New desktop tower

[jacsul]

Looking for a new tower for post processing.
Thought this was a good deal.http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-envy-...specifications
Please chime in.

[Manfred M]

Photo editing doesn't need a particularly high end computer and I do all my work with a machine that is around 5 or 6 years old that has lower specs that the one you show except for RAM (I use 16 GB, the maximum that Windows 7 Home can handle). So the machine you are looking at will work just fine. It certainly is a lot more powerful than the laptop I use when I'm on the road.

If I were to replace my current machine, I would go with a unit that has a SSD (Solid State Drive) as the primary drive and a decently large drive, like the one on the machine you are looking at for storage. I would probably go for 32 GB of RAM as well.

[Dave Humphries]

Jack,

The one you have linked looks stylish, but that may not be everything ...

When I replaced my main PC, I considered and chose based on accessibility to connections; USB and memory card slots (which I always remove from camera and insert in PC to download from).
Think about where you'll put the box, so these are easy to get at.
Mine is now on desk behind LCD panel, so having ports for peripheral device connection via USB and slotting memory cards all available on top edge is very convenient. It was previously beside my legs, where the top front edge location of ports was equally easily accessible.

Mine isn't very noisy, but fan noise is something that could spoil location behind monitor.

I also make a point of storing all images on external HDDs, not internal drive(s), since that avoids the need to transfer later.

Now, I'd concur with Manfred's suggestion of SSD and as much RAM as possible.

FWIW I'm currently using a five year old Acer Aspire (Intel i5 at 3.2 GHz), with 6GB RAM and (non-SSD) 1TB HDD - plus numerous external HDD and two monitors as a dual-width desktop.

HTH, Dave

[Black Pearl]

Looking at your link I think I'd want a SSD (as has been mentioned above) instead of the drive listed and I'd want a dedicated graphics card not an integrated one.

SSD's make the entire system quicker and are great bang-for-buck investments
LR and PS both run on the GPU these days so it would be beneficial to have a dedicated card.
I'd max the RAM as it helps in general and especially when working on multi-layer files.

If that pushes your budget drop the fancy case and B&O sound.

[DanK]

SSDs are faster but expensive. My solution was a modest-sized SSD as my root drive, which contains all my software, and a much larger internal hard drive for photos. I have 2 TB external drive which is my first backup for photos.

[jacsul]

Thanks for the input. It was on sale and looked like a good deal. Now that Im better armed with info I'll shop some more.

[Manfred M]

listed and I'd want a dedicated graphics card not an integrated one.

I'd have to disagree where, Robin. Dedicated graphics cards are primarily designed for 3-D gaming and the amount of graphics power used in image editing barely touches these capabilities. Some of the graphics use include the rotation of the object you are working on for a more comfortable positioning on the screen (as opposed to rotating the image as an edit). If you are using video editing capabilities or video rendering (Premiere Pro or After Effects), these two pieces of software definitely use the graphics card processing capabilities as well as virtual processors on the CPU (something the Intel I7 CPUs (other than the laptop ones) support).

The important factor is that the graphics (whether built in or discrete) subport the OpenGL 2 standard. 1 GB of RAM is required for 3D work, but otherwise 512 MB of video RAM is fine.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/sy...uirements.html

[Black Pearl]

My understanding is Photoshop CC 2015 does use the GPU for a few things other than 3D - including ACR - though to how much of a difference it makes I can't be certain.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb...q.html#acrnote

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/acr-gpu-faq.html

Certainly my version is aware of the GPU as I can see ACR has accessed to it in the preferences pane.

[IzzieK]

SSDs are faster but expensive. My solution was a modest-sized SSD as my root drive, which contains all my software, and a much larger internal hard drive for photos. I have 2 TB external drive which is my first backup for photos.

Yours sounds like my laptop...and recently I added an old 22" Samsung Monitor to it...

After my old HP died on me...I never want to buy another HP desktop...I am not a programmer and I find their added extras were but an intrusion to my normal day-to-day activities. Theonly HP we have lying around here are Bill's printers.

