Desktop for Photography

[DWP_Emily]

So my friend asked me to research this for her so im going to ask here.
Shes willing to spend over 1000 euro. (Excluding monitor etc)

She wants a desktop for her photography as she wants to make a business out of it and shes currently using a laptop that takes 20mins to start up photoshop.
Shes looking for something thats fast when using photoshop and other programs for her photography, she also used programs to do with 3D Models etc that her old laptop cant run currently, and if she renders anything it freezes up so shes basically looking for a desktop that she wont pull her hair out while using and will be.. futureproof i guess.

Sorry the description here is terrible im just the middle man.

[Tedster]

I don't have any particular input, but I think that for editing pictures you should spend a considerable amount on the screen (getting one with a nice wide color gamut and good color accuracy), as I think that would be more helpful than having a wicked fast machine.

[DWP_Emily]

1 minute ago, Tedster said:

I don't have any particular input, but I think that for editing pictures you should spend a considerable amount on the screen (getting one with a nice wide color gamut and good color accuracy), as I think that would be more helpful than having a wicked fast machine.

As far as I know she has the monitor etc and she says its good and looks great she just needs a good desktop now cause like i said shes pulling her hair out with this one.

[Electronics Wizardy]

For the system, id go 6700k, 32gb ram, 512 ssd for boot and current projects. And something like a 750 or igpu

[GDRRiley]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/3X3kqk went with a full on workstation build with ECC and a xeon. Not sure if the 750 drive has support need to look into it some more but left it there as a place holder. 

[Energycore]

20 minutes ago, DWP_Emily said:

So my friend asked me to research this for her so im going to ask here.
Shes willing to spend over 1000 euro. (Excluding monitor etc)

She wants a desktop for her photography as she wants to make a business out of it and shes currently using a laptop that takes 20mins to start up photoshop.
Shes looking for something thats fast when using photoshop and other programs for her photography, she also used programs to do with 3D Models etc that her old laptop cant run currently, and if she renders anything it freezes up so shes basically looking for a desktop that she wont pull her hair out while using and will be.. futureproof i guess.

Sorry the description here is terrible im just the middle man.

I'll make a list on pcpartpicker UK, but it should be a good guideline on how to put it together. Definitely want a fast processor and a good NVMe SSD (for moving huge files around). No need to throw in a huge graphics card.

 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£305.94 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 400 74.3 CFM CPU Cooler  (£29.69 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£111.35 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Kingston Savage 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  (£83.98 @ BT Shop)
Storage: MyDigitalSSD BPX 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (£209.95 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£78.54 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Palit GeForce GTX 1050 2GB StormX Video Card  (£107.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H24 ATX Mid Tower Case  (£35.40 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Super Flower Golden Green HX 450W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  (£45.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Total: £1008.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-01 02:50 GMT+0000

 

Edit: switched a couple things around

[MattShnoop]

For photography, I would certainly put the monitor first, but you say she already has that. In that case, (for the actual system) I would put the Storage and CPU first. If you're dealing with large RAW files it can take up a lot of space, and it can also take a long time to load them if you're gonna put them on a slower mechanical drive. I would probably go for the standard combo of a ~500GB Solid State with maybe a 2TB-4TB Hard Drive to start (If she's willing, maybe upgrading to a NAS or something in the future). That way she has somewhere to put Photoshop, Lightroom, OS, and some photos she's working on at the moment, and also a mass storage drive. For photo editing, a nice CPU would certianly help, however it isn't 100% necessary to go completely nuts. Something like a higher-end i3, like the i3-6300, or even an i5, like the i5-6400. I doubt overclocking will be something she's worried about if it's for photography. A fast GPU would be pretty nice, but it's certainly not as big of a requirement as the Storage and CPU.

 

Good luck!

[adithyay328]

19 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

For the system, id go 6700k, 32gb ram, 512 ssd for boot and current projects. And something like a 750 or igpu

 

12 minutes ago, GDRRiley said:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/3X3kqk went with a full on workstation build with ECC and a xeon. Not sure if the 750 drive has support need to look into it some more but left it there as a place holder. 

 

 

 

 

9 minutes ago, MattShnoop said:

For photography, I would certainly put the monitor first, but you say she already has that. In that case, (for the actual system) I would put the Storage and CPU first. If you're dealing with large RAW files it can take up a lot of space, and it can also take a long time to load them if you're gonna put them on a slower mechanical drive. I would probably go for the standard combo of a ~500GB Solid State with maybe a 2TB-4TB Hard Drive to start (If she's willing, maybe upgrading to a NAS or something in the future). That way she has somewhere to put Photoshop, Lightroom, OS, and some photos she's working on at the moment, and also a mass storage drive. For photo editing, a nice CPU would certianly help, however it isn't 100% necessary to go completely nuts. Something like a higher-end i3, like the i3-6300, or even an i5, like the i5-6400. I doubt overclocking will be something she's worried about if it's for photography. A fast GPU would be pretty nice, but it's certainly not as big of a requirement as the Storage and CPU.

