Does this look like a good Photoshop computer???

[rpcrowe]

My techie guy tells me that I should be looking for a new computer pretty soon. It appears that the one I am using (about 6 or 7 years old) may just be on its last legs. I have been avoiding replacement because I did not want Windows-10...

My primary use is Photoshop - I think that I am going to opt for the subscription service, with NIK and Perfect Photo Plug-ins. I will do a small bit of very minor (1-3 minute clips) video editing.

I don't do any gaming!

I am presently working with a computer that has 16 GB of RAM I increased the RAM...

How does this one look for my uses?

Dell XPS 8900 Desktop Intel Core i7 4GB Graphics
Processor & Memory:
Intel® Core i7-6700 Processor 3.4GHz
32GB DDR4 2133MHz RAM

Drives:
1TB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
DVD-RW (Writes to DVD/CD)

Operating System:
Microsoft® Windows 10

Graphics & Video:
4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745 Graphics
Monitor Not Included

Communications:
Dell Wireless-N 1801 + Bluetooth® 4.0
Integrated 10/100/1000 Base Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 Connector)

Audio:
Integrated 7.1 with Waves MaxxAudio® Processing

Keyboard & Mouse:
Dell Wired Keyboard + Laser Mouse

Ports & Slots:
6x USB 3.0
4x USB 2.0
HDMI
Multi-Media Card Reader
Combination headphone / microphone jack
Display Port

[Shadowman]

Dell basically designs a computer for your specific needs. Do the checklist under filter reviews, cross reference with the minimum system requirements for your proposed software and go for it. From what I see listed, you meet the minimum requirements, you should also be looking at a compatible monitor that'll round out your setup.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-8900-desktop/pd

[Manfred M]

Richard - the main specs look very similar to what I built myself a couple of months ago - same CPU, same amount of RAM. I use a 1TB SSD drive rather than the standard HDD that your machine would be configured with. I suggest that you have a hard look at a SSD. The 1TB is a bit price, but 500GB might be all you need as a system disk. The read / write speeds are amazing when compared to the mechanical drive, but you would have to have a mechanical drive, either internal or external for more storage.

The only thing that I do is a bit of work with MS Office and I have the rest of the Adobe CC Suite on it (with Nik and a few other filters), so my use is similar to yours.

The video card is neither here nor there as Photoshop does not use that functionality a lot. I don't know about Photoshop's video editing, as I use Premiere Pro, but if it works the same way, that software uses the video card for video rendering and even there you don't need the 4GB of RAM (I have an older 2GB card).

[rpcrowe]

Manfred,
I am assuming that if I used a SSD as well as a standard hard drive; I would have my Photoshop and other programs installed on it and then save the images to the regular drive. Is that the way to do it???

This computer is about three hundred dollars more expensive but, it has a faster processor 4.0 GHz vs. 3.4 GHz, 32DG of RAM AND a solid state hard drive as well as a standard hard drive. This unit should absolutely scream with speed...

Processor & Memory:
Intel® Core i7-6700K Processor 4.0GHz
32GB DDR4 2133MHz RAM

Drives:
2TB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive + 256GB Solid State Drive
Blu-ray Player (Reads BRD, Writes to DVD/CD)

Operating System:
Microsoft® Windows 10

Graphics & Video:
2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 Graphics
Monitor Not Included

Communications:
Dell Wireless-AC 1560 + Bluetooth® 4.0
Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 Connector)

Audio:
Integrated 7.1 with Waves MaxxAudio® Processing

Keyboard & Mouse:
Dell Wired Multimedia Keyboard + Laser Mouse

Ports & Slots:
6x USB 3.0
4x USB 2.0
1x HDMI
1x Multi-Media Card Reader
1x 3-stack Audio jacks
Combination headphone / microphone jack

[Manfred M]

Yes Richard. In fact I have two SSD drives on my computer. One is a standard 1 TB SSD drive and all I use it for is the operating system and the software that I use. I don't use it for any data. The second drive is a 256GB M.2 drive that is right on the motherboard so it is blazingly fast for read / write (this requires a special motherboard that can take this type of drive). That's what I use as my work drive; I copy all my working files over from my mechanical hard drive and work there. Once I am done, I put the finished files (including my Photoshop files and finished files) back on my storage drive.

