How's this build for Lightroom/Photoshop/Premiere

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levak

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 27, 2011
Messages
386
Hello!

I'm putting together a PC for a friend, who will use it for Lightroom, Photoshop, Premiere and ocasonally for AfterEffects...

My budget is limitted to 1200€ and this is what I've put together:
  • Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB DDR3 Kit
  • be quiet! Pure Power L8 700 Watt
  • Fractal Design Core 3000 schwarz
  • 2x Seagate ST2000VM003 2TB Pipeline
  • Samsung SSD 840 EVO Series 250GB Basic-Edition
  • Scythe Mugen 4
  • ASUS HD7870-DC2-2GD5-V2 2.0 GB OC Mid Range Grafikkarte
  • Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H Sockel 1150 ATX
  • Intel Core i7-4770K Boxed inkl. Lüfter

What do you think?
I choose HD7870 instead of GeForce GTX770, since that card is also supported by Adobe and costs a lot less. It al so has support for OpenCL 1.2 and nVidia only supports OpenCL 1.1.

I also choose i7-4770k so I can overclock it a little if I decide to and squeeze a little more out of it. Also, Mugen should be enough to cool everything.

The two Seagate HDDs will be put together in a RAID1 configuration to give some security to data.

700W PSU should be enough for everything.

What do you think?

MAtej
 
Please answer the sticky questions so we can better tailor our answers to your needs. And please add onto sticky question 3 where you plan on buying parts from (including a web address, if have one).
 
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Lightroom, Photoshop, Premiere and ocasonally for AfterEffects.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
MAX 1300€ with tax and shipping
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Slovenia. I will be buying party from http://www.computeruniverse.net/
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
I already put together the parts I need in the 1st post
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
None
6) Will you be overclocking?
Not at the moment, but maby in the future
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1920xsomething:) Display is 24"
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Just the usual, USB 3.0 and SATA 6:)
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Win 7/8 64bit
 
Since you're not gaming, there's really no point for you to get the mid-range HD 7870. In addition, since you're using Premier Pro, you actually want a Nvidia card for that. As you can see here and here, the Nvidia GTX 650 is actually one of the better bang for the buck cards for Adobe Photoshop and Premier Pro. Now while the HD 7870 was faster than the GTX 650 in some of those Photoshop test, it's not that much faster to justify paying double the price. So you'll be fine with this GTX 650 2GB card:
http://www.computeruniverse.net/products/90499143/msi-geforce-gtx-650-2gb.asp

As for the motherboard, I would go with a more reputable/stable motherboard like the following:
119,90 € - ASUS Z87-A (C2)
129,90 € - MSI Z87-G45 GAMING

As for the PSU, you don't need 700W and even if you did, you're going to want a better quality PSU than that be quiet!. I mean, there's a good reason why that PSU is so cheap compared to other 700W PSUs. So I recommend this PSU instead:
125,90 € - Seasonic X650 Gold 650W Modular PSU

As for the HSF, the Scythe Mugen 4 isn't that good of a choice since the cheaper Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo actually provides better cooling:
http://www.computeruniverse.net/products/90428949/cooler-master-hyper-212-evo.asp

Finally the hard drives: Do note that RAID 1 isn't going to provide any sort of security for the data. All RAID does is provide uptime to the data in the event of HDD failure. It won't protect your data at all against accidental or malicious modification, hijacking, deletion, removal, or infection of the data. If you want security for the data, then you should be recommending/looking at an external hard drive, NAS, file server, cloud backup, etc.
 
If you plan on overclocking, you should consider better options for the motherboard and CPU cooler:

€120 - Asus Z87-A
€85 - Corsair H80i

If you're not that serious about overclocking, choose a different setup:

€263 - Intel Core i7 4770
€56 - ASRock B85M Pro4

If you still want a better-than-stock CPU cooler, settle for this instead:

€28 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

If you can afford to, I recommend grabbing a second SSD for Photoshop and Lightroom. They benefit from the use of a second SSD, though in different ways. Photoshop works better if you have a second, equally fast (if not faster) swap disk. Lightroom likes to work with faster drives, so you can use your second SSD as a temporary storage drive (while sticking with your RAID 1 setup for long-term storage).

