Recommendations for a photo editing PC

Thanks. I haven't set a hard budget because I'm not completely sure what to expect. Having watched deals on desktops for a while before we started shopping for this specific purpose, I assumed I could get something more than serviceable (and upgradable) for somewhere around $500-$600.

I don't have a preference regarding building vs. buying a ready-made machine.

Quote from brbubba : You must be in the biz, so to speak. Only a graphic artist or photographer would say they "need" an i7 and 16-32GB of RAM for photo editing. Although if OP does get her an i7 with 16GB of RAM she better not complain for at least 4-5 years.

I'm just excited we get to move the old desktop into the living room, next to the TV. My upgrades are coming next.

Quote from boltman2007 : More ram the better look from 16-32GB DDR3 i7-3770K Enough hard drive space....RAW files are huge . Several TB's Great monitor... Dell Ultrasharp IPS Thats really it everything else is not as important

Tis overkill ^^. Keyphrase from OP "Low cost"

Quote from burninator : She's a startup right now. Been doing it casually for a few years now...think a session every couple of months and probably one wedding a year. But we've started putting together some promotional materials, she's taken continuing ed classes, and we've upgraded her hardware substantially. Right now, our mobo is the ECS A780VM-M2, with an Athlon 64 X2 and 2GB of ram. I added a GT 430 1GB last year, as well.

You could even get a cheap quad/hex/or oct amd processor that would kill what you have now. AMD is low cost, not as good on benchmarks as some of the intel i series but you could get done what you need to get done.

Quote from boltman2007 : So OP pays an extra $100-150 for a top notch CPU i7 3770K ($319) which is significantly less than a 3970K (+$1000)... then his wife is set for years. To be fair she would be happy also with an i5...or even possibly some of the AMD options although I'm certainly in the Intel camp. Also you have no idea what he wants to spend... he asked for a recommendation and I gave him specs for a great setup for that task. Up to him if he wants to spend the extra for the best. "shes upgrade her hardware substantially" tells me money is not the issue...quality is. That she is trying to make a go of this as a profession. Yes there are many cpu's that suffice and are less capable at the specific task he's asking about. Photo editing is one of the apps that really benefits from a more capable cpu and ram. His wife is working with RAW that in itself says shes an advanced user in terms of photos an would likely appreciate the best system for editing in RAW. Its not like I'm saying spend thousands of dollars... the difference between my recommendation and most here is maybe and extra $150. CPUs are not something you typically upgrade for most users. Chill people.... my recommendation is a solid one. That being said I love my i5-3570K.. but I don't edit in RAW much or do movie editing.

It's not a bad recommendation but it's totally not low cost. An i7 means a new board, and a new board means new ram. 16-32GB of ram? I'd say on those 3 components he's going to spend at least 500-600 if he goes your route.

When someone says low cost to me, I am generally thinking they want an entire build in the $300-$500 range.

In fact...
i7 CPU $229.99 [microcenter.com]
Mobo $279.99 [microcenter.com]
Memory $139.99 [newegg.com]
Total $647 << and those are some of the lower priced items in those fields.

You can actually build an entire hexacore amd system for close to half that.

Quote from Aitrus : Tis overkill ^^. Keyphrase from OP "Low cost" You could even get a cheap quad/hex/or oct amd processor that would kill what you have now. AMD is low cost, not as good on benchmarks as some of the intel i series but you could get done what you need to get done. It's not a bad recommendation but it's totally not low cost. An i7 means a new board, and a new board means new ram. 16-32GB of ram? I'd say on those 3 components he's going to spend at least 500-600 if he goes your route. When someone says low cost to me, I am generally thinking they want an entire build in the $300-$500 range.

That's my fault for not properly stating my expectations. boltman's suggestion is a good one. If I can get in around $500 (maybe up to $700), that's probably the sweet spot...unless that much won't get what we need, in which case, I need to adjust, you know?

I should add we're not in a hurry for this. It doesn't have to be right now, and I can build or wait for a deal on a complete setup. We expect business to pick up in the Spring, with a couple of weddings coming up after that in the summer. She won't be doing this full time, but it's something that will occupy the weekends and a few weekdays, most likely.

BTW don't forget to check GPU support for photoshop FAQ.
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/...u-faq.html

Might want to look for a cheap GPU or onboard GPU on the mobo. I personally would even consider a high end FM2 APU, but I know some people will poo poo that idea.

Quote from burninator : That's my fault for not properly stating my expectations. boltman's suggestion is a good one. If I can get in around $500 (maybe up to $700), that's probably the sweet spot...unless that much won't get what we need, in which case, I need to adjust, you know? I should add we're not in a hurry for this. It doesn't have to be right now, and I can build or wait for a deal on a complete setup. We expect business to pick up in the Spring, with a couple of weddings coming up after that in the summer. She won't be doing this full time, but it's something that will occupy the weekends, most likely.

No worries, no faults . His suggestion is a good one, but it's also one of the most pricey. If you do wind up building a unit from the ground up and go with an i7, 16gb of ra, a new board, a graphics card, psu, etc... you should plan on spending around a grand. I'm sure though you could probably find a decent unit from dell that you may just be able to put a graphics card in.

