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since building my last computer in 2007 I haven't really looked at improvements in processors, motherboards and hard drives so I'd appreciate some advice on re-building the system as I'm getting seriously bored waiting for panos to render lol.
The new system will be use primarily for photography and image processing.
Firstly I'm currently running this spec:
# ASUS Striker SLI Extreme motherboard
# Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad QX6850 CPU with Asus Silent Square CPU cooler
# 4 x OCZ 1GB PC2-8500 1066MHz DDR2 RAM
# 2 x XFX GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB DDR3 1.8Ghz
# 1 x BFG Ageia PhysX Accelerator PPU
# 2 x WD Raptor 150GB SATA II running in Raid 0 as primary drive
# 2 x Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA II for on board storage
# 1 x 4Tb Networked HD server in running Raid 5 for secure storage plus other offline back up drives
# OS is Vista Ultimate 64bit
The new PC will be running Vista 64bit or Win7 and I won't be considering Macs as I'm too old to change 
and I'll reuse the ThermalTake case, 1100w psu and GeForce cards.
Any thoughts on motherboards/hard drives to give me a significant speed improvement over the old system using the Intel i7 930 CPU as its processor.
regards
Kev
Last edited by Photosbykev (2010-03-10 19:44:52)
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what's your price / performance goal?
IMO, what you have is fine, just get a new MB, CPU and DDR3 RAM. Look out for how the RAM is registered, some combinations of memory force the i7 to use the memory bus at 800 MHz regardless of how fast the RAM is. If the disk controller is on the MB, make sure it is SATA 6Gb capable so you can later add faster drives.
You can get marginally faster disks, and get them at twice the size you now use. The only significant performance increase would be to use either an SSD or a RamDrive.
Go with Win7 - 64 bit. It seems faster and better behaved than Vista.
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hankkarl wrote:
what's your price / performance goal?
IMO, what you have is fine, just get a new MB, CPU and DDR3 RAM. Look out for how the RAM is registered, some combinations of memory force the i7 to use the memory bus at 800 MHz regardless of how fast the RAM is. If the disk controller is on the MB, make sure it is SATA 6Gb capable so you can later add faster drives.
You can get marginally faster disks, and get them at twice the size you now use. The only significant performance increase would be to use either an SSD or a RamDrive.
Go with Win7 - 64 bit. It seems faster and better behaved than Vista.
"Look out for how the RAM is registered, some combinations of memory force the i7 to use the memory bus at 800 MHz regardless of how fast the RAM is" even that simple fact I was unware of thank you I was thinking of getting some Corsair 1600Mhz sticks am I right in thinking banks of 3 sticks gives the optimum performance or is that a bad combination? I would probably fill it with 12Gb of ram.
In terms of performance I want the PC to be good enough for say the next 3 years. Price isn't a real issue but I don't intend playing with watercooled etc. So probably a Gigabyte board, but I've no idea what one lol and I'll probably budget for a couple of new drives for inside the PC. I did have a 60Gb SSD as primary drive until it died end of last year.
Would this combination be ok http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu … =BU-043-OE note: I won't be buying from OCers their customer service is non-existent but the spec sounds ok
This board is Sata III so would be more future proof I think? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu … ubcat=1692
Last edited by Photosbykev (2010-03-10 21:17:31)
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Whaaaaaaaaaa? "old system using the Intel i7 930 CPU"
i7 930 is old? What kind of work are you doing on that machine???
What I would do is just stay with the Intel i7 930, which is a great CPU and just add as much RAM as your current MB supports. 16 or 32GB. And spend money on IBM X52M drive for OS, while using the Raptors for temp/rendering space.
You should wait for more SATA 6gbps (called SATA 3.0) mobos and drives to appear, give it 3-6 months to settle, controllers get perfected, drivers get better. Actually, I'm waiting for that to happen myself, so I can upgrade my two Q6600 systems.
And use W7x64, much better memory management than Vista, I speak from experience.
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slight confusion there bo my current system has a Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad QX6850 CPU I want to upgrade to the i7 930
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Sorry, I meant "rank" not "registered" but the concepts are similar.
With Nehalem Xeon, see http://community.edc.intel.com/t5/Hardw … /bc-p/2347 where it says The Nehalem IMC automatically switches to DDR3-800 mode when configured for more than four memory ranks (8 Gbytes) per memory channel regardless of the attached DIMMs’ speed ratings.
This probably affects the i7-900 series, as that is a Nehalem architecture also.
So the OP should make sure to get single or dual rank modules.
