New PC Build or Update Current for Lightroom

AndyWest

AndyWest

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Hi All

I have been thinking of either upgrading or building/buying a new PC. So years ago I built a very reliable PC. Last year I wanted an almost silent small PC so built one using the original CPU and RAM. The new case never fitted well and the PC would crash if i moved it so I think something was shorting out which is why there is no case cover on the PC (See Pic). A few weeks ago the PC made shorting noises and the screen flickered (There was a burning small too!) so after some poking arround in the PC I asumed that the graphics card was at fault. I have removed it and all seems to be OK. So looking at the PC I'm now thinking of what to do to get a reliable, quiet PC for Lightroom/Photoshop and possible lite gaming. The PC was originally built for Linux which it was perfect for but Linux wasn't perfect for me LOL.

Current System:
Asus Intel LGA1151 H110 Mini-ITX Mobo
i5-6600 3.3Ghz CPU
16GB 2400 DDR3 RAM
Samsung 850 Pro SSD 512GB
Silverstone 520W PSU

So, my thoughts / options are:
1: To use the PSU, SSD and possibly ram and build a new PC with an AMD Ryzen CPU with in built graphics which I have read is better like for like than Intel plus I like the idea of on board graphic,
2: New MOBO and case for existing hardware with possibly upgrading the ram to DDR4
3: Use what I have and replace the case for something less s*** with more room. This would be the cheapest option but feel I have a chance to upgrade for the future.

The PC runs everything normal i.e Interweb, music, Word etc just fine and LR / PS is OK. I feel that LR/PS could be faster. I can't game at all as i'm having to use the on board graphics. If I bought a reasonable graphics card ( Passivly cooled for quietness) with this make much of a difference? The only thing that seems really slow is when saving files in PS.

Budget up to £1000 but would prefer to keep it to arround £200-£350 ish. I'm a bit obsessed with quietness with my PC's LOL

Any other thoughts?

Huge thanks in advance :)
 

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Just some random thoughts

I have been obsessed with quietness before and have built a number of passive or air cooled machines that were silent or it was an ear to machine job in a quiet house at midnight to hear it!

I dislike water cooling because of the 24-7 pump noise but am currently water cooled as I went for a ‘f*** it’ build!

I would put your money into a decent cpu, If staying with Intel anything past a 6 core/12 thread cpu has limited returns in Lightroom and and a discrete gpu can be more hassle than its worth, although LR has recently got better on graphical acceleration.

So onto what I would do.

Keep ssd and power supply

I would get a Ryzen 3600 and a Kalm x 1650 gpu and of course you’ll need a new mobo.

If sticking to a budget just pop in an i7 7700k and it will still fly through LR.
 
Thanks Mark

Quick question, why buy a graphics card when the Ryzen has built in graphics? I'm not up on AMD at all so it's a little confusing when looking at AMD CPU's. I was looking at the Rizen 5 3600 with internal Vega 11 graphics built in.
 
The AMD Ryzen chip doesn't actually have a graphics card built in as such it just handles graphics calls, I would go with an add-on card or onboard graphics as long as its a decent chipset.
The main factor for Ryzen as I saw it when I built my new machine is down to bang for bucks.
Intel for the normal desktop has just fallen too far behind AMD and there doesn't seem to be anything coming up in their lineup.

I did a new machine with a Ryzen 3900k, 32gb of ram, dual M.2 1tb drives and a Msi 2070 super video card. However it was mega expensive and will have to last me a considerable length of time.
 
If you go with Mark's 7700k option, make sure your mobo is updated to the latest BIOS before swapping, as older versions don't recognize Kaby lake chips.
 
Thanks Chris

Your set up is a bit overkill for me but thanks for the info on the AMD Chips. Some people say that the AMD CPU cooling fan is actually pretty good. Is this true or would it be better to replace it with a Noctua fan and cooler? I have one in my current PC and it is pretty quiet.

Thanks
 
Tori_T said:
If you go with Mark's 7700k option, make sure your mobo is updated to the latest BIOS before swapping, as older versions don't recognize Kaby lake chips.
Click to expand...
Thankd but I have no idea about updating bios so want to steer well clear of that! LOL
 
Tori_T said:
It'd likely just be a small app you download from the ASUS website, and run, then reboot.
Click to expand...
I guess it can't be that bad :). That's what You Tube's for i guess :LOL:
 
Bios update is easy and no bad thing.

A discreet graphics card will offer better performance (where that performance can be extracted) and comes with its own faster vram so it’s not relying on taking up some of the system ram.

The kalm x gpu only uses 75w, is plug in with no extra power cables, I’ve had a 750ti and 1050ti using their massive cooler and they are great cards. I even strapped a 120mm fan onto one with drop down voltage cables so the fan was barely turning over so very quite indeed and got some great gaming temps!

