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Archive 2013 · New Desktop PC

  
 
JimClark
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · New Desktop PC


Need to update my desktop contemplating dropping down one step in processor speed so I can afford more memory. I am thinking the memory is more important than the processor since I mainly use bridge, ACR and photoshop but I might use lightroom. Looking at either a core I7 with 8gig or a core I5 with 16 gig's of ram. Either will be lightyears faster than my current pc.
Comments?

Jim



Nov 21, 2013 at 08:19 PM
amacal1
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · New Desktop PC


Well, you can always add RAM more cheaply and more easily than you updating the processor. If you found 8 GB wasn't enough, you could upgrade it a little down the road. If you found that your processor was holding you back, you might just be stuck (more or less).


Nov 21, 2013 at 09:37 PM
nma
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · New Desktop PC


Why not consider a configuration featuring an SSD, 2TB HDD, intel i5 processor, motherboard with 2x8 GB RAM - that is 16 of 32 GB MAX. The SSD would be 128 or 256 GB, depending on $$ available. The SSD is for rapid boot of windows and PS scratch disk. You need to decide whether you need tower or desktop form factor, more or less expansion capabilities. Other points to consider are USB 2/3 ports and internal SATA slots. Probably want aDVD read/write, too.

Two years ago there was much greater availability of competing products in this category and for less $ too. Now, there are just a few companies that will customize at a reasonable price.



Nov 21, 2013 at 10:04 PM
15Bit
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · New Desktop PC


Whats your budget?


Nov 22, 2013 at 12:54 AM
JimClark
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · New Desktop PC


Was looking at XPS 8700 with a core I7 originally was going to spend 700 to 800


Nov 22, 2013 at 01:13 AM
amacal1
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · New Desktop PC


Are you just looking fur the PC, or did you want the monitor/keyboard/mouse included fur that price?


Nov 22, 2013 at 08:08 AM
oldrattler
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · New Desktop PC


JimClark wrote:
Was looking at XPS 8700 with a core I7 originally was going to spend 700 to 800


Jim, this is the setup I use (16 gb. ram) and it has severed me very well. Jim



Nov 22, 2013 at 08:53 AM
Camperjim
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · New Desktop PC


Also consider the operating system. I was able to avoid Windows 8 and got a machine loaded with Windows 7 pro. I am surviving with a relatively low cost machine: i5/8g ram. Works fine with no major delays. Panorama stitching might be a bit slow but that is not something I do often enough to worry about a few extra seconds.


Nov 22, 2013 at 10:28 AM
amacal1
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · New Desktop PC


I don't mean to hijack this thread, but now that the topic has been brought up, I would like to know some info related to the OP's topic and the last post about Win 8.

I am about to install an SSD and completely reinstall my OS and all software.

I have a copy of Win 7 ready to go and a copy of Win 8 ready to go. I had planned on installing Win 8, but can anyone give me a reason specifically related to PS or LR not to do that?

Just to cut down on the back and forth, I'll say that I am intimately familiar with both OS's and have used Win 8 since it was released. I'm well aware of why most people don't like it, and I don't really care. I kinda like it. I just want to know if there are any specific bugs, quirks, or useability issues when it comes to either LR or PS.

Also, if this detracts too much from the OP's topic, feel free to ignore my question.



Nov 22, 2013 at 12:00 PM
JimClark
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · New Desktop PC


I dont need the monitor


Nov 22, 2013 at 02:23 PM
15Bit
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · New Desktop PC


For lightroom its all about CPU speed - you buy the fastest CPU you can (and overclock it preferably). LR doesn't use the video card for acceleration and doesn't use much RAM at all as it very aggressively unloads images when you move to the next - i had to try very very hard to get it to use 3GB RAM on my machine, mostly it doesn't even hit 2GB. So for LR 8GB in the machine is enough.

Photoshop is less CPU limited for general editing, but can need speed if you use filters a lot. It will also make some use of hyperthreading, so an I7 will perform better than an I5. Photoshop will also use the video card to accelerate some things, so a low-mid range graphics card is worth getting. RAM is much more important for PS than for LR, as every time you generate another layer in the image you add to the RAM load. For most of us 16GB system RAM is enough, and is the sweet spot economically too. If you are doing big multi-shot panos or you just really love layers, then you might want to move up to 32GB.

According to my testing LR seems to benefit little from SSD's (some people do report otherwise though). Photoshop will only benefit from a fast disk subsystem if it runs out of RAM, in which case an SSD makes a huge difference. Installing your operating system and applications on an SSD does make a big difference to general system usage though (it just feels snappier and more immediate to use), so is highly recommended.

