# What computer and monitor setup do u have for Post Production?



## KKCFamilyman (Sep 8, 2012)

I currently have a hp envy 17-3d with the 1080p tn panel and it is good but was curious what reasonable desktop setups were being used most importantly monitors that do not cost $1k +. It must be windows sorry but I get all the software free. Also if you use a laptop which model?

Thanks.


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## JPAZ (Sep 9, 2012)

Using Dell U2711 with NVIDIA GeForce 8800 on home built PC using Quad-core and Win 7 Pro. You could go crazier! But the $ start to add up.


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## Jim Saunders (Sep 9, 2012)

I have an i7-2500k, 8GB RAM, a pair of Asus VH242H displays, an i1 Display Pro calibrator, and a Wacom tablet. It is fine for looking at photos but editing a 25MB .dng with lots of brushstrokes in LR4.1 can run it into the ground. 

A faster processor and 12 or 16GB of RAM would be a better idea, as would one good monitor; The panels I have are remarkably inconsistent for brightness and color temperature.

The calibrator and the tablet are swell once you figure them out, applying adjustment brushes is much easier with the tablet.

The only other thing I'd change on this setup would be a faster drive array. I have for storing photos a RAID5 array of older mechanical drives on a proper 3Ware card but a bundle of SSDs would sure give it a kick in the pants. Win7 runs on its own Velociraptor, which is enough.

Jim


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## KKCFamilyman (Sep 10, 2012)

Jim Saunders said:


> I have an i7-2500k, 8GB RAM, a pair of Asus VH242H displays, an i1 Display Pro calibrator, and a Wacom tablet. It is fine for looking at photos but editing a 25MB .dng with lots of brushstrokes in LR4.1 can run it into the ground.
> 
> A faster processor and 12 or 16GB of RAM would be a better idea, as would one good monitor; The panels I have are remarkably inconsistent for brightness and color temperature.
> 
> ...



Thanks,

I was thinking of I7 3770k, 16GB 1600mhz ram, 240GB Samsung 830 SSD, Nvidia gtx550 and 23" HP IPS Monitor of course calibrated. My concern is the monitor quality. As far as true storage. I have a full Domain Controller running a dedicated Raid card. So storage is really not an issue. With the cost of SSD's going down and rotational drives so high I cannot see an os drive being anything other than that. Just looking for a quality monitor suggestion with accurate colors under $500. Otherwise the above setup would surely handle 5d3 Raw workflows thru PS and LR4. Also render HD Video. I am not a pro but want to make my edits accurate in case I do go that route.


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## Jim Saunders (Sep 10, 2012)

I have an eight-core i7 something something running [email protected] downstairs; Being that I now need to nuke and pave my i5 box (the one mislabeled above) I think I'll try LR4 on it and see how it does. All I know is that making an input in LR4 and having to wait for it to catch up is frustrating but understandable.

Jim


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## kdw75 (Sep 10, 2012)

I have an i7 3930k with 32GB of RAM and an Intel SSD for my boot drive and two 2TB 7200 RPM drives for storage. My graphics card is an nVidia GTX 470 that run my 2560x1440 27" calibrated monitor.


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## lastSKYsamurai (Sep 10, 2012)

Have a GIGABYTE X58A-UD5 MotherBoard
2nd Gen i7-950 @ 3.07GHz
6GB of Corsair Dominator-GT DDR3 RAM 1866MHz
EVGA GTX460 X2 SLI Graphics
SSD's on OS Boot, PR Install, Games, Photos, plus a few HDD's for Everything else. + External backup.
Lightroom 4, Win7 Ultimate. 

Dell SX2210 21.5" 16:10 Monitor + Samsung SyncMaster 940n 19" 4x3 Monitor both Spyder4 ELITE Colour Calibrated. Standard Keyboard & Mouse. That's about it.


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## bornshooter (Sep 10, 2012)

i have a mid 2010 macbook pro 15" connect it to my 27" apple led cinema display for post production calibrated every 2 weeks and before every weeding etc.


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## boateggs (Sep 10, 2012)

KKCFamilyman said:


> I was thinking of I7 3770k, 16GB 1600mhz ram, 240GB Samsung 830 SSD, Nvidia gtx550 and *23" HP IPS Monitor of course calibrated. My concern is the monitor quality*... Just looking for a quality monitor suggestion with accurate colors under $500.



