I know there are a good number of posts about what are the best components and best computer for digital imaging but I've got a question I haven't seen posed or answered. I know what I want to put in a custom built rig but I do not want to build it myself. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to look to have one built? I've gone to the local computer "experts" and they don't want to build with what I want them to (trying to talk me into different motherboard, different graphics cards and powersupplies, 32 bit Win7) all less efficient than I want and for more money). (Please, no snarky answers about buying a Mac, I get that enough from my sister I've got too much software invested in a PC and I game alot so a Mac really isn't my answer, although if the wrote the games for the Mac I probably would switch)
I can't help you with a referral to a custom builder, but I would like to offer a suggestion.
Take a close look at the Dell Precision Workstation. While you may not be able to specify the mother board, you can spec many other components and OS. These machines use higher grade components than Dell's consumer machines, and come with excellent warranties and support. Sure, you will pay for it, but I doubt you'd get the same levels through a custom builder.
To save money, look for the sweet spots for the CPU and video card. You can get excellent performance without paying through the kazoo for the whiz-bang stuff. Also, if you need second HD's and more RAM, purchase these through a third party such as PC Connection Express (for HD) and Crucial (for RAM). You'll save a bundle.
Incidentally, I've talked to quite a few techs who say that custom building is not profitable. To make it so, they have to greatly mark up the cost of the components and increase their labor rate. So, rather than do the custom builds, they do repairs. Most of the techs I know make their money cleaning up the mess after a virus infection, power supply failure, data recovery, or reinstalls after HD crashes.
It appears you have very specific requirements. If you can't find a builder, you may need to resort to building the machine yourself or look for a customized machine from one of the major players.
Hopefully, others will have ideas that may help you. Good luck in your quest!
As an aside to Prestons comments, if you're worried about anything warranty related.. most, if not all, large component manufacturers and distributors (eVGA, Asus, etc etc) have excellent warranties. Combine that with Neweggs return policy and I doubt you'll ever have a problem.
As an example, G.Skill RAM is warrantied *forever*.
I just received a system I bought from Puget Systems. The staff assisted me a lot in selecting just the right components. It arrived last week and it is absolutely stunning.
Check out their Obsidian as a starting point. Then I added the following.
System Core
Motherboard Asus P7P55D-E Pro
CPU Intel Core i7 QUAD CORE 860 (Lynnfield) 2.8GHz 8MB 95W (Socket 1156 45nm)
Ram 4 x Kingston ValueRAM DDR3-1333 2048MB
Video Card Asus GT 240 1GB Silent
Storage
Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Black 1.0TB SATA 6 Gb/s
Comments: Secondary drive.
Intel X25-M 34nm Gen 2 80GB SATA II 2.5inch SSD
Comments: Primary drive.
CD / DVD Pioneer 22X DVD-RW SATA (black)
Case / Cooling
Case Antec P183 (Gunmetal Finish)
Power Supply Corsair TX 650W Power Supply
CPU Cooling Scythe Katana 3 CPU Cooler
Software
OS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM
Software: Multimedia CDBurnerXP Pro CD/DVD Burning Software [NO SUPPORT]
Accessories
Services Warranty: Lifetime Labor, 1 Year Parts
Thank you so much for the thoughtful replies Preston, Kurt and Ed!
I'm going to look at the Dell Workstation, I hadn't thought about that. I've had 5 Dells over the years between desktops and laptops, and up until my most recent laptop (an XPS) I've had no problems at all with them, but this last laptop has been horrible, they've replaced it once and I've had 5 technician calls for the same issue. I'm worried that this is becoming the rule not the exception, I've had some friends tell me they have new Dell desktops that have had issues and that Dell support has been very poor. Maybe workstations are in a different category.
Ed - I'm so glad to hear you had a good experience with Puget Systems. After I made my post I found their site off of a google keyword search and the tech was awesome talking about what would be a good system trying to do the best for photography and still have a graphics card that would let me game. He spent at least a half an hour with me even though I told him right up front I wasn't ready to buy just yet. That's one heck of a system that you got! I'm sure it screams! And I'm glad to know about the warranties Kurt, I had no idea!
Okay back to doing more research! Thank you all again
Hali
Posted by Dan Borzynski on April 24, 2010 at 12:09 AM
There is something to be said for a company that spends a halfhour with you knowing up front that you won't be buying then. That should bump them up on your list, even if you have to pay a bit more.
Windows 7 64 bit is really the way to go. From I photography point of view, I have not heard anything bad about it. The additional capability of more than 4 meg of RAM should be a priority no matter who you select. Photoshop loves RAM - 8 should be a minimum at the current moment.
The other company I have been hearing a lot of good things about is Falcon Northwest systems
They are a bit more expensive and geared towards the gaming market but they use higher end components.
Don't forget to check out the power supply for the systems you are looking at. Once you get a couple of hard drives in and loads of RAM andother stuff, a 350 watt power supply is going to be pushed to its limits. Try looking at 500 or more watts.
With regards to Dell, checkout their business line of machines. If nothing else, they don't come loaded with the usual amounts of crapware and are customizeable.
