Computer for editing large files

A

Ateamstuff

Messages
22
Name
Alan
Edit My Images
No
Hello there,
New to the forum so bear with me....
I am wanting to replace my aging computer (Windows) i have done a bit of research and found the following computer spec, what do you think or is it overkill?

  • Dell i7 7th generation
  • 7700 kk 24 ghz
  • 64 Gig ram
  • 2 x nvidia gforce 1080
Regards,
Alan
 
Hi Alan,

Welcome to TP, spec looks good, if it is in you budget go for it.

It depends on the size of the RAW files, you may be able to get away with an i5 with 32 or even 16gb RAM and put the saving in a SSD.

Thanks
 
sep9001 said:
Hi Alan,

Welcome to TP, spec looks good, if it is in you budget go for it.

It depends on the size of the RAW files, you may be able to get away with an i5 with 32 or even 16gb RAM and put the saving in a SSD.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply,
I usually use a Leica d-Lux type 109 or in the past a Nikon D700, but since using my D750 and taking some panoramic images i have struggled!!
Regards,
Alan
 
I have a d750 but have not tried a panarom, I use a i5 machine with 12gb of ram and have not had any problems in LR.

I presume you are using Photoshop.
 
More RAM won't really help unless you are manipulating multiple massive .tiff files, which it sounds like you're not, on the whole 16gb is plenty and 32gb more than 99.99% of people need.

The i7 will be nice to have for bulk actions like exports but won't show too much difference in day to day usage, in fact for LR you might be better off with a lower spec (i5) faster clock speed CPU.

Neither PS or LR make much use of the graphics card (in fact I find it better to have GPU acceleration switched off in LR) so unless you are doing lots of video editing or 3D work you don't need two high power CPUs

As others have said, a decent SSD will make a massive difference in the responsiveness of the machine so I would prioritise that over the other niceties you have specced.

So, all in all, yes it's a nice machine but isn't really tailored to your requirements. It will work great but you could either A) spend less and get the same performance or B) spend the same and get better performance for you.
 
I have an i7 3770 with 16Gb RAM and a 250Gb SSD.

It also has a Radeon 1Gb graphics card, solely so I can use my 40" TV as a monitor (and TV!)

Any Video rendering is done on the PC as is any photo editing then offloaded to external HDDs.

I find this setup suits my way of working perfectly and the SSD, 16Gb RAM and the video card are all I really need for a fast responsive machine.
 
Both graphics cards are unnecessary unless your a gamer.
 
Halve the RAM and use the money saved to buy two SSDs, use one for OS and programs, the other for LR temp files and Photoshop scratch disks
An i5 will probably be sufficient
Go for a single NVidia Quadro graphics card unless you are gaming
 
Have a look for a motherboard that takes M2 SSD for the Operating system. Mine does 2400Mb/sec read, 2000mb/sec write and flies.
i7 fastest proc, 32Gb fast memory, 512Gb SSD for lightroom cache and catalog, another for this years raw files, then a number of large 4 Tb drives raided for image storage and previous years raw files.

works well for me. It's a disk based operating system so worth giving it fast disk access.
 
Ateamstuff said:
Hello there,
New to the forum so bear with me....
I am wanting to replace my aging computer (Windows) i have done a bit of research and found the following computer spec, what do you think or is it overkill?

  • Dell i7 7th generation
  • 7700 kk 24 ghz
  • 64 Gig ram
  • 2 x nvidia gforce 1080
Regards,
Alan
Click to expand...


I too am looking to get a new computer at present, have been for a few months. If budget is no concern go with the spec you have.

However, I would say its a little overkill. I think a 1050,1060 or even 1070 would be more than enough for GFX horse power, 2x1080 is over the top.

Same with the Ram, 32gb will be enough. If you really find you are maxing that out over time then get another 32.

The CPU you mention is the same as I am looking at. Echo the comments re an m.2 ssd, and a SSD scratch disk too. Thats where the real differences will be noticed I think in overall speed of use.
 
Ateamstuff said:
Hello there,
New to the forum so bear with me....
I am wanting to replace my aging computer (Windows) i have done a bit of research and found the following computer spec, what do you think or is it overkill?

  • Dell i7 7th generation
  • 7700 kk 24 ghz
  • 64 Gig ram
  • 2 x nvidia gforce 1080
Regards,
Alan
Click to expand...

Overkill for what??

It's understandable to ask: "Is buying the fastest sports car bit of an overkill for living on a small island like Falklands?"

Are you worried the computer you're interested in is a bit of an overkill for editing photos?

But when it comes to computers. They're never an overkill because in some years time, the overkill becomes the underdog.

Right now, it may be an overkill, to have that much spec for typing up a memo, but in some years time you'll end up finding a lot of new software needing better spec. So it helps to future-proof the computer. Who knows? One day you may decide to have a go editing videos, and suddenly that spec is good enough.

It's up to you, but don't feel put off by wondering if it is an overkill.
 
Some Panorama programs can make use of the individual threads, however they divide the available ram between them. so if you have 16 threads working in the processing, with 16 gig of ram, each thread only has a max of one gig to use. It can be faster to limit the number if threads that are used.
This is certainly true when using PTAssembler and as far as I know PTGui. simple pans only take a few seconds anyway on my ancient quad core machine.
I too am looking for a new machine.....
 
Major Eazy said:
Overkill for what??

It's understandable to ask: "Is buying the fastest sports car bit of an overkill for living on a small island like Falklands?"

Are you worried the computer you're interested in is a bit of an overkill for editing photos?

But when it comes to computers. They're never an overkill because in some years time, the overkill becomes the underdog.

Right now, it may be an overkill, to have that much spec for typing up a memo, but in some years time you'll end up finding a lot of new software needing better spec. So it helps to future-proof the computer. Who knows? One day you may decide to have a go editing videos, and suddenly that spec is good enough.

It's up to you, but don't feel put off by wondering if it is an overkill.
Click to expand...
After much thought and musing over the conundrum i opted for a mac with a retina screen and this has cured my processing problems. The only issue for me then was learning how to get the files off my PC and convert them to mac coding, thanks for everyone's comments i appreciate them.
Regards,
Alan
 
Major Eazy said:
Overkill for what??

It's understandable to ask: "Is buying the fastest sports car bit of an overkill for living on a small island like Falklands?"

Are you worried the computer you're interested in is a bit of an overkill for editing photos?

But when it comes to computers. They're never an overkill because in some years time, the overkill becomes the underdog.

Right now, it may be an overkill, to have that much spec for typing up a memo, but in some years time you'll end up finding a lot of new software needing better spec. So it helps to future-proof the computer. Who knows? One day you may decide to have a go editing videos, and suddenly that spec is good enough.

It's up to you, but don't feel put off by wondering if it is an overkill.
Click to expand...

I have found that If I get the best I can afford and up grade it as far as I can in three years. It still is limited by whatever the motherboard will support and restricts it to.
five or six years seems to be the life of any computer if you want to keep in touch with later upgrades and peripherals.
There is a price point where the six year cost become excessive. A six year old computer is virtually unsaleable.
 
I have an i7 6700 with 32Gb RAM and a single 1080 - and I also game :) It crunches LR & Photoshop fine with both apps open as well as things like Nik plugins.

I have an X-T2 which has about 40Mb image file sizes (twice the D750?) and it crunches 7 shot vertical panoramas in Lightroom with relative ease (maybe 30 secs to a minute to process)

That machine sounds like overkill to me - although if you do decide to get into gaming - whilst LR is processing your panos - this will be perfect :) Welcome to TP by the way!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top