Photo editing desktop PC

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HappyHaggis

Active member
Hi,
I’m hoping that someone more knowledgeable than me could take the time to look at my spec and comment on its suitability for my use.
It will be used for 2 main purposes. I have a high resolution DSLR (Nikon D810) and use Photoshop and Lightroom for editing, these files can get quite big, (700Mb+) so I want to be able to process these efficiently. I will also use it as a media centre, streaming music and video to my AV system.
My budget is £1200 tops and this comes in at £1108 inc.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)
Thanks.
Trevor

Case
InWIN 503 MID TOWER GAMING CASE (WHITE)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Six Core Processor i5-8400 (2.8GHz) 9MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME Z370-P: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1050 - DVI, HDMI, DP
1st Hard Disk
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
2nd Hard Disk
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1100MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 350W VS SERIES™ VS-350 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
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
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.0 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
 
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Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
If that's your budget and those are your storage requirements the spec looks very good. You may end up wanting 32gb RAM eventually if the files are that large.

Depending on the costs you could consider
Asus TUF mobo for USB 3.1 Gen 2
GTX 1050 ti for extra VRAM
450/550W PSU to improve future upgrade options

If your media centre streaming involves transcoding video, you may want to consider a build based around an AMD R5 1600(x) instead. The photoshop performance may not be quite as good, but if you need to transcode high definition media while streaming it to your TV you'll probably be glad of the extra threads. Transcoding audio would be trivial for either, however.
 
H

HappyHaggis

Active member
Thank you so much for taking the time to give me your advice. I’d like 32Gb of RAM, but it’s outside our budget at the moment. I have opted for 2x8 so I can possibly add extra at a later date.
I wondered about the PSU so I’ll upgrade that. Storage-wise, I think I’ll be ok with that 2x3Tb setup, at least for a few years, again, it’s down to cost, bumping up to 5Tb drives the price too high. Is it difficult to add an extra drive myself? Obviously, once the new PC is up and running, I’ll have spare HDD from my old machine. Also would that invalidate my warranty?
I think the GPU should be ok. I have a much older NVIDIA Gt750 card in a 4 year old machine that performs well and it’s Photoshop and Lightroom where I’m struggling since getting the D810 and if I come up on the premium bonds, there is a D850 on my wish list!
I’ll look at the mobo you’ve suggested.
Thanks again for your help, much appreciated. :)
 
R

rtho

Active member
HappyHaggis said:
Storage-wise, I think I’ll be ok with that 2x3Tb setup, at least for a few years, again, it’s down to cost, bumping up to 5Tb drives the price too high. Is it difficult to add an extra drive myself? Obviously, once the new PC is up and running, I’ll have spare HDD from my old machine. Also would that invalidate my warranty?
Click to expand...

Installing an extra drive is quit easy(lots of videos on YT to help if needed).
PCS allows you to fit additional items to your pc, so as long as its done correctly it will not affect the warranty.
 
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Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Installing the extra drive is easy but iirc the mobo only has 4 sata ports, 3 of which are already used in the spec above. The TUF mobo has 6 sata ports as well as USB 3.1 Gen 2.

Or you could stick to a single 5TB drive if that would work, giving you much of the same storage space (it would also be faster) and keeping 2 sata ports free.
 
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HappyHaggis

Active member
That’s good to know about the sata ports, thanks. I’m trying to find the right moment to broach the subject of 32Gb RAM with my wife as I think it will make a big difference to my photo editing.
 
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HappyHaggis

Active member
Based on that article, I think I might be better off with a second M.2 SSD to use as a scratch disk and for work in progress files. I can always add extra RAM at a later date, if I find that performance is getting laggy (or when I get my D850 lol, I do hope my wife never sees this thread!).
I’ve already taken on board your recommendation for the mobo and graphics card as they will help future-proof my build, I think.
 
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Why the 2nd SSD as a scratch drive? I'm not at all familiar with PS personally but I believed it was more normal to just have a single SSD for the OS, PS, other programs, and any active projects? I also thought PS used the scratch disk more when it didn't have enough memory. I'd have probably gone for the RAM over the 2nd SSD.
 
