Time for a new PC

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Jonathan
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So after about 15 years of Macs, it's time for a PC. (Please don't get me started on the whys - it's just the right time for me to spend my money on PC stuff instead of Apple).

I'm so out of touch with PCs I don't know what to prioritise - RAM, processor, GPU, or do I want one of those flashy M2 drives?

Requirements:
  1. Photoshop & Lightroom *fast*. I edit D800 raws all day long. Lag is not good.
  2. Would be nice if it can also process video files but I don't do much and overnight renders are fine
  3. QUIET - not silent but I don't want to share my study with a jet engine
  4. Reasonably good at numbers - I tend to do quite a bit of Excel work and some of the data gets quite big/complex. In fact if I could run a SQL Server d/b locally that would pass some winter evenings.
  5. Not hideous - some of those gaming machines are ridic.
  6. Don't want to build my own. Happy for somebody good to do it for me though.
  7. I guess I need about 2 TB of slow ish storage, 250GB for apps and 500gb for quick storage.
Hoping to keep budget to 3 figures rather than 4 but I'm realistic. That should include Win10 but I bet I have all the other s/w I need (Office + Creative Cloud are portable, right?)

Where should I focus my money?
 
Self build or off the shelf?
 
So no gaming requirements? And you don't need a monitor? For your use case I reckon the more cores and threads the better - so likely a Ryzen CPU.

Sourcing components yourself...
  • Ryzen 5 3600 (6C/12T) - £180
  • 512GB nVME SSD - £60 (this should suffice if you aren't gaming)
  • 16GB RAM 3600MHz - £80 or £160 for 32GB (Ryzen systems love fast RAM and you should be able to easily overclock the CPU if you fancied it)
  • B450 motherboard - £100
  • Decent gold rated PSU - £100
  • Tempered glass case - £80
  • nVIDIA 1650 GPU - £130 (though some budget AMD cards are on the horizon - like the 1650, they will be great for HTPC duties, light compute tasks and light gaming if needed in the future)
  • HSF for your CPU - £0 (use the provided Wraith cooler)
  • 2TB mechanical HD - £60
So around £790 (16GB RAM) or £870 (32GB RAM) leaving you change for Windows 10 and paying a friend to put it together. A system like this will easily handle editing, processing videos, number crunching and multitasking.

Alternatively you could look at a tower from Chillblast PC, CCL as earlier suggested, OcUK or Scan (will get back to you with a suggestion).
 
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Ryzen 3700x £300
32gb ram £100
B450 mobo £60
Nvidia 1050ti gpu £100
500gb nvme drive m.2 £100
2gb Samsung ssd £200 data storage
PSU £100
 
I asked a similar question on here and had numerous recommendations for Novatech. Explained what I wanted the machine to do and found them really helpful. The build was quick and LR flies through D850 RAW files. Rather than list all the boring bits it's probably worth giving them a call as your exact requirements most likely differ a bit. FWIW mine is used mainly for Photo Mechanic, LR, MS Project and Excel, never played a computer game in my life!

GC
 
So no gaming requirements? And you don't need a monitor? For your use case I reckon the more cores and threads the better - so likely a Ryzen CPU.

No gaming :).

I have a monitor but may well swap the monitor as a separate project with its own budget.
 
So no gaming requirements? And you don't need a monitor? For your use case I reckon the more cores and threads the better - so likely a Ryzen CPU.

Sourcing components yourself...
  • Ryzen 5 3600 (6C/12T) - £180
  • 1TB nVME SSD - £120-150
  • 16GB RAM 3600MHz - £80 or £160 for 32GB
  • B450 motherboard - £100
  • Decent gold rated PSU - £100
  • Tempered glass case - £80
  • High end HSF for your CPU - £80 otherwise around £40 for a moderately decent one or £0 if you get a retail Ryzen 5 3600 with a Wraith cooler
  • 2TB mechanical HD - £60
So around £815 (16GB RAM) or £900 (32GB RAM) with no GPU - haven't seen your reply yet.

Alternatively you could look at a tower from Chillblast PC (will get back to you with a suggestion).


