Does PC/processor reduce raw conversion time?

[Anthony]

Just picked up a new PC. Should have it a few days.

Just curious.

New PC:

Athlon 1.4ghz
512 ram
60 gig HD 7200rpm
DVD burner
16/10/40 CD Burner
64meg Nvidia video card

Old PC:

Athlon 600mhz
256 ram
20 gig HD
12/10/32 CD burner
64 meg Gforce video card

Do you like I'll see a performance increase while converting raw files?
What would you add to this system?

 

[Chris Breeze]

Yes!

I went from 60sec+ per D30 raw file on my AMD K6-2 450MHz, 192Mb WinME PC down to 13 sec per file on my AMD 1.3GHz Athlon, 512Mb WinME machine. The new machine was initially supplied with the wrong drive (20Gb 5800rpm) and this was 2 sec slower than the 40Gb 7200rpm I have now.

Win2k also seems to give a speed improvement as it appears to make better use of the disk. It's also much more stable than ME - my ME machine crashes at least once a day whereas I've yet to crash Win2K.

I know there are faster machines around but I never buy the fastest available as one model down gives much better price/performance.

Chris
PS I would add a large, good quality monitor

Just picked up a new PC. Should have it a few days.

Just curious.

New PC:

Athlon 1.4ghz
512 ram
60 gig HD 7200rpm
DVD burner
16/10/40 CD Burner
64meg Nvidia video card

Old PC:

Athlon 600mhz
256 ram
20 gig HD
12/10/32 CD burner
64 meg Gforce video card

Do you like I'll see a performance increase while converting raw
files?
What would you add to this system?

 

[Anthony]

Yes!
I went from 60sec+ per D30 raw file on my AMD K6-2 450MHz, 192Mb
WinME PC down to 13 sec per file on my AMD 1.3GHz Athlon, 512Mb
WinME machine. The new machine was initially supplied with the
wrong drive (20Gb 5800rpm) and this was 2 sec slower than the 40Gb
7200rpm I have now.

Win2k also seems to give a speed improvement as it appears to make
better use of the disk. It's also much more stable than ME - my ME
machine crashes at least once a day whereas I've yet to crash Win2K.

I know there are faster machines around but I never buy the fastest
available as one model down gives much better price/performance.

Chris
PS I would add a large, good quality monitor

On that note.....
Any recommendations for a monitor?

Just picked up a new PC. Should have it a few days.

Just curious.

New PC:

Athlon 1.4ghz
512 ram
60 gig HD 7200rpm
DVD burner
16/10/40 CD Burner
64meg Nvidia video card

Old PC:

Athlon 600mhz
256 ram
20 gig HD
12/10/32 CD burner
64 meg Gforce video card

Do you like I'll see a performance increase while converting raw
files?
What would you add to this system?

 

[John L.41003]

... I'm looking at upgrading my PC - what kind of motherboard and ram did you get? I'm looking at the Abit KG7 if anyone has heard anything good/bad about it.

THx,

John L.

Just picked up a new PC. Should have it a few days.

Just curious.

New PC:

Athlon 1.4ghz
512 ram
60 gig HD 7200rpm
DVD burner
16/10/40 CD Burner
64meg Nvidia video card

Old PC:

Athlon 600mhz
256 ram
20 gig HD
12/10/32 CD burner
64 meg Gforce video card

Do you like I'll see a performance increase while converting raw
files?
What would you add to this system?

 

[Yuri Shabashov]

Yes!
I went from 60sec+ per D30 raw file on my AMD K6-2 450MHz, 192Mb
WinME PC down to 13 sec per file on my AMD 1.3GHz Athlon, 512Mb
WinME machine.

20 sec per D30 on my 1GHz 512Mb WinME notebook.

Chris - I asume D30 raw file to TIFF file. Is it/how much faster RAW to JPG convertion?

Yuri

 

[Mohit]

Anthony,

On the monitor recommendations, check out Cornerstone ( http://www.bigmonitors.com ). Their 19" ones are very cost-effective (c901 for example), and the 21" are excellent too (p1500, etc). Highly reviewed for good text clarity as well.

I have an Athlon 1.2 GHz with 512 Mb RAM, 30 Gb system drive and 2x45 Gb in a RAID-0 array (mostly for video editing), all really fast 7200 rpm drives - these are key. Windows 2000, of course - the only way to go.

• Mohit

 

[Hammy #54417]

Wonderboy over at
http://www.anandtech.com
has great reviews of the motherboards available.
He also review memory and what benefits you could get out of the latest.

Personally, I'm going to stick with PC133 memory as I can swap it around with my other systems and even though RDRAM has better performance, it is not enough to justify the cost difference.

I have built systems with Abit boards, and I have liked them.

Brian.

... I'm looking at upgrading my PC - what kind of motherboard and
ram did you get? I'm looking at the Abit KG7 if anyone has heard
anything good/bad about it.

THx,

John L.