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

Great suggestions from everybody, but GDR, I think ECC and Zeon = OP for this use case. I do agree with MattShnoop, those darn RAW files suck; especially with a high res camera. As well, EW, 32GB ram is kinda OP, I'd stick with <=16 GB on RAM. But like everyone said, the GPU isn't too much of an issue as storage. Good luck!

[GDRRiley]

2 minutes ago, adithyay328 said:

Great suggestions from everybody, but GDR, I think ECC and Zeon = OP for this use case. I do agree with MattShnoop, those darn RAW files suck; especially with a high res camera. As well, EW, 32GB ram is kinda OP, I'd stick with <=16 GB on RAM. But like everyone said, the GPU isn't too much of an issue as storage. Good luck!

I agree that 16gb is fine. I went for the xeon with ECC because I felt that it is worth the extra cost if you are doing work for other people and have dead lines as the OG poster stated. 

[adithyay328]

1 minute ago, GDRRiley said:

I agree that 16gb is fine. I went for the xeon with ECC because I felt that it is worth the extra cost if you are doing work for other people and have dead lines as the OG poster stated. 

 

Oh, that's why. Good on you man; really deep thinking on that. I didn't see the part where it talked about client service.

[Energycore]

2 minutes ago, adithyay328 said:

Oh, that's why. Good on you man; really deep thinking on that. I didn't see the part where it talked about client service.

Right, but will pictures export faster on ECC?

[adithyay328]

1 minute ago, Energycore said:

Right, but will pictures export faster on ECC?

No. ECC is for redundancy and reliability, not speed, my friend. Higher frequency and lower latency increases speed/export time.

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, adithyay328 said:

No. ECC is for redundancy and reliability, not speed, my friend. Higher frequency and lower latency increases speed/export time./

You'll have to forgive me for not seeing the benefit of ECC then. The program would be more stable?

[adithyay328]

1 minute ago, Energycore said:

You'll have to forgive me for not seeing the benefit of ECC then. The program would be more stable?

Partially, because in case there's a malfunction or something, then the ECC will automatically correct it and keep going. For example, if some data is misswritten, it'll fix and keep going. It would make the program a bit more stable, but mostly it's to protect data that's currently being transferred/modified.

[Energycore]

2 minutes ago, adithyay328 said:

Partially, because in case there's a malfunction or something, then the ECC will automatically correct it and keep going. For example, if some data is misswritten, it'll fix and keep going. It would make the program a bit more stable, but mostly it's to protect data that's currently being transferred/modified.

I see. I'm not against a build with ECC, just gotta confirm that C232 motherboards can do NVMe so the SSD is not bottlenecked.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V5 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£245.97 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 11 LP Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  (£13.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X150-PLUS WS ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£93.56 @ BT Shop)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£50.75 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£50.75 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: MyDigitalSSD BPX 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (£209.95 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£78.54 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Palit GeForce GTX 1050 2GB StormX Video Card  (£107.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H24 ATX Mid Tower Case  (£35.40 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Super Flower Golden Green HX 450W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  (£45.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Total: £932.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-01 03:06 GMT+0000

[adithyay328]

1 minute ago, Energycore said:

I see. I'm not against a build with ECC, just gotta confirm that C232 motherboards can do NVMe so the SSD is not bottlenecked.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V5 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£245.97 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 11 LP Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  (£13.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X150-PLUS WS ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£93.56 @ BT Shop)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£50.75 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£50.75 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: MyDigitalSSD BPX 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (£209.95 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£78.54 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Palit GeForce GTX 1050 2GB StormX Video Card  (£107.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H24 ATX Mid Tower Case  (£35.40 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Super Flower Golden Green HX 450W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  (£45.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Total: £932.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-01 03:06 GMT+0000

 

Well, the MOBO doesn't handle NVMe really unless used as a boot device. I have a board that has an NVMe drive for games and it is used on top of a windows compatibility layer... I love windows for reasons like that.

[brob]

I don't think ECC is warranted at this budget. While 32GB of memory would be nice, a bigger ssd should offer better overall performance. The workstation gpu should offer better performance in 3D modeling and decent acceleration in Photoshop.

 

While OP specified budget in Euros, pcpartpicker does not offer Irish vendors. So this build is a touch over the budget using British pounds.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£217.39 @ Aria PC) 
Motherboard: Asus B150M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£80.80 @ BT Shop) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  (£87.50 @ Aria PC) 
Storage: Crucial MX300 1.1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£237.44 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: PNY Quadro K620 2GB Video Card  (£156.00 @ More Computers) 
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (£44.49 @ Amazon UK) 
Power Supply: Super Flower Golden Green HX 350W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  (£39.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
Total: £863.57
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-01 03:46 GMT+0000