[dennybeall]

That's a nice setup and will give you more than enough power to run Photoshop. Consider that frequently I do everything with Photoshop on a Core i7 Dell laptop and the Wacom tablet. It's not the best but will do the job so your proposed setup will do the job really, really well.
Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit
Version: 10 or greater
System architecture: Intel CPU Family:6, Model:10, Stepping:9 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, HyperThreading
Physical processor count: 2
Logical processor count: 4
Processor speed: 1995 MHz
Built-in memory: 8059 MB
Free memory: 4605 MB
Memory available to Photoshop: 6916 MB
Memory used by Photoshop: 70 %

[Codebreaker]

Don't forget your backup requirements. I duplicate the internal hard drives with USB external hard drives which I then copy all my personal files too.

[rpcrowe]

I plan on getting a unit with 24 or 32 GB of RAM as well as a 256 GB SSD and a 2 TB hard drive...

I am using Carbonite for backup and also have a Western Digital, My Book 1 TB external hard drive which I will also use as my secondary (after Carbonite backup).

[tao2]

Hi Richard,

Ah find this disconcerting..."My techie guy tells me that I should be looking for a new computer pretty soon. It appears that the one I am using (about 6 or 7 years old) may just be on its last legs".

Does your tech guy mean the whole PC, drives, memory, motherboard? Is he a friend or a local shop owner - business is slow...

He says that a 6/7 yo PC is on its last legs but yer proposed spec. shows a (nearly)2 yo processor and nearly 3 yo graphics card? How different/better is this spec than yer present PC? The GTX 745 was an average card 3 years ago, it won't have improved. My 3 yo GTX770 SC, has half the cache memory but outperforms it.

Ah do like Dell's XPS series but they can be home built cheaper (if ye have the time and desire tae do so). Ah built my present PC for around £550 less than shop /factory builds and in several cases, much cheaper, by judicious shopping around and the willingness tae wait for particular components. Ah realise that many folk want the convenience of a delivered box with only plugs tae plug in. Ah think ye should do a critical A/B comparison of what ye have and what ye need/want. Then, go ahead...believe me, ah know the GAS - PC type especially, inside out but 6 years is no longer old in PC terms as the entropy of Moore's Law shows. There isn't a great deal of difference between a 1.8 GB PC and a 3.6GB PC, in terms of actual speed - the huge difference is in the number of transistors. Don't get hung up on "faster means better". There's also a diminishing return on memory as well...

[Manfred M]

shows a (nearly)2 yo processor

The CPU (i7 - 6700) is a Skylake series processor, which was released almost exactly 1 year ago (release date was Aug 5, 2015).

[tao2]

The CPU (i7 - 6700) is a Skylake series processor, which was released almost exactly 1 year ago (release date was Aug 5, 2015).

Aye Manfred,

It went on sale tae the public in Aug.'15 but was out for testing since Feb/March that year. It's a powerful processor but ma point was, that the generalisation that 5/6 /7 yo PCs are "shot" but 2/3 yo components are "good" if, in a new build.

PS ah built a PC with XP (original release), it was still running well (and overclocked for most of that time), 10 years later. Still use the 2 hard drives, both measuring 97% efficacy and OK temps in Crystal Disk monitoring. No clicks, no glitches. Having said that, the PC gremlins probably woke from slumber on hearing this...

[Manfred M]

Aye Manfred,

It went on sale tae the public in Aug.'15 but was out for testing since Feb/March that year. It's a powerful processor but ma point was, that the generalisation that 5/6 /7 yo PCs are "shot" but 2/3 yo components are "good" if, in a new build.

PS ah built a PC with XP (original release), it was still running well (and overclocked for most of that time), 10 years later. Still use the 2 hard drives, both measuring 97% efficacy and OK temps in Crystal Disk monitoring. No clicks, no glitches. Having said that, the PC gremlins probably woke from slumber on hearing this...