Like this for example. (i'd think you can find better but this is an idea).
http://dealnews.com/HP-ENVY-Ivy-B...75912.html

Hey it also comes with Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements 11 bundle . For someone who might just be doing this on the weekends you don't need a seriously heavy system.

I'm reading a lot about specs on here, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of connection between specs and how it relates to performance.

First, and foremost, hopefully your wife knows this, but if you're going to be shooting Weddings you'll probably want to gravitate more toward Lightroom than Photoshop. Lightroom well allow you to perform "basic" touch ups of multiple photos (batching) more readily than in Adobe Bridge or Photoshop. By basic, I refer to exposure correction, levels/curves/contrast, leveling (straightening) photos, color correction, etc. It's designed for the photographer who takes a lot of photos and is attempting to deliver a lot of photos quickly. It's also useful for organizing your photographs.

Photoshop, on the other hand, is designed for a photographer who is delivering far fewer photographs and will concentrate on modifying the photographs with far more tools than the ones mentioned above. Think of a studio photographer who may deliver 10 photos for a spread or for product shots, vs the Wedding photographer who may deliver 50+ photos.

To that extent, you may need to use both tools when performing these tasks.

When it comes to photo storage, which is important, you'll want to dedicate an HDD for this task and back it up. To this extent, you'll want to decide where to back it up. Few professionals I've talked to maintain their storage on a single desktop. The most common methods are external drives via USB/Firewire or via an NAS. I, personally, built a file server for this task, which allows me to access photos remotely too.

For your computer, be sure to get an SSD. I cannot stress this enough. Photoshop and other Adobe products are massive and have a large memory foot print. The program can take a while to load on a mechanical HDD, but with an SSD, Photoshop loads and runs quickly even on my small laptop with an i5 processor.

When it comes to memory, I'll state that more memory is almost always better. The bare minimum is 4GB of memory. This will get you through many tasks in Lightroom and basic photo editing in Photoshop, but you'll butt up against the ceiling if you multi-task or really start working on a photo with a lot of layers. 8GB, I think, will get you through most tasks, save for stitching large panoramas (say 100mp or larger) or doing heavy work on multiple photos. 16GB should get you through everything except the most extremely large images.

I've found that the CPU has diminished in importance to impeding performance in Photoshop. I only find that the CPU bogs things down when it comes filters. For instance, lens blur filters are VERY cpu intensive. If you have a high res image and you use a specialized filter, like Lenscare, it can and will take 20+ seconds to render the image with the filter (or more if you have a slower processor). This can be extended to certain filters when used with smart layers. When it comes to basic functions, like the clone tools, marquee tools, copy/paste and all of the basic painting tools, the CPU doesn't really register too much unless you start increasing the size to something VERY large. I.E. a very large clone stamp tool may stutter, but a smaller (normal) sized clone stamp tool will perform just fine.

The GPU helps, dramatically, when it comes to moving, scaling, rotating and resizing images in real time. With GPU support, it allows you to adjust the image magnification, perform transform functions and move about the canvas without any graphical stuttering, which tends to happen without GPU support. This is more important for someone who needs to make minute adjustments on a canvas, such as removing blemishes with the clone brush, warping features via the liquify tool or any other pixel-level adjustments that are regularly made. I want to note that my laptop uses the Intel HD 4000 graphics chipset and it tends to function quite well. Before that, I used an Nvidia GTS 250 on my previous desktop and it tended to accelerate things well too. Thus, a mid range graphics card will function just fine. with Adobe products.

Finally, get a good quality IPS LCD monitor. Depending on how high end you are going with your processing, you may want to consider a monitor color calibration tool. Dell IPS LCD monitors are a good place to start. I, personally, use 2 of the 23" IPS monitors (part of the Ultrasharp series), but the 24" IPS monitors are reportedly superior in color fidelity and quality. You want your LCD monitor to retain color fidelity at all angles. Lower end TN panels will have color variation across the entire panel unless you're far away from the panel. Even now, sitting about 1.5-2 feet from the monitor, the bottom of my TN panel is decidedly more red than the top. On my IPS panel (on my laptop), the colors are the same, edge to edge.

My suggestions are essentially:

• i7 processor being the best, but a higher end i5 will also suffice. Do not overclock. You don't want stability to suffer
• 8GB of memory should be your minimum. 16GB will get you through anything, though.
• SSD Hard drive. This will give you the absolute greatest performance increase out of any component. 128GB SSDs are relatively inexpensive, but a 256GB SSD will give you a lot more wiggle room for programs, temp storage and scratch disk storage.
• IPS monitor for color fidelity
• Storage solution

All things considered, your wife may want to consider a 14.1" laptop with an i7 processor, an external monitor and an NAS. It will probably do everything she needs for photo processing, plus it will allow her to be mobile in case she wants to show clients the photos on-site on something larger than a 3" screen (which is becoming more common).

Finally, she may want to consider getting a tablet for use with Photoshop. The Wacom Bamboo tablets are inexpensive lower end tablets (I have one), but she may want an Intuos for something higher end.

