Build Advice Advice needed to speed my pc up for Photoshop use

Hi I'm after some advice as to what would be best to upgrade my PC to make Photoshop run better as with large files and many layers it takes too long to perform well.

I was going to buy a new PC completely but think I maybe just spending money I really haven't got when there maybe something I could just upgrade to make it quicker.

Here's my current spec machine

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0 GHz 4Mb Cache
6Gb Corsair Memory DDR 800
500GB SATA Hard Drive partitioned 100GB as Photoshop Scratch disk
8025-C43 Midi
Atrix 720Watt Silent Dual Fan
768Mb Nvidia 8800GTX graphics card DX10
QC - Gigabyte N680iSLI-DQ6-1333fsb-DDR1066x4 SLI (Dual graphics)
DVD+/- RW - 18X Samsung Lightscribe
X-Discovery Case
Windows XP64 Home

I also have bought for it a
VelociRaptor 300 GB fast Drive which is partitioned into 150GB parts and dual booted Operating system Windows XP64 Home on one and normal 32bit version XP home on the other
BenQ FP241W 24in Widescreen Monitor.


Any advice on what to buy if I had a budget of £300-700. I was thinking of getting a Crucial M225 64GB SSD drive and windows 7 but don't know if that would effect Photoshop speeds other than loading if I had my SSD drive with Operating system and programs on.

Cheers

 

Photoshop CS4 to get GPU acceleration?

 

photoshop should scream along on that machine.

would i would do is setup another physical scratch drive, just buy a cheap HDD throw it in and point photoshop setting at it. Much faster than your partitioned space

This way photoshop can dump large amounts of working related data to that drive and call upon it when needed, without the slow down of the OS doing background tasks on the drive.

 

Hi yeah I had hoped it would scream along. forgot to mention it is Photoshop CS4 I have yes.

If I wanted to get a new processor like say the Intel I7 920 to speed things up when I am doing Dreamweaver stuff too and other tasks as I think this is what slows it down when I have other things open.

But would I then need a new Motherboard and a new case to fit it in.

 

why 6gb RAM? seems like an odd number for a C2D

 

No reason really just all I could afford at the time, I didn't think I would need 8GB

 

A i7 cpu is a different socket so yes you wuld need a new motherboard and new DDR3 ram

 

2x1GB, 2x2GB. Photoshop eats RAM for breakfast!

 

Without opening it I can't quite remember what it is, I think though I originally had 4 sticks of 1GB and I bought a 4GB kit of x2 2GB sticks and removed 2 of my originals 1gb sticks so making 6GB with all slots filled.

 

As Burnout said above, a scratch disk would definitely see an improvement, especially if you use a small SSD like that Kingston. All you can do other than that is:

Improve the graphics card, enable CUDA and get CS4

Get a better CPU (E8400 or Q6600 would see a nice increase. If you can afford it the Q9550 would be really good, I've found Cache is more important than clock speeed/# of cores) and overclock it (you might need a new cooler, look at the Corsair H50).

If you can afford it (and only if you can afford it) an i7 920 setup would eat photoshop for breakfast, but it'd probably take a good £400 up (Mobo, RAM, CPU, new case and cooler), though you'd still be able to afford another graphics card after that

Have you thought about investing in a second screen?

 

ah i see, i just assume that everyone goes from 2gb->4gb->8gb when upgrading.

would an extra 2gb make a noticeable difference?

other than that an SSD or dedicated scratch drive would make the most difference short of a complete upgrade (core i7 etc).

 

Yeah if I stick with my motherboard I guess the CPUs you mentioned are my way to go, its just I guess for future proofing it more I think a year down the line I might think I'd regret not going the full i7 setup and new case and motherboard and DDR3 RAM. Its worth considering though, thanks for the suggestion.

 

Yeah I could get a cheapest kingston ssd drive dedicated to scratch and see if it improves.

God I'm really bad at making decisions lol. Part of me wants to go the full hog and build my dream machine

AMD Radeon HD 5850 1GB GDDR5

Intel Core i7 920 but have it overclocked to 4GHz

Asus P6T Deluxe V2 motherboard

6GB Corsair DDR3 1600MHz C9 Triple Channel

Antec P183 Case

Antec CP850

Intel X25-M 80GB

Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB hard disk for storage

LG GH22NS50 SATA DVDRW (I'd still recommend a 24x Sony instead at no extra charge )

Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium

Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme


I could then try and sell my current machine, its just its only 2 years old, seems mad to buy a new PC every 2 years.

Thanks anyway guys for giving me something to think about the options on making Photoshop run better.

 

AMD Radeon HD 5850 1GB GDDR5
-doesn't support CUDA, and I don't think it supports acceleration for photoshop (which is why I have a 4850, it's in the list of compatible programs, see here)

Antec CP850
-I'd get a Corsair HX650 myself, but each to their own

Intel X25-M 80GB
-damn powerful, but also damn pricey

Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme
-I'd get a H50 myself but each to their own

Just my opinion on your dream rig, as for the case that's purely to taste

 

im pretty sure that gpu accel for photoshop uses OpenGL not CUDA

 

I think so too.

If i leave fraps running by mistake, you even get the onscreen FPS meter showing up in photoshop

 

yeah, openGL with ATi cards and it uses Cuda on NVidia as well, I'm sure of it

 

nope

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9718&Itemid=1

it was touted, but adobe decided to make it more open

 

Sorry you've lost me a little . Will the AMD Radeon HD 5850 1GB GDDR5 not be much good for Photoshop CS4 then. I only opted for this as thought it would be a little more future proof when more dx11 games are released.

 

It will, as Adobe decided to use a standard that both cards support.

As for games, wait for Fermi if you're plumping for something solely on DX11.