I quite agree. The age should not be a problem unless there is a physical problem creeping up, like tin whisker growth in soldered connections causing short circuits, etc. The main reason for my upgrade is that my old motherboard maxed out at 16 GB of RAM and even with a SSD I was getting a lot of virtual RAM swapping. The 4 physical / 8 virtual processors shine when doing video rendering, and frankly for Photoshop a single core is realistically more than sufficient.

The SSD and additional RAM have a far larger speed impact that a faster CPU.

[rpcrowe]

I quite agree. The age should not be a problem unless there is a physical problem creeping up, like tin whisker growth in soldered connections causing short circuits, etc. The main reason for my upgrade is that my old motherboard maxed out at 16 GB of RAM and even with a SSD I was getting a lot of virtual RAM swapping. The 4 physical / 8 virtual processors shine when doing video rendering, and frankly for Photoshop a single core is realistically more than sufficient.

The SSD and additional RAM have a far larger speed impact that a faster CPU.

This computer has a slower CPU but has a SSD + 2 TB

Processor Intel Core i7-6700 Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.2 GHz)
Processor Base Frequency 3.4GHz
Max Turbo Frequency 4GHz
Cache 8MB
Standard Memory 32GB Dual Channel DDR4 2133MHz (8GB x 4)
Memory Technology DDR4 SDRAM
Number of Total Memory Slots 4
Memory Card Reader Yes
Memory Card Supported CompactFlash, Microdrive, miniSD, MultiMediaCard (MMC), MMCmobile, MMCplus, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO,Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo, Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo, Reduced Size MultiMediaCard (MMC), SD, SDHC, SmartMedia, xD-Picture Card
Hard Drive Capacity 2TB
Solid State Drive Capacity 32GB
Graphics Controller NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745 4GB DDR3 SDRAM
Ethernet Technology Gigabit Ethernet
Wireless LAN Yes
Wireless LAN Standard IEEE 802.11ac
Bluetooth Yes
Number of Total Expansion Bays 5
Number of External 5.25" Bays 2
HDMI Yes
Total Number of USB Ports 10
Number of USB 2.0 Ports 4
Number of USB 3.0 Ports 6
DisplayPort Yes
Form Factor Mini-tower
Operating System Windows 10 Home (English) 64-bit

With shipping and state tax, the previous computer will cost $1,500 USD. This one from Adorama with free shipping and no state tax wil be $500.00 cheaper at $1,000.00 USD...

I would like to get this one but, am confused regarding the "Solid State Drive Capacity 32GB"

Here's the Adorama eBay ad
http://www.ebay.com/itm/391516606784...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[tao2]

Hi Richard,

32 GB is yer max. storage capacity for the SSD. That'd be OK, if yer only putting Windows and nothing else on it. Ah'd want a larger PSU - around 550w, even though the Nvidia card is a "green" model. Anything lower, then look for 80plus/80 plus bronze certified (80plus PSUs reduce the amount of power wasted as heat) . There's no mention of the hard drive brand and speeds can vary greatly between them. Also no DVD/CD drive, so ye'll need tae add that (if ye want one) but they're only a few dollars now. Ah'd check out that full spec. on the Dell website. It may be the same price with newer, better components - especially SSD capacity.

[rpcrowe]

Boab,

I really don't think that this unit has a SSD. I think that the 32 GB they are talking about is the RAM.

I called Adorama and got someone on the phone who barely spoke English. She couldn't seem to understand that I did not have the unit and was desiring to return it. She kept asking me for my order number.

If I were running a business, I would sure want a salesperson who could communicate in the main language of the area.

PHILOSOPHY ON LANGUAGE: My uncle did not know how to speak English when he entered grammar school. My grandparents were German immigrants. Later in my uncle's life, when he was in his 60's, he no longer spoke German. I asked him why. He said that it was more important that he was fluent in English and without a foreign accent than to be bilingual but, not be quite as fluent in English. He was quite successful in the business world, so I guess that his philosophy was not all that bad...

OTOH: I knew a psychiatrist who had a heavy Austrian accent. While he was giving a talk at a conference I attended, he admitted that he conscientiously kept his accent because that was an asset to a person in his profession...

[tao2]

Hi Richard,

the spec isn't very clear but that is 32GB SSD, see below...