 

[Chris Breeze]

Yuri,

There's hardly any difference in timing between RAW to JPEG, TIFF, TIFF 16-bit or TIFF 16-bit linear on my machine. Raw to JPEG is bit slower than raw to TIFF. Turning off the false colour filter reduces the time to between 7 and 8 secs per raw file.

My 550Mhz AMD K6-2 550MHz, 192Mb RAM, 6Gb HDD, Win2k laptop takes about 37sec per raw D30 file to TIFF.

Chris

Yes!
I went from 60sec+ per D30 raw file on my AMD K6-2 450MHz, 192Mb
WinME PC down to 13 sec per file on my AMD 1.3GHz Athlon, 512Mb
WinME machine.

20 sec per D30 on my 1GHz 512Mb WinME notebook.

Chris - I asume D30 raw file to TIFF file. Is it/how much faster
RAW to JPG convertion?

Yuri

 

[sammy34656]

I am looking at the Sony E500 21" myself.... Now trying to decide on a video card.

I am also thinking about the Athlon 1.4GHz with 512Mb, I currently am running dual Celerons at 550MHz

Yes!
I went from 60sec+ per D30 raw file on my AMD K6-2 450MHz, 192Mb
WinME PC down to 13 sec per file on my AMD 1.3GHz Athlon, 512Mb
WinME machine. The new machine was initially supplied with the
wrong drive (20Gb 5800rpm) and this was 2 sec slower than the 40Gb
7200rpm I have now.

Win2k also seems to give a speed improvement as it appears to make
better use of the disk. It's also much more stable than ME - my ME
machine crashes at least once a day whereas I've yet to crash Win2K.

I know there are faster machines around but I never buy the fastest
available as one model down gives much better price/performance.

Chris
PS I would add a large, good quality monitor

On that note.....
Any recommendations for a monitor?

Just picked up a new PC. Should have it a few days.

Just curious.

New PC:

Athlon 1.4ghz
512 ram
60 gig HD 7200rpm
DVD burner
16/10/40 CD Burner
64meg Nvidia video card

Old PC:

Athlon 600mhz
256 ram
20 gig HD
12/10/32 CD burner
64 meg Gforce video card

Do you like I'll see a performance increase while converting raw
files?
What would you add to this system?

 

[David Birkin]

my findings.

celeron 466
512meg ram
maxtor 7200 rpm hdd
21secs

duron 800 o/c'ed to 966
512meg ram
ibm 75gxp
10secs

athlon 1.2
256meg ram
ibm 75gxp
14secs

...and my new computer
athlon 1.4 o/c'ed to ????
1gig ram
ibm 60gxp
watch this space.

 

[Anthony]

... I'm looking at upgrading my PC - what kind of motherboard and
ram did you get? I'm looking at the Abit KG7 if anyone has heard
anything good/bad about it.

THx,

I'm sorry, but I really haven't the knowledge when it comes to motherboards and upgrades.

I bought a "configure it myself" system from Compaq.
Cost $1463.98

Here's the breakdown:

Presario 7000 Series

Upgrade from 256MB to 512MB for FREE through 9/23/01! See memory category below to select.
1.4 GHz AMD Athlon™ Processor
512MB PC2100 (2 DIMMs) DDR SDRAM
60.0GB UltraDMA (7200 RPM) Hard Drive
Special Promotion! DVD-R/RW & CD-RW Combo Drive W/One Media
Microsoft Home Suite
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Monsoon MH-500 speakers w/ Subwoofer Promotion - ONLY $1!
One year FREE MSN Internet Service - Offer good through 9/5/01
Compaq Starter Kit (Bronze)
56K ITU v.90 Modem
Sound Blaster Live! Value 5.1
64MB SDR nVidia GeForce2 MX w/ TV- OUT
3.5" 1.44 MB diskette drive
Compaq Smart Credit Card Internet Keyboard
Compaq Scroll Mouse
Digital Video Center (4 IEEE-1394 and 4 USB ports), StudioDV and DVDit! Software
1yr parts/ 1yr labor/ 1yr on-site
FREE 10/100 Ethernet PCI Card Included!

 

[Alex K.]

Tony,

Call me at work.

Alex

Just picked up a new PC. Should have it a few days.

Just curious.

New PC:

Athlon 1.4ghz
512 ram
60 gig HD 7200rpm
DVD burner
16/10/40 CD Burner
64meg Nvidia video card

Old PC:

Athlon 600mhz
256 ram
20 gig HD
12/10/32 CD burner
64 meg Gforce video card

Do you like I'll see a performance increase while converting raw
files?
What would you add to this system?

 

[Anthony]

Tony,

Call me at work.

Email me your work number.....
Your work number is in my office roledex, but I'm home today.

 

[acassino]

Is there a particular reason your system drive is not your RAID array? I would think it advantageous to have your apps, swap space, etc on the RAID array...

Andrew

Anthony,

On the monitor recommendations, check out Cornerstone
( http://www.bigmonitors.com ). Their 19" ones are very
cost-effective (c901 for example), and the 21" are excellent too
(p1500, etc). Highly reviewed for good text clarity as well.

