rather pricey, the RAM hasn't come down quite as much in price as I was expecting by now, but 6 at least shouldn't be too bad.

I recommend an i7 CPU. ; It's probably more power than you absolutely need, but in a few years when you've upgraded cameras again and are taking 47 megapixel images (I'm kidding, but the way things are going you never know) you'll be glad to have the extra number crunching power.

Add in the possibility of doing HD video editing and such in the future and it's nice to have some extra power ready to be put to use in the future.

HD video files really are a bear to work with. ; My laptop can barely play the files my camera shoots, using the quicktime player it's too slow, but a free player called Video Lan Client (VLC) is able to play them smoothly with a few setting tweaks. ; Outputting an edited movie (on my quad core desktop) can take quite a while too, my experiments thus far have been kind of stunted because of how long it takes to output the finished product and compress it.
 
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