This is a call to all computer geeks out there Apple and PC alike.
Build the best system that you can within a budget of $2000.00. A
couple of rules though:
1) If you are going to comment on one being better than the other
have facts and references. In other words I don't want opinions
such as I work all day on PC's when I go home I use Apples because
it is better. Those comments a personal preference.
2) Storage is not an issue assume that all storage will be external.
3) Throughput is very important due to the demands of processing
large amounts os RAW files.
Ok Ladies and Gentlemen lets see what can be built.
For processing lots of RAW files, you want to deal with two
bottlenecks: CPU and disk throughput. CPU is easy, get an Athlon
64, or if you like to pay more, a G5. My suggestion would be an
Asus K8V SE Deluxe MoBo, with the fastest socket 754 Athlon 64 you
can afford. A Gig of RAM, of course.
For disk throughput, a RAID 0 array will help, a lot. But that
doubles your chances of data loss from drive failure. However,
with some MoBo's, you can do a RAID 0 + 1 array, striped and
mirrored. Then you need two simultaneous drive failures to lose
data. Backing up frequently will preserve the speed of RAID 0,
RAID 0+1 makes backing up less urgent, but loses a bit of speed.
Interestingly, RAID 0 brings no speed advantage for most typical
computing tasks, including gaming. For that reason, I'd put the
system and the apps on a non-RAID boot drive, either a WD Caviar
7200rpm, or if you want to go extreme, on a 10K RPM Raptor. Then
put the photos on a RAID array.
This is what I came up with when faced with a similar desire. My
current system: Athlon 64 3200+ (the sweet spot on the
price/performance curve), Asus K8V SE Deluxe, 4x WD 200Gb drives in
a RAID 0+1 array, and a WD 100GB drive for boot and apps. It just
screams.
I know that you said external storage, but I've been down that
road, with external USB2 and Firewire drives. They have a number
of advantages, but speed is very much not one of them. Internal
drives are just faster, and not by a little. RAID 0 is faster yet,
and not a slight difference. I would make an educated guess that
you might see your RAW conversion times cut in half going from ANY
external drives to an internal RAID setup.
Another good A64 MoBo is the MSI K8 Neo Platinum. Not as many IDE
and SATA ports, but a better bet for overclocking.
You also didn't mention OS concerns. I feel that the appropriate
OS makes a real difference in productivity. What is an
"appropriate" OS? One that fits the way you want to work, the one
that's easy for you to use. I use both Mac and PC, and I feel that
with OSX, Apple has actually made an OS that is both harder to use
and less intuitive than Windows XP. I think that's why all the
techies love OSX, it's for them, not for "the rest of us", a market
Apple seems to have given over to M$. On the other hand, OSX is
very very pretty, much prettier than Windows. But if you've ever
dated the "prettiest girl", you may have learned that the prettiest
one isn't necessariy the one you want to settle down with.
And for those who love OSX and take issue with my comments, note
that I was, for years, a Mac advocate. For many years I've
switched back and forth, depending on which I liked better and
which worked better for me at that point in time. Right now, I
feel that Win XP has the lead in usability and ease of use, but
that could change any time.
Lisa