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HappyHaggis

Active member
Tbh the more I read about ‘getting best performance’ out of Photoshop the more conflicted I become! I’ve read suggestions that a faster scratch disk is beneficial, but that CPU and RAM are more important elsewhere. Obviously, the step up to 32Gb RAM is more costly than the extra SSD, but I’m now wondering whether upgrading the CPU to an i7 8700k would be a better compromise. If I opt for that, would I need to consider a different cooler?
I realise that I may be muddying the waters here a bit. If you don’t mind, perhaps if I put up a new spec you could say whether you think it be beneficial? I appreciate that you’ve been very helpful already and don’t want to be a pita.
 
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
What I'd heard is that having a fast scratch disk is helpful but that you just use the main SSD as the scratch disk if you have an SSD.
  • If your startup disk is a hard disk, as opposed to a solid-state disk (SSD), try using a different hard disk for your primary scratch disk. An SSD, on the other hand, performs well as both the primary startup and scratch disk. In fact, using an SSD is probably better than using a separate hard disk as your primary scratch disk.
https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/photoshop/kb/optimize-photoshop-cc-performance.html
Click to expand...
Photoshop is quite lightly threaded, such that an i7 is unlikely to give much better performance than an i5. The i7's higher frequency would help, but most of what you pay for for an i7 is the hyperthreading, which PS may not care a jot about.

8600kPS.png
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-coffee-lake-core-i5-8600k-cpu,5264-7.html

You'll no doubt notice that the i5 8600k has a much higher base frequency than the i5 8400. However, the boost frequency for both is very high such that the real performance difference between them is much smaller.
8400turbo.png
 
L

Lez501

Gold Level Poster
Upgrade to an i7 CPU probably would suit better. Everything really depends on what you do with your images. If you are just editing a single image containing a few layers, then your current config is more than adequate and you don't really need a scratch disk.
However, if you are into multi row HDR pano's (giga pixel images), or a graphics designer using hundreds of layers, then it's beneficial to have more memory and fast scratch disk (SSD, or even better, M.2).
 
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HappyHaggis

Active member
Thanks both for the suggestions. Oussebon wow you’ve really been a fantastic help, thank you so much.
For the most part my editing is done in Lightroom, but probably 30-40% is done in Photoshop with several adjustment layers. The file sizes are often up around 500Mb or more.
I need to write down everything you’ve suggested and give some thought to my final decision. It’s a lot of money to lay out, particularly as I’m retired now, so I want to get it right and future proof the build as much as I can.
Thanks again for all the advice. :)
 
L

Lez501

Gold Level Poster
Oussebon said:
If you're editing gigapixel images you'd want 64-128gb RAM though, right?
Click to expand...

Yes, that's correct. I have a 5Ds (50mp camera), and while I don't do extreme pano's, I do do the odd HDR 4:3 5:4 7 shot ( that's 84 & 140 images (5-7 giga pixel)) pano's - so my 64GB copes very well.
 
H

HappyHaggis

Active member
Ok based on the advice I’ve received here and after discussion with She Who Must Be Obeyed, we decided to increase our budget to future proof our system as much as possible.
I’d appreciate any thoughts on the new spec, before committing to the purchase. I’ve opted for the i5 8600k cpu as I think it’s a nice compromise and 16Gb of RAM as it should be adequate for most processing needs. Maybe it’ll need updating at some stage. The SSD remains the same and is big enough to hold the OS, apps, Lightroom catalogue and previews and should be fine for a number of years. I’ve chosen 3 HDDs and they will hold specific sets of files. The 8Gb will take our movies, TV shows and music, the 6Gb will hold photos and the smaller drive will hold normal document. I’ve gone with the 4Gb GPU as suggested and upgraded the mobo.
Thanks again for all the help so far, it’s much appreciated.
Case
InWIN 503 MID TOWER GAMING CASE (WHITE)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-8600K (3,6 GHz), 9 MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1050 Ti - DVI, HDMI, DP
1st Hard Disk
8TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
2nd Hard Disk
8TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
3rd Hard Disk
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1100MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
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
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.0 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,550.00 including VAT and delivery
 
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
The spec has 2 8gb drives - not a 6 and an 8?

But yes, it seems suited to your needs. I'm not sure I'd get the 8600k over the 8400 for what is effectively only 300MHz, but that's personal choice.
 
H

HappyHaggis

Active member
Oops, I chose the larger drive as a after thought and it was late, so forgot it - a(nother) senile moment.
Many thanks for your thoughts. :)
 
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