If buying from a vendor i would recommend specs of the sort:

Intel I5 or I7 at 3.2-3.5Ghz
16GB RAM
NVidia GTX650 or AMD Radeon 7770
128GB SSD for operating system and applications
2TB (or larger) Hard disk for data

If you can build yourself then get either an i5-4670K or i7-4770K and overclock it



Nov 22, 2013 at 03:20 PM
Bifurcator
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · New Desktop PC


I think an SSD is very important to performance! Maybe even critical! I recently found an 11 year old Power Mac G5 in the trashcan (in mint condition I might add) and it was dog slow till I added Samsung 840 Pro SSDs as the boot & application and the cache & data drives. Now it's nearly as peppy as an 8-core Xeon x5355 only 6 years old and twice the speed. It can't touch my newer screamers but this goes to show that an SSD is pretty critical to performance. The bummer is that these are still pretty expensive! you can probably get away with a 128GB SSD (about $80) for the boot but you'll need a second one for project data and the caches. Ideally you would dump the card onto the data & cache drive and then after sorting and editing move the files to a rotational RAID0 or fast single drive. You would have to keep up with the housekeeping as a 128GB SSD only holds about eight or nine full-ish 16GB Card dumps. I think it would be worth it tho.

On the subject of Win8 vs. Win7 don't let the Luddites fool you. You can set up Win8 to act exactly like Win7 in every way! But with Win8 you get some extra future-proofing and better app & hardware compatibility, much better security, and a little better overall performance! Memory handling and file organization is also improved from Win7 to Win8. If the Metro start screen interface bugs you there are MANY short step-tutorials which show how it can be completely avoided. The only reason a thinking person might want Win7 over Win8 is cost (like if they already had Win7 and didn't wanna pay for Win8). But hold-outs and luddites do this with every new version claiming the old versions are somehow better - when in fact after the 1st service pack or update is released this is entirely untrue. Whatever…

I mostly agree with 15Bit above's post tho you should probably avoid buying a vendor desktop grade box. Many vendors make good workstations and servers but few if any make good desktop grade systems. You can usually do a lot better yourself for $200 to $400 less than vendor prices. DIY, you'll probably end up with better HDD, PSU, faster better RAM, better sound maybe, and a case that looks nice with room to expand. The only downside is the one hour it takes to assemble.



Nov 22, 2013 at 03:43 PM
JimClark
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · New Desktop PC


I will say I have done a lot of work and upgraded a few pc's my onlu problem in building from scratch is figuring out all the different settings on the motherboard


Nov 22, 2013 at 03:58 PM
Bifurcator
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · New Desktop PC


Ya, this used to be a bigger problem than it seems to be currently. The last few i built were just "plug this here" and go.




Nov 22, 2013 at 04:06 PM
JimClark
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · New Desktop PC


well that sounds good got rec's on good motherboards? I will have to look on Newegg


Nov 22, 2013 at 04:25 PM
15Bit
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · New Desktop PC


I've an Asus P8Z77V-Pro for my Ivy Bridge i5-3570K and i'm pleased with it. The equivalent for Haswell is a P8Z87-Pro i think. I've a positive experience with Asus support too - i had problems restarting from standby when i got the motherboard and they correctly diagnosed a failing PSU.


Nov 22, 2013 at 04:56 PM
amacal1
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · New Desktop PC


+1 for Asus. They have continued to support my motherboard (from like 8 years ago) with BIOS updates until very recently. So, I've been able to upgrade my processor and RAM several times with models that weren't supported until just a couple of years ago.


Nov 22, 2013 at 05:31 PM
Bifurcator
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · New Desktop PC


My last build was also an ASUS. The Sabertooth Z87





http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/SABERTOOTH_Z87/


But i really don't know enough to say Asus is best or anything like that. I went for this one cuz it looked cool. BTW, NewEgg is pretty high priced. You might wanna consider a different retailer… This build was about $650 for MB, i7-4770K Quad core 3.5GHz, and 16GB of Corsair Vengeance 2x8GB. Most of the other stuff I already had but add $200 for everything else. Like the GTX 570 GPU on ebay is like $75 to $90 now, and so on. You should be able to get it all under $700 or $800 with a slightly lower spec CPU and used RAM. (I love used RAM, used GPUs, and used CPUs - YAY!!)



Nov 22, 2013 at 06:05 PM
amacal1
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · New Desktop PC


Interesting...
Newegg used to be my absolute go-to for computer parts. I also used sing their praises to anyone who could stand to listen to me. Lately, I've been less impressed. In fact, lately their site, shipping methods, and customer service have been less than ideal. I still don't necessarily have any problems with using them, but I no longer blindly trust them to have the best prices or best customer service.



Nov 22, 2013 at 08:43 PM
aubsxc
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · New Desktop PC


Do NOT buy motherboards from newegg. There are huge threads on many computer forums with reports of newegg RMA techs breaking socket pins to deny customer RMAs, with photographs documenting the issue. Newegg is NOT the company it used to be 10 years ago. Customer service has gone down the drain. Avoid if at all possible; there are many better alternatives out there.

At HardForum:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1694667



Nov 23, 2013 at 01:52 AM
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