Heres my plan, looking for advice

[dphotos]

Hello all, I've been poking around this forum for a few weeks now and trying to save up for a new build. Thanks so much for all the excellent information. I am hoping that someone can point me in the right direction.

I currently use a 15" Macbook Pro 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo with 4GB of ram as my primary machine. I do lots of photo cataloging and editing in Adobe Lightroom (about 20000 RAW photos/year). Use Photoshop CS3 regularly. Build slideshows using Fotomagico and iMovie. Stitch together panoramas. And dabble in the occasional video editing. As well as the regular e-mail, internet watch movies... It is great machine for being on the road but I know that I can do much better for power and speed. I have considered an iMac but am not too fond of the LED display as well as the lack of ability to upgrade/add components. Mac pro is another thought but I think that it is a bit overkill for what I need and currently way above my budget.

When at home I'm using a 24" Mac LCD Cinema Display alongside my 15" (as a duel display). I also run an older xp PC as my fileserver. It currently has about 4tb of storage in it.

I have figured out some components of my build but am really confused about others:

GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD4 Seems to be the way to go

Core i5 750 or Core I7 860 (is the I7 upgrade worth the money for what I am using it for?)

Graphics card: Here is where I am most confused, Ideally I would like to have dual DVI output, quiet running with minimal power consumption for what I am doing but still want good performance. It seems that the nvidia 9800 GT is a good place to start but with so many brands out there where to go?
Also I would like to fit it into a small to mid size tower case, I have noticed that some of the current graphics cards are massive...

4GB G.Skill Ripjaws 1600 2x2gb

Sony DVD-RW

450 watt PSU? I think this should be adequate but it may depend on the graphics card.

2x2tb hard drives for photo storage Raid Mirror(already have).

2x500g Hard drives for OS and regular files and lightroom Database(already have)

Eventually add another display as budget allows.

Thanks in advance for your input. Looking forward to diving into this.

 

[MacMan]

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Graphics card: Here is where I am most confused, Ideally I would like to have dual DVI output, quiet running with minimal power consumption for what I am doing but still want good performance. It seems that the nvidia 9800 GT is a good place to start but with so many brands out there where to go?
Also I would like to fit it into a small to mid size tower case, I have noticed that some of the current graphics cards are massive...

I have the PNY 9800GT EE 512MB. It worked out of the box with iBoot and MultiBeast. It has 2 DVI connectors and is quiet.

They only have a 1GB model now, which is cheaper than what I paid for the 512MB model. Here is the link to it at Newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133304

 

[Griffwill]

I have an XFX 9800 GT 512MB. I do most of the same work as you. A lot of work in photoshop, and the rest of CS4. Before this I had a Macbook w/ a 2.4 C2D and 2 GB of RAM. This machine is great with PS and stitching massive panoramas (20-30 images). and is much snappier. If the room is in the budget, go for the i7, just for the sake of future versions of CS. but all looks good. Good luck.

 

[dphotos]

Thanks MacMan and Griffwill, they both look like good options to me

I also found this card:
EVGA 512-P3-N973-TR GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6814130435

any of these cards should install with osx with minimal difficulties, correct? Do any brands tend to have better reputations than others? they all seem to be roughly around the same price...

Any more input is much appreciated, do you think im going in the right direction with what I am trying to accomplish?

 

[MacMan]

I also found this card:
EVGA 512-P3-N973-TR GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6814130435
Any more input is much appreciated, do you think im going in the right direction with what I am trying to accomplish?

That card will work fine, you are headed in the right direction.

 

[Lnx2Mac]

I also found this card:
EVGA 512-P3-N973-TR GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6814130435

cakemonster is using a similar one, I think, the 1GB model.

any of these cards should install with osx with minimal difficulties, correct? Do any brands tend to have better reputations than others? they all seem to be roughly around the same price...

Personally I chose my Gigabyte 9800 for 1 main reason: Silent Cell (Passive cooler = Silence)
It has D-SUB(VGA) + DVI + HDMI (and an adapter for HDMI->DVI).

Worked out of the box with iboot+gigabeast.

As for the RAM, take a look at the G.Skill Eco as well, these run much cooler than the RipJaws and, being low profile, might help with big coolers...

I think 450W might be a bit tight with 4 HDDs.

Good Luck !

 

[dphotos]

Personally I chose my Gigabyte 9800 for 1 main reason: Silent Cell (Passive cooler = Silence)
It has D-SUB(VGA) + DVI + HDMI (and an adapter for HDMI->DVI).

Worked out of the box with iboot+gigabeast.

I did look at the Gigabyte 9800 and it is tempting but it will not fit into my case (coolermaster elite 335) with the HDDs, it is also not dual DVI,

I am curious if your HDMI output works for you though?

As for the RAM, take a look at the G.Skill Eco as well, these run much cooler than the RipJaws and, being low profile, might help with big coolers...

Had a look at the G.Skill Eco and I like the idea of the cooler running ram, the RipJaws looked pretty common around this forum so thats why I picked them.

I think 450W might be a bit tight with 4 HDDs.

Good Luck !

Yeah, Im thinking of going with a 550W psu to be on the safe side, looking at the Corsair VX550.

Thanks!

Another thought I had is if anyone has any experience with SSD HDs?

Im looking at about $100 difference in the i5 to the i7, and for that difference I could go with a 64GB SSD to run the OS on, thoughts and opinions on that are welcome!
My mistake, I thought I saw a 64gb ssd card for around $100 but does not seem to be the case...

 

[Lnx2Mac]

Personally I chose my Gigabyte 9800 for 1 main reason: Silent Cell (Passive cooler = Silence)
It has D-SUB(VGA) + DVI + HDMI (and an adapter for HDMI->DVI).

Worked out of the box with iboot+gigabeast.

I did look at the Gigabyte 9800 and it is tempting but it will not fit into my case (coolermaster elite 335) with the HDDs

Are you sure it won't fit ? It's just about 8mm longer than my p55m-ud4...
By specs, the Elite335 is 18mm deeper than my Designer...

it is also not dual DVI,

While it's not Dual-DVI, you get the same effect with the HDMI->DVI adapter.

I am curious if your HDMI output works for you though?

I used the adapter (didn't have an HDMI cable around), and it works flawlessly on both BIOS and OSX (Both as mirror and as extended-desktop).

However, due to the adapter, I had to unplug the D-SUB... Thus getting 2xDVI.
Anyway, I heard you can only use 2 of the 3 outputs simultaneously on nVidias...
Normally I'm using extended-desktop with DVI@1920x1200 on my Samsung T260HD, and D-SUB@1280x1024 on an old ElCheapo 4:3 17" LCD.

 

[dphotos]

Are you sure it won't fit ? It's just about 8mm longer than my p55m-ud4...
By specs, the Elite335 is 18mm deeper than my Designer...

I have about 9.5" (25 cm) of distance from the end of my HD to the edge of the case (not including connector cables). According to someones review at Newegg here (I was unable to find any dimensions on the Gigabyte site) the card is 10.1" long.

Could you please confirm this, I would consider this card if it will fit