I did a lot of monitor research before I got an external monitor (I have a MacBook pro 13" with 16gb RAM) and from what I found almost all 23" IPS monitors (under $400) use basically the same pannel from LG. There are slight differences in antiglare or inputs but they are almost all 6-bit e-IPS monitors made by LG.

I got one and it is fine, there is some light bleeding in one of the corner that I can deal with but I wish mine was 8-bit rather than 6-bit. In gradients I can see dithering that bugs me. The true 8-bit monitors aren't cheap and were way out of my price range.

Im happy with what I got and I have it on a wall mount that can rotate to portrait and the monitor still looks good in that orientation. I hope this helps as I too am not a pro


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## lola (Sep 10, 2012)

The only one item in my rig that I wouldn't trade for anything else is my Dell Ultrasharp U3011 monitör.
I've never felt more comfortable with anything else...


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## JEAraman (Sep 10, 2012)

lola said:


> The only one item in my rig that I wouldn't trade for anything else is my Dell Ultrasharp U3011 monitör.
> I've never felt more comfortable with anything else...



+1


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## KKCFamilyman (Sep 11, 2012)

Thanks the Dell's are expensive but at least I will look for a 8 bit or greater ips. May just have to spring the money. Waiting to see what October launches we'll see.


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## JEAraman (Sep 11, 2012)

KKCFamilyman said:


> Thanks the Dell's are expensive but at least I will look for a 8 bit or greater ips. May just have to spring the money. Waiting to see what October launches we'll see.



but definitely worth it!


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## lola (Sep 11, 2012)

KKCFamilyman said:


> Thanks the Dell's are expensive but at least I will look for a 8 bit or greater ips. May just have to spring the money. Waiting to see what October launches we'll see.



There's a serious price difference between the U3011 (30") & the U2711 (27") but the U2711 is just as good!


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## tomscott (Sep 11, 2012)

2008 2.8 octo Mac Pro, 10gbs ram, 8tbs HDDs, 128bg SSD as boot drive, GEFORCE GTX 285 1gb. Runs very quick for an old machine.

2x 23" Apple Cinema displays


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## neuroanatomist (Sep 11, 2012)

Apple 27" Thunderbolt display, with either a 17" MacBook Pro or 13" MacBook Air connected.


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## bbb34 (Sep 11, 2012)

NEC LCD3090WQXI-BK (2560x1600)
i7-870

B)


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## 7enderbender (Sep 11, 2012)

That's a really good question. Not to be a whiner again but I find the current offering somewhat frustrating. My main computer for LR and PS is still my 14" IBM Thinkpad from 7 years ago. Why? Because I like the screen and because I like the handling of that thing. Even at home I prefer this one over my Franken-Dell XP PC with a 24" Dell screen. I actually just replaced the screen in it and was lucky enough to find an as-new replacement as Lenovo doesn't sell them any longer. It's 14" 1400x1050 screen and I really like that resolution. Colors are likely not perfect but it works for me.

So my next step will be to get a new desktop. And given how poor all the new Windows laptops are (just got a brand new HP Elite Book at work and it is awful) I'm actually thinking about switching to Apple in the long-run. But even then I'm not really thrilled with the screen options. I can't stand the shiny screens and the all-in-one concept makes me a little uncomfortable also. And the new laptop offering make me cringe also. The MBP retina has a great screen of course but the HD is just too small for my needs and can't be upgraded.

So I'm torn now between a Mac Mini with one or two nice third party screens (NEC for example) or a 27" iMac with the glass removed. Also the thing has to double as the center piece of a homerecording studio so specs have to be pretty good and the Mac Mini might be on the edge there.

I'm interested to see what new iMacs Apple might present in the Fall. If that's not appealing I can always take my cash and really go for that 50L first...


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## c3hammer (Sep 11, 2012)

I'm still running an older ASUS i7-920 system with a GTX260 card and 12 gigs of ram, but have adapted a 27" Apple Cinema display to it at 2560x1440 resolution.

Here's the link to the adaptor you need to run any of the Apple Cinema Displays off any modern video card on a PC.
http://www.amazon.com/ATLONA-AT-DP400-Dual-DisplayPort-Converter/dp/B003CWEXWO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338329038&sr=8-1

With many folks upgrading their monitors to the newer Thunderbolt, the older 27" Apple Cinema Displays can be found for $600 - $800 in the local classifieds. It's s super cost effective way to make a big step up in your diplay on the PC.