This computer has a slower CPU but has a SSD + 2 TB

Processor Intel Core i7-6700 Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.2 GHz)
Processor Base Frequency 3.4GHz
Max Turbo Frequency 4GHz
Cache 8MB
Standard Memory 32GB Dual Channel DDR4 2133MHz (8GB x 4)
Memory Technology DDR4 SDRAM
Number of Total Memory Slots 4
Memory Card Reader Yes
Memory Card Supported CompactFlash, Microdrive, miniSD, MultiMediaCard (MMC), MMCmobile, MMCplus, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO,Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo, Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo, Reduced Size MultiMediaCard (MMC), SD, SDHC, SmartMedia, xD-Picture Card
Hard Drive Capacity 2TB
Solid State Drive Capacity 32GB
Graphics Controller NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745 4GB DDR3 SDRAM
Ethernet Technology Gigabit Ethernet
Wireless LAN Yes
Wireless LAN Standard IEEE 802.11ac
Bluetooth Yes
Number of Total Expansion Bays 5
Number of External 5.25" Bays 2
HDMI Yes
Total Number of USB Ports 10
Number of USB 2.0 Ports 4
Number of USB 3.0 Ports 6
DisplayPort Yes
Form Factor Mini-tower
Operating System Windows 10 Home (English) 64-bit

With shipping and state tax, the previous computer will cost $1,500 USD. This one from Adorama with free shipping and no state tax wil be $500.00 cheaper at $1,000.00 USD...

I would like to get this one but, am confused regarding the "Solid State Drive Capacity 32GB"

Here's the Adorama eBay ad
http://www.ebay.com/itm/391516606784...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

FAO mods...The addition of colour tae the WYSIWYG panel would be a welcome bonus for highlighting single sentences/paragraphs.

[Dave Humphries]

FAO mods...The addition of colour tae the WYSIWYG panel would be a welcome bonus for highlighting single sentences/paragraphs.

In the early days of this forum Boab, we used allow coloured text, the problem was that with the alternate forum styles available via the drop list in extreme lower left corner: Dark (fixed/fluid), Light (fixed/fluid), etc. we found that someone using a 'Dark' scheme would highlight their text yellow, but then people using a 'Light' scheme couldn't hardly see it (yellow on very light grey). So we had to disable that ability in the text editing windows.

That leaves you/everyone with fewer style options; either Bold the text, Underline it (as you have) or increase its size - or perhaps just trim more (when quoting) so only the lines of interest are copied in to your reply, although in this instance, I can see that loses some context.

Cheers, Dave

[tao2]

In the early days of this forum Boab, we used allow coloured text, the problem was that with the alternate forum styles available via the drop list in extreme lower left corner: Dark (fixed/fluid), Light (fixed/fluid), etc. we found that someone using a 'Dark' scheme would highlight their text yellow, but then people using a 'Light' scheme couldn't hardly see it (yellow on very light grey). So we had to disable that ability in the text editing windows.

That leaves you/everyone with fewer style options; either Bold the text, Underline it (as you have) or increase its size - or perhaps just trim more (when quoting) so only the lines of interest are copied in to your reply, although in this instance, I can see that loses some context.

Cheers, Dave

Thanks for the reply Dave, ah understand the problem now.

[Manfred M]

Richard - the 32GB solid state drive is tiny and virtually useless for anything other than the OS. I would not look at anything smaller than something almost 10x larger (256GB minimum, 512 GB would be even better). You want at least the OS, Photoshop, Bridge and LR running on it as well as having enough room to store your working files.

My computers tend to evolve over time as I replace bits and pieces with better components. Even my latest new computer is really a new motherboard (with new CPU, RAM and M.2 drive). The system drive, hard drives, SSD and video cards were already there. The main reason I went to a new MB was that the old one was limited to 16GB of RAM and I found this insufficient with some of the CC 2015 software running on it.

The only things that have ever died on my computers have been the motherboards (I had that happen once or twice) and (much more frequently) the hard drives. Like Robert, I've been building my own for the past 30 years.

[Polar01]

Richard if you are looking a computer that is hotter than a California wild fire then check out these guys. These are the systems the big boys play with and they are not gamers.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/

Cheers: Allan