Greater Niagara Photographic Association Site

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/320005.html

and

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/332270.html

Interesting read.  Looks like a 64 bit processor, 64 bit OS and 8 gig of memory is the way to go <grin>

Note having more than 3 gig on 32 bit XP is the limit (and you must set a switch to use the extra 1 gig.)

"Interesting read.  Looks like a 64 bit processor, 64 bit OS and 8 gig of memory is the way to go."

When will we get a chance to see this new computer set up?? 

I would imagine it is on the way!

That would be Tom's new PC not mine <grin.> He has it working now (an Intel Duo 2 processor) and is just finding the sweet spot as far as overclocking goes. Something amazing I hear...

I have purchased his old hardware and ungraded to it last night. It was a very smooth upgrade but kept me up to 1 am doing it (total 4 hours elapsed.) Since I was backed up (twice) there were no issues of course.  I also downloaded all the drivers for the new MB onto the PC before upgrading the hardware. So I now have an AMD 4400 X2 processor, and PCI-E motherboard now on the Photo Shop PC. I had to get one of the newer PCI-E video cards to go with it as there is no AGP slot on the motherboard. Since I am still running XP 32 bit there is only 2 gig of memory in the PC today. I will take it to four gigs (motherboard maximum) when I upgrade to a 64 bit OS (still deciding on which one XP 64 or Vista beta.)

I will be tweaking the settings on the new to me PC tonight  to overclock a wee bit but that is not really that important to me anymore. It will be fast enough until Tom's next upgrade...

Hi John, I just read a tech topic talking about the new Intel Duo Conroe E2.4 GHZ dual 6800, 6700 and 6600 processors. The article claims them to be faster and cooler running than anything on the planet. I am thinking of rebuilding my box its name is Sprocket with a new MB etc. Is a dual CPU really needed for just the usual Photoshop web activity etc running one program at a time? Regards Peter

Photo Shop will make use of the dual processors as it is multi threaded. You will have a smoother and more responsive computer with two cores, if running multiple tasks. It may be also important to note that a 64 bit CPU is a more important thing so that you will be able to run a 64 bit OS.  So a fast 64 bit CPU with 2 to 4 gig of ram would be first on my list, then multi cores as an option if you do several tasks at once on your PC. Also note that the pricing on the AMD CPU's is really good now that Intel has their new CPU's out in limited supply.

There is a very nice shuttle system for sale on this board...(shameless self promotion)

After tweaking the new to me Photo shop PC and working on an image I find the system 'good enough.'  A seat belt is not required, however.  I'm thinking that maybe I upgrade too often and there is just not enough difference from year to year. The last major upgrade was the shuttle system a year ago.

PS does not seem to launch much faster (mostly disk I/O and I'm using the same 10K Raptor disk), however, you can run PS browser and PS main, and a MS backup at the same time with no real impact on each other. So dual core's are nice if running more than one task at a time. You might be surprised how often this will happen.  For example, burning a CD while working on an image in PS, or playing a DVD while working in PS etc. The PS gaussian filter is very quick to run now.  Tonight I will try some of the more complex filters...

I never got to the more complex filter test as I was working on documentation for the insurance claim from the flood. SarahJean is getting my 'old' PhotoShop PC (AMD 3400+ 64 bit, 2 gig of memory,  serial ata, lot's of USB ports, firewire ports, ATI 9800 video with TV, deluxe aluminum tower case with neon lights<grin> etc.) The setup of that PC was started last night...the ghost backup image was restored to a new 'C' hard drive and the system boots as of this morning....

To get my pc to boot with video working, using four gig under 32 bit xp I needed to add the '/3gb' and the '/USERVA=2864' settings to the boot.ini. Only then did PS have access to some extra memory (2500 meg of memory in the PS memory and cache dialog.) Do a google search on /USERVA= to get more information on virtual memory allocation etc.

As below....

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3GB" /fastdetect /3GB /USERVA=2800 /NoExecute=OptIn /usepmtimer
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn /usepmtimer
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

Tried the lens correction filter and WOW!  This was a really slow filter before, not any longer....

Two thumbs up for a dual CPU rig.... with 3 gig of memory!

I have also been able to run all four sticks of memory at 400mz dual channel, which is not the norm for this motherboard/cpu combo. When four sticks are inserted it drops back to 333mz by default. A quick bios change and some testing and we are running even faster. The cpu has been overclocked by 10% to 220 mz.  All seems stable thanks to the quality components.

And tha saga continues....Purchased Tom's handme down PSU today.  I think he said that he purchased a 700 watt power supply!  So his little 520 watt OCZ PSU has found a new home in this server.  All that chrome is making the magpies circle overhead.

In the end I'm able to get a 5% overclock and have a very stable system. Perhaps the 4 gig of ram has reduced the ability to overclock the cpu (and the memory since the bus is on the cpu.) I'm happy with the 5% as a stable system is my primary goal. It's also better to have the extra memory available to CS2 than to run a bit faster with 'only' two gig's of ram.

Under Vista this switch has changed to 'bcdedit /set increaseuserva 3072'  and then with 4 gig of RAM PS now has 2637 available ram

 

Got the 2 gig of memory back from RMA to Corsair. The PS machine now has 4 gig again. I had to configure the memory timings 2-3-3-6 in the bios to get the 4 gigs of memory to pass the Vista memory test. In addition the new CPU is now overclocked by 15% without issue or core voltage increase.

Thank you John. Regards Peter