Photographer needs a new computer

D

digitalneophyte

New Member
I'm currently using an older laptop to run editing programs (Adobe Photoshop and Bridge) and use the internet for a host of reasons (music, social networking, building my online portfolio, research, movies, etc.) and it is not cutting it. The 16 minute save time for my 40 second animation makes me want to throw my computer off of a ten story building.

I did some research, but I'm a little overwhelmed with all of the information and still not sure I know what I need to be looking for. The big fat dreamy section of my brain is screaming, "Mac Pro with all the bells and whistles!" However, like most artists, my primary source of income is the service industry. I'm a bartender and I'm poor. I looked at customizable pcs, but I still ended up on the pricey side. I really don't want to spend more than $1500.

I'd like to know where I can settle for less and where I need to shoot for higher quality. Is 8GB of Ram good to settle on or should I shoot for 16? What type of monitor will display a better quality image, LED or LCD? Do I really need a super crazy fast graphics card or are they mainly for hardcore gamers? Should I get a SSD or settle for a HD with an SSD cache?

I have so many specifics that I'm looking for, my brain is about to explode from the acronyms and numbers. I hate numbers. I just want to make pretty shit.

Help?:confused:
 
I use the setup in my signature for photo editing (processing RAWs in Lightroom) and it works perfectly fine.

I'd recommend something along the lines of:

i5 3570K or i7 3770K (if you can afford the i7)
16GB DDR3 1600MHz or faster RAM
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H
Corsair 300R case
Corsair CX 600 PSU
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti or 660 (NVIDIA is better than AMD for this stuff)
128GB SSD - OCZ Vertex 4 or Samsung 840 Pro
Seagate 1TB 7200 RPM HDD (maybe two for RAID-1, keep your photos more secure)
DVD-RW drive

Should come to less than $1500.
 
Last edited:
Yup, spirit's build is great. I would get G.Skill or Corsair for RAM, and try for 1866 MHz, its usually only a bit more than 1600 Mhz. Try and get a 670 from eVGA. You could even go with a GIGABYTE GA-X79-UP4 and i7 3820 for some serious performance. You should be able to afford both. And don't forget Windows 8 64 Bit OEM for $100. If you need a monitor and it's included in the budget, just go down to a 660 Ti, but I would keep the 3820 (dont forget, you cant use the motherboard spirit reccomended with a 3820, or the motherboard i reccomended with a 3770). How big do you want? I would go with a 1080P 24 inch, or 1440p 27 inch. LED is LCD but brighter and more power efficient. A nicer GPU helps with rendering. 16 GB would be nice for rendering also. SSDs have a very fast write speed which will help rendering speed.
 
Last edited:
I'd take an i7 3770K with 16GB of 1866MHz RAM over an i7 3820. But the i5 is fine for photo editing (i7s are great for video editing though). My i5 2500K is great for editing photos and processing RAWs.

I don't see why you'd need a 670 to edit photos, a 650 Ti would be enough, but if you can afford a more powerful graphics card, by all means go for it...

...or put the money towards another lens ;) :P
 
a 650ti vs a 670 in editing will make no differernce and be a waiste of monay. I have a 670, and in rendering times I get about 4 minutes on a particular project utilizing both gpu and cpu. when I throw in the gtx 460 I have, it does it about 3 seconds longer. so if you were to get a 650 ti, which is a lot more powerful than a 460, its going to perform closer to the 670, if not be exactly the same. iv learned that unlike gaming, the more powerful the card, will not yield the increase in performance when it comes to editing. go with the 650ti, 2gig preferably. if you feel the itch to up it a little, get a 660(ti) but nothing more than that. complete waist if youdo, and is a little waisteful going with a 660 for editing purposes.

and I agree, if your doing JUST photo editing then an i5 3570k would be great, although if you want a smoother response from your pc while your editing those photos, or if you think you may get into a bit of video editing, then an i7 3770k is the way to go. 16gigs in mandatory in my opinion as a minimum for editing computers, so grab 2 x 8 gig sticks of 1866Mhz (1600Mhz minimum). and as far as the i7 3820 and the socket 2011 to go with it, for get about it. all a waist of money. stick to socket 1155, and shoot for the i5 3570k, or i7 3770k.
 
