New desktop tower

[lunaticitizen]

Specs given for the diffreent CPU and motherboards are sometime inconsequent, especial of the CPU's.
I don't think it's only a matter of a graphical CPU only. A CPU doesn't have connections for the devices. So it comes back to the motherboard. What combination?

George

George,

Are you looking to buy/build a new computer? Based on your requirements, I think you would find it cheaper to buy than to build one.

If you insist on building one you might want to read a recent article on Photography Life.

https://photographylife.com/the-ulti...kylake-edition

[mastamak]

If you insist on building one you might want to read a recent article on Photography Life.

https://photographylife.com/the-ulti...kylake-edition

That is a very interesting article Leo. Thanks for posting it. I agree with that article regarding RAM and dedicated video cards. I have been using OnOne software for some time and it simply would not run until I bought a dedicated video card. Also, I have 16MB of RAM and frequently run out of memory when running Lightroom, Photoshop and OnOne. Unfortunately my motherboard will not allow upgrading to 32MB so I have to suffer occasional crashes until I can upgrade. The best thing I did was purchase a solid state drive. No more waiting around for software to load.
Grant

[IzzieK]

My laptop freezes with OnOne, so I stopped using it, seek the help of some expert pooter guru who cannot find what is wrong with my computer so I researched my problem and found that most of my drivers were outdated...upgraded all of them and haven't had any problem since. It also got rid of my blue screen of death which I thought was OnOne's fault. I have since given away OnOne to a friend and just stick to Photoshop and Nik and another program I use for editing. No problem at all even if all of the three of them are running at the same time...

That is a very interesting article Leo. Thanks for posting it. I agree with that article regarding RAM and dedicated video cards. I have been using OnOne software for some time and it simply would not run until I bought a dedicated video card. Also, I have 16MB of RAM and frequently run out of memory when running Lightroom, Photoshop and OnOne. Unfortunately my motherboard will not allow upgrading to 32MB so I have to suffer occasional crashes until I can upgrade. The best thing I did was purchase a solid state drive. No more waiting around for software to load.
Grant

[Manfred M]

George,

Are you looking to buy/build a new computer? Based on your requirements, I think you would find it cheaper to buy than to build one.

If you insist on building one you might want to read a recent article on Photography Life.

https://photographylife.com/the-ulti...kylake-edition

I find the article you linked to quite interesting as the author has built a mid-end gaming machine and has ignored some of the basics that are important to a photo editor. He talks about not needing 30-bit capabilities, but that is exactly what one should be looking at when getting the AdobeRGB spec'ed displays he recommends. My 5+ year old nVidia Geforce GTX 560Ti graphics card runs the GPU acceleration in Lightroom just fine (in Lightroom ensure that under <Preferences> <Performance> the "Use graphics processor" checkbox is ticked.

He specs a top of the line Intel Skylake CPU, which has 4 cores / 8 threads, for an application that is not multi-threaded; i.e. he is suggesting paying for 3 cores and 7 threads that will not be used by Lightroom.In my view he throws money at parts of the machine that will never be even remotely be tasked by Lightroom yet he skips things I would consider critical (redundancy in storage, so you don't lose all your data when a storage drive fails).

Bottom line - I get peeved when people that don't understand what is happening "under the hood" make recommendations that are not cost effective and have no tangible impact on user experience. I personally would shave some of the costs to have a more suitable purpose-built machine that actually meets my needs than putting in high end components that will never actually justify their high costs.

[lunaticitizen]

Manfred,

About storage redundancy, the author of the article only mentioned a bit that he uses a Network Attached Storage server from Synology but he also gave the link to a separate review about it. I don't think he thinks redundancy is not important, it is just probably not within the scope of the article.

About the CPU recommendation, I agree with you that there is no point buying the top of the line when Adobe still can't take advantage of multi-threaded processing features of modern microprocessors.

My conclusion is that the author's recommendation is a bit overkill for our needs and yes, he does lack the technical knowledge in some areas but for a general recommendation about building your own PC, I think he did a great job.

[Manfred M]

Manfred,

About storage redundancy, the author of the article only mentioned a bit that he uses a Network Attached Storage server from Synology but he also gave the link to a separate review about it. I don't think he thinks redundancy is not important, it is just probably not within the scope of the article.

About the CPU recommendation, I agree with you that there is no point buying the top of the line when Adobe still can't take advantage of multi-threaded processing features of modern microprocessors.

My conclusion is that the author's recommendation is a bit overkill for our needs and yes, he does lack the technical knowledge in some areas but for a general recommendation about building your own PC, I think he did a great job.

Agreed (to an extent). He does cover the key components that go into a PC. What I find is missing is any quantitative data as to why he selected the specific component(s) is missing. As an example, when I look at a computer case, I tend to go for designs that allow tool-less entry, no sharp edges where I can cut myself and a rack design that allows me easy access for maintenance and upgrades.

He spends a lot of time talking about 4K displays (which in my experience is of limited use in a 24" model), but ignores colour accuracy (something that has been a bit if an issue, especially with some of the earlier 4K models), etc. etc.