Is this build unbalanced in any way?

[DaedalusHelios]

removed

 

[lemonadesoda]

Yes, large illustrator and photoshop work requires more than 2GB ram, or the pagefile will be accessed a lot, and slow things down. If more than one graphics document is being worked on at the same time, this will hammer performance with all the disk swapping.

Therefore, go 4GB or higher.

BUT if 4GB+, Vista 32 will hold you back.

Therefore, go 64bit.

The CPU is fine for illustrator. If you friend wants to do a lot of "workflow" activity on many photos then go quad core. (Just the cheapest or second hand). Applying filters or doing workflow is very much aided by extra cores.

Why firewire? Is this for a digital camera or video? If video work, go quad for sure.

LCD monitor is an issue. If pro work, then a TFT with color calibration is required. If not pro work, a hires monitor is still needed for photo work otherwise half you time is spent zooming. There is a report somewhere that looks at the efficiency of 1920x1200 > 1600x1200 > 1680x1050 > 1280 x 1024.

He needs 1920x1200 OR 2x 1600x1200 OR the new samsung 2048x1152.

Get him an apple alu keyboard. They are pretty cool on a PC.

Everything else is fine.

 

[Deleted member 38767]

I think 6-8GB will be better. My room mate is using that software and 4GB are not enough some times.
Also change the MB and the CPU. E2140 is a old piece of hardware and I think the chipset of the MB is a multimedia one. Get some Core 2 Duo CPU and P35-P45 chipset MB.

 

[kysg]

This is true going to need more RAM, possibly vista 64 if he does anything in photoshop. Also depending on the processor may need a better power supply.

and for the monitor this should steer him in the right direction.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236051

if not that you can dig through newegg and look for monitors that hit 1080p, most are 21.5 inch.
Or you can drop an extra 50 bucks and get a 24 inch monitor.

 

[lemonadesoda]

^ resolution too low for pro graphics work. This PC isnt for gaming for watching BluRay movies.

 

[kysg]

dude lay off you know you don't need a 30 inch monitor for pro graphics work wait nvm I forgot nvm I better put a lid on it before you go off on an awful rant.

 

[phanbuey]

psu will be fine... this is clearly an ultra-budget build... nice HDD, would need more RAM also grab 64-bit home premium unless he needs "ultimate"

are you overclocking it a bit (nothing crazy - just to gain performance?)?

EDIT: if you do get the 32bit OS just use the key and install 64 bit, i can mail u an extra 64bit CD or you can DL from microsoft.

 

[lemonadesoda]

^ despite that kysg looks like another egg spam bot, (OMG arent there a lot of then on the net) his suggested TFT might be worth looking at. It's a 1920x1080 screen. A 1920x1200 is far better (room for all those illustrator toolbars etc), or a double monitor set up 1600x1200 or the new Samsung 2048x1152. But the 16:9@1080 y is worth considering,

But make sure that image quality is VERY HIGH, and isnt just focusing on gamer "speeds" and "auto gammas".

We had a couple of Samsung SyncMaster Ts214's (which are good) and just replaced them with XL20's (which are pro). The difference is truly outstanding. We had done a lot of color editing on the Ts214's... improving color balance etc. But sticking the same pictures in to the XL20's showed that we have *overcorrected* sometimes making the colors worse than the originals.

If your friend is doing design for fun, then go cheap. If he is a pro photo/color editor, you will need to spend more on the TFT with a proper color calibrator... probably was much as the PC itself. Your call. Look up the XL20 XL24 XL30 for specs and info just to compare. But OMG they are expensive.

 

[phanbuey]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157146 << better board with 8GB memory support and a bit of OC support (1600FSB)

 

[kysg]

^ despite that kysg looks like another egg spam bot, (OMG arent there a lot of then on the net) his suggested TFT might be worth looking at. It's a 1920x1080 screen. A 1920x1200 is far better (room for all those illustrator toolbars etc), or a double monitor set up 1600x1200 or the new Samsung 2048x1152. But the 16:9@1080 y is worth considering,

But make sure that image quality is VERY HIGH, and isnt just focusing on gamer "speeds" and "auto gammas".

We had a couple of Samsung SyncMaster Ts214's (which are good) and just replaced them with XL20's (which are pro). The difference is truly outstanding. We had done a lot of color editing on the Ts214's... improving color balance etc. But sticking the same pictures in to the XL20's showed that we have *overcorrected* sometimes making the colors worse than the originals.

If your friend is doing design for fun, then go cheap. If he is a pro photo/color editor, you will need to spend more on the TFT with a proper color calibrator... probably was much as the PC itself. Your call. Look up the XL20 XL24 XL30 for specs and info just to compare. But OMG they are expensive.

You know I was trying not to bring up that very point that it might be expensive to go that route and get dbl monitors or a very high end one when indeed it may cost more than the pc itself, but like I said I'm gonna chill out because You pro graphics guys sometimes get overly picky about stuff sometimes but its the OP's money so he can make the call

 

[DaedalusHelios]

I stated the monitor, keyboard, and mouse were a non issue because he already has a 30" apple display and a monitor to the side for tool bars so I am not really worried about that. I was worried if there were any conflicts with the system configuration I might see like the PSU not handling the load. The processor will most likely handle what they do fine because he has an stock clocked E2200 in another computer and its running faster than the older Apple he was using. He actually told me a quad would be overkill since the E2200 was handling it fine. The E2140 will be clocked to 3.0Ghz without a voltage bump as it has been running in another system.

Thank you all for the answers.
1. I guess my real question now is will I have is the PSU die in the next 3 years?

2. Also will the motherboard support OC? If not I might now pick up the one that somebody just suggested in this thread.

 

[spearman914]

If he only uses Photoshop then get 4 GB + , Vista 64-bit and a better hdd because photoshop uses page file a lot!!!

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184

 

[DaedalusHelios]

Better hard drive? The 7200.11 series is known to be really good. Or is there something about them I missed?

The largest photoshop files he works with are 500mb so it shouldn't need more RAM should it? Or does it use that much ram per operation? The step backward function pulls from Hard Drive and not RAM right? It definately does on Mac.

 

[LittleLizard]

exchange the 3850 for a 4670, same performance, more features, less energy

 

[DaedalusHelios]

exchange the 3850 for a 4670, same performance, more features, less energy

Good point.

But I got the 3850 256mb for free.

So thats the best price.

And I know the PSU is important. I was just wondering if rosewill PSU's like the one in the case was known to be bad. I had an ultra a long time ago and it fried and a POW USA that lit on fire. It never took components with it though so I guess I am really lucky. I use the Power supply calculator to get a rough idea of total load before configurations but I don't always read reviews to see if something is good before buying everything. Cheap PSU's are notorious with being rated at a higher wattage than they can really handle.