Last edited:
I would get a sandy bridge i7, 16GB RAM, mobo etc and get a 660ti and SSD for the OS. MGE in Photoshop will gain advantage with graphics acceleration from the 6 series up.

Spend most of the rest of your money on your storage and monitor.
 
It'd be a really good idea to get two large hard drives (either 1TB or 2TB disks) and put them in RAID-1, so you end up with two mirrored disks. That way, if one disk fails, you still have all the data on the other disk and it's still perfectly usable.
 
spirit said:
It'd be a really good idea to get two large hard drives (either 1TB or 2TB disks) and put them in RAID-1, so you end up with two mirrored disks. That way, if one disk fails, you still have all the data on the other disk and it's still perfectly usable.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that is a very good idea.
 
I have my photos on a RAID-1 array personally, though I don't store the photos on my PC. My photos/work goes onto a server in our house which has 2x 2TB disks in RAID-1. Something like that would be ideal for you (doesn't need to be a server, just stick two disks in your PC and build an array in the BIOS).

As a photographer, other than people nicking your work, your/my worst nightmare is losing your/my photos, so do everything you can to prevent that.
 
Last edited:
spirit said:
I have my photos on a RAID-1 array personally, though I don't store the photos on my PC. My photos/work goes onto a server in our house which has 2x 2TB disks in RAID-1. Something like that would be ideal for you (doesn't need to be a server, just stick two disks in your PC and build an array in the BIOS).

As a photographer, other than people nicking your work, your/my worst nightmare is losing your/my photos, so do everything you can to prevent that.
Click to expand...

If that can't be afforded, he could always try something like Livedrive?

I use it, and it is really useful, especially for remote access to your files.
 
The OP can most likley afford a raid setup with a i7 and 650 ti. Raid 1 is less of a hassel then a online solution.
 
Yeah with $1500 to spend he most definitely should be able to afford a RAID-1 config.
 
Wow this is a lot of info to take in, although this forum has given me the best information out of any of my other sources so far and for that, I thank you all! I'm not a computer whiz by any stretch of the imagination, and I'm assuming all of these are separate parts I would buy and assemble myself? I'm sure it's relatively easy but where exactly would I find the information necessary to put everything together without screwing everything up?

Also, not a he.
 
Sorry, miss. Yes, these are all parts that you need to assemble. Here is a good final build:
Intel i7 3770K
Gigabyte Z77 UD5H
Evga GTX 650 Ti
Corsair TX 650M
2x Western Digital Black 2 TB Raid 1
64 GB Sandisk Extreme SSD
Corsair 300R
2 x 8 GB G Skill 1866 MHz
Windows 8 64 Bit
Samsung DVD Drive (any will do)


Guides for building a PC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxaVBsXEiok
Just search youtube and google for setting up raid 1. And read the motherboard manual.
 
Last edited:
^ That looks like a good list but don't get the 60GB SSD, get a 120GB or 240GB SanDisk Extreme. 60GB isn't really enough space and 120GB is cheap these days so get 120GB.

I've used the 120GB and 240GB variants of the SanDisk Extreme SSD and they're both good. Definitely get the two 2TB hard drives for RAID-1 too and put your photos on there.

And yes, you will need to assemble everything yourself.
 
Thanks so much guys. I appreciate all the help. I'm excited about building it myself! I think it will be a lot more satisfying to turn it on for the first time than if I were to go out and buy one.
 
PCunicorn said:
Sorry, miss. Yes, these are all parts that you need to assemble. Here is a good final build:
Intel i7 3770K
Gigabyte Z77 UD5H
Evga GTX 650 Ti
Corsair TX 650M
2x Western Digital Black 2 TB Raid 1
64 GB Sandisk Extreme SSD
Corsair 300R
2 x 8 GB G Skill 1866 MHz
Windows 8 64 Bit
Samsung DVD Drive (any will do)


Guides for building a PC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxaVBsXEiok
Just search youtube and google for setting up raid 1. And read the motherboard manual.
Click to expand...

That's a good build, but I would definitely go with at least a 128gb ssd if not a 256gb, like a samsung 840 pro.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top