Hali, I'm going to take a different approach here. Is there a reason you are reluctant to build your own system? The reason I ask is that there is very little involved, especially if you buy what is referred to as a "bare bones" system which consists of a case, power supply, motherboard, cpu. All you would need to add would be storage, memory, graphics keyboard/mouse. Or you could purchase something called a 'bare bones kit" which is a bundle that has everything you need except for memory, optical drive, mouse and keyboard. You need to add Windows 7 (typically $100 to $150 additional), spend about 45 minutes (or less) assembling your kit and you have pretty close to, if not exactly, what you are looking for. System building is so much easier today than it was when I built my first system in 1983. Many cases are designed to be "tool free" and hardware is basically plug and play. TigerDirect is a decent place to get such kits, and they do offer pre-sales support to advise you as to what to get. Personally I have had wonderful experiences with ASUS motherboards, AMD cpus, Hitachi and some of the higher end Western Digital hard drives, etc. You should be able to put together a killer system for between $500 and $1000.
I took a good look at Puget Systems. I really like what I see! Hmmm?
My original Dell 8400 is one of their 'business' machines. Dan is correct, it came just as I ordered it, with no crapware. I am using it as I speak--not bad for a 5 year old machine. It is getting close to having to upgrade, though. Win 7-64 bit and the newer apps are looking pretty attractive.
Gene does have a point, Hali. If you are careful, take your time, and build your machine with higher end components. You should have a nice box that will meet your specs.
What I found particularly helpful is to NOT migrate all the apps and data from the old machine to the new one - just install your graphics and photo related software and files. Use it only infrequently on the internet, and lock it down with Zone Alarm or some other decent firewall. You'll find that a clean machine will run much faster than one with everything one it. Another very useful little utility a friend just told me about is Dropbox. In essence, its a package that creates a special folder on your computer that has a direct connection to a remote server via secure socket layer - anything that gets written to that folder is instantly copied to their server into your account. The good part is that if you have several machines, you install the applet on each one, and bingo - the files in your dropbox on computer one shows up in all the others. But it gets better - if you delete from any machine, they all get deleted, and a copy of the deleted file goes into the recycle bin on the machine it was deleted from initially. Also, if you have photos, you can put them into a special photos subfolder, then you can get a direct link by right-clicking on the folder name which you cna then paste into an email to let someone look at photos in a crude "gallery" format - individually, slide show, and they can download the file if you want them to. The last really great feature is you can create a subfolder and share it with a group of people with dropbox accounts - and it works like your own folder - they can see the files, edit them and delete them on their own desktops.
The 2 gb version of this is free - I was saving the best for last. It has already revolutionized the way that I share stuff with others and since I work on multiple machines even sharing between them is a snap.
Thanks again Dan, Gene and Preston. I'm pretty much good to go with Puget. I've been impressed by their commitment and their customer support, a hard thing to lately. And I agree with you 100% Gene, I never just migrate the apps over when I have a new system. I try to start with only the essentials (and I do love dropbox, been using it for a while now, not just for my own stuff between systems but also for critiquing images with friends and sharing documents). I wish I could just use the machine I'm getting for photo editing and do all my other "stuff" on the Dell XPS 710 I am using right now so I don't sully the clean machine - but space is very much an issue (I've already got 3 computers the desktop and a laptop at home and my own laptop at the office) so one more is out of the question. Thanks again for all of your help it's been great!
I put together my own PC many years ago - a screamer 12Mhz 286!!!!!! Yeah, it was a long time ago. I spent tons of time into figuring out all the best components. Then the parts started coming in over the weeks. Finally, I had put together my machine (I was a pc guru/expert at the time). I used the then accepted PC Magazine Benchmark tests. My machine beat everything that was being sold at the time. Only cost me $3000 . The thing is so what? I could have bought an off-the-shelf PC with mix and match components for less money and had an acceptably fast machine for the times and a one stop place for warrenties (which I am happy to say my machine never broke down) and alot more time on my hands for other things - like photography.
I wish I had spent the time and money on my photography way back then...I would be much farther along than now.
So, you have to ask yourself a question. Do you want to be a better photographer or a better PC guru? There is no wrong or right answer. Just where do you want to spend your time and money?
So, you have to ask yourself a question. Do you want to be a better photographer or a better PC guru? There is no wrong or right answer. Just where do you want to spend your time and money? {/quote]
That is always the big question where to spend the time and money - both are very important (and limited) resources. I'm always looking to balance all the things in my life, so I buy my PC instead of building it because time to me is a more irreplaceable resource and while I may have spent a little more money than I wanted to because I didn't build it myself I also will hope not to buy another PC for 3-5 years. So it balances out for me.
Discussion
11 repliesI know there are a good number of posts about what are the best components and best computer for digital imaging but I've got a question I haven't seen posed or answered. I know what I want to put in a custom built rig but I do not want to build it myself. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to look to have one built? I've gone to the local computer "experts" and they don't want to build with what I want them to (trying to talk me into different motherboard, different graphics cards and powersupplies, 32 bit Win7) all less efficient than I want and for more money). (Please, no snarky answers about buying a Mac, I get that enough from my sister
Thank you in advance
Hali
I can't help you with a referral to a custom builder, but I would like to offer a suggestion.