Ooo nice. I mean, this is one reason I like Macs because I don't need to care about what type of PSU I get. But you had me at Wraith Cooler :D

Really appreciate all the suggestions. Been looking at a couple of sites and my head is truly boggling.
 
£750 to £1000 should get you a more than capable desktop PC from DELL, delivered to your door and pre-loaded with Win 10 and a selection of useful 'optional extra' software of your choice (Word, Excel, etc.), all with 12 months guarantee and peace of mind. It's the route I've chosen over the last 10 years and I've been happy with the 2 machines I've bought from them during that time.
 
I am a big proponent of OcUK and have been buying off them for years but reckon you may get better deals for pre-built at other vendors.

To answer your question - yes but it's quite pricey IMO.
 
So after about 15 years of Macs, it's time for a PC. (Please don't get me started on the whys - it's just the right time for me to spend my money on PC stuff instead of Apple).
I'm so out of touch with PCs I don't know what to prioritise - RAM, processor, GPU, or do I want one of those flashy M2 drives?
Requirements:
  1. Photoshop & Lightroom *fast*. I edit D800 raws all day long. Lag is not good.
  2. Would be nice if it can also process video files but I don't do much and overnight renders are fine
  3. QUIET - not silent but I don't want to share my study with a jet engine
  4. Reasonably good at numbers - I tend to do quite a bit of Excel work and some of the data gets quite big/complex. In fact if I could run a SQL Server d/b locally that would pass some winter evenings.
  5. Not hideous - some of those gaming machines are ridic.
  6. Don't want to build my own. Happy for somebody good to do it for me though.
  7. I guess I need about 2 TB of slow ish storage, 250GB for apps and 500gb for quick storage.
Hoping to keep budget to 3 figures rather than 4 but I'm realistic. That should include Win10 but I bet I have all the other s/w I need (Office + Creative Cloud are portable, right?)
Where should I focus my money?
If you can specify it beforehand, or upgrade afterwards, if things aren't great:
3. If noisy, a silent fan like a Scythe Shurican 120mm or similar fans are a good buy
3. If noisy a silent power supply like a BeQuiet one, or similar, are quiet.
7. M.2 drives come in 2 incompatible types: SATA and NVMe. NVMe being faster but aremore expensive. A speedy 1Tb NVMe has good price/Gb at ~€200.
 
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You can get fast 1TB nVME drives for as little as £115 these days :). My Silicon Power 1TB with a Phison E12 controller (a popular and decent controller* - used in the highly successful Corsair MP510 nVME drives) is still selling for dirt cheap on Amazon (£115).

*very fast read/writes and great endurance
 
You can get fast 1TB nVME drives for as little as £115 these days :). My Silicon Power 1TB with a Phison E12 controller (a popular and decent controller* - used in the highly successful Corsair MP510 nVME drives) is still selling for dirt cheap on Amazon (£115).

*very fast read/writes and great endurance

CEX (www.webuy.com) sells Hynix 250GB NVME m.2 for £21.50 posted.

The only problem is that there are no drivers available for Win 7 but I've tried it on a couple of workstations with Win 10 and it works perfectly on the PCIe 3 slots and PCIe 2 slots.

The PCIe3 slots give about 1.5GB/Sec and 800MB/Sec read and write.

So for the price I reckon they're a real bargain.
 
Hhhhhmmm a quick look at Chillblast and CCL - there are pre built systems that will do the job for ~£1k. However the specs, whilst fine, are a bit underwhelming with quite a few configs only coming with 8GB RAM and/or 256GB of SSD storage. Chillblast do have some cheaper systems for under £650 (Ryzen 4C/4T or an Intel i5 6C/6T), a decent pre built budget option.
 
I asked a similar question on here and had numerous recommendations for Novatech. Explained what I wanted the machine to do and found them really helpful. The build was quick and LR flies through D850 RAW files. Rather than list all the boring bits it's probably worth giving them a call as your exact requirements most likely differ a bit. FWIW mine is used mainly for Photo Mechanic, LR, MS Project and Excel, never played a computer game in my life!

GC

I love Novatech, awesome people. I also love that there is absolutely no bloat installed on their PCs either.
 
