# Budget Hackintosh for LR3 and Alternatives



## cdninva (Feb 18, 2011)

Dear All,

I'm replacing a Dell Precision 670 that's single-core and sees only 3 GB RAM with 32-bit XP.  It's also huge, noisy, ugly, and reminds me of the guy who laid me off. :tape: (I'd bought it re-furbed to train for his job.)  

This is what I was considering for my first DIY rig:  

CPU:   i5-760
MoB:   Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3 (LGA 1155)
RAM:   Kingston 8 MB (4 x 2 1333 MHz)
GPU:   Sapphire Radeon HD 5670 512 MB / DDR5
HD1:   Western Digital 180 GB / 7200 / 8 MB cache (O/S, apps)
HD2:   WD 250 GB / 7200 / 16 MB cache (LR catalog, previews, cache)
HD3:   WD 500 GB / 7200 / 16 MB cache (data)
OD:     HP DVD1260i DVD+/-RW
PSU:   Antec BP550+ 550W
Case:  Antec 100
O/S:   Win 7 64-bit OEM

Costs roughly $820.  I backed off from an i7, SSD, or 10,000 RPM drives, and chose to half-fill the RAM banks instead.  (Kingston doesn't have 4 MB 1333 sticks).  

This excludes using a second 500 GB HD in a RAID 0 pair.  I wondered whether you folks believe the difference is worth it.

The ATI graphics card is $75 and has OpenGL 3.X for PS CS4/5.  I read LR3 was having some issues with NVidia; my Dell had an old 128MB Quadro, don't know if that factored in too.

I've also thought of just buying another refurbished workstation again: HP or Dell, as long as it's Quad Core or dual-Dual-Core.  What do you think?  'Seems 10-15% DIYers on NewEgg get boards DOA, or see their PCs go kaput or catch fire within a year.

I respect LR3 has a tall order trying to do everything in one program.  Unfortunately, it's turned digital photography into a science project.  Please help, somebody! :hail:

Chris in Virginia

(EOS 30D, 17-85, 100-400 w/ 1.4x, and NEC PA231 waiting to be unpacked!)


----------



## Victoria Bampton (Feb 18, 2011)

Hi Chris, welcome to the forum!

I'll leave some of the windows guys to commend on your specs, but you'll enjoy the bits that are waiting to be unpacked!


----------