People do say the bundled Ryzen coolers are quiet but they aren’t as quiet as a ‘decent’ cooler. People often say their system is quiet and then follow up with a ‘I can barely hear it with my headphones on!’
 
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The new Ryzen Wraith coolers are almost silent in normal use but if you push the processor they do get louder although not that loud. At some point I will upgrade my cooling to water cooling as I've done much of the work already but never finished it. I'm using all Corsair parts bar a radiator which is another brand that slips my mind.
It's already in the case, I just need to plumb it up and fit the CPU water block.
 
That’s good to know, thanks
 
After having a chat with the wife she has persuaded me to get a new PC...so I have! :oops: :$

I have gone back to PCSPECIALIST as I have used them a few times before and they are superb! Here is the spec

FRACTAL DEFINE S NANO GAMING CASE
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO Wi-Fi AC (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s)
Memory: 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card: 4GB AMD RADEON™ RX 550 - HDMI, DVI - DX® 12
1st Storage: M.2 SSD Drive 512GB INTEL® 660p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 1500MB/sR | 1000MB/sW)
Power Supply: CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling: Noctua NH-L9i Low Profile AM4, Super Quiet CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste: ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit

Less than £950 inc vat

This should be good for LR/PS and some gaming plus it should be future proof for a good while. I intend on replacing the case fans with Noctua fans and add some sound deadening to get the noise down a bit.

Happy days :banana:
 
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Having just bought a new PC for working at home (i9 10 core, 64gb ram, fast NVMe drives) I can say Lightroom now runs a little faster but it is not massively faster than my previous machine a 2015 13" MBP. I would not expect massive performance gains when it comes to Lightroom, it is still pretty slow with previews etc, but export is now conderably faster.
 
Kaolin said:
Having just bought a new PC for working at home (i9 10 core, 64gb ram, fast NVMe drives) I can say Lightroom now runs a little faster but it is not massively faster than my previous machine a 2015 13" MBP. I would not expect massive performance gains when it comes to Lightroom, it is still pretty slow with previews etc, but export is now conderably faster.
Click to expand...
Yeah it's never been the quickest programme ever but there will be little things in LR and PS that I should see an improvement in. Have a M.2 SSD that's 2x faster should help a little I hope (y)
 
AndyWest said:
After having a chat with the wife she has persuaded me to get a new PC...so I have! :oops: :$

I have gone back to PCSPECIALIST as I have used them a few times before and they are superb! Here is the spec

FRACTAL DEFINE S NANO GAMING CASE
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO Wi-Fi AC (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s)
Memory: 16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card: 4GB AMD RADEON™ RX 550 - HDMI, DVI - DX® 12
1st Storage: M.2 SSD Drive 512GB INTEL® 660p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 1500MB/sR | 1000MB/sW)
Power Supply: CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling: Noctua NH-L9i Low Profile AM4, Super Quiet CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste: ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit

Less than £950 inc vat

This should be good for LR/PS and some gaming plus it should be future proof for a good while. I intend on replacing the case fans with Noctua fans and add some sound deadening to get the noise down a bit.

Happy days :banana:
Click to expand...

I hope they didn't charge extra for the Arctic MX-4 Thermal compound, especially when you're paying for a Noctua cooler. Noctua thermal paste (which is included with their coolers) is well known for being pretty much the best paste you can use.
 
cpuk1983 said:
I hope they didn't charge extra for the Arctic MX-4 Thermal compound, especially when you're paying for a Noctua cooler. Noctua thermal paste (which is included with their coolers) is well known for being pretty much the best paste you can use.
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Nuts!

Edit: Order ammended :)
 
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AndyWest said:
Hi All



Any other thoughts?

Huge thanks in advance :)
Click to expand...



Any computers will do fine as long as it got a minimum of 8GB or RAM, and the higher you go with RAM, the better. If you can afford 16GB of RAM, then good. If you can afford 32GB, great, if you could go for 64GB YEAH! And also aim for SSD with as much higher storage as you can afford, or opt for SSD for Windows/Linux and application software like PS/LR, with HDD for your own person files.
 
Thanks Guys.

I have 16GB in my current PC which has always been fine but my plan is to upgrade to 32GB at some point. I can't afford to do everything at once plus I need money for my Photography. As for SSD, I currently am using a 512GB SSD and have used 198GB of it. I try and keep programmes to a minimum and only use what I need plus when I have finished with a batch of images they get taken off the PC and backed up to 1x 2TB and a 1TB drives. I will probably use the 512GB ssd in my current machine as an on board backup too.

