Chips challenge is a blast from the past Lisa   Tell your husband he won't need your fancy new graphics card to run that piece of software   LOL I've played that silly little game for hours as a kid. 

I know what you mean about having CS3 and LR2 open at the same time.  I can do it, but I try not to - all I have is a Pentium 4 and about 1.5gb of ram, but being the geek that I am I have my versions of Windows XP sp3 running the bare minimums when it comes to eye candy and system services.  My Windows XP looks more like Windows 98. 

I'm all over the place today - I've even considered buying the 27" iMac from MacMall, but the price difference is enough to buy me another L lens and a 7D.  When configuring one on macmall.com with similar specs, windows included, it comes to around $2600 - which leads me to reason that the display is basically a $1500 high end display, similar to a Lacie or whatever else, in addition to the $1100 price range computer attached to the back.  That's about what I can get the XPS for with all of the discounts.  I keep going back and forth - and heck, my 24" monitor I have is more than enough.  I love it, and the quality is excellent (at least to me).  But it's like comparing apples to oranges.  I'm not the type to spend $1500 on a monitor, though.  I also like the fact that I can basically change anything on the dell, adding and removing whatever I want in time, or if I want to eventually upgrade it.  With the mac, you're pretty much limited to ram and USB accessories.

The one thats really good is the +$180 add on, the nVidia GeForce GTX260 1792MB GDDR3.

That's the exact Video Card that I have but it came installed on my Gateway.  I'm running a 23" monitor with 1920x1080 resolution and it's been humming along very nicely for me; although the 12 gigs of RAM Im sure is also helping out there.  I dont run Photoshop so unfortunately I can't comment on that software.  Lightroom definitely runs faster now than it did on my old XP system with 4 gigs RAM and 512MB card.

In my case, I don't think it's the OS that slows things down. Obviously I can't tell for sure, since I went from a slower machine using XP to a faster one with Win 7. But Win 7 feels snappy to me. What slows things down is the intense processing that we do with Adobe software.  Just doing normal stuff with a 21MP file is plenty fast, but anything beyond the ordinary (large panos, video) is slower than I'd like. Of course, I'd like it to be instantaneous, so I'll never be happy. 

I haven't had time to try to figure out Bridge's problem, but I'm pretty sure when it's complaining about "low on memory" it isn't RAM. I don't think it's the pagefile either, at a little over 12GB. (I seem to recall reading the pagefile should be set at roughly the size of your RAM.)

I suspect it is related to Bridge's cache. Next time this happens I think I'll finally see if I can track it down, but it doesn't happen too frequently, so it may be a while.

Building my own PC was more expensive than buying a pre-built from Dell or the like (though still a ton less than a comparable Mac). But being able to get exactly what I wanted was worth the extra money and time. I'm very happy with this machine, especially the fact that it is just about impossible to hear that it is on -- unless the CPU is processing heavily, in which case the temperature rise will cause the fans to kick up a notch or three. Since that rarely happens, I know my speed bottlenecks are mainly due to hard drive speed. I can hardly wait until SSDs become more affordable! 

I've been using PCs for ... longer than I care to admit. 

I've not once had a virus, spyware, or any other malware. It just takes common sense and some precautions to avoid them. It doesn't take moving to a Mac.

I've got a pretty nice screen with my $550 HP LP2475w. It may not be as good as one of those LED-backlit Cinema displays, but it certainly serves my purposes.

However, Macs are definitely the more "cool" computer nowadays, so if that's important to you, maybe you should pay up and get a Mac. 

Really extremely useful info about the drivers Denis.  Thank you!

Just as an update, my HP Pavilion Elite arrived.  I spent about 20 hours over three days trying to get it configured with my software, etc., and on support calls because the thing was so buggy.  

It kept freezing up at random times, for no apparent reason, along with other strange things like the video card blinking off and then recovering, internet access one day and none the next, etc.  Just a whole lot of issues.

Their support was just awful - their only solution was to keep having me do system recoveries, which of course wiped out 6 hours of work adding software and configuring the thing the way I wanted it.

Finally I returned it.  Googling HP Pavilion Elite with the i7 processor it turns out that apparently they have faulty mother boards.  There is a class action lawsuit filed about it.   I am breathing a big sigh of relief that I sent it back rather than continuing to do system recoveries forever until the return period expired.  

After some research I have ordered a Dell XPS 9000.  It appears much better reviewed than the HP.  Keeping my fingers crossed this will solve my speed problems.  Hopefully I will be able to stand looking at the fugly red and white case...

