Building my friend an AM3 system...

mobo M4a89X Deluxe asus

CPU 1055T

500GB HD 50 WD Black 500GB

4GB RAM Ripjaws 1600 Cas7

Video card GTX560Ti

Case Antec 300

TX 850 corsair

win 7 64

asus dvd rw

1014

My friend wants a $1000 config that will be used mainly for graphic work. Mainly photoshop.

This is our starting point. As budget permits another 4GB of RAM will be added then an SSD then improved GPU either through SLI or a superior single slot solution.

If you have a better idea please let me know. I know Sandybridge is much better suited to this.. somewhat uncomfortable buying a known issue down the road. Will look into it though as SB boards are still ALL available up here for some reason.

I'll see how he feels about the price difference

OK so, we settled on CAS 7. Gotta do what they want when its for someone else.

Went to the 89X deluxe board.

This is the final config (edited first post)

Good build, although most of the time people do not end up doing SLI unless they SLI to begin with.

SB boards will not be available for most consumers until late March, early April. Shortly after it comes up there will also be a shortage immediately.

I know. I can get all the SB stuff up here. Thing is, as this will be a business machine, I'm not sure it's worth while to buy a potential issue down the road. I've described the SB issue to him and said that regardless I still feel the 2500K is a better performer in this price zone. He's not comfortable with the potential issue. Neither am I. I'm still looking into it. I'm putting this together and buying the parts in about five or six hours.

The SB issue is only on the SATA 3GB ports right? Or no? I imagine it'd have to be as AFAIK the 6GB ports are on a seperate controller or is that just the USB 3..
?

He wants the most rendering power possible. I've explained that SLI 560Ti's do not a GTX580 make but this is how he wants to do it. He needs the system NOW and he needs it to be better 2 months from now. Not my $ .
That's why the 850W PSU is there.

Yes, sata ports 2-6 are potential problems - which are the sata 2, 3 gb ports. Ports 0-1 are fine, but if you have a dvd drive and harddrive, that takes up both of those already. If he only plans on using one hard drive the entire time, it will be fine.

On top of that intel states the chances of drive degradation are only 5%(although I have a feeling it is higher). And you will not notice it until 2-3 years. So realistically it is worth the gamble.

That's what I understood of it too. I think I'll suggest to him that it's worth the extra $40.

The Sandy Bridge issue is that over time the SATA 2 ports will have degraded performance. SATA 3 is unaffected. Also getting 8gb CAS 9 would be a lot better than getting 4gb of CAS 7. I went from 1600mhz to 2300mhz and I feel no difference so it's worth it to get more RAM. Photoshop doesn't require such a powerful gaming graphics card and CPU in my opinion. When I use it it renders a raw 15 mega pixel photo in two seconds max. When I render 1080p video, that's where all the muscles of my machine are flexed and a lot of the time Sony Vegas says it runs out of RAM and dies on me.
If your friend wants to be future proof then he should wait for Bull Dozer CPU's from AMD as they will have a completely new architecture and some 8 core CPU's. Sandy Bridge is a good amount faster but again useful if you are doing video rendering and file compressing. 6 cores will be enough for Photoshop and why do you need more powerful graphics card? It's only useful in video games. If anything you should be getting a Quadro card not Geforce.
Get this RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428 and right now you can get $15 so it will only be $85. Much better than getting faster 4gb RAM.

So am I misinterpreting photoshop's reliance on GPU? Can I get away with, say, 5770 and take that $100 towards better cooling and 8GB of RAM thus increasing CPU speed and RAM size? That's better suited to photoshop?

^ Yes you can.

And just to be 200% sure ANY 3Gig sata device works on any 6Gig sata port yes? So a 500GB WD black Sata 3Gig for example will work on ports 0/1

CS5 does use hardware acceleration...

As far as the SB issue, plug all your drives into the SATA 3 ports, problem solved/will never happen. Most boards have at least two which leaves a port free. If the board you select has 4 sata 3 then you have 5 ports the problem will never happen with. Then he can just get a FULLY functional board down the road.

I dont understand how going from 4-8gb of ram will increase CPU speed though... or did I read that wrong.

no the 8GB of RAM is about 4 extra GB of RAM. I know it uses HW acceleration, the question is what level of HW does it actually NEED. I went to a 6850 from a GTX560. In Photoshop terms isn't that like going from a nuke to a slightly smaller nuke?

Im not sure. I would google CS5 and hardware acceleration and see.

Been doing that kinda stuff all day... The system recs for CS5 from Adobe are fairly pedestrian...

Frig. K it only does CUDA... GTX560 it is...

Right, its CUDA. YOu can see in reviews of the CARDS its performance in CS5. Sad thing is, I dont know which reviews have it so you will have to continue on your quest I suppose.

Well it says it supports the GTX295, so I'm assuming it supports fermi too... I don't see why it wouldn't.. Anyways...

long story short I went to a crapp range Corsair PSU and 4GB of not too good RAM and went with the GTX 560... cuzz it HAAAAS to be under 1000...

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_722&item_id=035608
UD3 1155 130

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=4_65&item_id=035530
2500K 235


http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_559&item_id=036039
GTX 560 260

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=6_112&item_id=018460
Case 59

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=39_530&item_id=026488
windows 109

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=3_61&item_id=029356
Optical 29

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=15_210_212&item_id=020449
HD 49

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=24_311_312_612&item_id=025353
Ram 55

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=33_442&item_id=033718
PSU 60

990

The 2500k isn't really better than a 6 core AMD system. The 2600k is where the action is because of Hyper Threading. Also if your friend is a TRUE photo shopper then he'll probably want to get a workstation graphics card. Unless if he is gaming then he wouldn't need anything more than a GTS 450 or even cheaper. GTX 580 will not help you anymore in photoshop then a GTS 450. When you are gaming it will. If your friend games, then keep the GTX 560 Ti, if he doesn't, then get a GTS 450 (which is still decent for gaming), 8gb RAM which Photoshop usually needs, and the 2600k which is greatly faster than a 2500k.

Too late. Had already built it. There she blows.. Cooler etc coming soon. Not up to my usual wiring standard...



was surrounded by idiots. Couldn't think. 3am...

This config is good for my friend. Another 4GB of RAM is coming next week, and he likes to play newer games like SC2, BC2, etc and no doubt would enjoy metro 2033 and the like.

The performance of that GTX 560 for the price is A M A Z I N G. STOMPS my 6870.