Thanks for all the advise, Most helpful. (y)
 
I am in the process of building a PC at the moment.
Got a few parts here, AMD 3600 (£150) MSI Tomahawk (£115) already have some M.2 NVME, DDR4, just need a graphics card, PSU and case. This Covid19 is not making it easy as the parts have shot up in price recently. At OP, be carefull about filling 4 slots with ram, AMD chipsets are finicky with certain types of memory, check the QVL for your board.

I have been doing a lot of searching and it is a minefield of parts out there.
 
Nikon f1.8 said:
I am in the process of building a PC at the moment.
Got a few parts here, AMD 3600 (£150) MSI Tomahawk (£115) already have some M.2 NVME, DDR4, just need a graphics card, PSU and case. This Covid19 is not making it easy as the parts have shot up in price recently. At OP, be carefull about filling 4 slots with ram, AMD chipsets are finicky with certain types of memory, check the QVL for your board.

I have been doing a lot of searching and it is a minefield of parts out there.
Click to expand...

I have 4x 8GB LPX (same as OPs ram) in my Ryzen 3600X build. Will be fine, its also a decent MB.
 
Nikon f1.8 said:
I am in the process of building a PC at the moment.
Got a few parts here, AMD 3600 (£150) MSI Tomahawk (£115) already have some M.2 NVME, DDR4, just need a graphics card, PSU and case. This Covid19 is not making it easy as the parts have shot up in price recently. At OP, be carefull about filling 4 slots with ram, AMD chipsets are finicky with certain types of memory, check the QVL for your board.

I have been doing a lot of searching and it is a minefield of parts out there.
Click to expand...
I had nightmares with RAM in 4 sticks, it’s something to do with the 570 chipset and Ryzen processors. I went with two sticks of 16mb in the end. I was lucky I built mine in September before prices rocketed.
 
Nikon f1.8 said:
I am in the process of building a PC at the moment.
Got a few parts here, AMD 3600 (£150) MSI Tomahawk (£115) already have some M.2 NVME, DDR4, just need a graphics card, PSU and case. This Covid19 is not making it easy as the parts have shot up in price recently. At OP, be carefull about filling 4 slots with ram, AMD chipsets are finicky with certain types of memory, check the QVL for your board.

I have been doing a lot of searching and it is a minefield of parts out there.
Click to expand...
I only have 2 slots on my motherboard as it's Mini ITX so that solves that issue :D

I got an email from PCSpecialist that the build is going to be an extra week due to Covid so will have to wait a bit. It would take me 3 weeks to get the parts and put it together anyway so no worries there LOL.
 
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That's not too bad a price for that build Andy. I specced/priced up an ITX system with them, just out of interest, as I've just ordered everything to build one and they're quite competitive. I wanted a specific case though, which wasn't available through them. It will be interesting to hear how it performs once you've received and used it
 
I’ll let you know........only 3 weeks to wait:confused::)

They are good and whenever I spec a pc from them I’m always happy with the price. The builds are impeccably well built too. Pics will be posted when it arrives (y)
 
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AndyWest said:
This should be good for LR/PS and some gaming plus it should be future proof for a good while. I intend on replacing the case fans with Noctua fans and add some sound deadening to get the noise down a bit.

Happy days :banana:
Click to expand...

I'm not entirely sure what a Noctua fan is and I certainly don't know the seller so can't recommend or otherwise - but I noticed there are a couple of Noctuas in the classifieds :)
 
Noctua are the quietist fans on the market. The one i have on my current PC (and on the new) is just about silent. I really can't hear it. I'll look at the classifieds, thanks for the heads up (y)
 
AndyWest said:
After having a chat with the wife she has persuaded me to get a new PC...so I have! :oops: :$

I have gone back to PCSPECIALIST as I have used them a few times before and they are superb! Here is the spec

FRACTAL DEFINE S NANO GAMING CASE
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO Wi-Fi AC (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s)
Memory: 16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card: 4GB AMD RADEON™ RX 550 - HDMI, DVI - DX® 12
1st Storage: M.2 SSD Drive 512GB INTEL® 660p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 1500MB/sR | 1000MB/sW)
Power Supply: CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling: Noctua NH-L9i Low Profile AM4, Super Quiet CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste: ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit

Less than £950 inc vat

This should be good for LR/PS and some gaming plus it should be future proof for a good while. I intend on replacing the case fans with Noctua fans and add some sound deadening to get the noise down a bit.

Happy days :banana:
Click to expand...

Nice set up, I got something similar recently, but with the 2600x and instead of windows put the money saved on that to a decent GPU [GTX 1660] - I went with Palicomp, and all in it was a fair bit cheaper than you paid - just over 750, saving £100 by installing Win 10 myself. I know some are wary of doing this, I was too but @twist convinced me it was a simple task, he was right. You got a nicer case though and the 3600 should be a beast - I'm finding the 2600x about as fast as I'll need.

