Associate
Have posted this on a photography forum as well..
Currently I've just, when running out of space on my computer, either added a new hard drive or got a new larger hard drive and just put it in the PC, backups of things are held on a multitude of external hard drives and since I have started to do a few macro shots stacking (30 or 40 images to get one shot) it soon eats space so I have finally got to the point where I need to look at my home IT and sort it out. Speaking of macro, bulk processing of images seems to take a long time - which If I am honest is not my favourite place to be waiting on images to process.
My lightroom / image storage is 4.2 TB of data and the catalog sits on one of the NVME hard drives. Helicon (focus stacking software) cache is on one of the NVME also.
Denoising in Topaz takes approx 20 seconds per image, ok when singles but as I ma playing around with stacks and learning doing this to 50 + images - let's just say I am not the most patient when sitting in front of a computer (I work in IT 9-5 and thats enough for me).
Now my current PC is as follows:
Intel 12700k
Nvidia 1080 graphics card
32GB of DDR4 mem
3 x 1 TB NVME hard drives
1 x 4 TB ssd
1 x 8TB HD
2 * 4k monitors
Backup / PC NAS holds
1 x 8TB
1 x 4TB
1 x 3TB
2nd NAS (HP Micro Server)
4 x 2 TB RAID 5 (6 TB usable)
So to the questions for the more technical amongst you:
PC
* When batch processing or moving images around (lightroom / Photoshop / Helicon) what would you be looking at specs wise for a new PC or upgrade to the above - is it better to go AMD Threadripper (more cores lower speed) or higher single core speed with as many cores at that high speed?
* RAM, is it just a case of as much as you can get as fast as you can get?
* Local storage again is it better to just have your images in a NAS with a 10GB connection to the local machine or better to maintain a mirrored HD setup locally (NAS for copies), catalogs on NVME or go to something like an in pc NVME raid card (2tb NVME drives are fairly reasonable) or a mix or all these?
* Graphics card, I can see Helicon benefits from a faster Graphics Card - mine is getting on a bit, but the prices of them nowadays is just crazy - What is the sweet spot with Graphics Cards, is there a big benefit to go to current or wait until next gen cards or pickup a secondhand 3090? Note I haven't found a website that rates cards for photography as such to suggest by going 4080 you get x performance, 3080 y performance.
NAS 1 was looking at the new UGreen 8 bay or building a NAS from old PC in say a Jonsbo N5 case.
would then add 4 * 8TB Raid 5 (24 TB usable) and expand as necessary...probably add my old 1 Tb and 2 TB drives that I have lieing asround in here as well.
NAS 2
4 * 4TB Raid 5 1 have a HP microserver that can do this task.
Other option have 1 NAS and 1 large external hard disk as these sometimes pop up on offer for a reasonable price - how many copies of data do I really need?
Network switch
1 10 GB switch - any reccomendations?
Am I over thinking things regards everything - I usually do this - should I just accept things as they are??? I just would like to get to the point whereby I haven't got so many small 1TB / 2TB hard disks floating around and my storage is upgradeable in a more logical form as and when required.
Cost / TIme wise I am looking to move to the new NAS over time as funds allow, same for PC, but I would prioritise the NAS first I think?
Any help appreciated.
Matt
P.S. Forgot to say only game I reallly play is PUBG infrequently other than if I have say a a week off then am playing it all the time.
Currently I've just, when running out of space on my computer, either added a new hard drive or got a new larger hard drive and just put it in the PC, backups of things are held on a multitude of external hard drives and since I have started to do a few macro shots stacking (30 or 40 images to get one shot) it soon eats space so I have finally got to the point where I need to look at my home IT and sort it out. Speaking of macro, bulk processing of images seems to take a long time - which If I am honest is not my favourite place to be waiting on images to process.
My lightroom / image storage is 4.2 TB of data and the catalog sits on one of the NVME hard drives. Helicon (focus stacking software) cache is on one of the NVME also.
Denoising in Topaz takes approx 20 seconds per image, ok when singles but as I ma playing around with stacks and learning doing this to 50 + images - let's just say I am not the most patient when sitting in front of a computer (I work in IT 9-5 and thats enough for me).
Now my current PC is as follows:
Intel 12700k
Nvidia 1080 graphics card
32GB of DDR4 mem
3 x 1 TB NVME hard drives
1 x 4 TB ssd
1 x 8TB HD
2 * 4k monitors
Backup / PC NAS holds
1 x 8TB
1 x 4TB
1 x 3TB
2nd NAS (HP Micro Server)
4 x 2 TB RAID 5 (6 TB usable)
So to the questions for the more technical amongst you:
PC
* When batch processing or moving images around (lightroom / Photoshop / Helicon) what would you be looking at specs wise for a new PC or upgrade to the above - is it better to go AMD Threadripper (more cores lower speed) or higher single core speed with as many cores at that high speed?
* RAM, is it just a case of as much as you can get as fast as you can get?
* Local storage again is it better to just have your images in a NAS with a 10GB connection to the local machine or better to maintain a mirrored HD setup locally (NAS for copies), catalogs on NVME or go to something like an in pc NVME raid card (2tb NVME drives are fairly reasonable) or a mix or all these?
* Graphics card, I can see Helicon benefits from a faster Graphics Card - mine is getting on a bit, but the prices of them nowadays is just crazy - What is the sweet spot with Graphics Cards, is there a big benefit to go to current or wait until next gen cards or pickup a secondhand 3090? Note I haven't found a website that rates cards for photography as such to suggest by going 4080 you get x performance, 3080 y performance.
NAS 1 was looking at the new UGreen 8 bay or building a NAS from old PC in say a Jonsbo N5 case.
would then add 4 * 8TB Raid 5 (24 TB usable) and expand as necessary...probably add my old 1 Tb and 2 TB drives that I have lieing asround in here as well.
NAS 2
4 * 4TB Raid 5 1 have a HP microserver that can do this task.
Other option have 1 NAS and 1 large external hard disk as these sometimes pop up on offer for a reasonable price - how many copies of data do I really need?
Network switch
1 10 GB switch - any reccomendations?
Am I over thinking things regards everything - I usually do this - should I just accept things as they are??? I just would like to get to the point whereby I haven't got so many small 1TB / 2TB hard disks floating around and my storage is upgradeable in a more logical form as and when required.
Cost / TIme wise I am looking to move to the new NAS over time as funds allow, same for PC, but I would prioritise the NAS first I think?
Any help appreciated.
Matt
P.S. Forgot to say only game I reallly play is PUBG infrequently other than if I have say a a week off then am playing it all the time.
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