Photo editing PC which will last at least 4-5 years

[mattwright87]

I want to PC which will do me for at least 4-5 years. My requirments are all the usual web browsing, word processing etc. I also want to edit photos using Adobe photoshop and Lightroom. I want good performance on the photo side, this is where my current PC lets me down.
I do very light gaming (the likes of football manager etc)

this is the spec i have chosen
Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-875K Quad Core (2.93GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55D-E: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5750 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
2nd Graphics Card
NONE
3rd Graphics Card
NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1.5TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD15EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
2nd Hard Disk
NONE
RAID
NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
10x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£88)
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Floppy Disk Drive
NONE
Firewire & Video Editing
NONE
TV Card
NONE
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)


Few questions
would it be better to have 4x2gb ram then 2x4gb ram?
Do i need both DVD and Blu-ray drives. i.e. does the blu ray writer drive do everything that the normal dvd drive does (i want to burn cds /dvd and play blu rays)?
Do i need to upgrade the case?
Do i need above the standard cooler?
also is it better to have ATI Graphics of Nvidia?

Thanks
Matt

[cjc1984]

Re Memory, I would say for upgrade purposes it owuld be better to go with 2x4GB so you could easilly slot in another two 4gb modules in future.

Re the case, this would be entirely personal preference. As well as the design obviously, it may me worth looking at the slots available on the front panels to see what you may need.

Re the graphics card, if it is going to be used primarily for photoshop, then an NVidia card may be more appropriate. Although you will get GPU hardware accelerated performance with Open GL with both AMD and NVidia GPU's, I believe you can download a plugin that enables photoshop to use CUDA, in which case an NVidia GPU may be a better option.

[Phoenix]

The i7-875K isn't for normal users it's for overclocking so go with the i7-870 and if you can afford to upgrade the graphics card get the Nvidia GTX465 instead because it will perform better in the applications that you'll be using, you'll also need to upgrade the power supply to a 600w/TX650 for this graphics card. In terms of actual performance for a normal user like yourself there's absolutely no difference between 2x4GB and 4x2GB of RAM, getting the 2GB modules would be cheaper though so I'd recommend getting them.

You don't need to upgrade the case unless you'll be gaming a lot which it doesn't look like you will. The cooler is fine and both Nvidia and AMD(they bought out ATI) have their own advantages but in terms of the adobe suite Nvidia is better.

[mattwright87]

Thank you both for your replies
Phoneix, looking at the RAM options avaliable on PCS the 2x4gb is chaper so i should stick with that?

In terms of the graphics, the swap to the Nvidia GTX465 (inc the upgrade power supply) will cost me £113, which isnt going to happen. Will the current one selected ATI RADEON™ HD 5750 still do a good job?

Thanks for the advice on the i7-875k, i will go down to the i7-870. Is there a benefit to this over the i5-760 (would save me £71) or should i think about a AMD processor? as a complete newbie, i have only thought of having an intel!

Thanks

Matt

[Phoenix]

Well I'd just go for whichever combination of RAM turned out to be cheaper, the 5750 isn't bad but it's nothing amazing either. The i7-870 is slightly faster than the i5-760 and supports hyper threading which is useful in certain situations. Going with AMD would allow you to get more out of the system:

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X6 1075T (3.00GHz/9MB CACHE/AM3/) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A87TD/USB3: DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX465 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11 + MAFIA II
Free Item
FREE MAFIA II Game (RRP: £34.99) with a qualifying GTX 4xx Series GPU!
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1.5TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD15EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply & Case Cooling
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £846.00 including VAT and delivery.

This build will perform better very well for £8.00 less with an extra 2 cores available. The graphics card has been upgraded along with the power supply for smoother performance while photo editing, I also changed the case the coolermaster one for better cooling (may not be necessary but it's not a bad idea), if you have a bit more to spend get the Phenom II x6 1090t instead (it's £33.00 more).

[mattwright87]

If i stuck with the ATI graphics card for now, and say in 2 years wanted to upgrade the graphics card to something better, is their any issues with this (system compatability?)? also if it required a higher power source, can this also be upgraded to fit with the graphics card, or is it hard/expensive job todo?

Hope that made sense

Thanks

Matt

[Rakk]

If you're thinking about upgrading in the future where you'll need more power, get it now, I've heard it can be a right pain to change the PSU.

[Phoenix]

No there won't be any compatibility issues upgrading to a better graphics card later if you want to get a cheaper Radeon card now. I would recommend sticking with the 600w/TX650 because replacing a non-modular power supply isn't the easiest of things to do and the 600w one isn’t that much more expensive than the 450w one.

[mattwright87]

what is the differnece between the 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460, and the 1gb gtx465 card you reccomeneded. Its just it is only £8 more for the 2gb, which seems a good deal (but im sure there is more to it than that, hopefully you can englighten me!). remember PC being used for general tasks word processing, films, web browsing etc, some light gaming (the like of football manager) and using photoshop (not massively, juts touching up and editing stil photos).

Thanks

Matt

[Phoenix]

The extra 1GB is for higher resolution screens or multiple monitor setups with resolutions like 2560x1600, the GTX465 has more CUDA cores that are useful for certain tasks within photoshop and other CUDA supported software and so is better than the GTX460 for that sort of thing. The GTX460 is slightly better for games but only like 5FPS more, football manager will still run smoothly with the 465.