Lightroom/video editing PC recommendations

thischarmingMal

thischarmingMal

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550
Name
Mal
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi,

I need to upgrade my old PC, Lightroom runs really badly on it. Is it worth buying a gaming PC, or is it overkill?
Can anyone recommend/advise on the sort of spec I should be looking for? Cheers.
 
Gaming PCs tend to be heavily focused on the graphics card, for which there is a bit of a global shortage at the moment and prices are really high. Although Lightroom can make use of a graphics card for some tasks, the benefits are marginal for most users.

Things that make the biggest difference

1) Fast NVME SSD for the operating system, Lightroom and the catalogue. Ideally get two of them, and store photos you are working on on the second, using a normal SATA drive or an external drive for longer term storage.
2) Fast processor with lots of cores. Something like an AMD 5800x gives excellent performance
3) At least 16Gb of RAM, even better if you have 32Gb.

Have a look here for mroe recommendations: https://www.pugetsystems.com/recomm...ightroom-Classic-141/Hardware-Recommendations

Also, the recent 12th gen Inter processors offer a much better performance than recent generations:

www.pugetsystems.com

Adobe Lightroom Classic: 12th Gen Intel Core vs AMD Ryzen 5000 Series

Intel has launched their new 12th Gen Intel Core desktop processors (code-named "Alder Lake") featuring support for DDR5, PCIe 5.0, as well as a completely new hybrid architecture using a mix of Performance and Efficient-cores. AMD has held the performance crown in Lightroom Classic for a number...
www.pugetsystems.com www.pugetsystems.com

However, DDR5 is very new, in short supply and very expensive at the moment but there are some motherboards which can also use DDR4.
 
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I've been looking to build another PC as my current one I built about 7 years ago, it still runs fine but I can't upgrade to Win 11 and I just feel like getting anew PC.
I priced up the bits and decided on a 12th Gen Intel i5, 32GB DDR5 RAM, 1TB NVME / M.2 SSD, and a suitable motherboard, case and PSU. I'll use my existing graphics card and 4 TB HDD for storage.
So for that it will cost me around £900, (be more including a graphics card and HDD/ SSD).
I could build a lesser spec machine using 11th Gen i5 etc and DDR4 RAM which would still perform absolutely fine and cost less but if I'm going to build a new PC I'd rather use the latest tech.
 
I bought this Lenovo Legion 5 @£1000 a few months ago and it runs very well

www.currys.co.uk

LENOVO Legion 5 15.6" Gaming Laptop - AMD Ryzen 7, RTX 3060, 512 GB SSD

AMD Ryzen 7 5800H Processor; RAM: 8 GB / Storage: 512 GB SSD; Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6 GB; 221 FPS when playing Fortnite at 1080p; Full HD screen / 120 Hz; Battery life: Up to 7 hours
www.currys.co.uk www.currys.co.uk

CPU: Ryzen 7 - 5800H
RAM: 8GB DDR4-3200 (since updated to 32GB @£140)
SSD: 500GB NVMe Gen 3 (since added extra 1TB WD SN570 in spare NVMe slot @£80)

Handles everything I throw at it well BUT it has a poor screen, you need an external monitor for your editing.
 
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