So I have a frame of reference, can anyone help me understand in what areas something like this [staples.com] would be deficient?

Deficient in this scenario would be directly related to what you wife does i.e. how intensive her projects are, the extent to which she is editing, the desired output.

You may be steered toward Intels line of processors because of their boost over AMD, that said, there is nothing wrong with the machine you posted. It is a major increase compared to the machine you are already running.

Here's a look at just the processor in that hp vs what you have now (assuming you have one of the higher Athlon X2's) they break it down pretty good for even a basic user to understand.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-Athlo...D-A10-5700

Roughly it's twice as good and probably much more so.

Quote from Aitrus : Deficient in this scenario would be directly related to what you wife does i.e. how intensive her projects are, the extent to which she is editing, the desired output. You may be steered toward Intels line of processors because of their boost over AMD, that said, there is nothing wrong with the machine you posted. It is a major increase compared to the machine you are already running. Here's a look at just the processor in that hp vs what you have now (assuming you have one of the higher Athlon X2's) they break it down pretty good for even a basic user to understand. http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-Athlo...D-A10-5700 Roughly it's twice as good and probably much more so.

Thanks, I'm certain it would be an upgrade. What's got me seeking help, though, is that we are seeking a computer for a different purpose from what we've previously used ours for. So while we'd see a very noticeable uptick in performance, would it be suited for RAW photo editing in Lightroom and Photoshop?

If not, I'll move on. If it's close, but it would need some tweaks, then knowing how it's deficient, or where I would see performance losses, will help me to understand in what areas I can cut costs and upgrade in a few months vs. what I can't live without.

Quote from burninator : So I have a frame of reference, can anyone help me understand in what areas something like this [staples.com] would be deficient?

They're going to tell you the CPU isn't fast enough. Yes, it isn't as fast as an i7 and it's not even as fast as an i5, more like i3 class, but better in some benchmarks depending on what you look at. But the upside is that you are getting very good integrated GPU on the same die, so no need for a separate video card and it has great power usage. Photoshop acceleration using this GPU could help considerably.

For the money though, this seems like a pretty good deal. An i5 cpu alone is like $200.

Quote from burninator : Thanks, I'm certain it would be an upgrade. What's got me seeking help, though, is that we are seeking a computer for a different purpose from what we've previously used ours for. So while we'd see a very noticeable uptick in performance, would it be suited for RAW photo editing in Lightroom and Photoshop? If not, I'll move on. If it's close, but it would need some tweaks, then knowing how it's deficient, or where I would see performance losses, will help me to understand in what areas I can cut costs and upgrade in a few months vs. what I can't live without.

I'd wait on Kakomu for that . I use some of these programs but not nearly as much as you or your wife have. I fool around . The specs I know about, actually having used these programs to the extent of you and your wife I have not. Judging by what you have said regarding your wife getting away with doing her work on an Athlon X2 with 2GB of ram and being a bit sluggish, I would not see the immediate need to jump to a killer processor with 16gb of ram etc... The HP you shared is an incredible leap from what you already have. Go fill up Kakomu's pm box

Edit
PS:
Here is a place to start. http://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/...quirements
I tend to believe that an AMD 6 core while not as high on the benchmarks as say an i7, may still perform better at tasks such as these considering it has 6 cores vs. 4. Lightroom and Photoshop will actually make use of these cores.

Like I mentioned above, you can snag an AMD 6 core or even 8 core system build for about the price of just the i7 processor, board, and memory. If you go to microcenter.com on the bottom right hand side of the front page they offer AMD bundles that are a great deal (prices for bundles only apply and reflect showing total in store).

Quote from Aitrus : Judging by what you have said regarding your wife getting away with doing her work on an Athlon X2 with 2GB of ram and being a bit sluggish, I would not see the immediate need to jump to a killer processor with 16gb of ram etc...

Oh, I didn't mean to suggest that our current desktop is a little sluggish with Lightroom. It bogs down completely, especially when we also try to open the print shop's desktop app.

Quote from burninator : Oh, I didn't mean to suggest that our current desktop is a little sluggish with Lightroom. It bogs down completely, especially when we also try to open the print shop's desktop app.

Well that makes sense . 2GB of ram is barely enough to get a decent experience out of Windows Vista, 7 or 8 in general so if you happen to be running one of those OS's with this adobe software and only 2GB of ram... Not sure what version of adobe software you are currently running but yes you'd clearly benefit from a system like mentioned above. I think the best you can do is to find a already built system. Building them yourself is not always cheaper.

Quote from burninator : So I have a frame of reference, can anyone help me understand in what areas something like this [staples.com] would be deficient?

The AMD A series processors are geared more toward consumer usage. Internet, watching video, etc. It really is low performance compared to any mid-range processor out there. It's about as powerful as a mid-range Quad core processor from 5 years ago. If you're interested in saving money and going with AMD, look at computers with the FX 6 series or greater. That being said, if you're interested in getting something from Staples, you can get a desktop with an i5 processor for $100 more: http://www.staples.com/Lenovo-H43...uct_985090

Though, for $700, you can get an Acer desktop with an i7-3770K processor: http://www.microcenter.com/produc...p_Computer