DOC GLIDEWELL'S SHOOTING BEAUTY - EDIT

The Case: Thermaltake Element G

The extraordinarily large, slow moving fans offer excellent cooling with little noise

We are in a kind of golden age of customized computer construction and nowhere is custom PC design more visible than in the plethora of sophisticated cases available. No longer just a box to house a motherboard and drives, cases such as the Element G are designed to maximize cooling, minimize noise, and expand compatibility with standardized components.. This case is a design tour de force, with lots of cooling, intelligent wire routing, and a solid, secure hard drive drawer. In addition to the usual ports on the rear of the computer, the Element G has additional USB and audio ports, along with a fan speed control, within easy reach at the top-front of the case. Nicely turned edges on the wire-routing openings save your fingers as do thumbscrews used for case access. We have loaded it with two hard drives, two optical drives, and a single video card, but it can, if needed, hold seven hard drives, four optical drives and multiple graphics cards. When dealing with high-powered components, good cooling is mandatory - the more the better - but only large fans will remain quiet and still move the air. The Element G has four built in fans, including a giant 230mm in the left side directly over the motherboard, and a 200mm model in the top and on the front under the drive trays. The fan speed control also varies the color of LEDs built into the fans but those can be disabled. Despite its capacity, the case, with its dull black motif, doesn't visually overpower a work area.

We are in a kind of golden age of customized computer construction and nowhere is custom PC design more visible than in the plethora of sophisticated cases available. No longer just a box to house a motherboard and drives, cases such as the Element G are designed to maximize cooling, minimize noise, and expand compatibility with standardized components.. This case is a design tour de force, with lots of cooling, intelligent wire routing, and a solid, secure hard drive drawer. In addition to the usual ports on the rear of the computer, the Element G has additional USB and audio ports, along with a fan speed control, within easy reach at the top-front of the case. Nicely turned edges on the wire-routing openings save your fingers as do thumbscrews used for case access.

We have loaded it with two hard drives, two optical drives, and a single video card, but it can, if needed, hold seven hard drives, four optical drives and multiple graphics cards. When dealing with high-powered components, good cooling is mandatory - the more the better - but only large fans will remain quiet and still move the air. The Element G has four built in fans, including a giant 230mm in the left side directly over the motherboard, and a 200mm model in the top and on the front under the drive trays. The fan speed control also varies the color of LEDs built into the fans but those can be disabled. Despite its capacity, the case, with its dull black motif, doesn't visually overpower a work area.

A slide-out hard drive tray holds up to seven drives. You can see behind that tray a large front panel fan that pulls air across the drives, a definite life extender.

Before loading it up, the giant side-panel fan, rear fan, and behind that grille on the top, another fan. Note: the power supply compartment at the bottom.

In addition to handy USB and audio ports, the front edge sports a knob which offers a modest amount of variable fan speed control.

Amazon has an excellent price on the Thermaltake VL10001W2Z Element G ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case with 3x TouchColor Fan (Black)

Also, check out theNerds.net for an excellent price. Thermaltake Element G VL10001W2Z Chassis

Motherboard: Intel DX58SO

Note the thick Sapphire graphics card at bottom and the three Corsair memory modules up top. The relatively cable-free layout is due to the modular nature of the power supply.]

Twenty years ago there were a few dozen motherboards and a half-dozen processors to choose from. Today the count of each for those is five to ten-fold larger. Intel's motherboards are known excellent engineering, solid firmware (the internal computer code), and high reliability. They are not flashy but have a reasonable number of ports and sophisticated diagnostic features. The DX58SO is Intel's flagship motherboard, designed around the 58-series chipset to support its high-end processors. The DX58SO was built for the fastest i7 processors and it shows; plus, it supports extensive overclocking. Until recently, overclocking - running the computer at faster than its rated speed - was discouraged by manufacturers; today it is built into most hi-end motherboards. This board can definitely push the envelope but, when you are running a blistering fast CPU and throwing multi-gigabyte Photoshop transforms and liquefies at it, there is something to be said for playing on the safe side. I run the DX58SO in turbo mo de, allowing the board to automatically maintain a modest (and rock-solid) level of overclocking. The board makes no concessions to legacy support: the old IDE hard drive ribbon cable ports are gone as is the support for floppy drives.