I asked a similar question on here and had numerous recommendations for Novatech. Explained what I wanted the machine to do and found them really helpful. The build was quick and LR flies through D850 RAW files. Rather than list all the boring bits it's probably worth giving them a call as your exact requirements most likely differ a bit. FWIW mine is used mainly for Photo Mechanic, LR, MS Project and Excel, never played a computer game in my life!

GC
Could be helpful to state the unit you purchased
 
Could be helpful to state the unit you purchased

Novatech NTI339
i7 9700K 3.6GHz
32GB DDR 2400MHz
Samsung 860 512GB SSD
2TB Sata HDD
Gigabyte H310M

Like I said, this is a spec that works very well for me for LR, Photo Mechanic, MS etc. I don't dick about with games things.

GC
 
So after about 15 years of Macs, it's time for a PC. (Please don't get me started on the whys - it's just the right time for me to spend my money on PC stuff instead of Apple).

I'm so out of touch with PCs I don't know what to prioritise - RAM, processor, GPU, or do I want one of those flashy M2 drives?


Photoshop & Lightroom *fast*. I edit D800 raws all day long. Lag is not good.
  • Depending on your budget, allow a higher minimum amount of RAM rather than a lower minimum amount. Normally any computers with a minimum of 4GB will do fine, but from the sounds of what you say, I would have to suggest a minimum of 8GB, or if you budget allows it, aim as high as the motherboard can support.
  • Also it would help to have a SSD instead of a HDD for this. Normally I would suggest a SSD for Windows and all application programs, with a HDD for your own personal files, which is what my set up is, I only have a tiny little lag, but it's not that bad for me, it's just fine. I would suggest you try a SSD for your files.

Would be nice if it can also process video files but I don't do much and overnight renders are fine
  • A basic low end graphic card would sounds like it is what you need.

QUIET - not silent but I don't want to share my study with a jet engine
  • Keeping your computer clean of dust with a good airflow, and in whatever location is much cooler than the rest of the room, for example better if it is on the opposite side of the room from where the radiator is. The more you keep your computer cool, the quieter it is. The reason for a noisy computer is because if computer gets hot, the fans inside the computer starts to spin as faster as they can go, that's where most of the noise is coming from, the fans spinning to try to keep the computer cool.

Reasonably good at numbers - I tend to do quite a bit of Excel work and some of the data gets quite big/complex. In fact if I could run a SQL Server d/b locally that would pass some winter evenings.
  • I assume you're talking about the computer processing the numbers, not the file size? In the same way as your Photoshop and Lightroom requirement, any computers with a minimum of 4GB will do fine, but if you want to, try to aim for a bit higher RAM like a minimum of 8GB and as high as your budget allows.
  • But if you meant your Excel files have an awful lot of numbers along with fancy graphic charts, fatting up the file size, then I would suggest a bigger hard drive. Really the photos would be the ones that eat up the storage space, but even if one Excel file is not much, thousands of Excel files will add up.

Not hideous - some of those gaming machines are ridic.
  • You want to go back to the 1980s Beige Box???

Don't want to build my own. Happy for somebody good to do it for me though.
  • Some websites do allow you to cherry pick the parts you want, and they will then put it together for you, instead of a off-the-shelf ready computer.

I guess I need about 2 TB of slow ish storage, 250GB for apps and 500gb for quick storage.
  • Nope, based on your mention of doing a Nikon D800 RAWs, I would have to say you should future-proof it by aiming for 4TB HDD for your RAW files. Better make sure it is a minimum of 3TB, and try to aim for 4 if you can.
  • 250GB for Windows and application software should be good enough assuming it is going to be your own computer and nobody else using it. I got 250GB and it's enough for my needs, if it wasn't for one of my kids saving his files on C: drive instead of his own E: drive!!
  • No idea what you meant by 500GB for "quick storage"? Do you meant like dump your photos into a temporary storage, then process them later? Surely the 3 or 4TB HDD would be spacious enough for this?
 