Cheers,
Pete


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## Waterloo (Sep 11, 2012)

Apple Mac Pro 3.33 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon with 32 GB Ram (Lightroom 4.1 and Photoshop CS6)
NEC PA271W 27 inch monitor
Epson 3880 17 inch printer
Epson 7890 24 inch printer


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## nightbreath (Sep 11, 2012)

Does anyone use Eizo ColorEdge? Are those really that good (to cost from $2k)?


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## adhocphotographer (Sep 11, 2012)

Apple MacBookPro...


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## ro-b (Sep 11, 2012)

Hi Guys,

actually I'm new to that Forum...

I use a ThinkPad W520 Notebook with integrated color calibration and a 15" fullHD res Display, with an 120gb SSD and a Dell 24" IPS Display...or when I need to limit wheight a MacBook Air 11" 

Actually I'm not satisfied with any of that...some things just do not work properly some are better under Mac some for the PC..


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## unfocused (Sep 11, 2012)

The smartest thing I ever did was attach a second monitor. 

I have one big monitor to look at the images and then all the various panels are over on the smaller monitor. You won't believe how much easier it makes life (or at least editing). Also works great for Dreamweaver and InDesign. Even comes in handy at times with programs like Word or when you want to transfer files between external and internal drives.

As for my actual computer, I use a Dell something or other with an i7 processor. My previous computer died over the winter and I do find that the new one processes things much faster, but that may be a combination of the new machine and the new Creative Suite programs (apparently Adobe improved the programming to speed up processing and it seems to have worked).


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## prettyprint (Sep 11, 2012)

Looked into what hardware matters for image manipulation a couple of months ago when my old computer was starting to get slow. What I found out was:
* It's all about CPU. This is what matters if the rest isn't seriously neglected (ie. really old). The Intel i7-2700K seemed to have the best price/performance ratio last month. It's quite a lot faster than an i5 CPU for image manipulation.
* Memory isn't that important. I'm not typing this at home so can't check the exact figures, but LR didn't take more than around 1 GB of memory. I have a total of 8GB, and more than 4 wasn't used in total (even for OS caches etc).
* Disk speed matters somewhat, but OTOH rendering everything from scratch will make the CPU a bottleneck anyway. Previews in cache are not that large, so reading them from disk doesn't take long. Having an SSD is nice for general usability, but not worth investing in for image manipulation specifically.

If your LR is slow, the first step is to increase the cache size. More is better. I have 50GB. Having a faster CPU is a nice second step, if you don't want to wait for previews to be rendered.


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## pierceography (Sep 11, 2012)

I've got a Dell U2412M. 24", 1920x1200, IPS Display. You gotta go IPS if you want accurate colors. It's hooked up to my 13" Macbook. It's a pretty simple setup, but considering the amount of money I've already dumped into camera gear, I couldn't justify spending a ton on computer equipment too. ;-)

Highly recommend the Dell, and it was around $270 earlier this year after the sale price. Definitely a huge savings over going bigger/high resolution.


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## RLPhoto (Sep 11, 2012)

I use a Asus 19" monitor and an ACER 23" monitor I got from Newegg. They're pretty good as long as you calibrate them. I use the Spyder 3 elite.

IPS is the best, but eh, I get great results from what I have. If you consider most people's will not have an IPS monitor to even view your images at there best, Why bother?


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## Quasimodo (Sep 11, 2012)

RLPhoto said:


> I use a Asus 19" monitor and an ACER 23" monitor I got from Newegg. They're pretty good as long as you calibrate them. I use the Spyder 3 elite.
> 
> IPS is the best, but eh, I get great results from what I have. If you consider most people's will not have an IPS monitor to even view your images at there best, Why bother?



Thank you for your IPS tip, and to all for an interesting thread. I googled IPS and found something on their site, where they list the top ten screens for photoediting:

http://www.ipsmonitor.com/guides/best-monitor-for-photo-editing-2011-the-top-10/


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## sdsr (Sep 11, 2012)

KKCFamilyman said:


> I currently have a hp envy 17-3d with the 1080p tn panel and it is good but was curious what reasonable desktop setups were being used most importantly monitors that do not cost $1k +. It must be windows sorry but I get all the software free. Also if you use a laptop which model?
> 
> Thanks.