One quirk of Intel motherboards is tht they come equipped with firmware designed for corporate environments. These are unnecessary for most users and easy to disable; the Intel DX58SO web page has simple instructions.

Amazon is a reliable source for Intel DX58SO Extreme Series X58 ATX Tri-Channel DDR3 16GB SLI or CrossFireX LGA1366 Overclocking Utility Desktop Board - Retail

CPU: Intel i7-975 Extreme Edition quad core processor

This heatsink fan, which comes stock with the processor, is more than adequate for our use. It also lights up a brilliant blue, joining the case lights to create a wash of color inside the case. Very spiffy.

If you want a high-end performance machine, you want the best CPU, and that is the Intel i7-975, 3.33 GHz quad-core processor. AMD has some competitive processors at the low end but, as of now, Intel has a clear hold on the title of "fastest processors." Those four cores support multi-threading, effectively making the processor behave like an eight core unit for certain operations. Further, the i7-975 is unlocked, opening the chip to factory-endorsed overclocking. With upgraded cooling, a tower-like heat sink with a larger fan - or water cooling - this chip has seen 5 GHz on the speedometer. But for photo editing purposes, stability far out-trumps clock rates. A gamer may only get smooth frame rates from a heavily overclocked CPU, but the same boost for a photo editor could be a nearly undetectable 10% faster format conversion. Not worth it. Letting a competent motherboard handle a modest amount of overclocking, balancing speed, heat, and stability is the more prudent course. That being said, this processor is an overclockers dream. No one will think you crazy if you decide to push it a little - or a lot. Just beware of that need for additional cooling. Constantly pushing the envelope, Intel has announced a six-core processor, the i7-980 to supplant the i7-975 as their flagship processor, but it will be a while before any photo editing software will be able to "see" and use all six cores.

Intel has several i7 CPUs that are much less expensive but the performance drop is obvious. If high-end performance is your goal, this is your chip. It will also serve as our benchmark of what can be done with a single processor.

For photo editing applications the stock heat sink and fan are quiet, efficient, and more than adequate. Until it is severely taxed, which photo editing seldom does, the fan remains a quiet purr of background noise.

Amazon has the an excellent deal on the Intel Core i7 975 Extreme Edition 3.33GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366 Desktop Processor

Power Supply: Corsair HX 850W

Because this is a modular supply, the interior of the computer is free of extra cabling. Pictured here are the supplied cables I didn't need to use when installing the power supply

Corsair, known primarily for their reliable memory products, has branched out to other components, including a very impressive line of power supplies. The extremely high transistor count in modern PCs means more current draw and the need for higher capacity power supplies. There are a lot of sub-$50 power supplies out there but this is no place to skimp, especially since the power supply is the second most likely component - behind disc drives - to fail. The HX 850W has a modular architecture, with most secondary output leads, which are routed to various system components, plugging into sockets on the back of the supply. If your system doesn't require all of the leads - most systems will use only half - you simply don't install them. This leaves a clearer case with better airflow. Sophisticated circuity gives the unit its C80 status, certifying 80% efficiency. With the HX850W we splurge a little. I could have gotten away with perhaps a 600 or 700 watt power supply, but I am using the modular 850 for safety and a bit of margin for possible component upgrades.

Amazon has an excellent price on the Corsair CMPSU-850HX 850-Watt HX Professional Series 80 Plus Certified Power Supply compatible with Core i7 and Core i5

Graphics Card: Sapphire HD 5770

It's easy to spend $600 on a state-of-the-art graphics card. That card will play games better, perhaps edit video better, but it will do little or nothing for photo editing. The HD 5770, based on the Radeon 5770 graphics chip from AMD, is well under $200 and, for practical purposes, is about as good as it gets for photo editing.

