Need to upgrade the PC !

[Biscuit761]

Now I have upgraded my camera (New D300 ) I have encountered a problem, basically it takes an absolute age to look through the files.

The Fine Large Jpegs are about 5meg a go, my normal method of working after uploading is to go through all the pictures using the windows picture viewer, delete any bad ones (and boy do they have to be bad for my finger to go near the "Delete" button), and then open up anything that I like in Photoshop for editing.

The JPegs are taking so long to open (it feels like anyway, probably only a couple of seconds) that looking through them is getting a bit of a chore - especially as I can not resist pressing that shutter.

Also with such a big card (8 gig) it is amazing how soon you can knock up a gig or 2's worth of files, especially if you shoot RAW.

My PC is an AMD Athlon based machine with a 1.15 ghz chip and 768 meg of RAM, graphics are controlled by an Nvidia GEForce MX420 card. I have a 40 gig internal hard drive with about 6g free and a 350 gig external hard drive, about 275g free but quickly filling up !

Suggestions on an upgrade would be helpful. Would a nice Imac solve my problems or is it just a case of a bit more RAM and perhaps a change of chip ?

Cheers

Bill

[imcarm]

Being a Macbook Pro user then I would have to say go for a mac with 2gb or 4gb of ram - The Imacs are wonderful beasts and as with all Macs they just work wonderfully and seem to made for photo editing

Although I'm sure a dual or quad core CPU with 2 or 4gb ram to replace your current set up would do the job just fine.

I pick up my D300 tomorrow afternoon so I'll let you know how well the Mac handles the files (I'm running 4gb ram). What lenses did you go for with your D200 btw?

[Biscuit761]

Thanks Imcarm, thinking of going the Imac route. Will my Maxtor disc drive plug into it ?

By the way its a D300 I have not D200 as your post (typo ?), have got the same glass as I used with my D50, Sigma 17 - 70 (may change for Nikon, feel it always gives a brown cast), Nikon 50mm 1.8 and Nikon 80 - 200 F2.8 D lens (not the new VR one) which is my favourite.

Bill

[Gow87]

Anything these days will be a very large improvement. Although Macs are fantastic beasties they do use mobile chips which means you essentially pay more for less, However You do get the shiny-est machine ever and they are built very very well.

Bare in mind you could get a pc quite a bit cheaper, you wouldnt need anything massively powerful.. but it does help

[Biscuit761]

Wondered what sort of machine the owners of the D3, 1D and 5D's and used, their image sizes are way up from mine.

Bill

[Antpink]

So not one of the camera's you mentioned, but a D80 with highest res jpeg is about 3-5 mb per pic. I have the same problem with deleting files, so storage is getting racked up pretty quick. Also have almost all the kids DVD's backed up so that the originals don't get wrecked by their ever so delicate handling, so this is running at around 100+gb of space. My pc is an AMD 3200X2, 3gb RAM, XP Pro and lots of software I run simultaneously. The biggest slow down is file transfer from the SD card, but otherwise plenty quick enough when the files are on the HDD.

Biggest problem I had was getting more storage crammed in to the case - now have 2x500gb (one is purely for file backup), 1x250gb and an external 250gb. Now I need another 500gb HDD! Had to upgrade the casework to hold all the current and future (room for 3 more) HDD, although I am toying with an external NAS instead.

Based upon my above config, just about any current Intel or AMD dual or quad core will be more than sufficient, but get at least 2gb RAM. Suggest to DIY your PC to only get what you need and spend money where it counts and not have all the unnecessary manufacturer installed crud (which only uses up your RAM bandwidth), use XP Pro not Vista (memory hog) and make sure you back up your files religiously! Problem with digital format is that it can so easily be irretrievably lost!

[booyaka]

Ram is the most important thing when it comes to shift pictures around etc.

I would consider a total overhaul personally.

At least 2gb but for the cost of 4gb of DDR2 ram in a pc is only about £60 now.

Any intel core2duo plus 2/4gb of ram will be a monster improvement over your current system

[imcarm]

Originally Posted by Biscuit761

Thanks Imcarm, thinking of going the Imac route. Will my Maxtor disc drive plug into it ?

