Camera Labs

...and Intel delivers!

Intel has a new Xeon chip and board out marketed towards the Gamer market, but boy oh boy is it fast enough for anything else!

2 x Quad Core (Penryn-based 45nm) Xeon w/12Mb L2 Cache (24Mb total)

4Gb DDR2-800 (2x2Gb)

"Quad-SLI" - Although it looks like 2 Geforce 8800GTX's, perhaps 2 8850G2X's or 8800G2X's?

Either way the amount you can push it above Intels specs is pretty nice. 4Ghz from 3.4Ghz is a respectable overclock from Intel, obviously it can be clocked higher with better equitment and a little modifications.

Here are my ideas to make this insane system even faster!

2 x Quad Core (45nm) Xeon w/12Mb L2 Cache @ 4.4Ghz
8Gb DDR3-1667Mhz CL5.0 QUAD CHANNEL (4x2Gb in Quad Channel)
2 x 8800G2X / 8850G2X (Quad SLI? There is no mention of the actual cards)
Water/Compressor cool the CPU's, voltage regulators and north and sothbridge to achieve stable overclock of CPU

Now clearly that is going to handle any game, but how does it handle 22Mp RAW Images from a 1DsMkIII

But - The question is...can it play Doom? (

doom 1 for those who think im semi-serioius and mean doom 3 lol - the question is thing is an internet joke if you didn't get it!)

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Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
Canon Speedlite 580EX II + Canon Speedlite 540EZ + 2 x Nikon SB-80DX
Cactus V2s Wireless Trigger - 5 x Cactus V2s Wireless Reciever

MY FLICKR!

Nice spec! I'm currently playing with 4 and 6GB of RAM under Vista 64 at the moment, and finding Photoshop can benefit from it even though it's a 32-bit application... I'll post more in another section...

If iam right.

Does not Vista only support up to 3.5bg of RAM?..

Im pretty sure it does

Jay

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Nikon D80 | Nikkor 18-200mm VR | SB-600 | Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW | ML-L3 | Bits'N'Bobs |

Vista supports more than that but only 64 bit Vista will recognise 4gb or more ram. Vista only recognises 3.5 if you use the 32 bit version. Same goes for XP.

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Graham
Flickr

Nice, but remember that most applications only use 1 core and the rest will be idle. Photoshop is an exception and there are a few more exceptions, but not many. Most games use only one core.

Hans

Yep, I'm running 64-bit Vista Ultimate which can support 128GB (or more) - so long as you can find a motherboard which can accommodate that! Mine can handle up to 8GB, but I've 'only' got 6 in there at the moment.

32-bit apps may only be able to see much less RAM, but when they go to virtual memory, Vista can effectively use RAM instead. So there are benefits to running 32-bit apps like Photoshop under Vista 64 with lots of RAM.

Those are some pretty high end specs. How much would a system like that cost?

On another note. If I wanted to buy a new machine is it necessary to have a really high end graphics card? I'm not a gamer so the main purpose for me is to have a good Photoshop workstation.

Thanks.

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Leica M9, Nikon D300s, Leica X1, Canon S95, Zero Image 6x9

As long as you stay 2D, Steve, you don't need a fast card.
But with Vista approaching many desktops, it pays not to have the most shabby card inside, as Vista loves to make a 3D-elephant out of a moskito

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for the info about the video card. I'm not going to be gaming so I guess that means I'll be sticking to the 2D world for a while.

btw - I did a job with the D200 and 18-200VR and loved the way they worked together. The D200 has great ergonomics and the 18-200VR performs very well for 10x super-zoom. It makes a perfect travel lens set up.

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Leica M9, Nikon D300s, Leica X1, Canon S95, Zero Image 6x9

You shouldn't be saying this
You are a Canon owner
Stay firmly in your camp and don't mess around with my toys
-----------
May I repeat your post in the Canon-forum

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I know what I said sounds like blasphemy, but why would I want to limit myself to just one make? My stance is this: If someone gives me equipment to get a job done then I'll shoot with what ever is in my hands at the time. Here's something that will completely blow your mind...I have a MacBook and a PC on my desk. Talk about a mixed up person I also like both Coke and Pepsi.

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Leica M9, Nikon D300s, Leica X1, Canon S95, Zero Image 6x9

haha im just like you

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Nikon D40 + 18-135
My Flickr.

Well Steve, it's always good to have open minded people like you on a forum!
The analogy to Mac vs. PC is really fitting to the Canon vs. Nikon debate only that there are still more relevant players in the camera-market than in the OS market. But the barrier to switch in the computer market can be quite substantial, if you have invested in SW that run's only on a PC or a Mac. So that's quite similar to a massive investment in lenses, although I suspect that the price for a good collection of lenses can be substantially higher than a good collection of software
but the Coke vs. Pepsi is a very different thing: There is no entry-barrier into one or the other camp

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Hi Steve, about the graphics card - Thomas is right, the major benefit of a top end graphics card is top-end 3D performance, which strictly isn't needed for 2D work.

BUT

As Thomas says, Vista's flashy desktop greatly benefits from reasonable 3D hardware, but there's other benefits too...

Some high-end applications like Photoshop CS3 Extended can exploit 3D hardware, albeit for some of their more specialist tools.

Better graphics cards also feature better hardware acceleration for playback of HD material. You'll find almost all models feature HD acceleration of some description, but the better ones can offload almost ALL the decoding to the graphics card, greatly freeing up your CPU for other things - or allowing smooth HD playback on a system with a mid-range CPU.

So I'd say, if you're a gamer, get the best graphics card, but if not, I'd still go for a mid-range one because there are benefits in other areas. I like mid-range cards because they also tend to be available with fanless cooling which makes a big difference if they're used in a media PC in a quiet environment. Some are also pretty affordable too...

Gordon

PS - I'm quite into this stuff because in a former life I was an Editor of a UK PC magazine and still write monthly columns on DIY hardware projects for them! (many of which are about Media or Quiet PC projects)

Ha! Admit it: that still is fun!

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses