As a digital photographer I spend far too much time in front of my PC and I would like to make that time as pleasant and productive as possible. Recently my PC has slowed down and I have had to decide whether to get my old PC running smoothly again or buy a new one – for reasons of both economy and trying not to waste more of the world’s resources unnecessarily I have decided to maintain and upgrade my existing system. This posting is the first in the series that I shall be writing over the next few weeks charting my course and the results.
I do nearly all my photographic work on a desktop PC running Lightroom and Photoshop CS3, along with a myriad of other software I have accumulated over the years.
The desktop I use was a pretty good system back in July 2005 when I bought it – just over 3½ years ago. It was built out of standard components to my rough specification by a small British company which no longer exists…
The main specs for the computer were:
- Foxconn 925XE7AA motherboard – supports LGA775 Prescott-T processors
- Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz CPU
- 2gb DDR2 RAM
- 200gb Maxtor DiamondMax 6L200MO SATA hard disk drive
- XFX graphics card with the Nvidia GeForce 6200 TurboCache chip set and 256mb
- Windows XP operating system, with Service Pack 2
- + LG DVD drive, 3.5” floppy drive, memory card reader and lots of USB 2 and Firewire ports
- All in a tower case with lots of expansion options
- + the NEC MultiSync LCD1850X monitor I already had
The only time I have had to get inside the case was to install the Pioneer DVD and USB 2 ports card, and to replace the power supply when it died after about 2 years.
Needless to say I have tried lots of software, installed and then moved on many packages and generally cluttered my system up with unused and potentially conflicting software – including changing from Symantec to AVG anti-virus software. I have kept an eye on disk fragmentation and run a couple of defrags, and tinkered a bit with registry cleaning applications, but I am generally wary of playing with the software guts of the machine as I do not really feel I know enough to not do more harm than good.
During this time digital image files have grown and grown and inevitably the PC has become a bit sluggish, and on occasion downright unusable, needing frequent re-boots to clear persistent problems, usually just slowness, which when editing large image files is a major cause of dissatisfaction.
Recently I realised that the time to do something had come – should I bite the bullet and buy a new system, or try to get my current one back to new and upgrade bits that would make a difference? I also wanted to upgrade to a twin monitor system for work with Lightroom and Photoshop.
I am reasonably confident that I can take out and put in bits of kit without zapping them with static, but would not class myself as any sort of computer technician, nor really confident that I have the time or patience to work out what the relative value for money would be for the huge number of options available for my needs; which are to make a system specifically optimised for working with digital images (not video – yet).
Luckily my brother is a computer consultant and offered to advise – without his help I would not know what to do, nor feel confident that I could find a solution if something goes wrong.
So which option to take?
For a new system:
- 3½ years down the technology track should produce a big performance boost
- Low power "Green" component options could reduce energy consumption
- Clean install should eliminate accumulated system clutter
- Cash expenditure
- The days of setting up, installing and configuring the system and software to meet my needs
- Not environmentally friendly
- Should be cheaper than a new system
- More environmentally friendly
- Choosing low energy "Green" component options should reduce power consumption
- Should be able to mirror the old set up fairly quickly; so it should be much quicker to set up
- More challenging and satisfying…
- It might all go horribly wrong!
- Probably not ultimately as good performance as going for a new system
After discussions with my brother I decided on a four phase approach:
- Do some simple system optimisation and maintenance
- Upgrade the main components that will make a performance difference that have an easy (and safe) upgrade path
- Install the twin monitor system
- Review and see if more drastic (and expensive) options should be considered
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1 comment:
As a photographer, it is really essential to do an upgrade of your gadgets, especially your PC. But going for the new system might cost you a lot, so I guess it is good that you choose the “maintain & upgrade” approach. With this, you can scout for cheaper but quality parts from computer stores. It would give almost the same performance in a fair value.
-Benita Bolland
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