A couple of years ago I had a computer custom-built at my local Microcenter (sounds expensive, but wasn't) with Windows 7 home premium, whatever one of the better i7 processors was back then, 8GB memory, and a fairly high-powered video card; all of which work well together. I had been using a Samsung 24" monitor, which looked pretty good, but ten days ago upgraded to a Dell 30" ultrasharp - the improvement is remarkable, both in terms of the extra space you have to work with and image quality, and it's only slightly above the upper price limit you gave (c. $1100). I have a couple of laptops, but I don't like working with small screens (don't much like laptops period, in fact). The other half recently bought a Macbook Pro with retina display - am looking forward to the time when decent size monitors use that technology....


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## unfocused (Sep 11, 2012)

RLPhoto said:


> I use a Asus 19" monitor and an ACER 23" monitor I got from Newegg. They're pretty good as long as you calibrate them. I use the Spyder 3 elite.
> 
> IPS is the best, but eh, I get great results from what I have. If you consider most people's will not have an IPS monitor to even view your images at there best, Why bother?



This is an excellent point and often overlooked. Not to belittle the importance of monitor calibration, but it is important to remember what your final output is going to be.

Like most things, color accuracy is a "garbage in, garbage out" situation, so you do want to start with the most accurate rendition you can, but frankly I agree with RL that there is no point in obsessing over it unless you are working in a professional environment that demands absolute color accuracy (product photos for advertising for example)

If your images are going to be viewed primarily on the web you can't very well go around the world and adjust everyone's monitor before they go to your website. 

If your final product is printed with a CMYK process be prepared for colors that are much different than what you see on your screen. You will need to adjust your images accordingly and if color accuracy is critical, you might want to consider letting a professional color house do the final adjustments. 

BTW, I've been know to go around Best Buy and Apple stores and pull up my website on every device I can find, just to see how it looks under different environments. Particularly important for websites. Some of the clerks get a bit annoyed, but most are good-natured about it.


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## RLPhoto (Sep 11, 2012)

unfocused said:


> RLPhoto said:
> 
> 
> > I use a Asus 19" monitor and an ACER 23" monitor I got from Newegg. They're pretty good as long as you calibrate them. I use the Spyder 3 elite.
> ...



If you can make a photo look stunning on a calibrated crap monitor, The more awesome it will be one a better one. ;D


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## K-amps (Sep 11, 2012)

Jim Saunders said:


> I have an i7-2500k, 8GB RAM, a pair of Asus VH242H displays, an i1 Display Pro calibrator, and a Wacom tablet. It is fine for looking at photos but editing a 25MB .dng with lots of brushstrokes in LR4.1 can run it into the ground.
> 
> A faster processor and 12 or 16GB of RAM would be a better idea, as would one good monitor; The panels I have are remarkably inconsistent for brightness and color temperature.
> 
> ...



On the LR 4.1 issue.

I have a i7-950 Quadcore clocked to 4.02Ghz each core. 

24GB RAM

Samsung 830 series 6Gbs SSD (256GB)

GTX 460 series Graphics... 

System is not a slouch by any means... Yet LR 4.1 exhibits sloth like behaviour.

I read somewhere that if you goto lightroom.exe in Task manager and right click on it and set affinity to the "even" number core only (the odd numbers are Hyper threads not physical cores) then LR 4.1 runs a bit better.

I would tend to agree... but it is still slower than LR 3.6. Adobe needs to fix this... Shame on them.

PS: At no time does my RAM usage exceed 8-10 GB while LR is slothing away...


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## RLPhoto (Sep 11, 2012)

Lolz, your machines are in a whole different league than my machine. Yet, you have these performance issues...

E6600 C2D - OC'ed to 2.93ghz
4GB of 667Mhz RAM
8800 Nvidia GTS 640MB G-card.
Standard JBOD setup
Dual monitors.
Win 7 pro.

My machine is getting older but It doesn't sweat over the 22mp 5D3 files a bit, Does it take alittle longer than LR3? It doesn't feel like it to me.

It surprises me to hear such systems having problems with LR4.


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## K-amps (Sep 11, 2012)

RLPhoto said:


> Lolz, your machines are in a whole different league than my machine. Yet, you have these performance issues...
> 
> E6600 C2D - OC'ed to 2.93ghz
> 4GB of 667Mhz RAM
> ...