Lisafx

Please let us know how you like the XPS 9000 after you get to spend some time with it . . . that is, if you indeed settle for that machine.  My computer is starting to complain every time I have CS3 and Bridge open at the same time . . . . . .  boy, this computer seemed like a real monster just a few years ago! I remember bragging about having 1.5 gigs of RAM.

You can look at your computer evaluation under "control panel" - system maintenance - system - view the windows experience index. It show the overall performance rate of your computer. Go see under graphic. If you have around or less than 4.5 or 5 under graphic, you may only change your video card for a new one. It will cost you 200$ (maximum) and you will get a rate of approximatively 8. Try the Nvidia Ge force GT and GTS series, they blows.

Still, look also at your lowest score. If it's not your graphic then upgrading your computer may be a good choice

Good advice Vonkara.  I just checked and my windows experience is 5.5 out of a possible 5.9.   Three areas are 5.5 - memory, gaming graphics, and hard disk.   Processor and graphics are both 5.9.  Windows 7 expands the "experience" to a max of 7.9.

So I guess everything is "okay", but not awesome.  I am hoping for "awesome" now

Etienjones, I will definitely keep you posted about the XPS 9000 after it arrives and I have a week or so to play with it.

That windows experience rating is quite interesting!  I got a 5.9 as my disk data transfer is the 5.9 and lowest score.
Graphics and gaming are 6's and the other two, processor and RAM, are 7.4 and 7.6 respectively.

There's something called solid state hard drives, which are supposedly the fastest.  They're a lot smaller, though too.  $200 for a 150gb I think I heard.

Bing.com has 20% cashback with dell until tomorrow...I am thinking about the XPS 8000 with the i7 and upgraded video card, but I'm wondering if it will be alright, seeing that the power supply is only 350W.  Nvidia recommends at least 500watt.  Dell says its enough power, that Nvidia over rates it.  Who knows?  Why am I going to drop an additional $180 if it's only going to lead to more problems, though - or over heating.  Whoever mentioned that they got the Nvidia GTX260 with their Gateway setup, I'm pretty sure that system has a larger 500-600 watt power supply.  

So Vonkara, you think having a top-end graphics card it would increase the speed of rendering filters?  Or is that all ram and processor speed? 

Graphics cards seem to make a huge difference for gaming, animation, cad and vid composites. For still graphics I'm not sure they make much of a difference. IF anything, I would think the graphics card would make a difference with filter rendering, 3D renders, or maybe fractals?  What do you guys think?

Processor, RAM and graphic card are the most important. Hard drive only work when you open, save or search a file. Like when you open your picture folder that have 1000 and more images not diluted in multiple folders.

This is not completly true. When your computer runs out of RAM you start using HDD (Scatch disks in PS for example, but this happens with all programs). Also the information that is in RAM had to came from somewhere (either it is generated by the program or it was read from the HDD).

CofkoCof has it right, IMO.

HDD is much more important than the graphics card in the stuff that most of us do. Any new graphics card, even a $50 card, is more than powerful enough for videos and 2-D imaging. Graphics cards become important only in 3D moving renderings, such as (obviously) gaming.

Even with 12GB of RAM, I find a lot of HD activity going on in Bridge & PS (not to mention Premiere for video). An SSD would make a huge difference, but as arenacreative said, they are a lot more expensive than magnetic HDs. Many also have a problem with slowing down considerably after many writes, so aren't well suited for use as a temp drive (which is exactly what I'd like to use one as).

I considered buying a SSD for my system and using it as an OS/Scratch disk, which should improve the performance quite a bit. However with the recent substantial price increases I just couldn't justify the purchase. Not yet

Same here. But they are definitely on my radar. I hope that maybe in another year they'll be substantially lower in price than they are now.

I'm glad you're a premium member, otherwise looking at our "speedometers", someone might get the wrong impression that we're doppels. 

I finally pulled the trigger on an XPS 8000 since last night was the last time I could get the bing.com 20% off at dell promo.  I am nervously awaiting the bing.com confirmation email.  I read of at least 4 people getting it on the same system and promo, so that gave me a little assurance.  Here are the specs:

(snip)

Lisa, did yours come in yet?  I have to wait a few weeks, but who knows...maybe it will get delayed even further with the whole holiday rush.

Congrats on the computer Arena!  Sounds like an impressive system!

Mine hasn't arrived yet.  Darn it!  Some of the peripherals have come, like the keyboard and mouse, the included Star Trek game (hubby's getting it for a stocking stuffer), etc., but not the computer or monitor.