Another one of those A64, 90 nm systems. It is not to be Silent but just as quiet as performance and cost will permit. It will not be on 24/7 but only when in use. It will not be in the bedroom or even on the same floor as the bedroom
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
The size of my files will be an important consideration. I am looking at 11.6 meg RAW (out of camera) files that will convert to 23 meg TIFF files for PhotoShop input. The 35 mm film scanner I am looking at will produce 41 meg files at its highest resolution. Once I start PhotoShopping them and have several layers working they could get quite large. Panoramas? I have no idea how large they could be. This will have an effect on the RAM and Hard Drive parameters.
I have three concerns:
1) Will the Matrox P650 video card play well with the other components? I don't see why not as it is a regular 8X AGP. Has anyone had problems with it?
2) Should I start with 2 x 512 meg of RAM (thinking of regular Crucial) or see if the budget can be pushed to support 2 x 1 GB (PDP has them at about the same price each as the two Crucial sticks) right from the start? this would avoid having 4 x 512 down the road.
3) The Hard Drive setup will probably start with two drives and grow into a three drive system, plus a Drive in a Box for offline backup (USB 2.0 or Firewire).
I am planning a 74 GB Raptor partitioned as C: for Windows and Apps (~25 GB) and another partition for the RAW downloads from the CF cardreader and work in progress in PhotoShop.
Another large SATA drive (undecided as to exactly what right now) partitioned for the PhotoShop scratch disk, PhotoShop completed images, storage of original RAWs and TIFFs, and a "Ghost" type image of the C; drive. I can see this drive growing into two as the file count grows. Could a RAID drive actually help in working with files of this size?
HARDWARE:
Antec 3000-b case
Enermax EG475P Noisetaker PSU - fan swap down the road?
ASUS A8V Deluxe motherboard
AMD A64 Winchester 3500+
Thermalright XP-120
Nexus 120 mm fans for CPU, inlet/HDD cooling and perhaps for exhaust
Crucial PC3200 2 x 512 or
PDP PC3200 2 x 1 GB
WD Raptor 74 GB
another large SATA drive (160 - 250+ GB)
Plextor DVD burner, single layer is fine, I don't want too much data on each disk
Matrox P650 video card - fanless
AcoustiPack BQE kit to help with the Raptor
USB 2.0 powered Atec card reader with Firewire passthru for 3.5" drive slot
USB 2.0 powered flatbed scanner (own it already), the 35 mm film scanner is 120v powered
The Wacom tablet is also USB powered.
Win XP Home
Thanks for any opinions,
Jim