Invest in a Samsung 830 series SSD and see it jump back to life!  (but avoid LR 4 or 4.1)


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## RLPhoto (Sep 11, 2012)

K-amps said:


> RLPhoto said:
> 
> 
> > Lolz, your machines are in a whole different league than my machine. Yet, you have these performance issues...
> ...



I'm using LR4.1 :|


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## K-amps (Sep 11, 2012)

Does your E6600 hyperthread? if not, you won't see a performance hit as the HT processors do .


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## Jim Saunders (Sep 11, 2012)

RLPhoto said:


> *snip*
> 
> My machine is getting older but It doesn't sweat over the 22mp 5D3 files a bit, Does it take alittle longer than LR3? It doesn't feel like it to me.
> 
> It surprises me to hear such systems having problems with LR4.



Having used both LR4 is a lot slower to respond than 3.6; 4.1 helped and hopefully 4.3 does also. 4.2 didn't do much besides add a few new cameras.

Jim


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## KKCFamilyman (Sep 12, 2012)

I do IT so I can handle all the specs for hardware. I actually plan on getting the new corsair neutron gtx ssd and the nvidia quadro 4000 graphics card since it is really meant for this work. I do not do gaming. Also I was hoping for more monitor models and calibration equipment more than anything. Really in my opinion that is the most important to me now. That the monitor will cover the full RGB Color Gamut. Hold Calibrations. Just do not want to spend $1k + for a monitor.


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## wsmith96 (Sep 12, 2012)

I use an HP Z400 workstation with an HP 2335 23" S-IPS flat panel monitor. Specs are Xeon w3520, 6G ram, OS Drive 7200 RPM, scratch drive 7200 RPM, memory card reader, other usual stuff. I found that you could get these at a pretty reasonable price from the HP business outlet (which isn't the same place as the hpshopping outlet). Here is the link if anyone is interested: http://h71016.www7.hp.com/html/hpremarketing/daily.asp 

I also use a Spyder monitor and printer calibration system, canon printers, Adobe photoshop elements, Corel PSPX4 and Aftershot pro. I'm just now learning aftershot pro, and have never tried lightroom so I can't compare yet. The system works for me and can crunch anything I throw at it. Oh, the PC didn't come with a quadro card so I'm using a NVIDIA GTX460. Ideally I would have a Quadro 2000 or 4000.


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## cayenne (Sep 12, 2012)

I have a macbook pro (late 2011) with 16 GB ram, 2.4 GHz quad-core Core i7, 15" high resolution screen...

I have this hooked up to a Dell U27 Ultrasharp Monitor 27" (2560 x 1440) IPS , factory-tuned AdobeRGB and sRGB modes. running over a display port cable hooked to the Thunderbolt connection of the macbook.

I am trying to find a way to run dual monitors off my macbook...but this might not be possible, unless I get a couple of the Apple branded 27" thunderbolt displays to replace the Dell U2711. The apple and dell monitors share the same IPS screen...same manufacturer.

cayenne


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## brianleighty (Sep 15, 2012)

cayenne said:


> I have a macbook pro (late 2011) with 16 GB ram, 2.4 GHz quad-core Core i7, 15" high resolution screen...
> 
> I have this hooked up to a Dell U27 Ultrasharp Monitor 27" (2560 x 1440) IPS , factory-tuned AdobeRGB and sRGB modes. running over a display port cable hooked to the Thunderbolt connection of the macbook.
> 
> ...



Yeah that's one thing that stinks about the macbook pro. It has a fast enough CPU but being limited to only one external monitor unless it's an Apple one stinks. I'm waiting for the new iMac to come out instead.


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## dadohead (Sep 15, 2012)

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2 (5400)
32 Gigs RAM
3TB Black Caviar boot
3TB Samsung array (3x1)
ATI 5870 Video Card
27" Apple Cinema (2560x1440)
24" Apple Cinema (1920x1200)
Wacom tablet
i1Pro II Spectro


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## RLPhoto (Sep 15, 2012)

dadohead said:


> Mac Pro 8-core 3.2 (5400)
> 32 Gigs RAM
> 3TB Black Caviar boot
> 3TB Samsung array (3x1)
> ...



Whewww. How much did that set you back?


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## K-amps (Sep 17, 2012)

dadohead said:


> Mac Pro 8-core 3.2 (5400)
> 32 Gigs RAM
> 3TB Black Caviar boot
> 3TB Samsung array (3x1)
> ...



If this is true... then I am willing to wager, you probably date a supermodel too...