You don't need to spend much on the second SSD:

€82 - Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD

You don't need a 700 watt power supply for your setup. You could get by with less:

€50 - XFX Core Edition Pro 550 watt PSU

You didn't answer sticky question 10 correctly. Do you have a legal, unactivated copy of either Windows 7 or Windows 8 available right now? If so, which version/edition do you have?
 
Dangman:
I was thinking of taking AMD GPU, because it supports OpenCL 1.2 and according to some reading I have done, it can perform up to 80% faster in some operations. Also, there should be more and more support for OpenCL in Adobe programs.

As far as motherboard goes, I think I will go with ASUS Z87-A (C2).

I know 700W PSU is overkill, but how much in reallity would I need? Would 500W enough for my sistem or do I need 600W?

I will check if CoolerMaster can be put into my case. It might be too high. It performs better then Mugen?

I know RAID1 doesnt provide security from accidental erase/virus/... I just was some protection in case one of the hard drive fails.

Tiraides:
I think water cooling will be too much for me. I think I will stay with "better-then-stock-cooler":)

As far as second SSD goes, I think I will try to add this later, since I will be over budget already this time.



As far as PSU goes, I would like to get something good so I won't have problems with stability. Are Be Quiet PSU considered as poor PSUs??

Matej
 
Which version(s) of the Adobe software are you using? The benchmarks vary between AMD and Nvidia based on the version and the software referenced (CS5, CS6, CC).

A good 500 watt power supply is more than enough for your setup. I don't know much about Be Quiet as that company doesn't release PSUs in the U.S. for review. I went with the XFX power supply because it was positively reviewed in the past and I found it for comparatively less than other PSUs of similar capacity.

If you want to truly protect your data, you need to have at least three copies of it available, and one of those copies need to be stored offline. RAID is not a true back-up solution. It's designed to ensure that your storage setup remains available and protects against failing or damaged hard drives. However, RAID doesn't protect your data; you may have corrupt or bad files hidden within your RAID array.

The Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO will fit in the Fractal Design Core 3000 case.
 
levak said:
Dangman:
I was thinking of taking AMD GPU, because it supports OpenCL 1.2 and according to some reading I have done, it can perform up to 80% faster in some operations. Also, there should be more and more support for OpenCL in Adobe programs.
Click to expand...
Then go for the HD 7750 or HD 7770. Either way, the HD 7870 is overkill.
levak said:
I know 700W PSU is overkill, but how much in reallity would I need? Would 500W enough for my sistem or do I need 600W?
Click to expand...
500W would be more than enough for your system. SO the PSu that tirades listed is a solid choice.

levak said:
I will check if CoolerMaster can be put into my case. It might be too high. It performs better then Mugen?
Click to expand...
Yes it does perform better than the Mugen.

levak said:
As far as PSU goes, I would like to get something good so I won't have problems with stability. Are Be Quiet PSU considered as poor PSUs??
Click to expand...
Like many PSU manufacturers out there, Be Quiet PSUs range from crappy to fantastic PSUs. The be quiet PSU you chose happens to be closer to the crappy end of the spectrum.

You still haven't answered tiraides' OS question.
 
As far as OS goes, I have legal, unactivated copy of Windows 7 andWindows 8 available right now. Both 32bit and 64bit, since I'm a member of MSDNAA...
 
As far as Adobe programs go, I'm not sure. I think it's CS6, but it might be CC as well...

As far as RAID goes, I know how it works and what kind of protection it offers. I'm just using RAID1 to protect against drive failure. I have copies on NAS/offsite as well...

I guess I will change the PSU as well..

Matej
 
I changes my setup and went with:
  • Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB DDR3 Kit
  • XFX Core Edition Pro 550 Watt
  • Fractal Design Core 3000 schwarz
  • 2x Seagate ST2000VM003 2TB Pipeline
  • Samsung SSD 840 EVO Series 250GB Basic-Edition
  • Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
  • Sapphire Radeon HD7750 2.0 GB
  • ASUS Z87-A (C2)
  • Intel Core i7-4770K Boxed inkl. Lüfter
  • Samsung SSD 840 EVO Series 120GB

I changed:
- PSU to XFX Pro version
- cooler to Cooler Master Hyper
- graphic card to Radeon 7750 2GB
- MB to Asus Z87-A
- added another 120GB SSD for scratch drive

And I'm still below 1300€:)

Matej
 
I'm also quite satisfied with the latest config. Will probably order today.

Thanks everypne for their input;)
 
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