I have an Athlon 1.2 GHz with 512 Mb RAM, 30 Gb system drive and
2x45 Gb in a RAID-0 array (mostly for video editing), all really
fast 7200 rpm drives - these are key. Windows 2000, of course -
the only way to go.

• Mohit

 

[Kevin50205]

Win XP also gives you a little boost in speed for some reason. I am running a PIII 500 with 384mb of Ram. I run WIN 2000 Server and WIN XP RC1 as dual boot.

Win 2000 RAW Conv Time: 42 sec
Win XP RAW Conv Time: 36 seconds

Not a huge difference, but add that to your system with the higher memory and faster CPU and it may make a big difference.

Kevin
http://www.firestorm.com

Win2k also seems to give a speed improvement as it appears to make
better use of the disk. It's also much more stable than ME - my ME
machine crashes at least once a day whereas I've yet to crash Win2K.

I know there are faster machines around but I never buy the fastest
available as one model down gives much better price/performance.

Chris
PS I would add a large, good quality monitor

Just picked up a new PC. Should have it a few days.

Just curious.

New PC:

Athlon 1.4ghz
512 ram
60 gig HD 7200rpm
DVD burner
16/10/40 CD Burner
64meg Nvidia video card

Old PC:

Athlon 600mhz
256 ram
20 gig HD
12/10/32 CD burner
64 meg Gforce video card

Do you like I'll see a performance increase while converting raw
files?
What would you add to this system?

 

[Anthony]

Yarc is giving me 28 sec times to convert from raw to 8 bit tiff files.

Would I improve on that too?

 

[Mohit]

acassino,

Is there a particular reason your system drive is not your RAID
array? I would think it advantageous to have your apps, swap space,
etc on the RAID array...

I needed the speed of the RAID primarily for my video editing - DV firewire transfers and real-time transitions (Pinnacle DV500) which doubles the throughput requirements. My system drive is one of the faster 7200 rpm drives out there (you'll notice that not all 7200 rpm drives have the same performance), so it suffices for my needs.

• Mohit

 

[Shabok]

Yarc is giving me 28 sec times to convert from raw to 8 bit tiff
files.

Would I improve on that too?

Yes, it should also be faster. Actually, every application depending primarily on CPU power will be faster (like kernel compilation, photoshop filter, 3D rendering w/ 3D studio max, raw conversion, etc.). Just make sure you have enough RAM and a fast HDD. On the other hand, games are often limited by the graphic card when you play in a high resolution...

Shabok

 

[Bryan29453]

Hi Chris,

Still happy with the programme

Bit old my kit I suppose. I have ASUS A7V MB with 800Mhz Athlon TBird, 784Mb 133Mhz RAM, 2 x 20.5 Western Digital HD's running at 7200, and I convert from RAW at between 7 and 8 secs to 8-bit tiff with colour filter off.

I'm happy with that.

There's hardly any difference in timing between RAW to JPEG, TIFF,
TIFF 16-bit or TIFF 16-bit linear on my machine. Raw to JPEG is bit
slower than raw to TIFF. Turning off the false colour filter
reduces the time to between 7 and 8 secs per raw file.

My 550Mhz AMD K6-2 550MHz, 192Mb RAM, 6Gb HDD, Win2k laptop takes
about 37sec per raw D30 file to TIFF.

Chris

Yes!
I went from 60sec+ per D30 raw file on my AMD K6-2 450MHz, 192Mb
WinME PC down to 13 sec per file on my AMD 1.3GHz Athlon, 512Mb
WinME machine.

20 sec per D30 on my 1GHz 512Mb WinME notebook.

Chris - I asume D30 raw file to TIFF file. Is it/how much faster
RAW to JPG convertion?

Yuri

 

[Bryan29453]

Hi Chris,

Still happy with the programme

Bit old my kit I suppose. I have ASUS A7V MB with 800Mhz Athlon
TBird, 784Mb 133Mhz RAM, 2 x 20.5 Western Digital HD's running at
7200, and I convert from RAW at between 7 and 8 secs to 8-bit tiff
with colour filter off.

I'm happy with that.

sorry should add - I keep RAW on drive C and convert to tiff on drive D.

There's hardly any difference in timing between RAW to JPEG, TIFF,
TIFF 16-bit or TIFF 16-bit linear on my machine. Raw to JPEG is bit
slower than raw to TIFF. Turning off the false colour filter
reduces the time to between 7 and 8 secs per raw file.

My 550Mhz AMD K6-2 550MHz, 192Mb RAM, 6Gb HDD, Win2k laptop takes
about 37sec per raw D30 file to TIFF.

Chris

Yes!
I went from 60sec+ per D30 raw file on my AMD K6-2 450MHz, 192Mb
WinME PC down to 13 sec per file on my AMD 1.3GHz Athlon, 512Mb
WinME machine.

20 sec per D30 on my 1GHz 512Mb WinME notebook.

Chris - I asume D30 raw file to TIFF file. Is it/how much faster
RAW to JPG convertion?

Yuri