Don't get too wrapped up in RAM speed, it doesn't seem to matter a lot -- see http://hothardware.com/Articles/Triple- … 7/?page=12 and http://www.techspot.com/article/131-int … age15.html
Thinking about this a bit, it may be that the on-processor cache causes the off-processor RAM speed to not matter as much. However, APP may be different from lots of other applications because it uses such large files. It could be that no existing amount of processor cache is enough for APP (after all, our source images are 12 Mpixel and bigger, and there aren't many processors that have even 12MB cache.)
Last edited by hankkarl (2010-03-11 15:49:06)
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hankkarl wrote:
BTW, Bo you should probably move this to the Hardware category.
soory I didn't realise there was a hardware category 
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Update:
I've put together the following system:
Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate
i7 930 2.8Ghz cpu running at 4Ghz on a Gigabyte UD3R motherboard.
6 Gb of Corsair 1600Mhz tri channel memory
120Gb SSD for the OS
2 x Seagate 2TB Sata 3 HDD for data
2 x 150Gb Raptors in Raid 0 for temp storage
I kept the original two XFX GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB DDR3 1.8Ghz SLI graphics card, didn't see a real reason to change them (yet)
it's a bit quick it should do for another 3 years lol
Last edited by Photosbykev (2010-03-17 17:25:19)
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the ultimate ist waste of money. the prof does the same for less money (for panorama making tasks....)
Liebe Gruesse,
Georg
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gkaefer wrote:
the ultimate ist waste of money. the prof does the same for less money (for panorama making tasks....)
Liebe Gruesse,
Georg
Not when the 64-bit Ultimate version cost me £57 for the upgrade version
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Photosbykev wrote:
gkaefer wrote:
the ultimate ist waste of money. the prof does the same for less money (for panorama making tasks....)
Liebe Gruesse,
GeorgNot when the 64-bit Ultimate version cost me £57 for the upgrade version
;-) ok did not see your vista 64...
Georg
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gkaefer wrote:
the ultimate ist waste of money. the prof does the same for less money (for panorama making tasks....)
Liebe Gruesse,
Georg
Ultimate offers some data encryption, so if you're on a laptop, it may be worth it. I got it because it was only $50 more than Professional.
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Hello all,
Photosbykevs Computer is done, now mine is next 
Current System:
Intel core 2 - 2,2 Ghz, 4G Ram, ATI 1950Pro, compatible PSU.
WinXP
Goal:
I want to keep the Case, ATI and HDDs. They are good enough, respectively possible to change later.
Pricegoal: as cheap as possible.
@this time in my Head: AMD 955 BE, Mainboard, RAM, matching PSU. Price:around 400€ adding Win7 64
What Do you think? What would you do?
Sorry, speaking English terrible.
regards
Martin
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Take a good look at the i7 or other intel Nehalam processor. Right now, the beat AMD in a major way.
Don't see the 995 here http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html but you may see something close to it.
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I concur, right now it's best to get i7, like i7-860 or other quad-core. Get at least another 4 gigs of RAM and use the computer upgrade as an opportunity to move to Windows 7 x64. Be on the lookout for MB that has USB 3.0 and SATA 6gbps (SATA 3.0). That should do it
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[bo] wrote:
I concur, right now it's best to get i7, like i7-860 or other quad-core. Get at least another 4 gigs of RAM and use the computer upgrade as an opportunity to move to Windows 7 x64. Be on the lookout for MB that has USB 3.0 and SATA 6gbps (SATA 3.0). That should do it
I ended up with the Gigabyte UD3R motherboard with the i7-930 on it which is watercooled with a Corsair H50-1 cooler. Overclocked to 4Ghz and very stable and cold. I'm sat on 6Gb (3 x 2Gb 1600Mhz tri channel) until I can get an update to 12Gb with the same overclocking.
The motherboard has Sata-3, USB 3, Raid etc
I would comment that I've had two replacement SSD drives that have failed, in under a week, so I gave up on them for now and installed a 2 x Velociraptor 300Gb for the OS on Raid 0
Last edited by Photosbykev (2010-03-20 13:38:22)
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Thanks for your answers.
Hm, nehalem 860 and else are @ around 260€, only CPU. 8Gigs of Ram, Mainboard, PSU, Win7 x64 .... puh, this will become to expensive
I dont want and cant spend more than 500€, w7x64 included.
Iam using the Computer for some spheric panoramas with Fisheye up to 10 Pics, Tours with APT and photo editing.
Iam not a professional who doing 20 Panoramas a day. This is not the Goal.
by way of comparison:
Producing the Panorama takes with current System around 1,5 to 2 hours.
This means, converting the 10 .nefs (Nikon RAW) to .tiff with CNX2, setting alpha channels to mask the NodalNinja and Tripod etc. with PS, stitching the tiffs with AutopanoGiga and prepare the flash with APT.
