Please spec me a system for photo editing.

[Hunders]

Hi there guys.

My PC of 10 years has bit the bullet and packed up this morning.

I am completely out of the loop when it comes to components these days so I was hoping you guys could help me.

I want a system that can handle photo editing easily. I would like to keep the budget as low as possible without sacrificing too much performance. Maybe 500 quid max?

I will need basically everything apart from the power supply as I'm guessing that mine will be fine still.

Any ideas?

 

[stockhausen]

Both of the (very experienced) professional Graphics Designers that I know will never, ever use anything other than an Apple system for photo editing

 

[Hunders]

I don't use it for work. Photography is a hobby so PC is fine for me. It has been for over 15 years lol

 

[Donnie Fisher]

Do you need storage too?

Most modern CPUs will handle photo editing easily enough. Even a Ryzen 2400G handled lightroom well enough for me too get by. It was the change to an SSD that improved the snappiness initially most.

I have an SSD as the OS and app drive and a large normal HDD as the bulk storage of pictures.

Personally, im an Ryzen fan for the money and things are beginning to really benefit from multicore setups. . A Ryzen 2700 well get you an 8 core CPU which will help churn through photo processing, a x450/x470 series motherboard will be fast enough, you don't need x570 boards.

Any modern 6gb+ GPU will greatly assist too. There are plenty out there.

16gb ram will get you by.

There is no need for the expense of an Apple !

 

[Hunders]

Thanks for the input.

I have a few HDDs that I will use but I am going to opt for an SSD too. As you say I do want the speed it will bring.

 

[Hunders]

What is better, a ryzen 3600 six core or 2700 8 core?

 

[Donnie Fisher]

It depends ! Averaged out I'd say they are quite similar overall.

It's my impression that when using Adobe stuff to edit, Adobe stuff benefits slightly from higher frequency CPU. (Single thread performance basically)

But things like Affinity photo benefit from core count more than frequency.

When converting exporting a batch of final RAW images , all cores on my machine seem to get used equally and that's across lightroom, canon DPP, affinity etc. With that in mind, I personally would go for the higher core count to churn it quicker.

I'm actually strongly considering changing my 2400G for either a 2700 or 3600 and at the moment my mind is falling on the 2700 for the higher cores

 

[theforce]

Are you planning to use your current GPU? If not, you will need a GPU since the Ryzen 3600 and 2700x don't come with integrated graphics. In such a case you could go for an equivalent Intel system since that will save you from having to buy a separate GPU. A dedicated GPU should be better though than an Intel integrated solution especially if you plan on working on a 4K monitor, or multiple monitors in the future.

 

[Seearbe]

I will need basically everything apart from the power supply as I'm guessing that mine will be fine still.

Assuming it's not the PSU that caused the rest of the system to go, that is! As a voice of experience on that, can I ask what PSU you actually have?

 

[Hunders]

I'm assuming it's not the psu because the system turns on just doesn't get passed the boot screen.

It's a seasonic 600w jobbie. Should do the trick from what I can see.

 

[Seearbe]

I'm assuming it's not the psu because the system turns on just doesn't get passed the boot screen.

It's a seasonic 600w jobbie. Should do the trick from what I can see.

I had a PSU that I thought was good and it killed a GPU. The PSU was fine afterwards, just fried the most expensive component in my computer and that was that.

Anyway, I'd be pretty confident a 600w seasonic wasn't going to be the cause of any problem. Just wanted to check

 

[snips86x]

Slight stretch?

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 570 Red Dragon 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £129.95
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TLGD4= £39.95
• 1 x TeamGroup 480GB L5 Lite SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 3D NAND Solid State Drive= £49.99
• 1 x be quiet! Pure Power 11 400W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply= £59.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £179.99
• 1 x MSI B450-A PRO MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £88.99

Total: £559.96 (includes shipping: £11.10)​

​

 

[Donnie Fisher]

Looks alright, but for photostuff I'd rather have 16GB ram,

 

[philburt]

very interested in the suggested set up as I am looking to upgrade for better image processing. I already have a 500bg SSD and a 80plus bronze PSU is that sufficient power. (currently I have Intel Core i52500K quad core, Asrock Q77M Vpro motherboard,Nvidia Gforce GT730 and 16gb ram

Would this be a better option than the suggested?





RYZEN 7 EIGHT CORE 2700 4.10GHZ (SOCKET AM4) PROCESSOR - RETAIL


Also agree that upping the RAM to 16gb would be more beneficial but what would you make/model etc would you suggest ?

Slight stretch?

• 1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 570 Red Dragon 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £129.95
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TLGD4= £39.95
• 1 x TeamGroup 480GB L5 Lite SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 3D NAND Solid State Drive= £49.99
• 1 x be quiet! Pure Power 11 400W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply= £59.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £179.99
• 1 x MSI B450-A PRO MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £88.99

Total: £559.96 (includes shipping: £11.10)
​