I have given LR a test run and it is way, way faster and smoother running than my old laptop, and it was worth it just for the boot time alone, I don't even see the Win 10 start up screen, from off to desktop takes a few seconds [this is mostly down to the nvme drive I imagine] , you're gonna love it.
 
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AndyWest said:
Noctua are the quietist fans on the market. The one i have on my current PC (and on the new) is just about silent. I really can't hear it. I'll look at the classifieds, thanks for the heads up (y)
Click to expand...


That is the one thing I would like to upgrade for mine, the fans - I had added 2 x 120 but after purchase I realised this case needed a little more so I added an 80mm. It was a cheapy Arctic one, and it's made it a little noisier. Might just even replace that one - it's acting as the exhaust, can fit a 90 there instead, and a quieter one would be nice. Must look at these Noctua
 
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Cagey75 said:
That is the one thing I would like to upgrade for mine, the fans - I had added 2 x 120 but after purchase I realised this case needed a little more so I added an 80mm. It was a cheapy Arctic one, and it's made it a little noisier. Might just even replace that one - it's acting as the exhaust, can fit a 90 there instead, and a quieter one would be nice. Must look at these Noctua
Click to expand...
I have also been looking at fan size and install design to get positive pressures which reduces dust and aids cooling apparently .
My build has a 140mm intake and 120 exhaust which is ideal as far as I can work out. Larger fans move more air and have lower RPM so are quiet. Also if the build is pretty low in running temperature then you could reduce the RPM with a voltage regulator cable which is supplied in some (maybe all?) Noctua fans. Depending on how quiet the new PC is will depend on if I replace the case fans. I don’t know what it comes with but will find out tomorrow and see how good they are compared to Noctua.
 
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Cagey75 said:
Nice set up, I got something similar recently, but with the 2600x and instead of windows put the money saved on that to a decent GPU [GTX 1660] - I went with Palicomp, and all in it was a fair bit cheaper than you paid - just over 750, saving £100 by installing Win 10 myself. I know some are wary of doing this, I was too but @twist convinced me it was a simple task, he was right. You got a nicer case though and the 3600 should be a beast - I'm finding the 2600x about as fast as I'll need.

I have given LR a test run and it is way, way faster and smoother running than my old laptop, and it was worth it just for the boot time alone, I don't even see the Win 10 start up screen, from off to desktop takes a few seconds [this is mostly down to the nvme drive I imagine] , you're gonna love it.
Click to expand...
Thanks man, looking forward to having a play. I may upgrade the GPU at some point but the one I ordered can easily play Euro Truck Simulator which is the only game I play. I am looking at GTA5 which it also plays really well so not sure I need anything more. We will see.

Enjoy your rig
 
AndyWest said:
Thanks man, looking forward to having a play. I may upgrade the GPU at some point but the one I ordered can easily play Euro Truck Simulator which is the only game I play. I am looking at GTA5 which it also plays really well so not sure I need anything more. We will see.

Enjoy your rig
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Good point on the gpu, you only need what you need. On GTA though, if you want to crank it, it'll suck up a lot and I think a better GPU will help there, never played ETS so can't say

At least it's always an option with a desktop, unlike with consoles where you are stuck with whatever they can cram in there
 
I can play Euro Truck Sim on my current PC which now has no graphics card and a i5 6600 using it's on-board graphics which is quite impressive. I do fancy the new Microsoft Flight Sim and will see other peoples PC specs before investing in that and upgrading the GPU. I only really play simulators these days although i Loved the Call of duty WW2 1st person game back when it 1st came out. Such a good game. The later versions really annoyed me because if you die near the end of a mission then you have to go back to the start....SO annoying. IF Microsoft Flight Sim is mega power hungry I may invest in the new Xbox which should be out later this year. We'll see. :cool:
 
Well the good thing with pc gaming is you can normally adjust the settings to suit any gpu and frame rate. FWIW I’ve got a heavily overclocked RTX 2080 (zotac amp extreme model -so one of the best ones) and I don’t expect it to run ms flight simulator at settings that would satisfy me.
 
Brazo said:
Well the good thing with pc gaming is you can normally adjust the settings to suit any gpu and frame rate. FWIW I’ve got a heavily overclocked RTX 2080 (zotac amp extreme model -so one of the best ones) and I don’t expect it to run ms flight simulator at settings that would satisfy me.
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Yeah that MS Flight Sim is going to be one hungry beast!!!! MS Flight Sim X from 2006 should run sweet though :cool:
 
Hey Andy, How the devil are you?
I’m running GTA5 on the highest settings with my Zotac GTX1660 6Gb AMP Edition - ETS2 looks good on it as well (y)(y)
 
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