What Computer?

[Dr Orloff]

A bit of advice for folks that know about these things would be appreciated. I'm looking for a new computer. It will be used for photo processing - Lightroom and Photoshop, and not a lot else really. Although I like listening to music (through decent headphones) so a decent sound would be nice. Files could get quite back as I like a stitched pano and a stacked macro.

There's a local computer shop that will build to order (Diamond Hardware in Brighton), or I have been recommended 'PC Specialist'.

I can afford up to £1,000 odd for a decent machine, so any advice on specs or particular components welcome. Please don't blind me with science though as I only understand basic computing terms.

[McGregNi]

Hi Adrian, for a desktop system then even 400 pounds will get a system with enough speed and performance, for photo editing and management. You don't need a better processor than an Intel i5, or an AMD A8. Get 16mb RAM. You might consider an SSD drive for the operating system and programs to be loaded on ... This will speed up the time it takes for startup and starting programmes. Then you could have a 1Tb disk drive for file storage.

I doubt its worth getting a special graphics card for photos really .... Perhaps spend more on a good monitor.

[MattEmmett]

Building it yourself will reduce the amount it costs and will enable you to get a very powerful setup for 1k. I just upgraded my machine from the following specs and it was a very capable setup for photo work.
Intel i7 2600k
16 Gig RAM
64 bit operating system
GeForce GTX 670 GPU
This setup cost me £700 when I built it 3 years ago.

I have just upgraded the RAM to 24 Gig and the graphics card to one of the new Nvidia 1060 cards as I bought a 4k monitor for a more enjoyable processing experience.
Be aware that things like a 4k monitor WILL require a Nvidia GTX 1060 at a minimum to run that many pixels, even for processing images. The system begins to get expensive at 4k but it is astounding the fidelity of the image at almost 4000 pixels across.

[MattEmmett]

Just wanted to add in response to Greg's comment, that the onboard graphics processors you get with a lot of motherboards these days is indeed enough for photo processing but the difference is speed. One of the more expensive GPU's from nvidia will run out a large pano or process a complex command on a high resolution image in PS very quickly by comparison.

[MattEmmett]

Also, it is important to mention that the system needs to be running a 64 bit OS. The 32 bit equivalent limits the amount of usable RAM to 4 gig, even if you have more installed, the rest will be wasted.

[Algi]

Intel is faster than AMD for Photoshop work.

Have a look at some completed builds and costs at.....

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/builds/

Top quality PS is essential. RAM 16 gig at least and it doesn't need to be the fastest.

If you can pick up a copy of the mag. "Custom PC" it shows a few builds and rates parts.

[Smeggypants]

My 2 shekels:

Buy the best quality PSU you can fit into your budget

Buy as much RAM as you can fit into your budget

If you're using Photoshop get a graphics card that has GPU processing as Photoshop can use this

And an SSD for OS and separate large capacity HDDs for Data

[McGregNi]

Holy power hogs ! Some of this stuff sounds more like a set-up that John Bowles would need for a 3D multi-monitor flight sim , with full real life cockpit and a heads up display, not something for some image optimizations and photo management tasks!

I can just see the National Grid taking a dip every time Smeggy rubs away with his adjustment brushes .... Quite possibly a full outage in the local area every time he hits 'Export' !.....(still I suppose the sheer speed of it would keep this to a minimum)!

Don't you think that Adrian would he better going with an average spec PC, a nice monitor, and spending anything left on a nice new wide angle lens or two .... ?

[Smeggypants]

:) Holy power hogs ! Some of this stuff sounds more like a set-up that John Bowles would need for a 3D multi-monitor flight sim , with full real life cockpit and a heads up display, not something for some image optimizations and photo management tasks!

I can just see the National Grid taking a dip every time Smeggy rubs away with his adjustment brushes .... Quite possibly a full outage in the local area every time he hits 'Export' !.....(still I suppose the sheer speed of it would keep this to a minimum)!

Don't you think that Adrian would he better going with an average spec PC, a nice monitor, and spending anything left on a nice new wide angle lens or two .... ?

Well I recommend a quality PSU for reliability and data safety reasons

Ram makes a huge difference to computer performance

and graphics cards with a reasonable onboard GPU aren't that expensive these days. I'm still using a CPU from 2010 and apart from 3D rendering ( which isn't a photography issue anyway ) I'm more than happy with it

Hope you're well fella

[McGregNi]

Now, I remember on Sunday around 6pm the lights started flickering down here in Surrey .... Then I saw the date and time that your last post came in Smeggy, so that explains it!

I'm ok thanks .... Still here, that's the main thing! Time for photography and forum stuff is more limited these days, but the K7 is still going strong, mainly grabbing shots indoors of the family with flashes.

I am sure you're right about getting a higher grade of PSU, at least for a custom built choice (we don't get any choice of power supply for off-the-shelf products, and no doubt that's an easy part to economize with).

[aliengrove]

Since you are building from scratch, build it as good as you can, though you can always add RAM later.

If I was building a desktop, this is roughly what I would go for;
i7 4770K processor
16gb RAM (you can add more later if you need it)
NVidia GTX 1060 graphics card (don't go for integrated graphics)
SSD hard drive (upgrading to an SSD drive improved my laptops performance more than upgrading from 8 to 16GB RAM
USB 3 ports (which will work fine with any existing external hard drives but will be much faster with USB3 drives)
Built-in SD/XD card slot

You should be able to build something like this for around a grand.

[richandfleur]

Since you are building from scratch, build it as good as you can, though you can always add RAM later.

If I was building a desktop, this is roughly what I would go for;
i7 4770K processor
16gb RAM (you can add more later if you need it)
NVidia GTX 1060 graphics card (don't go for integrated graphics)
SSD hard drive (upgrading to an SSD drive improved my laptops performance more than upgrading from 8 to 16GB RAM
USB 3 ports (which will work fine with any existing external hard drives but will be much faster with USB3 drives)
Built-in SD/XD card slot

You should be able to build something like this for around a grand.

I typed out a reply that was lost yesterday, but it pretty much said the above, exactly.

Re memory and benefits, -if you go to your Task Manager/Resource Monitor, you can see how much memory your applications are using.
Photoshop takes a lot if you offer it. Other applications may not need as much. It's one of those diminishing returns things, but starting new (it is mid 2017 after all) I'd go for 16Gb on anything new.

The above describes my computer at home, and it's been this way for 2 years or so now. I have a 2TB data drive and a separate SSD for the OS drive.
My SSD is 120GB but I'd go a minimum of 240Gb for this next time.
Any new system will / should be running windows 10, and you should only have the 64 bit version.

[Smeggypants]

Re memory and benefits, -if you go to your Task Manager/Resource Monitor, you can see how much memory your applications are using.

true, but it doesn't account for the spikes in memory usage that they use and the OS itself. have some overhead

[richandfleur]

Re memory and benefits, -if you go to your Task Manager/Resource Monitor, you can see how much memory your applications are using.

true, but it doesn't account for the spikes in memory usage that they use and the OS itself. have some overhead

Actually the task manager/resource monitor apps do account for that, but I get what ya mean

Common theme for me is losing track of time. The Pentax K-1 is over a year old now already. The K-3 is nearly 4 years old now.
Time marches on, costs stay the same or hopefully come down, and minimum standard specs for devices and computers increase.

Whilst 16Gb sounds massive for RAM, next time around I'd opt for 32GB RAM. If you've got software that can use it, then load it up and set it free