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## Razor2012 (Sep 18, 2012)

I have the Dell Ultrasharp 30" display also, and my PC is about 3-4 years old with a 8800GTX in it. I just picked up a Macbook Pro w Retina (Intel i7 w 16 gigs of ram and 512 SSD) and want to get Photoshop loaded on there. That screen is awesome.


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## webexpert (Oct 2, 2012)

Since I use a lot of Photoshop to modify photos I have found extremely convenient the use of a projector (in addition to my 24in. Samsung monitor). Although the monitor is better for achieving better color correction , for image manipulation with a watcom tablet the projector (HD Epson) is much better in a dark room .


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## Ryan708 (Oct 2, 2012)

Im using a nothing-special samsung 22" display, seems to be calibrated well. My machine is a pc, home made 6-core 8gb ram, AMD 5770 card(getting old now, but it handles overclocking very well, so it is still fast)and I have windows and all my programs on a SSD(solid state drive) which makes them so fast it is like they are stored in memory already! I use a standard SATA for storage tho. High precicion laser mouse is a must too. I run everything overclocked and have a lot of cooling. My case, dvd drive, keyboard, speakers are all 6 years old, and upgrading the rest to be very able was very cheap, Thats why I like PC. upgrades are cheap


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## cayenne (Oct 2, 2012)

While my macbook pro is loaded up, and doing fine...for fun, I'm thinking about building myself a "hackintosh" desktop....something with some REAL power behind it....

Has anyone else here played with one of these? I figure with multiple, multi-threaded processors, tons of ram....render times would be almost nil.....

C


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## RLPhoto (Oct 2, 2012)

cayenne said:


> While my macbook pro is loaded up, and doing fine...for fun, I'm thinking about building myself a "hackintosh" desktop....something with some REAL power behind it....
> 
> Has anyone else here played with one of these? I figure with multiple, multi-threaded processors, tons of ram....render times would be almost nil.....
> 
> C



The hackintosh's I've seen are always loaded with bugs and few run well. You better off buying a Mac if you like OSX.

Otherwise Win7 Pro Runs all the Adobe software nicely.


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## Tayvin (Oct 2, 2012)

Mac Pro with a lot of RAM and a 24" cinema display. I think I'll get an iMac with Thunderbolt for my next upgrade in a year or two.


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## Fatalv (Oct 2, 2012)

RLPhoto said:


> cayenne said:
> 
> 
> > While my macbook pro is loaded up, and doing fine...for fun, I'm thinking about building myself a "hackintosh" desktop....something with some REAL power behind it....
> ...



I disagree. I've built two and they have barely any issues. The only one that's slightly annoying is not having the ability to sleep. Otherwise I have full optical audio, 3d, cuda support, etc. And my quad core (8 threads) w/24GB ram crushes in Lightroom/Photoshop.

If you attempt to build one just make sure you do your homework on hardware. Most problems can be avoided by choosing configurations that have been tried and working. visit tonymac's web site for help.


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## RLPhoto (Oct 2, 2012)

Fatalv said:


> RLPhoto said:
> 
> 
> > cayenne said:
> ...



I suppose. I don't dig around that stuff too much.


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## dafrank (Oct 2, 2012)

I haven't yet read any other reply, so I don't know if anyone else has touched upon any general ideas about the OP's question. There are two different ideas I would offer, one to suggest a monitor that meets his $1,000.00 limit, and another which discusses the framework for a truly workable PP set-up.

First of all, the way things stand now, you want a monitor which uses an IPS panel. Sometimes it is difficult to find out what type of panel any given monitor uses, as manufacturers don't always disclose this. The differentiating characteristic of the IPS panels is an evenness of illumination when your viewing angle changes from straight center to off-center, either vertically or horizontally, plus IPS panels are capable of displaying a greater color space than most other panel construction types as well. Second, you want a monitor that has been well made with a non-defective panel and superior electronics and adjustability. Third, a monitor for this kind of work should be 24" or larger, if you want to work at convenient image sizes. Last, the best monitors for PP also are capable of displaying a color space near or equal to 100% of either Adobe RGB or at least the sRGB space. Eizo, NEC, Dell, HP, and perhaps some others make several monitors which fit this description, and some of them are under $1,000.00. Look up reviews and tech specs to judge what looks best for yourself.