Photoshop & Lightroom *fast*. I edit D800 raws all day long. Lag is not good.
  • Depending on your budget, allow a higher minimum amount of RAM rather than a lower minimum amount. Normally any computers with a minimum of 4GB will do fine, but from the sounds of what you say, I would have to suggest a minimum of 8GB, or if you budget allows it, aim as high as the motherboard can support.
  • Also it would help to have a SSD instead of a HDD for this. Normally I would suggest a SSD for Windows and all application programs, with a HDD for your own personal files, which is what my set up is, I only have a tiny little lag, but it's not that bad for me, it's just fine. I would suggest you try a SSD for your files.

Would be nice if it can also process video files but I don't do much and overnight renders are fine
  • A basic low end graphic card would sounds like it is what you need.

QUIET - not silent but I don't want to share my study with a jet engine
  • Keeping your computer clean of dust with a good airflow, and in whatever location is much cooler than the rest of the room, for example better if it is on the opposite side of the room from where the radiator is. The more you keep your computer cool, the quieter it is. The reason for a noisy computer is because if computer gets hot, the fans inside the computer starts to spin as faster as they can go, that's where most of the noise is coming from, the fans spinning to try to keep the computer cool.

Reasonably good at numbers - I tend to do quite a bit of Excel work and some of the data gets quite big/complex. In fact if I could run a SQL Server d/b locally that would pass some winter evenings.
  • I assume you're talking about the computer processing the numbers, not the file size? In the same way as your Photoshop and Lightroom requirement, any computers with a minimum of 4GB will do fine, but if you want to, try to aim for a bit higher RAM like a minimum of 8GB and as high as your budget allows.
  • But if you meant your Excel files have an awful lot of numbers along with fancy graphic charts, fatting up the file size, then I would suggest a bigger hard drive. Really the photos would be the ones that eat up the storage space, but even if one Excel file is not much, thousands of Excel files will add up.

Not hideous - some of those gaming machines are ridic.
  • You want to go back to the 1980s Beige Box???

Don't want to build my own. Happy for somebody good to do it for me though.
  • Some websites do allow you to cherry pick the parts you want, and they will then put it together for you, instead of a off-the-shelf ready computer.

I guess I need about 2 TB of slow ish storage, 250GB for apps and 500gb for quick storage.
  • Nope, based on your mention of doing a Nikon D800 RAWs, I would have to say you should future-proof it by aiming for 4TB HDD for your RAW files. Better make sure it is a minimum of 3TB, and try to aim for 4 if you can.
  • 250GB for Windows and application software should be good enough assuming it is going to be your own computer and nobody else using it. I got 250GB and it's enough for my needs, if it wasn't for one of my kids saving his files on C: drive instead of his own E: drive!!
  • No idea what you meant by 500GB for "quick storage"? Do you meant like dump your photos into a temporary storage, then process them later? Surely the 3 or 4TB HDD would be spacious enough for this?
Thanks v much. That gives me some ideas where to focus my money.

Re the storage, I was thinking maybe an m2 for Windows, big drive for stuff I shot a while back and fast drive for stuff in currently working on and lightroom catalogues. Not sure if that makes sense or not.

The really fast machinei link to above had a second m2 for a scratch drive.
 
Thanks v much. That gives me some ideas where to focus my money.

Re the storage, I was thinking maybe an m2 for Windows, big drive for stuff I shot a while back and fast drive for stuff in currently working on and lightroom catalogues. Not sure if that makes sense or not.

The really fast machinei link to above had a second m2 for a scratch drive.


Well, if I understand you correctly, yes it could be done but you got just the last two bits the other way round.

It would be better to have...

SSD set up as C:\ Drive for Windows and all application software.
"fast drive" which could be SSD set up as D:\ Drive for files you are currently working on.
"big drive" which could be HDD set up as E:\ Drive for all your photos that is going into storage.

It helps if you put in order of workflow, if you know it goes from D to E, not E to D. New photos goes into D, for you to work on, then they're moved to E for storage. It helps as a memory trick for you, to remember that the fast drive D: is for working on, and the big drive E: is for storage, like you would go from A to B or 1 to 2.
 
Well, if I understand you correctly, yes it could be done but you got just the last two bits the other way round.

It would be better to have...

