MB & CPU - How fast is needed for decent Lr performance?

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Mike
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I need to rebuild my PC, specifically for Lr 3. Obviously I could get an i7 with an SSD and plenty of RAM, and marvel at how fast it is. But if possible I'd like a decent setup for a lot less cash. I'll have 3 or 4 HDDs (probably add an SDD next year), and 4GB ram min, on Win7 64bit, with Nvid 6600GT GC (runs 2 monitors fine).

When going through a few hundred images I like to zoom in on them to check sharpness etc, and I don't want to be waiting much more than a second for that, or for changing between shots. I'm looking at PassMark CPU scores (scores listed below) which helps as a guide, but I'd like to know those with real experience of Lr on their machine.

My current PC - AMD 64 3500 - score = 544
Free PC I've been offered - Intel Core2 E6600 - score = 1502
Free PC +upgraded chip (cheap) - Q6600 - score = 2977
an i7 will cost me a lot (new MB, cooler, memory) - score = 5587 ish

Is something like a Q6600 likely to be fast enough for the requirements I put above (the advantage is it will hardly cost me anything), or should I consider something in-expensive between that and the i7? I don't have spare cash, but if I really had to get an i7 for decent performance (allowing me to work on images all day without getting annoyed) I would.


Thanks

PS - I do appreciate that what is acceptable to one person may not be to another, and there can be other factors, but I have no real way of seeing how fast it'll be until I build it, and someone's experience with Lr and these CPUs is probably a better indication than the PassMark score I have.
 
I have twin Xeons with a passmark score of 3448, and it runs LR3 very good.

I've just picked up an I5as well which has a passmark of 4211, so I'm going to try that out and see if its worth moving to it "real world"
 
Useful, thanks. When you switch from one photo, zoomed in, to the next (also zoomed in), how long does it take for the photo to load?
 
Switching is pretty fast normally, and zooming good as well. Depends if I wait for it to build the previews.

Once it's built the previews there's no noticeable delay, however, before then (if i'm too impatient and I want to look at the first shots before they've finished downloading :bang:) there is delay, but i wouldnt measure it in seconds to be honest. I can try tonight if you want - see if i can measure the delays.
 
barneyrubble said:
Switching is pretty fast normally, and zooming good as well. Depends if I wait for it to build the previews.

Once it's built the previews there's no noticeable delay, however, before then (if i'm too impatient and I want to look at the first shots before they've finished downloading :bang:) there is delay, but i wouldnt measure it in seconds to be honest. I can try tonight if you want - see if i can measure the delays.
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Thanks. I don't really understand the previews - there's a setting to delete them after 30 days, so I assume they're just low quality (mine set to medium), and that when you zoom in it has to load each image again. Or is the idea that you set previews to high quality?
 
When you import the photos there is an option to select preview size
Minimal/embedded sidecar/1:1 etc

1:1 takes the longest but then when you zoom in LR doesn`t have to load anything so its instantaneous
 
wouldnt necessarily rely on passmark scores, benchmarking is great if thats all youre going to do..

in the real world i built my current system to handle LR2 and CS3 and it consists of a core2 quad 2.83, 8gb DDR2 and at the time a samsung F1 (7200rpm). handles LR2 fine, just bottoms out when mass exporting 1000 RAW to JPG.
 
Mike - I have just bought a new computer from PCSpecialists based at Holmfirth and am really pleased with it...... i5 760 Quad core; 8GB; 1TB memory 1GB NvidiaGTX460 graphics card etc
They have just created a Forum on their website where you can ask about creating your own spec pc and you get feedback from some of the 'Techies' at PCS......you dont have to buy from them.
I found it really helpful when building my own spec, normally i would have bought a package from Dell but this time wanted something different.
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/contact-us/

hope this helps
Dave
 
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sjh2008 said:
When you import the photos there is an option to select preview size
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Yeah I knew that bit, but I'd read of people (who I think knew what they were doing) just leaving in minimum - I didn't realise that 1:1 saved every time you zoomed in to a picture. And yes, I feel silly.

neil_g said:
wouldnt necessarily rely on passmark scores, benchmarking is great if thats all youre going to do..
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I would prefer to hear from LR users, hence my post here - PassMark was better than nothing that's all.

it consists of a core2 quad 2.83, 8gb DDR2 and at the time a samsung F1 (7200rpm). handles LR2 fine, just bottoms out when mass exporting 1000 RAW to JPG.
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I'm going to go for a new quad, something like an 8300. Which quad are you running?
 
Thanks for that Dave, I'll have a look at their forum
neil_g said:
Q9550, obviously thats getting a little long in the tooth now though..
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In what way? It may not be new, but it's pretty fast with Lr isn't it?

Situation Update:
I'm not getting my free MB, so I'm ready to buy a new (or 2nd hand) MB, CPU & RAM now.

A socket 775 quad sounds very good value, but I am totally thrown by the choice of MBs, which start from £35 (for good brands). If I went for a 775 quad, I wouldn't ever upgrade on that MB, so don't need something with 'future proofing'. It needs to support 8 gig of ram, not sure I need much else. Any recommendations, or reasons why I should aim a little higher. I'm thinking of a Q8300, £112 from Scan.
 
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