Building a perfect PC for your photography work...

OK here I am gonna discuss about how you should build your new PC or modify your already owned one to get more efficient use for your photography things. So first we must think about the benefits having such a good PC for those things.

As a photographer I guess you already care lot about the look and feel of the things which you capture on the way.  After you capture them what you always wanted to do is edit and optimize them using a computer for a better look. Because we all know that when we capture something at a naked place like a beach or a jungle or wherever, lot of interferences will affect the photos we capture due to unpredictable lighting conditions and our own physical or mental conditions as well. Then the outputs we get after that will never come in handy like we expected before and that's why we need a little editing after all.

Whether you are a professional photographer or do those things just as a hobby in most cases I know you use a digital SLR camera than an old fashioned analog camera these days. And the outputs you get from your camera are kind of heavy when comparing with the outputs get from a point and shoot camera so you need a good computer for better editing and do optimizations with those.

First thing we need to look for is a good processor. If you regularly use Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom like software it is always advisable to go for at least a Core 2 duo or better processor with at least 2MB of catch memory because when it comes to 2D graphics editing and large scale image manipulation your CPU (processor) will get more attention than your graphic card (Quad core will always do better).

Mainstream graphics cards outclassed the needs of 2D applications long ago. Most of the things that Photoshop will be slow on are the result of CPU and RAM intensive tasks, not display issues. Photoshop will occasionally use the 3D aspect of your video card to do certain transformations, but many photographers and designers will never even use those specific filters in the first place.

When you load up a huge image in Photoshop, it's not going onto your VRAM, only your 'screen' does. When you apply a lens blur filter, it's your main CPU that is doing all the complex specialized (and in this case likely proprietary) math, not a generic video card GPU. Even when you zoom in and out of your image, it's not a case of the graphics card scaling a window, and is why text gets fuzzy in such instances.

Though with the release of Photoshop CS4 and CS5 they say you can get advantage of your graphic card with the support of GPU acceleration, releasing your CPU load for other things (multitasking). But as my personal experience you can never get 100% satisfaction about this GPU acceleration support because whether you have the most powerful graphics card in the market, it still need your PC to have a good CPU for better operation because heavy 2D graphics work will never use 100% of your VRAM (only 5% to 20% at most) and it needs up to 80% of the CPU load instead.

Resource> http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/gpu-opengl-support-photoshop-cs4.html

Let's get back to the topic so then we need a fast RAM which can handle a large amount of data with fast transfer speed between the CPU and the storage so your editing will happen quick and fast. I would recommend at least 2GB of DDR2 or DDR3 RAM with 800+ bus speed for your built (nowadays you can get a pair of dual channel DDR3 4GBs for cheap).

Then it's the time for choosing a suitable graphics card for your system. In 1990's when we need to do any 2D work we always needed a good graphics card for the job because at that era there were no any motherboard integrated graphics chips and to fulfill each task we needed a separate part for that. Matrox and ATI acted a major role in computers used by professional photographers. But nowadays we all know that every cheap motherboard comes with integrated graphics chip which can handle high definition videos and do most 2D works for everyday use. If you are a laptop PC owner you also know that your laptop has a integrated or dedicated graphics chip as well (dedicated chips are better). By the way when you are building your PC you don't have to pick a very expensive graphics card because most of them are intended for 3D manipulation and high end gaming. But in my personal experience I know a decent separate graphics card will outrun any integrated chip by a lot. And when it comes to panorama or HDR image creation you will always need a graphics card which supports them. So we can make a guess here. I would say all the 100$+ cards are for gaming and under 100$ cards are mainly intended for HD video playback and fast 2D tasks so you can get an AMD (previously ATI) radeon HD 5450 for under 5500Rs (40$) or HD 6450 for under 7500Rs. ATI were always better than Nvidia when it comes to 2D image tasks handling (Nvidia always target gaming market than professional work) and the monitor outputs are crystal clear and vivid. Although if you are an owner of a large scale photography firm and looking for something more suitable for industry work there are workstation graphics cards for you too. But they are highly expensive (sometimes cost more than 1500$) and gives you the opportunity to get ultra multitasking with more than four monitors. Nvidia Quadro series and AMD Fire Pro series are the major ones today. When you want to get a laptop for doing your things go for something with dedicated graphics chip like AMD 6370M, Nvidia GT230M or better.

We can consider about the storage device according to your usage requirements but to get the fast performance of the PC you need to get a fast SATA hard drive or a SSD (320GB/500GB SATA III 3 GB/s drive will be suitable).

Now comes an important one, the monitor. Nowadays most people choose LED monitors because of their low power consumption and the unbeatable quality. When choosing this you need to look whether it supports high resolutions with the minimal response time (2ms or 5ms is good). And go for a good brand like Viewsonic, Sony or anything which can satisfy your eyes. Though look whether they can connect to your PC through DVI or HDMI interfaces because many cheap monitors still comes with only analog VGA support. When you are using the analog mode the picture manipulated by your PC will always differ than what you see on the monitor screen. Because when converting the digital signals to analog signals by the graphics card that will cause a quality loss so you will not get the 100% quality image onto the display with that. If you are doing heavy photo editing you will need a two monitor setup. Separate graphic cards can help you with that too.

Oh and finally you can pick other parts such as power supply unit, casing, motherboard, keyboard/mouse and speakers to match your previously discussed peripherals so I am not gonna talk about them now. Well I think you can get some idea about choosing something to help you with your everyday photography work so good luck with that.

Read my previous post to learn more...

Tips for choosing a Laptop/Notebook to match your busy lifestyle

Nowadays many people buy Laptop computers instead of buying desktops because most of them want to use their PC's during every time in the day so they have to carry it wherever they go.
In this article I am going to show you how to buy a good Laptop computer with all the features you need for a reasonable price.
First thing you have to consider is it's processor so look for intel i5/i7 or AMD phenom II or Athlon X4/X6 CPUs but do not go for Intel Atom or AMD Turion CPUs because they are so much weak and only capable of browsing internet and handling documents.
Then look for other things like Hard disk, Graphics processor and so on. In my opinion I would like to say if it has 320/500GB hard disk that's enough because you can extend the storage lately as you need by buying some additional external hard drives but you cannot replace the Graphics processor comes with it because it cost you more than you think so especially look for a perfect GPU for a good performance. I recommend you to look for AMD Radeon HD5000/6000/7000 series or Nvidia Geforce GTX 300/400/500 series for better gaming and better look. 1GB or 2GB is good enough for GPU memory because it is not the main memory of your PC so it only affects when you do large scale 3D manipulations..
After that go for a good RAM. Look for 4GB or 6/8GB RAM because if you have enough money it will not waste.
Afterwards see if the display fits enough for you. It has to be a HD widescreen LED display that fits into the recent movies and blue ray playback.
Then you can consider other things such as Hi Def audio devices, Web cams, Wifi/Bluetooth, eSATA ports etc but most of them comes with all of the above features already so you do not have to worry much.
Finally You can choose a good design that fits you the most but specially look for a strong and light weight one if you travel a lot.
You may think why didn't I mention about brands but this is why most of the people know about good brands like Dell, Toshiba, HP, Asus likewise. Anyway I recommend you not to choose Acer, Lenovo or HP/Compaq because they are over priced but does not have a good performance or quality that previous ones do.
And I think you can find a good one around 800-1000 dollars at a reasonable store. Well do not forget to ask for a good warranty like 2 or 3 years international.

Thanks and keep in touch.
(This article is kinda old because I wrote it a year ago but I hope you can still find it useful anyways)