Z690 or Z790 for photo editing and mild overclock

[philmar]

Considering a new build for a photo editing only ATX.

My 11 year old i7 3700K build was masterful and while overkill at the time it still serves me well. I spent the time to understand the needs of a photo editing rig and the components that were available then but things have changed. I only process one raw photo at a time, no large event photography batches, no video and no gaming. For years I have been using the ASUS bios auto-overclock feature in my ASUS P8Z77 mobo and that has helped me get more performance from the build. I was even able to survive with only the onboard graphics until I purchased a second 1440p monitor. However I am noticing that it is now slowing me down in Lightroom when I make use of the newer adjustment mask features...and also when I occasionally use Topaz Suite. I have recently retired so I have plenty of free time now to monetizing my hobby. I post on Facebook neighborhood groups and get weekly requests for prints from neighbors. I am going to buy a printer soon and also create photo books so I think the whole experience will be better on a snappier machine. My budget will be up to US$2250 though I could get a Z760 set up much cheaper ....I have to purchase my components in inflated CDN dollars though.

I definitely will go with a i7 13700K though a i5 is probably the sweet spot. I have the funds to buy a better CPU and if this rig can last a decade like the last one it will be wise to go with the more powerful one. I have been agonizing for weeks over a costlier Z790 mobo with DDR5 vs. a cheaper Z690 mobo with DDR4. Seems like the builds would have no perceptible difference in performance (according to my usage) so why throw money away for nothing with a Z790 set up? However I think that a Z790 might be a good choice as it would be more future proof. Who knows what improvements there will be to DDR5 RAM? I will buy a K version of the i713700 as I will overclock but only conservatively using the mobo autoclock software.

Most of the online mobo reviews seem to be from a gamer's perspective where mobos are valued on their overclockability (VRM and heatsink arrays). The few mobo reviews that I read from the perspective of image editing judge mobos based on ability to edit massive video files, or networking features or i/o connectivity to upload massive batches of wedding photos/videos. I don't want to pay for Thunderbolt, 10gb ethernet or even WIFI.

I plan to use two new SSDs and a new 8-12GB HDD spinner as well as include HDD data drives from my current build: My Cdrive which is a Samsung 840 pro SATA 600, a Samsung 850 pro SATA 600 drive that I use as Lightroom catalogue/scratch drive and also 2 SATA HDD spinners with data. So my mobo will need to support ALL of those.

Any thoughts and advice?

And if it only drives two 1440p monitors do I really need a GPU for my usage (no video processing, gaming)? If so, is my Radeon RX 460 of any value?

 

[Niner21]

I have chosen to stay with Z690 myself as I see little to no gains to going with Z790 other than higher memory speeds. I have done a lot of research myself, but just seen no reason to upgrade. I'd recommend a good low end board like the Asus TUF series or the MSI Pro series motherboards as they have been out a while and have mature Bios updates as well. The GPU is up to you, but I've always preferred a card over onboard. Just my .02

 

[philmar]

My first thought was for the ASUS Prime but I am not sure what the differences between the A and P versions are (I DON'T need wifi). I am an expert in pixels, not bits and bytes. The TUF series is the next step up and you are right. They are a good fit.I imagine if am over ananlysizing this and probably won't go wromg whether I overspend on Z790 or go with Z690. I am worried that I end up in a dead non-supported chipset with difficult to find DDR4 RAM in 6 years.

 

[Niner21]

I am worried that I end up in a dead non-supported chipset with difficult to find DDR4 RAM in 6 years.

There is no future proofing in the PC world as we all know. To me Z690 is the same as Z790 minus a few non essential features so going with one over the other shouldn't be an issue for you. Just go with the board that fits what you want and go from there. From what you have stated I'd go with this.

 

[kirbyrj]

The P is the lower end board and the A is the mid range board. If you're not overclocking, I doubt it would make much of a difference. IIRC, most of the difference is in the VRM quality.

 

[pitingres]

One potential advantage of the Z790 is that there's no possibility of needing a BIOS update. With a Z690, if you get an old stock board, you might need a BIOS update, and if the board doesn't have no-CPU BIOS updating, you'd need a 12th gen CPU to do the update. The other possible advantage of the Z790 is higher throughput to the chipset, so less chance of bandwidth contention when multiple chipset-driven devices are active.

For what you're doing, I don't think that memory speeds would be a huge issue one way or the other. I'd be looking more at storage capabilities, and in your place I'd be seriously considering the Asrock Z790 Pro RS/D4: 8 SATA, 4 m.2, decent looking power delivery, reasonable price.

As for DDR4 vs DDR5, given the length of time DDR4 has been around, I don't think you'll have any real trouble sourcing DDR4 sticks a few years down the road. If it's anything like today's DDR3 availability, the used market should be good.

 

[philmar]

The P is the lower end board and the A is the mid range board. If you're not overclocking, I doubt it would make much of a difference. IIRC, most of the difference is in the VRM quality.

Thanks....with my current ancient i7 3700K I use the ASUS auto-overclock in the bios. It has been incredibly easy and stable and it is a 11 year old machine...I was hoping to do the same with the new pc.