Keep in mind that what you do with your pictures may be decisive in picking a monitor. For instance, if you will never routinely have any of your pictures published on an offset or other kind of commercial printing press that requires a display color outside of sRGB - like some of the subtractive CMYK-type colors that fall outside it - you will not need a monitor which displays a color space "bigger" than 95% or 100% of sRGB, and these monitors will usually be less expensive than the ones which cover the Adobe RGB space. Last, as with many otherwise good IPS panels sold today, one must be careful to avoid accepting one with color that displays "unevenly" across the screen (if you display a full-screen neutral gray rectangle in Photoshop, does it look like the same color from left-to-right?). Just a small unevenness is inevitable, a really noticeable difference is unacceptable. This is a common manufacturing defect because of how the panels are constructed. Last, you should also purchase a monitor calibration package, consisting of a colorimeter or spectraphotometer and matching software from X-rite or other reputable companies. This is a necessity to get your monitor to display properly so that what you see is actually what your file should really look like. 

As for what I use, it is an NEC 30" 3090, complete with the NEC-customized colorimeter and matching Spectravision II software that goes with it. This combination is extremely good, plus it allows me to instantly switch between stored and very accurate monitor profiles like sRGB and Adobe RGB that the software, especially tuned to the monitor, can pretty easily produce. The color consistency is very good across the screen (a first one, returned to the seller, wasn't as good in this regard), evenness of illumination is very good, color accuracy, sharpness, geometry, contrast and brightness range are all excellent.

First of all, I'm now a PC guy who used to be a Mac guy, but Macs are great too, so my example here can be replicated or bettered on either a new PC or a Mac, depending on your own preferences; either one can be a great machine for PP. My computer is an exceptionally good custom made PC (made by highly regarded builder Puget Custom Computers a few years ago). It runs Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate and tons of graphics software. It's got an i7 960 3.2 GHz processor, an Nvidia GTX570 video card (newly added), 24 GB main memory, 4 drives (2 160GB solid state drives plus 2 fast 2TB 7200 rpm disk drives), USB 2 and 3 ports, a Blu-Ray burner, lots of very silent high capacity cooling, and a few other things as well, like an external attached 5-bay 10 TB Drobo for backup. You don't necessarily need something this complex and expensive. However, just remember that if you try to buy one that is just barely adequate, it will be out-dated and ill suited to the future that much faster than a better specified one. Buy the best you can afford, so that you can run it longer without being crippled in your workflow.

The best rule of thumb for most computer components is this: figure out what types of components (by general performance and function characteristics) that you need and, whenever possible - except where it might affect reliability and longevity - buy the second best or fastest, not the very best or fastest, performing component in that category; this method will give you the longest possible use of your computer at a fairly reasonable price.

Regards,
David


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## fonsii (Oct 2, 2012)

Desktop:
2nd Gen i7 2600k overclocked to 4.5GHz
Geforce GTX580
16gb ram
4x WDCaviar Black 2TB + G-Speed ES External with 4x Enterprise 2TB on Raid 5
2x Dell U3011 Monitors on AdobeRGB

Notebook:
Alienware M17x R3
ATI 6990m
16GB Ram
2x 512GB Crucial SSD

Gets the job done.


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## TommyLee (Oct 2, 2012)

my system is getting slightly older... but recent upgrades helped a lot
--------
recent upgrade:
Dell 3011 monitor .... like the space... colors are close...comes with a sort of calibration from factory..I dont print...just check my colors against a few reference photos...close enough for me
I had a 2408 Dell for a long while....it was really great...gave to girlfriend

the 3011 is pretty nice ...no issues at all

been using Lightroom (now 4.2) since it started
plus Faststone....... just these two programs for photos

--
Win 7 Pro- 64 bit
Intel i7-860 - run at 3.3gighz - nice quiet cooler ....forgot brand
Gigabyte board ... p55-UD4
16gig (1600) mem
Dell 3011
Antec tower with a different power supply (forgot brand)
Intel-256gig 530 ssd - boot (with a 6gb/s card to get faster interface)
[ had a kingston hyperex 120gig boot ...moved to laptop ]
WD raptor 'D' drive - for fast storage ....plus a few (usually off-line) WD larger drives to off-load pics
AMD 6800 graphics
LG blueRay / DVD writer


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## Jamesy (Oct 2, 2012)

I am planning on upgrading my current Lenovo T400 running WinXP (old dual-core, 3GB, integrated graphics, 250GB 5.4k HDD) with the following:

Sager NP6350
nVidia 660m
16GB Ram
1x 256GB SSD
1 x 750 HDD
Win7 (contemplating waiting for it to ship with Win8)

It will have an existing Dell 2312HM IPS panel attached to it.