[Sam W]

Hi Jack,

You may consider building one yourself. I built the below one last August. It was my first time building a PC and it was very easy. Knowing nothing about building one, the whole process took me about two weeks including waiting for parts...most of which I bought on Amazon using Prime shipping. I am not a geek so I will not go into all the specs nor do I understand them all. But one thing I did do instead of buying a standard SSD was to purchase a PCIe Gen3 x4 Ultra M.2 card (since my motherboard was built to use one). It boasts transfer speeds up to 36Gb. I think most SSDs are about 5 times slower. I keep my LR catalog on it and the original files on a regular hard drive for the moment. Some folks keep their OS on it but I found that Windows 10 boots fast enough from a regular drive.

It was a lot of fun and it worked the first time I turned it on. I believe that the motherboard makers are incentivized to make it simple. For example my motherboard comes with two BIOS chips just in case the first one gets completely corrupted. The owner has the ability to switch back to the BIOS version that was shipped.

It was fascinating to link in for a moment in time with the PC industry. My last PC lasted for 10 years. I know when I go back to make one in the future say 10 years from now, well we probably will not have PCs but just some cloud interface. Therefore, making a PC was just a moment in time, fun rewarding. And it is super fast, much quieter compared o my old one.

There is a tremendous amount of online information to help. For example, I used http://pcpartpicker.com/ to help configure my PC, estimate costs, and locate parts and sellers. The site allows you to store multiple configuration so you do your own performance trade-offs to meet a budget. Of the many benefits of making your own, is that fact you don't get a PC with a lot of junk on the hard drive put there by the manufacturer. The parts you get are in my opinion better quality. The overall price is about the same had you bought it from a retailer, might even be a bit less expensive. My PC tower case is made by Be Quite and it is nice and quite the way I like it even though it houses 7 fans. I could have made one half the size using a smaller motherboard. It would not have the expansion room and would be a bit harder to get my big hands into. There are many UTube videos that are helpful. Good luck with your decision.

[John 2]

Robin's link to Adobe's recommendation for a desk top system is worth a read. Remember though that these are the minimum requirements. If you start to process large files e.g. using layers, I would have to agree with Manfred on the subject of RAM. A minimum of 8GB will suffice but I found that I needed 16GB (or more) particularly if you use on board graphics because they share the RAM with the main processor. CS6 uses the graphics card for some functions (see Adobe extract below) and so I guess that CC does also. In my experience, I had a few niggles even with a separate card until I fitted a card with enough dedicated memory. It's not a high end card (passive cooling for noise at about $100) but it does have 2GB of dedicated memory and that solved the niggles. This also bears out the Adobe recommendation posted by Robin.

Robin, this reminded me that I found that the Fuji XT1 produces significantly larger RAW files than my Nikon D7100 - both DX format. The Nikon files come in at about 11MB. The Fuji files are around 31MB. Probably, part of the reason in my case why I needed to beef up the RAM on my machine beyond 8GB. FF would have a corresponding effect I guess.

GPU-enhanced features added in Photoshop CS6


•Adaptive Wide Angle Filter (compatible video card required)
•Liquify (accelerated with compatible video card with 512 MB of VRAM)
•Oil Paint (compatible video card required)
•Warp and Puppet Warp (accelerated with compatible video card)
•Field Blur, Iris Blur, and Tilt/Shift (accelerated with compatible video card supporting OpenCL)
•Lighting Effects Gallery (compatible video card required with 512 MB
of VRAM)

[AlwaysOnAuto]

3 computers ago (don't know how long that is in dog years) I bought a computer at Best Buy almost on a whim so to speak. My wife knew we needed a new one so was willing to let me spend the money at the time. We bought one that was on sale, the specs looked pretty decent when I read them, so we took it home.
Only after hooking it up and getting it all connected to the internet etc, did I decide to investigate what I'd actually bought.
Turns out it was the top rated gaming machine from the year before and they were blowing them out that day.
That computer lasted a good long time for me as it was right when I was first getting into digital photography as I recall.
From my latest experience of buying a computer, looking at the specs on the one you linked, the biggest downfall of it is that the RAM is just about maxed out. I'd look at how the RAM is configured on any you buy to see if you can add RAM without having to get new cards too. My latest machine has 8gb, but has four slots, only two of which are being used now. Just something to think about to help save money down the road.

[Shadowman]

I'm not advocating their product but the thing I liked about Dell was you could almost build a computer to your needed specifications. I don't know of any manufacturer that offers that option.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Yup, and if you looked hard and long enough on their re-furb'd site you could usually find someone else that already built it and turned it back in for some reason.
My son did that when he wanted a laptop. Configured it the way he wanted, then found a used one that was 'oversized' in all the right ways compared to his config and got it for less than his config would have been new.

