Build for graphic design

[NadavPaz]

Budget (including currency): 1500$~

Country: israel

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

Hi, 

My wife is a graphic designer and she needs a new workstation. Currently she's using an asus aio with a core i5-6400.

 

Any guidelines for the build? What Cpu (amd/intel) should we opt for and whar gpu?

 

Thnx

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bombastinator]

50 minutes ago, NadavPaz said:

Budget (including currency): 1500$~

Country: israel

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

Hi, 

My wife is a graphic designer and she needs a new workstation. Currently she's using an asus aio with a core i5-6400.

 

Any guidelines for the build? What Cpu (amd/intel) should we opt for and whar gpu?

 

Thnx

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not familiar with current needs for Adobe suite stuff.  It used to be photoshop wanted high single thread speed but other parts wanted many cores.  The big one though was potentially lots of memory.  It depends on how big the images on works on are though.  It may be they’re all many core now though. If there’s enough budget something with high core count AND high single thread would be wanted.  Some upper end cpu then.  Either intel or AMD.  Ryzen3 (apparently ryzen3d is coming out soon though which will be faster) or intel 12th gen. 5800/5900/5950 or 12700/12900(with or without the k or KF).  Given the budget perhaps an earlier cpu generation.  Adobe suite machines can get expensive. No earlier than 9th gen for intel or ryzen2 for AMD. The ryzen will have more performance cores type cores cores (it’s all performance cores) but not have as high a single thread rating.  I don’t know how Adobe deals with efficiency cores.  If it works with them well it could be an argument for intel 12th gen.  With Adobe there is an argument for Mac though.  Currently the m1 pro stuff is what would be wanted and ftm all they have out for that is laptops. 
GPU wise Nvidia has an advantage over AMD because of the studio drivers which allow more color depth and accuracy. Got to have a monitor that can use them though otherwise it’s wasted.  The high cost bits in an Adobe graphics machine would be memory, gpu, and monitor atm. The amount of memory needed depends on the project though. You want to have enough memory because if there isn’t enough for a given thing the app will go to swap which uses the drive as memory and things get slow fast. The video card market atm is bluntly awful.  If she has a good video card in her old machine it may be the one to keep depending on what it is.

Edited January 5, 2022 by Bombastinator

[Molot]

Adobe support forums says that Adobe software uses multiple cores when applying filters etc, but what you are waiting for the longest is data read and write. Thus, it seems that you want faster storage and more RAM more than you want faster CPU, or CPU with more cores. This does not come from my personal experience, so act on this info on your own responsibility.

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, Molot said:

Adobe support forums says that Adobe software uses multiple cores when applying filters etc, but what you are waiting for the longest is data read and write. Thus, it seems that you want faster storage and more RAM more than you want faster CPU, or CPU with more cores. This does not come from my personal experience, so act on this info on your own responsibility.

She apparently Doesn’t use all the Adobe stuff though so it’s going to depend. The animation stuff for example was always multithread.  I just don’t know.  My suspicion is some part of something is likely to still be single thread though.  Adobe software is old. 

[brob]

An i7-12700 or i5-12600 on a B660 or H670 motherboard would be good choices. Comes down to local cost and availability. 

 

You may want to reuse the GPU in her existing system. At least untill GPU prices become more reasonable.

[Bombastinator]

55 minutes ago, brob said:

An i7-12700 or i5-12600 on a B660 or H670 motherboard would be good choices. Comes down to local cost and availability. 

 

You may want to reuse the GPU in her existing system. At least untill GPU prices become more reasonable.

So Adobe makes good use of e cores then?

[brob]

27 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

So Adobe makes good use of e cores then?

 

I don't think that has been established. What is known is that the new Intel cpu outperform similarly priced 5000X most of the time. See https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/12th-Gen-Intel-Core-CPU-Review-Roundup-2248/

[GeorgeMKane]

For photoshop, illustrator, and indesign... you can get away with an iGPU. However, if you're trying to do Premiere Pro and/or After Effects for any reason, then you'll at least want a GTX 1050Ti or GTX 1650 gpu.