- Any thoughts on waiting for Win8 verses getting it now?
- How about deals around Black Friday, etc? Am I better to wait a month or two or just buy it now???


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## Goshdern (Oct 2, 2012)

I built this machine a year ago and I'm still in love with it.

Corsair case
Sabertooth X58
Intel Core i7 970 Hexcore 3.2GHz (Corsair liquid cooled)
GeForce GTX 570 (1.25 gb of 1900 MHz ram is way overkill but I let [email protected] use my machine when idle)
24 gig corsair ram (I have maxed it out, but I think there is a memory leak in cs6)
1/4 TB crucial M4 SSD for OS and Applications (a must for running LR4 and CS6 in my book)
and 2TB Barracuda for my storage (plus various other HDs from older machines). I use an external HD for backups.

I have a Windows 7 pro experience score of 7.7 and I just can't say enough about this settup. However color is really important to me and the 22" proview monitor my wife was using before I built this monster was NOT cutting it. If you changed viewing angle the colors and blacks/whites all shifted. So I found the HP ZR30w IPS display and after calibrating it we get perfect prints from Mpix every time now. I flipped the 22" into portait mode and use it as the second display. The F11 second display mode in LR4 (I use grid zoomed to two pics wide) is tits in portrait mode!

This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to equip my wife with the best I could and I anticipate loving this system for quite a while still.


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## EYEONE (Oct 2, 2012)

Desktop:
Intel i7 3.4ghz (2nd generation)
8gb RAM
1TB hardrive (+1TB external)
Radeon HD 6770

Monitors:
Dell Ultrasharp 24" @ 1920x1200 (I edit on this one)
Westinghouse 24" @ 1920x1200 (just for extra space, the colors on this thing are terrible)


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## Dianoda (Oct 2, 2012)

KKCFamilyman said:


> I currently have a hp envy 17-3d with the 1080p tn panel and it is good but was curious what reasonable desktop setups were being used most importantly monitors that do not cost $1k +. It must be windows sorry but I get all the software free. Also if you use a laptop which model?
> 
> Thanks.



First thing - If you want a good, comparatively cheap monitor for editing - the Dell U2410 is a great choice.

Okay, on to my setup:
For mobile, I have a Dell Precision M4600 workstation w/ 15.6" 1080P TN (70% AdobeRGB) panel. The internals could be beefier - my unit is only dual core (i5 @ 2.6GHz), 4GB RAM - although the chassis is quad-core ready and good for up to 32GB RAM, should I ever get the upgrade bug. AMD FirePro M5950 graphics card, Storage is an Intel 160GB SSD, and I've thrown a copy of Adobe LR4 on it. The LCD, while not IPS, is still better than 95% of the laptop screens I've seen - really, it's a pretty great panel (although my desktop IPS and S-PVA display blow it away). The laptop was a kick butt deal at $830 refurb'ed (including a 3 year warranty) from Dell Outlet.

At home I use a self-built desktop. It's getting long in the tooth and a rebuild is imminent (waiting for Windows 8...), but here are the current (relevant) specs:

Hardware:
AMD Phenom 4 9850BE @ 2.5GHz
MSI K9A2 Platinum MB
6GB DDR2-800 RAM
Radeon 6950 2GB graphics (shader-unlocked to 6970)
OCZ Vertex 2 SSD 120GB boot drive
A few WD 1TB 5400RPM storage drives
Blu-ray + DVD-RW drives

Software:
Win 7 Ultimate
Photoshop CS5
Canon DPP

Visual:
Dell U2711 monitor
Dell 2407FPW monitor
Spyderpro3Elite calibration
Canon 9500 Mk II printer

Backup:
3TB RAID-1 (dual Seagate 3TB 7200RPM drives in parallel) in a Dlink DNS-325 NAS
2TB 7200RPM Seagate External USB 3.0
A few more small external drives for travel

Desktop rebuild will probably look something like this:
Intel i7-3770K
Z77-based MB with plenty of SATA ports
32GB DDR3
New, larger (shooting for 256GB) SATA 3.0 SSD
Win8 Pro
Photoshop CS6 (already have a copy waiting)
Scavenge the rest of the parts from my current desktop


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