By the way its a D300 I have not D200 as your post (typo ?), have got the same glass as I used with my D50, Sigma 17 - 70 (may change for Nikon, feel it always gives a brown cast), Nikon 50mm 1.8 and Nikon 80 - 200 F2.8 D lens (not the new VR one) which is my favourite.

Bill

Any USB/firewire drive should plug into it, I use a cheap unbranded external USB drive which works fine with the Macbook

It was a typo Bill, I did mean the D300 (sausage fingers)

I went with the Sigma 18-125mm f/3.5-5.6 DC to start me off, need to save some more thought as I need some faster glass, I know for certain the 70-300 VR, a nice wide angle and body grip will be my next purchase. This afternoon can't come quick enough.

[Strobe]

PC's are just so cheap, comparatively speaking, that I would just swap out the base unit for another. Dual or Quad core processor, at least 2 Gb RAM, and decent HDD - all pretty much standard spec these days. I have always built up my own PC's and upgraded as I went along but now it's just easier to buy a new PC. I have never used a Mac and did seriously consider moving over when my last laptop died (arguement with a bottle of bud ) but all the existing pc software I had meant I stayed with a PC. Try www.novatech.co.uk, they aren't the cheapest but are reasonably competitive and use good components.

[h4rri]

Yeah PC's are cheap to buy but then add on the software and all the hassle you have they simply aren't worth it. I used to spend hours on my PC just getting it stable enough to load up the shots. Now all the time I spend in front of my Mac is used editing not nursing the useless fat sack of crap PC into working for more than 45 minutes without crashing again.

[Liquid101]

Originally Posted by h4rri

Now all the time I spend in front of my Mac is used editing not nursing the useless fat sack of crap PC into working for more than 45 minutes without crashing again.

Praise the lord!

Completely agree - It's only when you make the move to Mac that you realise just what you've had to put up with when working under windows.

Windows PC may be cheaper and more easily upgradable, but with Mac you get quality hardware and an integrated operating system that is way ahead of anything Microsoft has to offer.

[springtide]

Originally Posted by h4rri

Yeah PC's are cheap to buy but then add on the software and all the hassle you have they simply aren't worth it. I used to spend hours on my PC just getting it stable enough to load up the shots. Now all the time I spend in front of my Mac is used editing not nursing the useless fat sack of crap PC into working for more than 45 minutes without crashing again.

I don't have any problems with my PC at all

I even run the hated Vista, have three users always logged in, run Lightroom, Photoshop, Sony Vegas, few games (GTR2, Saga Rally) and the usual office apps. In fact, my PC hasn't been rebooted since, hmmm..... about 2 months (I think) - it's been on 24/7 while I've been doing my online backups to Mozy (have almost 300GB backed up at the moment)

I must be very lucky I also seem pretty lucky at work - cos' that one 'just works' also

Best way to improve stability of a PC is to buy quality components if you build your own (rather than the cheapest), or if you buy from a vendor - get a good make (rather than the cheapest). You get what you pay for, so if you have poor quality hardware then your not exactly giving the OS and applications a great start.

Also with Windows, just install what you want to run, rather than anything you find on the internet. Also, if you run "cracked" software, then be prepared to get a little more than you hoped for. Seen so many people complain about their machine (which I've been asked to have a look at), only to find that they've downloaded a "keygen executable" etc for obvious reasons, which contains a whole host of 'other features' - viruses, spyware etc.

[soweezy]

I just bought a Dell Vostro 1700 laptop, only has a Celeron 2ghz, 256mb graphics card and 1gb memory but it's much faster than my old 1.5ghz celeron with 1.5gb ram and shared graphics
I chose Windows XP instead of Vista which probably helps too

cost me under £300 from Dell + £30 for a 2gb ram upgrade from Crucial

[tomson]

Another mac advocate here. Have a 24" imac at the mo and it glides through all my post processing with ease - quickly flicking through raw files (7-10 meg or so) is a joy!

[imcarm]

Originally Posted by tomson

Another mac advocate here. Have a 24" imac at the mo and it glides through all my post processing with ease - quickly flicking through raw files (7-10 meg or so) is a joy!

Good point there tomson, I forget just how well the mac handles raw files, I glide through them in Aperture at blistering speed as if they were jpg's