 

i5-11400 with B560 motherboard or Ryzen 5 5600G with B550 motherboard should be good enough for what you need. Definitely 16GB of RAM, and you'll likely want 2 monitors.

[Bombastinator]

21 minutes ago, brob said:

 

I don't think that has been established. What is known is that the new Intel cpu outperform similarly priced 5000X most of the time. See https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/12th-Gen-Intel-Core-CPU-Review-Roundup-2248/

Memory and motherboards are not similarly priced though.  The motherboards can be $100 more and ddr5 is having problems at the moment though those problems are expected to dissipate over time.  So it becomes a complete package question.  I don’t know if they still win bang/buck at that point or not.  They might.  They do also have high single thread, which makes them preferred gaming processors, but they max out at a lower top thread count if the e cores aren’t included.  If the e cores are good for something on Adobe stuff though it could matter.  

Edited January 6, 2022 by Bombastinator

[brob]

2 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Memory and motherboards are not similarly priced though.  The motherboards can be $100 more and ddr5 is having problems at the moment though those problems are expected to dissipate over time.  So it becomes a complete package question.  I don’t know if they still win bang/buck at that point or not.  They might.  They do also have high single thread, which makes them preferred gaming processors, but they max out at a lower top thread count if the e cores aren’t included.  If the e cores are good for something on Adobe stuff though it could matter.  

 

We have to wait and see about pricing of the B660 and H670 motherboards. So far DDR4 performance is about the same as DDR5 in most apps, so there seems to be little point in going with the more expensive, less available DDR5.

[NadavPaz]

Thanks for all the replies

I've added the parts list, we're currently standing on aprox 2000USD

would love some input

 

 

[brob]

The NH-D15 comes with AM4 mounting hardware so there is no need for the ND-D15 SE AM4. But Kingston Fury ddr4 modules are ~41.3 mm tall. This makes for a less than optimal pairing. Consider instead the NH-D15S or NH-U12A.

 

Consider a 1TB NVMe drive instead of 500GB. 

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, brob said:

The NH-D15 comes with AM4 mounting hardware so there is no need for the ND-D15 SE AM4. But Kingston Fury ddr4 modules are ~41.3 mm tall. This makes for a less than optimal pairing. Consider instead the NH-D15S or NH-U12A.

 

Consider a 1TB NVMe drive instead of 500GB. 

Or perhaps another “big air” cooler brand.  Basically all the major cooler makers have a “big air” cooler and they tend to perform within a few percent of each other.  For me it comes down to which one happens to be on sale.  For a while in Eastern Europe gelid coolers were the Best Buy because someone was getting rid of a bunch of them and they could be had for the equivalent of $60 or something. They had some of the worst brackets but with the cost savings it was still worth it.  Users aren’t reviewers.  They build a machine once not 3 times a day. 

[NadavPaz]

Does the Arctic Freezer 34 eSport Due preform well with the 5900x?

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, NadavPaz said:

Does the Arctic Freezer 34 eSport Due preform well with the 5900x?

Esport is a 4 pipe cooler which should perform close to the evo212 which is not considered adequate.  iirc a 5 pipe cooler is generally suggested. It’s close though.  Might depend on how good your case airflow is.  Or not. It’s definitely minimal at most in the best of circumstances.  It sort of depends on what you are trying to hit.  If you want cool quiet operation a 5 or 6 pipe cooler is commonly used.

[AstrewqStevenos]

You need tocheck the Adobe software standards. You definitely need to pay a lot ofattention to CPU, RAM, and screen resolution. If there is not enough memory, the computer in general will work very slow. Consider buying a good video card as well. It all may be quite expensive but totally worth it and will definitelypay off. You may keep some qualitative stuff from the old laptop for a new one,like video card.  I’m using list of colors by vistacreate for my workand once I’ve noticed that all the colors became very dark, the same day my ramburned. Be careful as the problem might appear from nowhere even on newlaptops.

[Bombastinator]

Saw a post by a guy who was asking about this $40 rgb 7pipe single tower cooler for his 5800x.   Someone else said the thing was more than enough.  ID something or other.