New PC Spec for a Techno Numpty

Miss Cupcake

Miss Cupcake

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My current PC is approx 5 years old, initially used as a basic home PC but now my photography has grown substantially my current PC is fully stretched, LR and photoshop extremely slow and the graphics card cant cope Topaz plug in keeps crashing also.

So, time to replace but are there any experts who can advise on a decent spec that will last a few years longer? Budget is £1,000 to £1,500 at a push.

Thanks in advance!
 
Miss Cupcake said:
My current PC is approx 5 years old, initially used as a basic home PC but now my photography has grown substantially my current PC is fully stretched, LR and photoshop extremely slow and the graphics card cant cope Topaz plug in keeps crashing also.

So, time to replace but are there any experts who can advise on a decent spec that will last a few years longer? Budget is £1,000 to £1,500 at a push.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Geez thats a BIG budget.
The guys here will put you right and maybe save some of that lollie :D
 
Miss Cupcake said:
My current PC is approx 5 years old, initially used as a basic home PC but now my photography has grown substantially my current PC is fully stretched, LR and photoshop extremely slow and the graphics card cant cope Topaz plug in keeps crashing also.

So, time to replace but are there any experts who can advise on a decent spec that will last a few years longer? Budget is £1,000 to £1,500 at a push.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

These are decent for the money we have a couple of similar one's but with more ram. http://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop...ne-pcs/xps-8930/spd/xps-8930-desktop/bdx89324

These are a decent affordable monitor for photo editing. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-U2518D-Ultrasharp-Monitor/dp/B07436JM8Z/
 
Lets ask a few basic questions.
How big is your lightroom catalogue (how many images). How advanced is your photoshop, do you use many layers frequently.
What operating system are you using.
 
Nice to see a decent budget for a change.

Getting a good spec now should last you a fair while. I'm still running an i7-2600k circa 2011. Just replaced the Gpu and it's fresh as a daisy.

You could probably get one of the higher spec ryzen builds for that sort of cash, with at least 16gb ram and a good m2/SSD.
 
neil_g said:
Nice to see a decent budget for a change.

Getting a good spec now should last you a fair while. I'm still running an i7-2600k circa 2011. Just replaced the Gpu and it's fresh as a daisy.

You could probably get one of the higher spec ryzen builds for that sort of cash, with at least 16gb ram and a good m2/SSD.
Click to expand...

You just got me thinking about my own main system which I built in 2012 and it's still able to deal with anything I throw at it. I've only upgraded the GPU and HD. Make one wonder just how necessary the latest CPU and RAM is if not striving for Ultra settings 4K gaming or something.

i7-3770K
16GB DDR3 PC3-10600
650W PSU
MSI Z77A-G45 MB
GTX 1050Ti
Samsung 512GB SSD
 
Byker28i said:
Lets ask a few basic questions.
How big is your lightroom catalogue (how many images). How advanced is your photoshop, do you use many layers frequently.
What operating system are you using.
Click to expand...

About 30k images in LR. I subscribe to CC and yes I use layers a lot. I use windows 10
 
Miss Cupcake said:
About 30k images in LR. I subscribe to CC and yes I use layers a lot. I use windows 10
Click to expand...

I suggest at least 32Gb Ram for the Photoshop layers and running Lightroom and photoshop at the same time. Consider a fast SSD drive for the OS and programs, a separate SSD for the lightroom cache and catalogue, doesn't have to be big but will seriously improve performance in Lightroom. Then storage for the raw images and final exports etc.

CPU will be important. Either a good i7 or i5 processor.

Cheers
 
Thread tided,

If the OP is looking for second hand I guess he would have already checked out the classified section.
Where all the classified posts are.
 
generally for photoshop it is more cpu heavy from past experience so aim the bulk of your budget in that direction and don't worry a huge amount about higher end graphics cards. That said make sure the gpu has enough oomph to cope with 4k monitors etc since they are gradually becoming the norm and you may want to upgrade to one either now or later on. For that sort of budget though you won't have any problems putting a spec together, my suggestion would be intel i5/i7, 32gb ddr4 ram, sensible gpu, m2 ssd and make sure you get a more premium motherboard that will last you for plenty of years. Beyond that get a nice case and a reputable power supply. You should be able to do that for less than a grand which leaves you with a nice chunk of cash to throw at a monitor should you so desire.

Only other question i would have is what is your current storage situation like, do you need more, do you have a NAS/home server, or does the new machine need to include storage disks too?
 
gman said:
You just got me thinking about my own main system which I built in 2012 and it's still able to deal with anything I throw at it. I've only upgraded the GPU and HD. Make one wonder just how necessary the latest CPU and RAM is if not striving for Ultra settings 4K gaming or something.

i7-3770K
16GB DDR3 PC3-10600
650W PSU
MSI Z77A-G45 MB
GTX 1050Ti
Samsung 512GB SSD
Click to expand...

Its nonsense. My i7-3770K scores 10,000 on cpubenchmark tests and it was in a used £199 PC with 16gb ram etc.

The i5-7600K is not far off £199 and it scores 9000 average and all you get is the CPU.
 
@Ozei I've already removed one post for someone posting outside of the classified.


Cobra said:
Thread tided,
If the OP is looking for second hand I guess he would have already checked out the classified section.
Where all the classified posts are.
Click to expand...
 
Thank you so much for all your help. Much appreciated and now all I have to do is spend the money :)
 
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