Take a close look at the Dell Precision Workstation. While you may not be able to specify the mother board, you can spec many other components and OS. These machines use higher grade components than Dell's consumer machines, and come with excellent warranties and support. Sure, you will pay for it, but I doubt you'd get the same levels through a custom builder.
To save money, look for the sweet spots for the CPU and video card. You can get excellent performance without paying through the kazoo for the whiz-bang stuff. Also, if you need second HD's and more RAM, purchase these through a third party such as PC Connection Express (for HD) and Crucial (for RAM). You'll save a bundle.
Incidentally, I've talked to quite a few techs who say that custom building is not profitable. To make it so, they have to greatly mark up the cost of the components and increase their labor rate. So, rather than do the custom builds, they do repairs. Most of the techs I know make their money cleaning up the mess after a virus infection, power supply failure, data recovery, or reinstalls after HD crashes.
It appears you have very specific requirements. If you can't find a builder, you may need to resort to building the machine yourself or look for a customized machine from one of the major players.
Hopefully, others will have ideas that may help you. Good luck in your quest!
--P
As an example, G.Skill RAM is warrantied *forever*.
Check out their Obsidian as a starting point. Then I added the following.
System Core
Motherboard Asus P7P55D-E Pro
CPU Intel Core i7 QUAD CORE 860 (Lynnfield) 2.8GHz 8MB 95W (Socket 1156 45nm)
Ram 4 x Kingston ValueRAM DDR3-1333 2048MB
Video Card Asus GT 240 1GB Silent
Storage
Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Black 1.0TB SATA 6 Gb/s
Comments: Secondary drive.
Intel X25-M 34nm Gen 2 80GB SATA II 2.5inch SSD
Comments: Primary drive.
CD / DVD Pioneer 22X DVD-RW SATA (black)
Case / Cooling
Case Antec P183 (Gunmetal Finish)
Power Supply Corsair TX 650W Power Supply
CPU Cooling Scythe Katana 3 CPU Cooler
Software
OS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM
Software: Multimedia CDBurnerXP Pro CD/DVD Burning Software [NO SUPPORT]
Accessories
Services Warranty: Lifetime Labor, 1 Year Parts
I'm going to look at the Dell Workstation, I hadn't thought about that. I've had 5 Dells over the years between desktops and laptops, and up until my most recent laptop (an XPS) I've had no problems at all with them, but this last laptop has been horrible, they've replaced it once and I've had 5 technician calls for the same issue. I'm worried that this is becoming the rule not the exception, I've had some friends tell me they have new Dell desktops that have had issues and that Dell support has been very poor. Maybe workstations are in a different category.
Ed - I'm so glad to hear you had a good experience with Puget Systems. After I made my post I found their site off of a google keyword search and the tech was awesome talking about what would be a good system trying to do the best for photography and still have a graphics card that would let me game. He spent at least a half an hour with me even though I told him right up front I wasn't ready to buy just yet. That's one heck of a system that you got! I'm sure it screams! And I'm glad to know about the warranties Kurt, I had no idea!
Okay back to doing more research! Thank you all again
Hali
Windows 7 64 bit is really the way to go. From I photography point of view, I have not heard anything bad about it. The additional capability of more than 4 meg of RAM should be a priority no matter who you select. Photoshop loves RAM - 8 should be a minimum at the current moment.
The other company I have been hearing a lot of good things about is Falcon Northwest systems
http://www.falcon-nw.com/
They are a bit more expensive and geared towards the gaming market but they use higher end components.
Don't forget to check out the power supply for the systems you are looking at. Once you get a couple of hard drives in and loads of RAM andother stuff, a 350 watt power supply is going to be pushed to its limits. Try looking at 500 or more watts.
With regards to Dell, checkout their business line of machines. If nothing else, they don't come loaded with the usual amounts of crapware and are customizeable.
My original Dell 8400 is one of their 'business' machines. Dan is correct, it came just as I ordered it, with no crapware. I am using it as I speak--not bad for a 5 year old machine. It is getting close to having to upgrade, though. Win 7-64 bit and the newer apps are looking pretty attractive.
Gene does have a point, Hali. If you are careful, take your time, and build your machine with higher end components. You should have a nice box that will meet your specs.
--P
The 2 gb version of this is free - I was saving the best for last. It has already revolutionized the way that I share stuff with others and since I work on multiple machines even sharing between them is a snap.
I wish I had spent the time and money on my photography way back then...I would be much farther along than now.
So, you have to ask yourself a question. Do you want to be a better photographer or a better PC guru? There is no wrong or right answer. Just where do you want to spend your time and money?
Troup
So, you have to ask yourself a question. Do you want to be a better photographer or a better PC guru? There is no wrong or right answer. Just where do you want to spend your time and money? {/quote]
That is always the big question where to spend the time and money - both are very important (and limited) resources. I'm always looking to balance all the things in my life, so I buy my PC instead of building it because time to me is a more irreplaceable resource and while I may have spent a little more money than I wanted to because I didn't build it myself I also will hope not to buy another PC for 3-5 years. So it balances out for me.