I have found it rock solid running both 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows 7 through a full array of photo editing software. The ATI Catalyst firmware is not as versatile as that of its competitor Nvidia, but it is frequently updated and stable. Despite the substantial size, taking up one expansion slot but overlapping the next, and the sheer power of the over one billion transistor graphics chip, the board is efficient - most of the time drawing under 30 watts. The fan, drawing air from the outside into its wind-tunnel housing, is unusually quiet for a card as powerful as this.

Finally, the HD 5770 supports two DVI-D outputs for an easy plug-and-play with two screens, which I consider essential for serious photo work. In fact, due to the additional DisplayPort port and Radeon Eyefinity technology, the card can readily support three monitors.

Amazon is a reliable source for Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 1 GB DDR5 Dual DVI-I / HDMI / DP PCI-Express Graphics Card 100283L

Buy.com also has an excellent price on the HD 5770 Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 1GB Dual DVI

Hard drives: Samsung F3, 1 and 1.5 terabyte (x2)

Samsung's F3 series hard drives use high-density recording to pack data onto fewer platters. This makes the drives faster, quiter and cheaper. Shown here: the one terabyte model

If ever a case can be made for the benefits of cutthroat competition, it is the hard drive business. Many brands have disappeared, closed or absorbed by competitors all trying to make essentially the same product, a faster, quieter, more reliable drive with, above all, greater capacity. And capacity has grown at an astounding rate. A good thing, since digital cameras are producing files that need that capacity. Meanwhile, photo editing programs need the fastest drives to handle those files without gagging. When I first saw Samsung drives appear as OEM products in big-name computer systems, they were undistinguished, neither fast nor especially quiet. That has changed, and Samsung now produces first-class drives. The new F3 series units are fast, quiet, and, like most of their competitors' drives, remarkably cheap. For this machine, I chose two of the 1.5TB F3 drives. For a more cost-effective machine, which we'll see in Beast I, the one terabyte drive is cheaper, nonetheless having two of them is important for photo editing. Installation is a snap, each serial (SATA) drive has two plug-in connectors,one data and one power, linked to corresponding connectors on the motherboard with thin, half-inch wide cables.

Amazon has an excellent price on the Samsung 1 TB Spinpoint 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.5 inch Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive HD103SJ

LiteOn Blu-Ray iHES208 - 8X Blu-ray Reader and- iHAS424 24X Internal 24x DVD/CD Writer

These LiteOn drives were chosen for their combination of reliable recording and speed.

LiteOn is a multi-billion dollar Taiwanese conglomerate that supplies almost every part that goes into computers, but acts as an OEM, putting other companies names on the products. They put their own name on a line of high-quality optical drives, two of which I selected for Beast II. LiteOn has been an excellent good brand for me. Despite what ought to be a mature technology by now, problems still arise with certain brands of optical drives being incompatible with certain brands of media. LiteOn drives are very good at minimizing this problem by supporting a wide range, and being tolerant of sample to sample variations, in recordable media.

The iHES208 is an excellent drive for those requiring a Blu-Ray reader. This is a "combo" drive, i.e. it can read both DVD and Blu-Ray formats, but it can only write to DVDs. In principle, its giant capacity means Blu-Ray should be a good format for storing and transporting photos, but thus far it remains essentially a movie disc format. So why not get a drive that can both read and write Blu-Ray discs? I don't recommend trying to burn Blu-Ray discs unless you absolutely must. The technology is still not mature, and both the price and performance of the raw discs is sobering. At $3 to $5 per disc for an agonizingly slow 2x blank 25Mb media, and double that for 6x 25MB media, burning your own Blu-Rays has yet to catch on. For now I recommend Blu-Ray disc "readers" only, primarily for reading commercial discs. At that, the LiteOn iHES208 excels. If this is the only drive in a system it can serve as the DVD/CD reader/writer as well, trading off very little in performance due to its "combo" status.