SSD set up as C:\ Drive for Windows and all application software.
"fast drive" which could be SSD set up as D:\ Drive for files you are currently working on.
"big drive" which could be HDD set up as E:\ Drive for all your photos that is going into storage.

It helps if you put in order of workflow, if you know it goes from D to E, not E to D. New photos goes into D, for you to work on, then they're moved to E for storage. It helps as a memory trick for you, to remember that the fast drive D: is for working on, and the big drive E: is for storage, like you would go from A to B or 1 to 2.
I'm not disagreeing as such, but it seems 1TB SSDs are getting affordable to more people gradually. It varies according to budget of course. So I'd suggest doing a fresh price check to determine if a HDD is still worth having.

It's good to have a fast NVMe SSD for the main drive. And as that gets gradually filled up, SSD prices will have come down some more. So the main SSD can be relegated to 2nd place, and a new SSD switched in as the main drive. Even a cheaper SATA SSD is rivaling an HDD. You could get a humongous HDD for an amazing price, by the time it's quarter filled, SSD prices will be even lower still.
 
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I'm not disagreeing as such, but it seems 1TB SSDs are getting affordable to more people gradually. It varies according to budget of course. So I'd suggest doing a fresh price check to determine if a HDD is still worth having.

It's good to have a fast NVMe SSD for the main drive. And as that gets gradually filled up, SSD prices will have come down some more. So the main SSD can be relegated to 2nd place, and a new SSD switched in as the main drive. Even a cheaper SATA SSD is better than a HDD. Even if you can get a humongous HDD for an amazing price, by the time it's quarter filled, SSD prices will be even lower still.
2tb now about £170 prices falling fast
 
I’m a bit ssd mad! I use a 500gb nvme drive for the os. A 1tb nvme drive for my working catalogue and a 4tb (2 x2tb raid 0) as a data drive.
 
computers built or self built the parts inside are constantly being upgraded so what is good yesterday may be out of date today. One thing not mentioned is air flow which through the casing. I went for one with front twin fans and rear fan. Cases with side vents will restrict air flow to a degree and keeping a computer cool makes it more efficient.
The other thing that may not have been mentioned is the PU. A 750w one will power more than you need. AS my son and I built our own we know what is in it ,and since the build it has been upgraded several times with better graphics card -RAM-PU- Cooling fans and CD/DVD drive plus extra hard drives.
So whatever you get if the build allows expansion then give it serious consideration
 
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how about a Hades Canyon or the successor, Ghost Canyon. Small but packing a mighty punch. Someone on here is using a Hades Canyon which is where I learnt of it.
Interesting. I've asked before about a nuc for a different project but people told me they were limited.

Presumably I could jack in a couple of usb3 drives for larger capacity/ longer term storage?
 
Interesting. I've asked before about a nuc for a different project but people told me they were limited.

Presumably I could jack in a couple of usb3 drives for larger capacity/ longer term storage?
I've recently been trying my laptops USB-C USB 3.1 port. It runs external NVMe drives just like they internal. You can even boot off of the external drive and work as normal. Nice.
 
Back from a trip now and I can properly digest the answers here - thanks to everybody for responding, particularly @Major Eazy for that detailed reply.

I do really like the idea of a Hades Canyon because after years of an iMac it will be a shame to clutter the desktop up with an ugly box :).

If I bought (say) a NUC8i7HVK, some memory, a Samsung 970 NVME and a copy of Win10 on USB.....is it as simple as plugging it all together, connecting up monitor/keyboard/mouse and then booting from the Win10 USB to get everything up and running?

For larger storage, presumably a pair of these synced and rotated each week should perform pretty well - https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Ex...obUBGuzOwcieyHZA&hsa_cr_id=4232528020702&th=1

Would all of that work for my needs? Apart from budget, obvs....
 
@Tobers was the person who mentioned the Hades Canyon several months ago. https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/best-editing-suite-set-up.694785/#post-8427296

Now he's had it a couple of months, he can probably add to his comments of the time.

I'm currently using an increasing ancient MacBook Pro. It was a mid range model at the time, and to get a mid range model now means spending an extra £ 1000, so considering my options. All the software I use is available on both.
 
