System for Photo Editing

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epeeist

New member
I am thinking of upgrading my system to cope with the increased resolution of my new camera. I generally use Digikam for initial uploads and cataloguing and Darktable for the bulk of my workflow.

I have looked around and come up with this system - https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/compu...c-pc-i7-Skull/, I would increase the memory to the maximum of 32GB. I asked their support team if it would run Linux but got the usual response "we don't support Linux".

The questions are therefore, will it run Linux? Alternatively, can people suggest a different system that would be suitable? I want a desktop rather than a laptop.

Darktable is able to use OpenCL if it is available, but this means AMD or NVidia GPUs.
 
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
I'm afraid that link doesn't work for us. Possibly it's a quote saved to your unique account.
You can create a link other people can use to view the spec like so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-JWRXp-wIE

Also the forum abbreviates links, so copying the text of a link and pasting it will only copy the abbreviated version (i.e. with an ellipsis taking the place of the actual link)

e.g. http://www. pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-z270-overclocked/qmF4xxchs9 becomes http://www. pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes...ed/qmF4xxchs9/
So you need to right click and copy link / copy link location in order to post links that have been abbreviated.

Funtimes :)
 
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Stephen M

Stephen M

Author Level
I cannot see anything that should be a problem with Linux, which distro are you going to use. I have put Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint and quite a few others on three PCS laptops and only had serious problems once but that was with the GTX960 a GPU that has had a lot of Linux problems. Perhaps a web search of your GPU and Linux may turn something up, if it does not I would suggest that means it is OK.

I think PCS are in a difficult position, Windows hate anyone supporting Linux and, certainly in the Steven Balmer days, could be awkward, plus there is the legal thing, if they do not have full time Linux knowledge on the staff there is always a possibility of awkward complaints so I think they take the simple option
 
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epeeist

New member
Stephen M said:
I cannot see anything that should be a problem with Linux, which distro are you going to use.
Click to expand...

I am a long time openSuse user. Not completely committed but I prefer KDE to Gnome or other desktops, one of the drivers being the easy availability of Digikam.
 
Stephen M

Stephen M

Author Level
I had a quick look on the net and could not find anything to suggest problems with that GPU, I think the GTX960 was a one off. I quite like Suse and it is one of the distros I test new laptops with but for day to day work have got used to the Ubuntu desk top. Hope things go well if you decide to order from here and would be interested in a review if you do.
 
E

epeeist

New member
Well I bought one. It took longer than I would have expected to arrive, I wouldn't have thought fitting an SSD and two memory sticks and making sure the system works would have taken a week.

The system consists of:

Intel Skull Canyon NUC Case
Intel® CoreTM i7 Quad Core Processor i7-6770HQ (2.6GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
32GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
512GB SANDISK X400 M.2 2280 (up to 540MB/R, 520MB/W)

PCS couldn't guarantee it would work with Linux but I decided to give it a go anyway.

When it arrived I connected it to my wired ethernet and iiyama PL2390 monitor, Logitech K350 keyboard and wireless mouse and booted it into the supplied version of Windows. No problems with this.

Inserted a memory stick containing OpenSuse 42.2 into one of the two front USB sockets and booted it. This took me into the standard installation procedure and about 20m later I had a working system. Most of the install time was spent downloading updated versions of software since I specified this as an option to the install.

The versions of Digikam and Darktable that come with a standard install are old ones, Digikam 5.2 crashes when loading Nikon RAW files. I had to add repositories for updated versions of these, I also added Packman and Vivaldi repositories and did updates to new versions of these two packages and added Hugin, Luminance HDR and DisplayCal (I will calibrate my monitor with a Spyder some time today).

First impressions, it is an extremely nippy little system.

Digikam to start with, I am using this to manage photographs from a Nikon D7200, this produces 24 Megapixel RAW images. The time to do some simple operations are: image load, 8s; Unsharp mask, 2s; Free rotate by 5 degrees, 2s; Oil paint effect, 1s.

Darktable has always being fast, changes are now virtually instantaneous.

Luminance HDR takes 13s to load 5 RAW images and a further 58s to align them and produce a preview.

Hugin takes 2s to load 3 TIF images and a further 7s to align and then 190s to create the panorama (9140 x 2769 pixels).

I'll have a further play, but given that this will be the primary use for the box I am pretty happy. The only thing I am pondering is whether it is worth replacing the HDMI->DVI monitor connection with a DisplayPort->DVI or DisplayPort->DVI cable.
 
Stephen M

Stephen M

Author Level
Glad it is going OK, any updates would be appreciated. I think PCS are stuck with the Linux warning, legal issues and stuff like that. The best we can do is try to keep the Linux part of the fora active and post any tips, fixes etc we come across, there are already a few helpful posters but the more the merrier.

In the next year or so I am going to get a desk top, the first for about 15 years, so will be interested to see how things are going and posting a shed load of questions.
 
O

orangecarrot

Member
Same as previous posters, I don't see anything that could be a problem with linux. In terms of the actual image processing software, there's a few good ones. Adobe inDesign is a good one, however I was doing some reading and here's some alternatives if inDesign doesn't do the job: https://www.1and1.com/digitalguide/websites/web-design/free-alternatives-to-adobe-indesign/.

Overall, they should all work for Linux, you can test them out and see what works best for you.
 
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