For DVD/CD only, the LiteOn iHAS424 shines.
If you don't require Blu-Ray capability, the LiteOn iHAS424 is a very fast DVD burner. It can read and write to every significant format of recordable CDs and DVDs, single and double-layer, and includes the ability to burn labels, albeit somewhat low-contrast, but readable, on Lightscribe compatible media. In Beast Two, I'm using it as the secondary, recording drive and letting the Blu-Ray drive act as the main reader, but any combination that suits your work habits is fine. You may not find any 24x media to match the recording speed of the drive but that capability means it will record whatever discs you use at the fastest speed they can tolerate. This is an extraordinary drive at a bargain price. If you don't need Blu-Ray capability, buy two of these.

Amazon is a reliable source for Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive IHAS424-98 - Retail (Black) and Lite-On 8X Internal Blu-Ray Combo Drive IHES208-08, Retail

Buy.com also has a good price on the drives. Lite-On iHAS424 24x DVD RW Drive with LightScribe - Black and LiteOn IHES208 8x Blu-ray Drive with LightScribe - Black

Memory; Corsair 6GB in three memory modules

Fast processors make for fast computers, but only if the processor gets equally fast access to data, so the improvement of memory access has necessarily marked time with processor development. DDR3 is the latest in the evolution of progressively faster, more sophisticated memory DIMMs (dual inline memory modules), simple plug-ins to slots on the motherboard. Because of the speed and complexity of the processor/CPU interaction, it is by no means a given that any given memory DIMM will work flawlessly with any given processor, and motherboard makers .issue lists of approved memory models that will work in their boards. Unfortunately, there are so many memory makers that these lists are never complete.

The solution for many builders has been to choose Corsair memory. There are dozens of good memory brands on the market but Corsair memory has acquired the reputation that it "just works". It isn't that simple - one must pay special attention to proper speed ratings - but the reputation is largely justified.

Intel's DX58SO motherboard uses a triple-access memory technology whereby memory allocated across three DIMMs optimizes performance, so we installed three two-gigabyte modules for our Windows 7 64-bit installation. If you choose to run only a 32-bit XP, Vista, or Windows7, four gigabytes (actually 3.5) will be all that the computer can utilize.

Amazon has the an excellent deal on the Corsair TR3X6G1600C9 XMS3 6 GB 3 X 2 GB PC3-12800 1600MHz 240-Pin DDR3 Tri-Channel Intel Core i7 Memory Kit

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (dual-boot with Windows 7 32-bit optional)

After experimenting with the Vista operating system, I, like so many others, reverted back to Windows XP. It was solid, as fast, and unlike Vista, supported my hardware and software I used. Initially I planned to begin these pages using XP as well, but after several months of testing Windows 7, I am impressed. This time Microsoft got it right. It has a bit of a learning curve but the enhancements are worth it. I have chosen to implement both the 32 and 64 bit versions on both Beast I and Beast II. Only that way can I make solid comparisons of the performance differences between them. Both work well, and the 64-bit version has the serious advantage, for photo editors, of very strong Photoshop support and the ability to access and use more memory than the 4GB address range of 32-bit operating systems.

If you can dedicate one computer to photo editing, using 64-bit Windows 7 is my choice. If you must also run the full variety of office applications, web browsers and plug-ins, the 32-bit version is preferable. There is, for example, no 64-bit implementation of Adobe flash yet available, making 64-bit web browsing rather awkward. And you will find many applications and peripherals that simply will not run under the 64-bit version. There are work-arounds but for a general purpose PC, 32-bit Windows 7 will be easier to handle.

Windows 7 comes in three aftermarket versions. To drop from Ultimate, the complete and most expensive package, to Professional, you need only sacrifice Bit Locker data encryption, and multiple-language support. The drop from Professional to Home Premium loses Windows XP mode (for those programs which won't be updated to run under Windows 7) and the ability to do backup to a network. In short, for our photo editing purposes, most users will be fine with Home Premium. Should you choose Home Premium and later decide you want to upgrade, Microsoft sells Windows Anytime Upgrade packages.