Best spec for what I need.

[andymlewis]

I am looking to spec up an intel based desktop pc but am a little lost in the array on offer. Predominately I use it for Photoshop, lightroom and bridge. I run 2 screens when doing this and would like to run a 3rd screen to have email or social media or video running while I work. Suggestions for motherboard, ram, graphics card required. I will probably go with a SSD for windows / programs and then use hybrid drive for data storage. I am not a gamer so do not need to spec for that. IS i7 with 32bg ram taking it too far? Suggestions and advice much appreciated.

 

[Scott]

The 6700k is worth a look, if the budget can stretch the 6850k is also worth a look (6 core processors). The 6 & 8 core processors are a bit more expensive than the 4 cores but you will make good use of them.

What is your budget?

 

[andymlewis]

Budget is not really the big issue, I dont want to overspend on stuff that will not be required. My file sizes are big with my photography so I need to be able to deal with those.

 

[Scott]

It really depends on how much the budget matters as the price goes up exponentially with the CPU core increase. The following is a really good all round PC more specifically aimed at multi-core processing. It'll do everything, but it'll edit photos/video/audio extremely well. If you really want to push the boat out you could go with the 8 core 6900k which is an additional £430 and if you want to go nuts then you can get the 10 core 6950x for £1k more. IMO the latter is complete overkill, it will tear through any processing you can throw at it though.

Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE QUIET 400Q MID TOWER CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Six Core i7-6850K (3.6GHz @ MAX 4.3GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X99: ATX, USB 3.1, SATA 6 GB/s
Memory (RAM)
32GB HyperX SAVAGE DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 8GB Kit)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
FREE PARAGON GAME READY PACK with select GTX 10 Series GPUs!
1st Hard Disk
480GB HyperX SAVAGE 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD BLACK 3.5" WD2003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£79)
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i V2 Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Liquid Series Ultra Quiet Fans (£109)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
LED Lighting
60cm Green LED Strip (£10) - To Complement The Colours of Your Case
Fan Controller
NZXT GRID+ V2 Fan Controller with upto 5 Fitted Case Fans
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Apache Black Quiet Fan (fitted to extract from rear/roof) (£25)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£89)
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
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 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £2,061.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-x99-overclocked/zWkUG4QZMc/

 

[Oussebon]

Unless the OP also does a lot of video editing that they didn't mention, the 6700k will actually perform better for their stated uses.

Photoshop benchmarks: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/intel-core-i7-broadwell-e-6950x-6900k-6850k-6800k,review-33569-5.html


And for Lightroom:

The webpage this is off says "Which CPU is best for you is going to depend on a number of factors including what you do in Lightroom, what other programs you use, which chipset you want to use and how much system RAM you need. The Intel Core i7 4790K is by far the most affordable of the four CPUs and while it may be slower for exporting photos than the other CPUs for almost anything else in Lightroom it will actually be the fastest" The conclusion would seem to weigh even more in favour of the 6700k since it can have the DDR4 RAM and up to 64gb of it, unlike the 32gb of DDR3 mentioned by the article as a point counting potentially against the 4790k.

So the Define X1 off this page https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/reviews/ might actually be a good bet. I'm not sure how much the 1080 would really get used in Lightroom but at the £1499 fixed price it's cheaper than a custom spec with a lower end GPU (even assuming the extra cost of adding 16gb more RAM) e.g.


Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R5 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-6700k Quad Core (4.00GHz @ upto MAX 4.60GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® Z170 PRO GAMING/AURA: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs, RGB Lighting
Memory (RAM)
32GB HyperX PREDATOR QUAD-DDR4 3000MHz X.M.P (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
FREE PARAGON GAME READY PACK with select GTX 10 Series GPUs!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
480GB HyperX SAVAGE 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Hard Disk
2TB WD BLACK 3.5" WD2003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1[SUP]st[/SUP] DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£79)
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i V2 Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Liquid Series Ultra Quiet Fans (£109)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£89)
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
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 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,636.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-skylake-overclocked/xNRbpS2RNu/

Either option is ~£400+ cheaper than a 6850k build, while offering better performance.

 

[andymlewis]

Thanks for replies so far. I do not currently do video editing but that is possibly something I will do in time. Most of the specs I know what I want but specifically the motherboard, graphics card and ram are where the questions start. I am assuming i7 is essential? When it comes to Mother board would say quad core 64gb ram be better than say 6 core 32gb ram? Would lightroom and photoshop use above 32gb ram? I am not strict on budget but guessing around £1500 ish mark will give me everything I need without going too overboard. I have been told to get the GTX 950 graphics card as this will support 4 monitors. For photography and video applications is this sufficient?

 

[Oussebon]

For photo editing, the quad core 6700k seems better than the 6 core 6800k/6850k. For video editing, the 6 core is better. Although the 6700k is still fine for video editing, and the 6800k/6850k is still fine for photoshop. The 6800k and especially the 6850k are much more expensive than the 6700k.
For video editing (depending on the software) a much more powerful GPU than the GTX 950 would be desirable. It's my understanding that the GPU isn't used as much for photoshop as it is for adobe premiere, for example.

When it comes to Mother board would say quad core 64gb ram be better than say 6 core 32gb ram

It's not an either/or. Both the 6700k (quad core) and 6800k/6850k could have 64gb RAM. If that part of what I was saying didn't make sense then ignore it, it was just an aside.

The custom build I specced above would still cost almost £1400 even with just a GTX 950 as the GPU, a cheaper cooler, and a slower HDD. So there's an argument in favour of the Define X1 at your budget level and for a photo-editing-and-maybe-video-editing build, and phoning PCS to ask them to add more RAM if you think you'll need more than 16gb.

 

[Scott]

As above, for £1500 there isn't even a spec that comes close to the Define X1. You aren't going to get anything more powerful or better for your money.

i7 allows for more processes. The more cores you have, and the more threads you have, the more things the CPU can do at once. It's all software dependent though as the softwares need to be configured to operate with multiple cores etc. I would still argue that an overclocked 6850k would perform better, the stock clocks do hold it back a fair bit. Regardless though, there won't be much in it either way so you're better off saving the money and going with the 6700k..... unless you can justify your need of more cores/threads at similar clock speeds.

RAM is very much work dependent. It depends on the size of the images that you will be working with and the level of editing that you require to do. Generally 16GB is plenty but I would suggest the professional environment would call for 32GB or even 64GB, I believe 64 would be more in line with design work than anything though.

GTX950 is an old card now. The card I chose was the 1060 which is the new kid on the block. It would knock spots off the 980, nevermind the 950. The Define X1 comes with the 1080 which is an absolute monster card. You wouldn't need to worry about any GPU bottlenecks for a LONG time with that card.