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Core 2 Duo E8500 or E8600

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R or some cool motherboard.

4gb DDR-2 ram - get fast RAM, for overclocking

Case, PSU, DVD, HDD - your choice

 

you can get a quad core - but Photoshop really only uses 2 cores. Overclock.

I'm working on a macpro quad 2x2.66 ghz and tried opening activity monitor while rotating an image in PS. I see the four thermometer bars go up and down together, so it looks like it is working on all four with PS. Is the problem with PS only using two cores a hackintosh problem, or is there more to it?

Put it this way - a Quad core is only a few percent faster than a dual core, at most, on Photoshop. You will never see all 4 bars max out.

 

But Quads are cheap, and work well, so actually I can still recommend you get a Quad-core. Vista/OS X will still utilize all 4 cores.

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-ch...07,1644-31.html

 

On Vista 64-bit, CS4 is a 64-bit program, but for Mac OS X it is 32-bit only. So the Windows version can use more than 4gb of RAM.

 

That said, you can still use 8gb of RAM for a hackintosh, even if Photoshop only uses 4gb. It can be like 4gb -> Photoshop, 4gb -> everything else.

 

Hope this answers your questions.

To answer your question about Leopard accessing only 4GB max, it's actually more like 16 exabytes(2^64 bytes), assuming you have a 64bit CPU, a motherboard that would support that[LOL], and a jmicron that isn't fussy[some hack chipsets only allow for 3GB due to a fussy jmicron controller]. ;)

At my company we run MacPros with 8GB of RAM for our design team. I have done some experimentation with RAM configuration in the systems to find an optimal set up for an image editing/page layout/design machine. We started with 4GB as that is what photoshop would max out with. However, that did not leave much for background applications and the system, which lets face it OSX can be a memory hog. Memory is fairly cheap these days, also my EP45-DS3R with a Q9550 and my P5K-VM with an E8500, are still not as efficient in editing large images as a Mac Pro. 8GB was the sweet spot where we could run our work flow and have smooth running background apps.

 

I would go quad core, and I would look into 8GB of RAM. Remember, you do not just run photoshop these days, you run aperture (or light room), painter, bridge, color meter, and various other apps to run a pro photo studio. On top of that running itunes, mail, excel, word, and safari/firefox is key. I sometimes need upwards of 20 tabs open in safari. I am planning on upgrading my EP45-DS3R to 16GB, it is only going to cost me $350 (USD) from newegg, I just want to minimize hang ups and slow downs.

At my company we run MacPros with 8GB of RAM for our design team. I have done some experimentation with RAM configuration in the systems to find an optimal set up for an image editing/page layout/design machine. We started with 4GB as that is what photoshop would max out with. However, that did not leave much for background applications and the system, which lets face it OSX can be a memory hog. Memory is fairly cheap these days, also my EP45-DS3R with a Q9550 and my P5K-VM with an E8500, are still not as efficient in editing large images as a Mac Pro. 8GB was the sweet spot where we could run our work flow and have smooth running background apps.

 

I would go quad core, and I would look into 8GB of RAM. Remember, you do not just run photoshop these days, you run aperture (or light room), painter, bridge, color meter, and various other apps to run a pro photo studio. On top of that running itunes, mail, excel, word, and safari/firefox is key. I sometimes need upwards of 20 tabs open in safari. I am planning on upgrading my EP45-DS3R to 16GB, it is only going to cost me $350 (USD) from newegg, I just want to minimize hang ups and slow downs.

 

sounds like you have a pretty cool job lol

I'm thinking about doing something very similar:

-Gigabyte EP45-DS3R

-Gigabyte 9800 GTX

-Intel Q9550

-WD 1TB

-8GB OCZ RAM

 

All that's somewhere around $800 for me. Anyone else have any input? With all the research I've done it seems like the most stable system. I plan on doing some video stuff with it so video/audio/firewire ports are of my biggest concern. I haven't been able to properly load OSX onto anything yet so it will be my first legitimate time, I know some people who might be able to help, but are there any suggestions as far as installation?

A\Memory is fairly cheap these days, also my EP45-DS3R with a Q9550 and my P5K-VM with an E8500, are still not as efficient in editing large images as a Mac Pro.

So, are you saying that your hack still is not as efficient as a Mac Pro?

Why is that?

Would going to 16G or ram on it make it better than the Mac Pro, or just as good?

BTW, there is a photographer who is showing 2 foot by 8 foot panoramic photos currently at Harbourfront here in Toronto. He uses a 4x5 film camera and scans to photoshop. He then manipulates and stitches the images together. That way he gets the resolution high enough for these detailed pictures of vintage hockey arenas around Ontario. I'm curious about how he handles those large images. Photoshop has a limit of 2GB file saves onto disc. The psd format is twice the size of a layered tif of the same image, so that's one help.

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