Toronto Photography Meetup Group

I have a pentium 4 ~2.8 GHz CPU that I'd like to upgrade - ideally I want to replace and reuse the most as over time, I've upgraded the video card, HDD and monitor. My question is does it make sense to buy a new motherboard, cpu and ram (and likely power supply) separately (I have an extra brand new license for XP Pro that I can use) or should I just go and buy something pre-built and rely on the manufacturers economies of scale?

Also what processor speed and ram combos should I be looking for (just want it to be able to keep up with LR2, and perhaps as I dabble into video editing...

I would recommend to anyone technically inclined to build their own as there is always a savings over the big manufactured computers. However, probably due to the economy, the big guys have had some good sale prices.

Entry Level
Build $ > Prebuilt $

Middle of the Pack
Build $ < Prebuilt $

High End
Build $ is often less than half of the big guys.

That all being said, a major advantage of building your own is you will end up with much higher quality components and you can spend your budget on the parts that are important to you.

A great setup I've built probably 4 times in the last 2 months for budget minded people that still wanted good performance included:

Asus P5QL-Pro motherboard - $94.99
Intel E7400 - $132.99 or E8400 - $193.99
4 GB of 1066 (PC2-8500) Ram - $99.99 (or if your running 64 bit windows 8GB)

I'm in a similar computer scenario.

Come Oct 22, I'm replacing it outright.

Thanks James but I'm going to stick with PC for now.

Hotwire, what happens Oct 22 (or is that a personal thing)

GrantH, would I need to pick up a new powersupply for this motherboard (I think I have a 300W powersupply but it's circa 2005 so I'm wondering if it'll even connect to the new MB. Thanks for the advice everyone.

If you got $$$, I'd look at building a i7 system!

oct 22 is the windows 7 release date

You need a good power supply. 300W is so 2004.

LOL

circa 2002

heh heh

2004 I was already running a 500

I replaced my winXP p43.0ghz machine with:

Windows 7 RTM
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping Quad Core Processor
2x1TB SATA2 WD Blacks running as RAID1
1x1TB SATA2 WD Black as normal config
EVGA E-GEFORCE GTX 260
Corsair XMS3 TR3X6G1600C8 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600

By the way, Windows 7 runs great. Then again, I've never had any problems with any Windows that I've used. If you build your own machine (with good hardware), you never have a problem with Windows.

i need to stop drooling now...

thanks WsH

heh heh

LOL I know what you mean. I was in awe with CS4 and just kept zooming in and out of my photos. hahahaha. it is sooo fast.

i bet it just crushes through CS4 and LR... I've already made a 2.0ghz Centrino2, 3gb ram, 300gb HDD laptop choke in LR.

I have computer ENVY

heh ehh

Since power supplies are one of the components with a high failure rate, and a new 500 watt would only cost you $30 or $40 I would replace it. Not to mention 300 watt would not be powerful enough for a decent video card. The new i7's are great if they're in your budget.

Oh right. Forgot about the PSU. You should get at least 1000W to cover everything. The new video cards suck up a lot of power, and if you plan to get an SLI config, then you will need double the power.

Hmmm... methinks the i7 looks nice, but I think I'll save some of that dough and set it aside for my next body upgrade... I get the feeling that technology and depreciation between camera gear (at least bodies) and computer gear is starting to line up.

It's been like that a while already. In fact, somebody south of the border bought a used 5DMrkII from Samy's in the US for $1200USD. Yes, $1200USD. Serial number was checked with Canon and no red flags and the serial number not even registered yet. Talk about scoring an awesome deal.

that's because it was a canon.

baa-dump-dum

1000W is overkill unless you are running SLI.

Forget Vista if anyone is thinking of upgrading go mac .. You wont regret it for photos.. Or wait .. Vista is garbage I bought a laptop and reloaded xp on to it Damn windows!

Why the wait? PM me if you need the disc. It is free and legit until Next March. The RC Win 7 is even better than both Vista & WinXP . My netbook has a slow CPU & 1 G of ram. Running the 32 bit RC has zero issue at all. Everything works like a charm


Daniel

I'd wait for the RTM unless you're willing to do a reinstall again at a later time. MS doesn't support a RC to RTM in-place upgrade but have read that it is possible. Plus there are a few things that I use that are not compatible with Win7 at this time.

Funny that. Some of us have been using Vista for several years and have done so without any problems whatsoever. In fact, I can safely say that up until Windows 7, Vista has been the most stable Windows I've used; even more so than XP.

It all boils down to running it on the right hardware.

Sorry, worded things funny. I meant if you want an SLI config, you'd want 1000W. And I did not mean you need 2KW for SLI lol.

Amen that, brother. Good hardware and stable drivers are the fundation of a good system. Crappy hardware drivers are the main cause of crashes. I find Vista to be extremely stable, but I don't install all sorts of @#$% on my computer.

Yup, and that's precisely why "Macs are stable". Since Apple controls both the hardware and software side of things, they ensure that the hardware they use is good and obivously, supported by their software.

Unfortunately, it certainly is the case that many people have been exposed to cheap systems with crappy hardware (that come with crappy drivers) from many PC manufacturers.

+1

ie: $400 Dells

Don't know about other models, but I have been using Dell Workstations (currently dual Xeon Precision) for the last 10 years, and they are rock solid.

That's my plan... just haven't started laying it out. Considering buying a dell or something I don't have to build myself from scratch.

And maybe between now and Oct 22, there could be a cost savings if hardware goes down a bit in price.

I build all my computers (plus a few for friends). I had Vista on this current machine and ran into issues (drivers, colour managent problems, speed). I resorted back to XP Pro and have only had BSOD a couple of times, but nothing in over a year and a bit.

I'm itching to upgrade my system to though ... I just love building systems. I'm not a nerd, I don't care what those girls say!

Tanner,

What's "RTM" and "RC"?

Thx,

Sabesh.