Desktop for Photoshop/Lightroom and XAMPP server

J

JuanHerrero

Member
I run a desktop (dating back to 2017) under Windows 10, with 2 x 1920x1200 monitors.
- certain amount of Photoshop and Lightroom work.
- XAMPP server (using PHP and MySQL) for development work, and serves another PC and my iPad and iPhone around the house.

Spec from 2017...
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-7700 (3.6GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard: ASUS® PRIME Z270-P: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
RAM: 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics: 8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1080 - DVI, HDMI, 3x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
M.2 SSD Drive 500GB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3200MB/R, 1900MB/W) ]-RAID1 mirrored
M.2 SSD Drive 500GB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3200MB/R, 1900MB/W) ]
1TB Samsung 850 EVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW) - server runs here
2TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE - for backup/archive
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

Am about to replace it - any suggested improvements on the above please?
 
J

JuanHerrero

Member
Nursemorph said:
We need an actual figure or rough figure....one person's OK may be completely different to someone else's. As an example, if I was looking to get something to run photoshop and other demanding CPU work, then an OK budget for me would be £2k, whereas you may consider that as way too much
Click to expand...
£2K is fine.
 
J

JuanHerrero

Member
Nursemorph said:
I will preface this with: I am not sure on the GPU aspect...it may be that the 3070 is overboard for your uses and it can be lowered and the saving put into the CPU and motherboard to give better there. Guess it depends on how your programs utilise the GPU and CPU.

Hard drives: Haven't put much in as not sure if you are carrying over any drives from your old system (depends how much storage your wife needs I guess). Might consider transferring over one of the M2 drives and putting Windows on that...would save £100 by then removing the M2 from the below spec:

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE 7 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 520 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 5000MB/R, 2500MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i RGB PRO XT Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 13 to 15 working days
Price: £2,048.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/Ag0qZB0hG4/
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. The thing that immediately jumps out at me is the word "GAMING" in the motherboard. I do no gaming.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Nursemorph said:
Just ignore that...it's fine. A lot of motherboards are "gaming" boards which have features that are beneficial to gaming but make no difference to non-gamers. I think most of the time we don't even see the gaming part of the description and just see whatever board it is.

@SpyderTracks or @Scott Could you provide some input here please? I am still not confident on whether the 3070 is overkill for Photoshop and Lightroom as I don't know those applications overly well. Thanks
Click to expand...
Both Lightroom and PS will benefit from hardware acceleration (where you use the GPU for additional processing power):

photographylife.com

Lightroom Gets GPU Acceleration for Image Editing

photographylife.com photographylife.com

In PS, it's only a few effects that benefit from it:

Photoshop graphics processor (GPU) card FAQ

In Adobe Photoshop, find answers to commonly asked questions about graphics processors (GPU) and video card usage. Learn about tested video cards, performance settings, and more.
helpx.adobe.com helpx.adobe.com

I'm not sure the XAMPP server will benefit from hardware acceleration at all depending on the kind of work you're doing in it?

Based on that, if it were me, I'd probably choose the 5900x over the 3070 and instead reduce the GPU to the 3060ti which is set to be extremely capable also:

www.tomsguide.com

Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti performance just leaked — and AMD should be worried

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti destroys older GeForce cards — here’s the proof
www.tomsguide.com www.tomsguide.com

We're not certain of release dates for the 3060ti as yet, it's got to be within a couple of weeks, but as yet we've had no official confirmation.

I would order it with say the 2060 and up the CPU to the 5900x, then up that to the 3060ti if it's available in a couple of weeks, or the 3070 if it's not.

The processor will be far more beneficial for your uses I think.
 
P

PhilGP

Silver Level Poster

​

Juanherrero, I'm in a similar situation. My PC is used for Lightroom 75% of the time and Photoshop for 20%. I play no games.
My PC is from PCS bought in 2011 - AMD Phenom 4-core and Radeon HD 6570 GPU, 8GB Ram
I use a single 1920x1080 display

Photoshop and Lightroom have been working on this old setup since day 1 but they're getting slower as each new version of software is released. And the GPU features are slowly dropping off the menu's too so it's got to the point where I need to replace it.
And the Phenom does not support SSE 4.2 so the latest Photoshop doesn't work at all (I had to go back a version)

For my replacement PC I had put together two options ....
- I5-10600, GTX 1660, 32GB Ram, 512 M.2 SSD
- R5 3600, GTX 1660Super, 32GB Ram, 512 M.2 SSD
Both options with 'Gaming' motherboards and gaming case.
My main requirement was a case to hold 4 drives that I will move from the old PC. But not too large.
I will migrate some of my old drives and leave the old PC as a file server in the garage for backups (I have a gigabit LAN throughout the ground floor).

In the end I have opted for the Black Friday AMD Games PC. I know I can turn the RGB lights off if needed :)

The spec of this PC was originally out of my budget so I didn;t consider it but with the deal it was difficult to ignore. It was ae bit extra cost but with a higher spec.
The significant changes - R7 3700X, RTX 2060, and the 2TB drive (I think it's SMR but two of my other drives are and I don't have any problems).

The only significant downside is the memory - a drop to 16GB. I wanted 32GB which is an overkill anyway. I will see how things go and possible get the extra 16GB in a few months if I really need it.


It seems that if you want a GPU that is future proof (at least 4 or 5 years) then you need to get a gaming GPU.
Photoshop will run on any GPU but with various bits and pieces disabled.
 
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