Help with new PC Specification

[MikeD]

Hi, I am looking for help with my specification reproduced below, I am currently using Microsoft Office Professional 2007, Adobe Photoshop CS5, Adobe Lightroom 5, Adobe DNG Converter and a number of other small geneology software packages, my problem has been an extremely slow PC with freezing when I have a number of programme apps running at the same time, I extensively use some very large Access databases that are now extremely slow, and also I find when editing a large number of images in either Photoshop or Lightroom the processing is extremely slow. I have all my programme files on my "C" Drive and all data and image files on external hard drives, and I intend to do the same with my new PC using the selected SSD as my "C" Drive, I would welcome any advice on the spec I have chosen as it may be that I have over or under specified hardware items, but what I do require is much more speed for what I use the PC for, look forward to your advice, Mike

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 311 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4440 (3.1GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® H81M-E: Micro-ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 350W VS SERIES™ VS-350 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 2 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
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 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

 

[mantadog]

Doesn't look too bad to me, what is the max budget we are working with here?

I can see a couple of small areas you could upgrade to make it ideal, but they are optional depending on budget.

1. Consider upgrading the RAM to 16GB, this might be way overkill but if you are someone who likes to have multiple programmes open at once while editing photos and searching a huge database etc you might be glad of the extra RAM. This really depends on how much you intend to run at once, normally I would suggest 8GB is more than sufficient but you mention editing multiple images at once and running multiple programmes simultaneously, maybe explain in a bit more detail what you think the max workload would be and we will get a better idea of RAM requirements.

2.The 2nd HDD would benefit from being a caviar black HDD because I suspect you will be pulling a fair amount of data from it quite frequently, in that case you really want it to be as quick as possible. Which a caviar black is.

 

[MikeD]

Thanks for the reply, I may have given the wrong impression of my PC use, I have two different interests, one is historical research, and that is where I use the large Access databases, the other is photography and that is where I do all my image editing in Photoshop and Lightroom, but I never work with the two interests at the same time, I was therefore pleased at your comment that the spec looked about right, I certainly take on board your suggestion of the caviar black HDD for my secondary Drive, but wonder whether 8GB of RAM is okay given my use, cost is really not an issue, I just want a simple but relatively up to date system that will be more responsive to my needs than the PC I have struggled with for the past three years, again thanks for the advice, Mike

 

[mantadog]

In that case 8GB is perfect for your needs so you can ditch that upgrade to 16GB.

One other thing I just noticed regards PSU, it leaves very little room to add a dedicated card later. Do you think you will never do this? If you do want the option of adding a 2nd card later (nividia products can sometimes help with photo editing so you could look up CUDA tech and see if it applies to your uses) an upgrade to a 450w would allow a modest card to be added but again not essential if you don't think you will ever add a stand alone GPU.

But yeah overall I think you will be blown away by the performance of the build above, the SSD will be the thing that amazes you most of all.

Enjoy.

 

[MikeD]

Thanks for that, I will be putting my order in after the Christmas madness is over, my needs will be no more than what I have quoted, and I look forward to entering a new dimension once I have transferred all my software over, but that is the time consuming and boring part of it all, luckily I have all my entry keys and discs sorted out, all I need to do is put a day aside for the setting up process, again thanks for you advice and reassurance, it is appreciated, Mike

 

[mantadog]

Yeah that is probably the worst part of a new build, but it will be well worth it.

 

[RS2OOO]

Sorry to but in here.....

I'm not as knowledgeable as some of these guys, but I do know that more RAM is very handy for very large Access databases. Microsoft themselves recommend increasing RAM for particularly large databases.
Depends how large is "very large". I used to use 14 Access databases to calculate KPI's for 800 staff in a call centre and this is what prompted me to go for 16GB of RAM, and in my opinion it was well worth it. If cost is not a major issue I'd go for 16GB.

 

[mantadog]

That's the problem, it depends what size large is I guess.

At least it is easy to upgrade the RAM, if a little annoying on that board because it has only the 2 slots.