Now that I think of it, I still have that computer sitting right next to my desk.

[IzzieK]

Good advice, Sam...In the good olde days I used to build my own desktop. I used to be an active member of the Melbourne PC User Group. I learned a lot from the Hardware SIG on building my own, so that will be a plus all I have to remember how to and it will not be hard. Thank you.

[davidedric]

Never tried to build my own. I suppose I could, but I imagine the tricky part is getting the various components in balance.

I was surprised by John's comments about difficulty of finding custom builders. There is no lack in the UK. Last time I used a company called Chillblast, who have won a string of awards, and I certainly would use them again.

I also always aim to over specify against today's needs, on the basis that software only ever gets more complex and resource heavy.

Dave

[chauncey]

Another vote for the DIY route...my nerd son opted for overkill but it's geared specifically for PS.

[george013]

Sam,

Can you tell me something about the video card. I know of a video card to put in a slot, an onboard video card and something as the graphical processor acting as a video card too. I'm not sure about the last one.

George

[Sam W]

Sam,

Can you tell me something about the video card. I know of a video card to put in a slot, an onboard video card and something as the graphical processor acting as a video card too. I'm not sure about the last one.

George

George I hardly have a layman's knowledge about PC and video cards. I can only tell you what I believe and that can be a little dangerous when it comes to PCs. I believe my Intel CPU has its own video processing capability which is disabled when you install a video card. Video cards in general can process some video better/faster than what's native on the CPU especially 3D graphics and HD graphics. Video cards also have their own memory which also takes some workload off the CPU. I suspect some photo processing software also takes advantage of these video cards. The CPU I purchased is an i7 4970K. I believe it has an integrated (onboard) Intel 4600 HD graphics module. I've probably never seen it work since I've always have my monitors plugged into the video card. Lastly, my video card will support a 4K monitor (maybe even 5K?) which I hope to get one day. My 2 cents. - Sam

[doomed forever]

Photo editing doesn't need a particularly high end computer and I do all my work with a machine that is around 5 or 6 years old that has lower specs that the one you show except for RAM (I use 16 GB, the maximum that Windows 7 Home can handle). So the machine you are looking at will work just fine. It certainly is a lot more powerful than the laptop I use when I'm on the road.

If I were to replace my current machine, I would go with a unit that has a SSD (Solid State Drive) as the primary drive and a decently large drive, like the one on the machine you are looking at for storage. I would probably go for 32 GB of RAM as well.

Sorry to interrupt, but Windows 7 Home can handle quote more than only 16GB, it's a hardware Limitation because of your Mainboard, for instance, their is only one MB which can handle 64GB RAM. Mostly are limited of 16GB due Chipset/CPU Limitation.

I build my rigs all by myself since i am 12, a complete PC....is bad, it doesnt matter which brand, or if you've spent 500 or 5000 bucks for it, some part, component is always crap, in terms of bad bios, too little options, too less expansion slots, PCIe slots, cheap memory, slow HDDs, slow graphics card, bad build quality in terms of design, cheap towers, and so on...etc.

It's always cheaper to build a good PC by your own, comparing prices for all components, and choose them carefully, always a good one or best into a specific price range. It's the same with pre-installed PCs, the windows there usually is for the trashcan,
bloated, dozens of tools nobody needs or wants, 100's of trial versions of this & that, and so on...it's always the same.

When you do have Windows 10, please use O&O ShutUp (Freeware Tool) to disable most of the concerning phone home and other data like telemetry, etc. whats being sent to M$.

http://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 Freeware, no install, no nags, no crap at all.
I still go with my Win7 as my CS6 Launchbox.

Anyway, current PS-Plugins do need some CPU & GPU Power, for instance, the Nik Plugins Suite, it was way fast ages ago onto my self-build rig when it was new...and now it's hella slow onto my old Quadcore Setup, therefore
i'd assemblage myself a new PC into 2016, because i can't bear the long waiting times for this & that anymore, and i upgraded my PC twice since i've had built it.

If you don't play any video games like myself, 16 GB RAM is plenty for Photoshop, even for the biggest projects. I've never encountered an "out-of-memory" error, and i've had big TIF files with dozens processing steps history into CS6 opened.