Do you know the Mirrorball action for PS on the Web. My Computer ist doing this PS Action in about 10 minutes 
What i want is only a little faster processing, primarily the job with Capture NX2 and Autopano Giga should getting much faster.
There is no time problem with APT or PS, doing the job pretty fast. If there is a problem, then in front of the Computer.
So, new Question: Is it possible to speed up significantly with a mainstream system like Core I5 750 or AMD PII X4 965(955)/4Gigs ram/w7x64 ?
According to some Benchmarks @ the web the AMD 965/955 will not be noteable slower than the I5 750.
Later, of course, it will be possible to get some more RAM for the Computer. Iam thinking about additional 8 Gigs of Ram in 2 or 3 Months.
But now i want to purchase the Platform.
If your experience with APG speaking other words (in case of AMDvsIntel) i will accept this and get a i5 750.
Thanks for your patience.
Last edited by MaGue (2010-03-20 14:36:31)
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[bo] wrote:
I concur, right now it's best to get i7, like i7-860 or other quad-core. Get at least another 4 gigs of RAM and use the computer upgrade as an opportunity to move to Windows 7 x64. Be on the lookout for MB that has USB 3.0 and SATA 6gbps (SATA 3.0). That should do it
IIRC, the i7-9xx series has triple channel RAM, the i7-860 has a different RAM access method that only uses two channels.
I suspect that most of the benchmarks out there don't take this into account because the cache on the i7 is so big. That is, memory speed (800MHz vs 1600MHz) doesn't seem to affect the benchmarks a lot. APP, on the other hand, swaps from disk a lot, so main memory speed (and number of channels) may or may not be as important. I guess if you have lots of RAM, and don't need to go to disk (or have a RAM disk) it will matter, and three channels will be much faster than two.
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MaGue wrote:
Thanks for your answers.
Hm, nehalem 860 and else are @ around 260€, only CPU. 8Gigs of Ram, Mainboard, PSU, Win7 x64 .... puh, this will become to expensive
I dont want and cant spend more than 500€, w7x64 included.
How long will your system last? One solution is to get the cheapest processor from the i5/i7 line and upgrade it later when the price of the high end processors come down.
The i5 is a new family, what about the AMD series you are using? AMD should come out with an answer to i5/i7 but will it be socket compatible with the processor you will buy now?
BTW, DDR3 is about as cheap as DDR2 last I looked, and DDR3 is a lot faster.
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you can get a I7 920 3GB triple channel 1000GB HD Nvidia GT120 1GB GDDR3 Win 64 for 599.-
Packard Bell iXtreme 7610
mailorder www.otto.de
imho it is a very good offer
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Well, since MaGue has the case, disks, etc perhaps something like this http://www.ascendtech.us/customkititems … ECSX58B920 will help.
Its a ECS X58B-A2 motherboard w/CORE i7 920 & 1GB DDR3 package. And it includes the fan. More RAM is cheap, lots of upgrades to get to a really nice system.
Cost is US$484.71 plus shipping and taxes. And the 400 euro price equals US$541 today, so you can get a few extras with that kit.
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Thanks for your response. 
Its done. In Germany we say, "i was jumping over my shadow"
I have trusted the Benchmarks I5/750 vs I7/860 or 920 on the net and now i own a new Computer, Core I5/750, 6 Gigs of Ram, 1TB Hdd, stuff..(esata!), Win7x64.
It was a little bit more expensive than only Mobo, CPu, RAM, PsU and Windows with same configuration - but less stress and a lot of additional good Office Software.
The speed with Nikon Capture NX, ViewNX and some other Software is (compared to the old c2D 2.2 Ghz/4G/XP) incredible.
APG not testet yet, maybe this evening i'll do some tests.
The difference between USB2.0 and the build in esata connector to do the backups is awesome too.
Till now, imho a good choice.
Later this year some additional RAM, 4 or 8 Gigs will follow.
Last edited by MaGue (2010-03-22 11:40:06)
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The time to produce one Spheric Pano has decreased incredibly.
The past two evenings i did some Panos in around 25 Minutes per Pano.
Including post editing the .nef's in CNX2 and convert to 16bit tiff, Alpha masking, Rendering the 2:1 and making a .swf 
If anybody thinking about to buy a Mainstream PC for Autopano and photo editing, i can recommend that.
With the new intel core I5/750, 6Gig Ram, nice Graphics card and W7x64 you will get a powerful Machine to do Spheric panoramas with Fisheye lenses.
But, it is possible that Smartblend only uses one core?
Last edited by MaGue (2010-03-24 09:10:43)
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