Upgrade of current PS/LR editing system

chuckstar_za

chuckstar_za

chuckstar_za

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Joined
23 Jul 2012
Posts
15
Currently I'm running a system for processing my photos using mostly Lightroom with a bit of Photoshop and Alienskin plug-ins. No video editing at all.

It's starting to drag a bit, especially as I'm working with RAW files out of a Canon 5Ds which are pretty hefty. No doubt working on the files from a HDD rather than SSD also slows things down.

I'd like to upgrade the system, or if most of the current system needs updating, build a new system from scratch to use as a dedicated editing station and keep the current as an admin/office dogsbody.

Current system specs:
i5-4440 @3.10GHz
Asus H81M-K Mobo
8 GB Ram
AMD Radeon HD 5450 1GB GFX
Generic 500w PSU
255 GB SSD for OS and programs
Variety of 1TB HDD's for image storage

My gut feeling is that it would be better simply to create a new system from scratch.
Ideally I'd like to keep a new system under the £1k limit (excluding monitors etc)

any suggestions would be welcome.

Ta
 
Hi and welcome to the forum.

Yes best start from scratch now other than keep the drives while adding larger SSD, or a faster SSD (if budget will allow by the end).

Are you keeping the same case? If so, which one is it?

If you aren't, how many HDD bays will you need (now and in future)?

New Ryzen processors arriving July 7th. If at all possible, would be good to wait before taking the plunge. Not only for the CPU potential but storage setup upgrade potential with the motherboards and extra CPU lanes along with new Gen 4 NVME SSDs. Sure they'll be expensive at first but will make a nice upgrade in the future when/if price comes down. https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/gigabyte-pushes-nvme-aorus-ssd-to-15000-mbs-on-pcie-4-(raid).html https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/c...-force-series-mp600-m-2-ssd-at-4950mbsec.html

For that budget could get something like an 8-core/16 thread Ryzen 3XXX along with a good motherboard, 16GB RAM, good PSU, a GPU just decent enough to help out https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/lightroom-gpu-faq.html and the rest on the best drive setup possible. Assuming the reviews show it to be equal to or better than Intel when they come out. Or close enough while representing much better value for money.

Not sure whether Lightroom was using 6 cores or 8 cores currently. But they did increase it and safe to assume they will do so again, so if buying into a hopefully long-term investment, best to go with 8 cores minimum, imo.
 
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Sorry about the delay getting back to you.

From scratch sounds like the best plan TBH. keep the existing for admin and build a dedicated editing system.
Don't need too many HDD bays - Currently I have a working driving for all the images (RAW's and JPG), plus an external for RAW storage when they are ingested.

As I'm rural cloud back-up isn't really an option due to crappy upload speeds, so I'd like to possibly have a 3rd HDD which would mirror the working drive.

So what's that - 3 bays, one OS drive, and two working drives, plus the external.
 
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