Photo editing PC advice

[malmin]

Hi all,
Need a new PC for photo editing, using Lightroom 3 (V4 soon) and PS5. Besides that, not much gaming and basic MS office stuff. Will like to future proof for video editing though. I can see myself getting into this sooner rather than later. Don't know which app to use though.

Here's my first stab:

Case STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI,
CROSSFIREX***SPECIAL***
Memory (RAM) 16GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (4 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 550 Ti - DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 160GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 165MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
(7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£46)
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply 450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling INTEL SOCKET LGA1155 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E 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
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
Keyboard & Mouse LOGITECH® MK520 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£39)
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 10 to 12 working days
£1222.00

I was originally thinking of £1K budget, but don't mind spending a bit more. Can stretch to the above.
I have a high end monitor already. I can always add another at a later stage.
Want the flexibility of wireless as well as cable as I'm not 100% sure where the unit will sit and want the flexibility.
Want USB 3 as well as the normal USB 2. My external back up drives can handle USB3. Does the motherboard have all this built in?

Just need to see if I'm on the right lines. New to all this custom building malarkey. Know a very tiny bit and by no means a techie.
Thanks in advance for our advice.

 

[TJWhonley]

would upgrade the graphics processor to a 1.25 gb 560 ti core 448 a massive improvement on the one you have selected
possibly upgrade the cooler as well?

 

[Music Guy123]

I would suggest this, It is cheaper, the case is better, you may even want to upgrade it further. Also, it has a better SSD. I chose homeplugs over wireless as they are much more reliable. You can upgrade the gpu to a 560 but seeing as you won't be gaming much, there isn't too much point. What sort of games will you be playing?

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (4 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 550 Ti - DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£46)
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
2 x 200Mbps HomePlug AV - Create a Wired Network Using Electric Sockets! (£38)
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
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK520 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£39)
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 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,157.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-sandy-bridge-pc/

 

[malmin]

Thanks for the suggestions,
TJWhonley, point taken about the cooler, but I'm not sure which GPU you are talking about. Do you mean the 1.25GB GTX 570? Not sure I'll need it and it is £150+ more.

Music Guy123. Great suggestions re body etc and especially like your suggestion on home plugs. I never considered this option. Didn't even know the technology existed. If i do use a LAN ethernet and want that option, will this work as well or do I need to get another 10/100/1000 LAN port as well???? In the motherboard spec it says it has a gigabit LAN controller, but I'm assuming a controller is not the same as a port?? Hey, I did say I wasn't a techie.

Games will be very limited. COD Modern Warfare 4 is the beefiest game I have and it seemed ok on an old Dell Inspiron Laptop, so I'm hoping that the above setup with a 550 will be fine for newer versions of the COD series. I don't even know what they are, so you can see that I'm really not a gamer. It would just be nice to have a PC spec that would be able to play these games if it takes my fancy. I know it may be a compromise, but one I think I'll be prepared to live with and if the 550 can handle newer COD games semi decently then I'll be happy. Am I being unrealistic?
To be honest the main reason I wanted to include the GPU is for video editing in the future. The likelihood of me doing more "basic" video deiting is far more than the likelihood of me doing serious gaming.

Finally, just checking, but is my requirement for USB3 catered for? Reason I ask is that the mother board spec says there are 2 X USB3 ports + 12 USB2 ports, but in the configuartion tool says 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD under the USB options. What's the difference between the two?

Sorry for all these questions, not sure if this is the right place to post them.

 

[Music Guy123]

For USB, go by the description on the mobo. The 550ti isn't a bad card and will be fine for COD 4 which, imo is the best cod, even though I am not a gamer. For the internet, don't worry, you have an ethernet port on the mobo. It will be fine. A 550ti is probably overkill for vid editing, especially basic vid editing but seems alright for your gaming needs, you may want to upgrade to a 560 if you can afford it.

 

[TJWhonley]

just about the cods: black ops is rubbish IMO
modern warfare 2 is good if you like fast games
if you want a more tactical game then get battlefield bad company 2
hope I was of help.

 

[malmin]

Ordered and being delivered today. So excited I could just ****
Thanks for all the advice

Case COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM) 16GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (4 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£46)
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
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
Monitor IIYAMA E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£159)
Keyboard & Mouse LOGITECH® MK520 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£39)
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Price £1,388.00