 

[pitingres]

Don't worry about overclocking with the current round of CPU's, either Intel or AMD. The CPU's overclock themselves very effectively, and manual overclocking rarely gets more than a very small extra. It's not like the old days where you could crank up the clocks by massive percentages if you had a decent CPU sample.

Instead, make sure you have good CPU cooling, whether air or pumped liquid. Today's CPU's boost up to temperature limits, so the cooler they run, the longer / higher they boost.

 

[pavel]

I have chosen to stay with Z690 myself as I see little to no gains to going with Z790 other than higher memory speeds. I have done a lot of research myself, but just seen no reason to upgrade. I'd recommend a good low end board like the Asus TUF series or the MSI Pro series motherboards as they have been out a while and have mature Bios updates as well. The GPU is up to you, but I've always preferred a card over onboard. Just my .02

I have the Z690 Tuf and it's been fine so far. If buying new and NOW - I think I'd go Z790 and DDR5 - unless it's really price prohibitive - Z690 is fine whether with DDR4 or DDR5 - but, DDR5 finally came down in price recently? Well, somewhat.

 

[Ranulfo]

Anyone have a recommendation for a good matx board? Either chipset is fine. Seems these two gens don't have much available in micro atx size, just atx and itx.

 

[D-EJ915]

Anyone have a recommendation for a good matx board? Either chipset is fine. Seems these two gens don't have much available in micro atx size, just atx and itx.

If you're not going to do CPU overclocking the B760 chipset has a bunch of matx options and still support XMP.

 

[bwang]

For all intents and purposes the 13700K maxes out the platform so futureproofing isn't an issue; photo ending isn't memory sensitive so the only thing you get from DDR5 is 192GB support down the road. My recommendation would be a good DDR4 board with stable 2dpc support and 250W VRMs, an RTX 3060 to take advantage of GPU and tensor core acceleration, and the put rest in modernizing your storage: 1TB OS drive, mirrored 2x 2TB NVMe as your working drive, and mirrored 2x 18TB HDD as your cold storage. A bad trap to fall down is to continuously carry over your previous drive as your new working drive, a few years down the line you'll have a bunch of slightly flakey drives and be wondering where to find a board with 12x SATA ports.

 

[philmar]

I've decided upon the Gigabyte Z790 Elite - has 4 fast M.2 slots and 6 SATA (although it goes down to 4 SATA if all M.2 drives are filled). It is cheaper than the Strix and Thunderbolt - probably because Gigabyte downgraded the sound chip which is a selling point for me (I don't game or use the pc for sound so why pay for better sound). I can get a decent price for this board here in Canada.

 

[philmar]

For all intents and purposes the 13700K maxes out the platform so futureproofing isn't an issue; photo ending isn't memory sensitive so the only thing you get from DDR5 is 192GB support down the road. My recommendation would be a good DDR4 board with stable 2dpc support and 250W VRMs, an RTX 3060 to take advantage of GPU and tensor core acceleration, and the put rest in modernizing your storage: 1TB OS drive, mirrored 2x 2TB NVMe as your working drive, and mirrored 2x 18TB HDD as your cold storage. A bad trap to fall down is to continuously carry over your previous drive as your new working drive, a few years down the line you'll have a bunch of slightly flakey drives and be wondering where to find a board with 12x SATA ports.

great suggestions...I am not poor so I can splurge on DDR5 if there is some benefit to it. Is it not possible that DDR5 could further mature and in 5years there may be sticks with better latency that would blow DDR4 out of the water?

 

[bwang]

great suggestions...I am not poor so I can splurge on DDR5 if there is some benefit to it. Is it not possible that DDR5 could further mature and in 5years there may be sticks with better latency that would blow DDR4 out of the water?

Games are latency sensitive because of the way they are written (dozens of threads passing messages around through shared memory) and the way we benchmark (precise measurements at high frame rates and low resolutions to expose CPU differences). In practice, most gamers aren't competitive 1080p Fortnite players and will do just fine with a system that can produce 60 fps minimums at high resolutions.
Nothing else cares about memory. Certain engineering applications care about raw bandwidth, but that's going to be IMC limited, not memory limited, on Alder Lake/Raptor Lake even in the far future.

 

[philmar]

Games are latency sensitive because of the way they are written (dozens of threads passing messages around through shared memory) and the way we benchmark (precise measurements at high frame rates and low resolutions to expose CPU differences). In practice, most gamers aren't competitive 1080p Fortnite players and will do just fine with a system that can produce 60 fps minimums at high resolutions.
Nothing else cares about memory. Certain engineering applications care about raw bandwidth, but that's going to be IMC limited, not memory limited, on Alder Lake/Raptor Lake even in the far future.

Thanks....I've read that Photoshop and Lightroom (the 2 two programs I ise the most) DO like bandwidth and do benefit from faster RAM. Anecdotally I've been told the sweet spot is around 6000 for DDR5...extra speed does benefit but the increase beyond that speed is incremental and not worth the higher cost. I found some 6400 on sale here that is marginally more expensive than 6000. Decided to go with the Ripjaws over the Trident Z5 as I will be air-cooling (clearance!) and I suspect it is the same RAM. One just has the fancy RGB lights that I don't need.

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory ($189.99 @ Canada Computers)