Hello,
I thought it was a bit sad that nothing had been posted here yet. Especially since computers have become so integral to photography. So I thought I would be the first.
I am a computer person. Literally. I manage a Bioinformatics sequencing analysis project. In my day job I work on projects similar to the Human Genome Project. We assemble and annotate various organism's DNA. I have built a server room with a vast computational resource. Before working for the university I currently work for I was a consultant doing IT and Bioinformatics infrastructure configuration and implementations.
I like computers, ok mostly, and I like powerful computers. There is nothing that makes me smile more than pushing a computer to the max of it's capabilities. To watch the CPU meter peg and stay that way for a good long time. It validates my reasons for investing so much money in a high end machine. I upgrade often and try to pick machines that will facilitate being around awhile.
In my opinion dual cpu's are the way to go for anyone using Photoshop. Now a days I am looking at the dual processor dual core machines. That means four cpu cores all working on stuff at once. I have worked on older machines with four cpu's (even eight) and they have their place in the server arena. But until recently there was not enough desktop software that could make use of multiple cpu's / cores to make the cost worth it. The operating system can now manage much of this for applications that don’t handle it on their own.
Multiple cores means better multi-threaded application handling. What does that mean? It means that when the software developers write the software they plan for the ability to separate specific software tasks into different process threads. What it really means for the user is that if you have more CPU cores and a software package can make use of them the performance goes way up. For example, Photoshop can use several CPU’s at once. Each CPU you add gives you a performance boost when you use the software. It also means that if your using other software at the same time everything works well at the same time.
Ultimately, there are many ways to configure the hardware to maximize the performance, especially for photography and video processing. There are also things that can be tweaked in the operating system to add performance. Some tweaks are more dramatic than others but ultimately they have a compounding affect. Ultimately resulting in better performance and a better user experience. Let's be honest no one likes to wait for an operation to complete.
Some will disagree with what I suggest. Please keep in mind that there are many different ways to put components / software together to get good performance. There are some things that I just won’t do. I don’t, EVER, over-clock. There are reasons that CPU’s are marked at certain speeds. It’s because the manufacturers test the CPU’s and found that at a certain speed they become unstable. An unstable CPU is a good way to loose what your working on. Some will say you can minimize the stability issues by doing X, Y and or Z. I don’t and won’t do any of those things. Stability and reliability is important to me and my customers. I would think that your data is more valuable and the added speed you could get by pushing your CPU’s beyond their intended performance levels. I know mine is to me.
Ok well I could go on an on about computers. As it is this post became more than I intended when I started writing. I hope to contribute my experience and my personal opinions to this forum often. Hopefully some will gain something useful from what I have learned over the years.
Best,
Mark Burke
I thought it was a bit sad that nothing had been posted here yet. Especially since computers have become so integral to photography. So I thought I would be the first.
I am a computer person. Literally. I manage a Bioinformatics sequencing analysis project. In my day job I work on projects similar to the Human Genome Project. We assemble and annotate various organism's DNA. I have built a server room with a vast computational resource. Before working for the university I currently work for I was a consultant doing IT and Bioinformatics infrastructure configuration and implementations.
I like computers, ok mostly, and I like powerful computers. There is nothing that makes me smile more than pushing a computer to the max of it's capabilities. To watch the CPU meter peg and stay that way for a good long time. It validates my reasons for investing so much money in a high end machine. I upgrade often and try to pick machines that will facilitate being around awhile.
In my opinion dual cpu's are the way to go for anyone using Photoshop. Now a days I am looking at the dual processor dual core machines. That means four cpu cores all working on stuff at once. I have worked on older machines with four cpu's (even eight) and they have their place in the server arena. But until recently there was not enough desktop software that could make use of multiple cpu's / cores to make the cost worth it. The operating system can now manage much of this for applications that don’t handle it on their own.
Multiple cores means better multi-threaded application handling. What does that mean? It means that when the software developers write the software they plan for the ability to separate specific software tasks into different process threads. What it really means for the user is that if you have more CPU cores and a software package can make use of them the performance goes way up. For example, Photoshop can use several CPU’s at once. Each CPU you add gives you a performance boost when you use the software. It also means that if your using other software at the same time everything works well at the same time.
Ultimately, there are many ways to configure the hardware to maximize the performance, especially for photography and video processing. There are also things that can be tweaked in the operating system to add performance. Some tweaks are more dramatic than others but ultimately they have a compounding affect. Ultimately resulting in better performance and a better user experience. Let's be honest no one likes to wait for an operation to complete.
Some will disagree with what I suggest. Please keep in mind that there are many different ways to put components / software together to get good performance. There are some things that I just won’t do. I don’t, EVER, over-clock. There are reasons that CPU’s are marked at certain speeds. It’s because the manufacturers test the CPU’s and found that at a certain speed they become unstable. An unstable CPU is a good way to loose what your working on. Some will say you can minimize the stability issues by doing X, Y and or Z. I don’t and won’t do any of those things. Stability and reliability is important to me and my customers. I would think that your data is more valuable and the added speed you could get by pushing your CPU’s beyond their intended performance levels. I know mine is to me.
Ok well I could go on an on about computers. As it is this post became more than I intended when I started writing. I hope to contribute my experience and my personal opinions to this forum often. Hopefully some will gain something useful from what I have learned over the years.
Best,
Mark Burke