Raid0 isnt that a bit risky?

Technically it doubles your chance of data failure but given its one copy of my data* which is backed up on other drives in same pc, other external drives and a cloud drive I would say the additional failure risk is irrelevant as it’s only one copy of my data.

*one very speedy copy and so nice to have ‘one’ 4tb ssd drive where I can dump everything!!
 
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I do really like the idea of a Hades Canyon because after years of an iMac it will be a shame to clutter the desktop up with an ugly box :).

If I bought (say) a NUC8i7HVK, some memory, a Samsung 970 NVME and a copy of Win10 on USB.....is it as simple as plugging it all together, connecting up monitor/keyboard/mouse and then booting from the Win10 USB to get everything up and running?

Thanks for the tag @andrewc.

Yes I have a Hades Canyon install. I bought a "bare bones" HC and added my own memory and SSD to it. I have the following setup:

Unit: NUC8i7HNK (from Scan)
RAM: 32GB (2x 16GB) Kingston HX424S14IBK2 2400 Mhz DDR4 (from Amazon)
SSD: Samsung SSD 970 Evo 2TB (from Amazon)
External USB3 hard drive: Western Digital 4GB spinny platter thing.
2 Dell U2713HM ultra HD monitors running dual-screen extended desktop (lovely!).

BEWARE: Don't buy the Samsung 970 Evo Plus SSD. It killed 2 Hades Canyons stone dead - total loss. Scan were great, and replaced them, and Amazon refunded the SSD cost and I replaced it with the non "Plus" version. Annoying as the "Plus" version claims to be supported. I had no end of problems as a result. However, once I ditched the "Plus" version and just used the "non-plus" it has all been swimmingly lovely.

My recommendation is to spend a bit more cash and get a fully built-up version from somewhere like Scan, so you have one retailer responsible for the whole thing.

Yes, install is indeed as simple as dropping Win10 on there, but again if you get a built-up unit with RAM and SSD, you can ask for Win10 to be put on it for you. Worth doing IMHO. For the record, I partitioned my SSD with an 400GB OS and programs/apps drive, and a 1600GB docs/pics/stuff drive.

Then, plug in your peripherals and you're sorted. Then you can play around changing the colour of our skull LEDs.

I'm very pleased with the unit - it's really fast, very very quiet and very small.
 
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Thanks for the tag @andrewc.

Yes I have a Hades Canyon install. I bought a "bare bones" HC and added my own memory and SSD to it. I have the following setup:

Unit: NUC8i7HNK (from Scan)
RAM: 32GB (2x 16GB) Kingston HX424S14IBK2 2400 Mhz DDR4 (from Amazon)
SSD: Samsung SSD 970 Evo 2TB (from Amazon)
External USB3 hard drive: Western Digital 4GB spinny platter thing.
2 Dell U2713HM ultra HD monitors running dual-screen extended desktop (lovely!).

BEWARE: Don't buy the Samsung 970 Evo Plus SSD. It killed 2 Hades Canyons stone dead - total loss. Scan were great, and replaced them, and Amazon refunded the SSD cost and I replaced it with the non "Plus" version. Annoying as the "Plus" version claims to be supported. I had no end of problems as a result. However, once I ditched the "Plus" version and just used the "non-plus" it has all been swimmingly lovely.

My recommendation is to spend a bit more cash and get a fully built-up version from somewhere like Scan, so you have one retailer responsible for the whole thing.

Yes, install is indeed as simple as dropping Win10 on there, but again if you get a built-up unit with RAM and SSD, you can ask for Win10 to be put on it for you. Worth doing IMHO. For the record, I partitioned my SSD with an 400GB OS and programs/apps drive, and a 1600GB docs/pics/stuff drive.

Then, plug in your peripherals and you're sorted. Then you can play around changing the colour of our skull LEDs.

I'm very pleased with the unit - it's really fast, very very quiet and very small.

Thanks - especially for the warnings about Evo+ :D

You're right - it makes sense to pay a small amount extra and get somebody to be responsible for the whole thing. Also, my accountant has just pointed out the advantages of paying over £2K in one go to one supplier. Basically, a free monitor ;)
 
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