Camera Labs

@thelostswede: Yeah, I just realized it was AM3, thought it would have been a whole new design. Sounds interesting, but I haven't seen any dates so far.

@Solok & Citruspers: I think the SSD is a good choice, but how would I work this? Would I install the OS and Application on the SSD? Or would I use the SSD as a scratch disk to temporarily house photos while being edited? Guess the question is where is the bottleneck? The fact that PS is installed on a disk or the fact the PS is reading files from a disk? I doubt I can afford an SSD big enough to hold both, even temporarily.

@Solok: I know the pain you felt brother. No one should be forced to use a slow computer to even surf the net, let alone edit photos!

I'm leaning more towards the i5 as it is almost as good as the lowest end i7 and cheaper, and with that I could get more RAM or an SSD. And yes, editing 300+ pics (even just converting to JPG for upload) is extremely time consuming, not very enjoyable, and I really want to spend as little time doing it as possible!

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I wish there was a way to randomly cycle through click-able thumbnails of my most recent images :'(

http://www.laroygreen.com (under construction)

If you want to upgrade, do it the right way.

2x Intel Xeon W5580 Nehalem 3.2GHz Quad Core.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117179&cm_re=xeon_1366-_-19-117-179-_-Product
3360$

Asus Z8NA-D6 Dual LGA 1366Mz DDR3 Mobo.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131389
309$

6x Kingston 8GB 240-Pin DDR3.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139140
2964$

Silverstone ST1500 1500W PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256054
400$

In total it will cost you 7033$ + shipping, but in return you will get an 8 core 48GB Beast that will treat Photoshop as a mere snack and will enable you to take over the whole world in a matter of hours.

I need to know what you're smoking there agun...unless those prices are in rupees!

Joke aside though, I mess with 3D models at work, and we have Dell workstations with 2 quad core xeon processors and 32GB of RAM and 2 (i think) QUADRA Pro graphics cards. They run UNIX though, so I've never used photoshop on it, but I'm sure it would sing!

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I wish there was a way to randomly cycle through click-able thumbnails of my most recent images :'(

http://www.laroygreen.com (under construction)

OS and applications + temporarily storage of the photos you are editing at the time on the SSD would be my choice.

I got an Intel SSD in my computer, as the totally photography amateur I am I don't work through a huge amount of photographs, but I do shuffle a lot between bridge and photoshop, and it's all working on a very fast and responsive level.
Opening Bridge, loading the 310 raw images currently in that folder, opening any image from there into photoshop, sub 10 seconds.

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Canon 5D MkII -|- Sigma 24mm f/1.8 | Carl Zeiss 35mm f/2.0 | Canon 50mm f/1.4 | Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro | Lensbaby Composer
Canon A-1 -|- Canon 28mm f/2 | Canon 35mm f/2.8 | Canon 50mm f/3.5 Macro

Now you have me drooling Lorride! Doing that on this computer, you would need to set it to run overnight ... And, I'm actually being serious!

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I wish there was a way to randomly cycle through click-able thumbnails of my most recent images :'(

http://www.laroygreen.com (under construction)

I bet!
I did try loading the images from one of my old worn HDD's just to check the performance a couple of days ago. It was very sluggish and slow compared.

That said though, two new HDD in raid 0 would probably be fairly fast.

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Canon 5D MkII -|- Sigma 24mm f/1.8 | Carl Zeiss 35mm f/2.0 | Canon 50mm f/1.4 | Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro | Lensbaby Composer
Canon A-1 -|- Canon 28mm f/2 | Canon 35mm f/2.8 | Canon 50mm f/3.5 Macro

Sadly, I'll have to wait another month (probably) before being able to buy my new SSD and 1TB storage drive... the waiting is unbearable.

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Nikon D90 (Primary), Nikon D40 (Backup)
AF-S DX 35mm f/1,8
AF-S 60mm f/2,8 micro
AF-S DX 55-200mm f/4-5.6 VR
2 x Speedlight SB-600

New PC is here!

Just over 1 day old, and so far I'm smiling ear to ear . I can go from lightroom to photoshop (16bit, adobe rgb, zip compression, 350 dpi) in 2 seconds !!!!! My lightroom previews move like a snap and I'm able to flag photos (with auto-advance) almost instantly.

My setup came in at around $900.00 USD, but with shipping and taxes locally, it came up to around 1400.00 USD . Sucks living in the 3rd world. Anyways, I went with the following:

- GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

- XFX HD-577X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

- CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 ...

- Rosewill RX-DUS100 2.5" & 3.5" SATA to USB2.0 & eSATA Hard Drive Docking Station

- Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80601930

- Crucial 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory

I also have 2x1TB, 2x500GB, 1x320GB hard drives from my old PC.

I went with LGA1366 because I felt it had a better upgrade path. The mistake I made with my last PC was that I bought something that was close to its end of life, and as such, upgrade options were limited even 1 yr out. I was really tempted by the Phenom x6, but the rumblings are that AMD is going to pull the plug on AM3 very soon, so I didn't want to take that chance. Also, the motherboard supports up to 24GB RAM. So, even though I wouldn't dream of doing that now, I can in 3 yrs drop in a 6 core 980 and some more RAM and an SSD and be able to stay in the game a little longer.

The downside is that I broke into my lens savings to afford this, but I already have lenses that work reasonably well and so the CZ 24-70 can wait a couple more months. I really felt that my workflow was taking the joy out of photography to the point were I didn't even want to copy data from the cards as it would just take so long to even review them. I was even getting sloppy and cutting corners when editing, and that will never do! So, bit the bullet, and I'll know for sure if it was worth it in a couple of months.

Anyways, any questions or comments, let me know.

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I wish there was a way to randomly cycle through click-able thumbnails of my most recent images :'(

http://www.laroygreen.com (under construction)

It's a really smooth and fast rig! =)

Although, since you didn't mind comments I am going to let some words fly :p . I set up a similar pc to check price, I did however get a quicker graphic card, a nice 80GB SSD, 2GB more RAM and a newer CPU (Quad - 1156).

1300USD with taxes and shipping locally. 1200USD if I choose a similar AMD option.

You wont notice the triple channel performance, since it's so little, the i7 you choose is a bit out dated, especially considering 1156 has a nice turbo mode which is excellent in dual/single threaded applications which is what we mostly use.

1366 is Intels performance platform and is scheduled to be replaced Q3 2011. (With current information)
http://www.overclockers.com/intel-repla ... cket-2011/

However 1156 which is Intels new budget I bet will last long, like 775 which is over 6 years old and still being sold.

(Oops, this is kinda late, didn't notice you posted the 11 before now :p)

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Canon 5D MkII -|- Sigma 24mm f/1.8 | Carl Zeiss 35mm f/2.0 | Canon 50mm f/1.4 | Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro | Lensbaby Composer
Canon A-1 -|- Canon 28mm f/2 | Canon 35mm f/2.8 | Canon 50mm f/3.5 Macro