New Build for Photographer

[brett]

I'm a photographer, building a new PC for use mainly in editing photos (Lightroom and Photoshop CS2) and creating DVD slideshows (ProShow Gold). I'd like to keep the computer around $1,250 and have high storage needs. I'm not sure yet if I'll overclock -- I'm new to building and not sure I'm ready for the challenge.

What do you think of this build?

Case: NZXT TEMPEST Crafted Series CS-NT-TEM-B, ATX Mid Tower
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX 620W ATX12V
Motherboard: ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300
RAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500), Model TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF
Graphics card: EVGA 256-P2-N751-TR GeForce 8600 GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card
Sound card: None
Hard Drive(s): 1 WD Caviar SE16 250GB 7200 RPM 3Gb/s (for OS, programs and unessential data) and 4 WD Caviar SE16 640 GB (running RAID 01) for essential data
Optical Drive(s): samsung s203B
Operating System: Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit

This system is currently at the very high end of my budget, and I'd love to save more. Any place obvious to conserve? Cheaper video card? PSU? Is the Q9300 or DDR2 1066 going overboard?

Thank you,
Brett

[The Wise Monkey]

Hmm, you could get slightly cheaper RAM but more of it - 8GB would be best. Do you really need such a large amount of storage?

[brett]

I definitely need a lot of storage space -- I'm constantly overflowing my current harddrives with my photo files, which forces me to archive files before I'd like to. I might not need so much room on my C drive though -- how many gigs would you recommend for a drive that is mostly dedicated to Vista and program files?

Why do you recommend 8gb of RAM? I've read elsewhere that there is currently little use for more than 4gb, although 8gb might become more useful in the coming years. Will there be a noticeable difference is speed if I use DDR2 1066 rather than DDR2 800 memory? If I decide to overclock, will I be better off with the 1066?

[The Wise Monkey]

There isn't really a huge difference between 800 and 1066, so go for the cheaper one. :)

If you are doing lots of Photoshop work, then the more RAM the better. However, you should by fine with 4GB - only get 8 if you have some extra money. You would be better off spending any spare on a slightly more powerful CPU to help with the video encoding; something like the Q9450, for example.