Photo editing spec

[HappyHaggis]

My apologies for having to return, but my original post was some 4 months ago and things have moved on quite a bit since then. Things had to be put on hold due to family problems, so now I’m in a position to commit to a purchase, but would like some reassurance that I’ve made good choices.
It will be used for Lightroom and Photoshop image editing and streaming movies from HDD to TV. I’ve got a Nikon D850, so image sizes are huge, which is why I’ve opted for 32Gb RAM. The storage HDDs are to hold not only my photographs, but also music, films and TV shows, along with the usual documents etc.
Any advice/recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. 😊

Case
NZXT PHANTOM 410 WHITE GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-8600 (3.1GHz) 9MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME Z370-P: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1050 Ti - DVI, HDMI, DP
1st Hard Disk
5TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 128MB CACHE
2nd Hard Disk
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
3rd Hard Disk
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3400MB/R, 1500MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 350W VS SERIES™ VS-350 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 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)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB Options
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Supplied on USB Drive
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
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 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,486.00 including VAT and delivery

 

[Oussebon]

If committing this much £ to a system for photoshop it would seem to make sense to go for an i7 8700(k):

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...erformance-AMD-Ryzen-2-vs-Intel-8th-Gen-1136/

I assume the several HDDs are for the movies etc to stream to TV, as well as photo storage, and general documents etc. Which seems sound. But what are these two for, exactly?

2nd Hard Disk
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
3rd Hard Disk
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE

 

[HappyHaggis]

Many thanks Oussebon for coming back to me. I’ll cost the i7 up.
I wanted to do away with some of my external HDDs, so am trying to maximise internal storage, but strike a balance on cost. For some reason I got an error message when trying to add a 6Gb drive, so dropped to 5Gb and the 2x 3Gb drives were cheaper than another 5Gb and provide more storage. Atm I have around 7Gb of music and films, so thought the extra capacity would be invaluable.
Kind regards,

 

[Oussebon]

It gives an error message as the drive apparently won't fit into that PC case.

I'd suggest looking at alternative cases. You sound like you may very well want to add more storage in due course, and by going for multiple drives you'll actually have used every Sata port your motherboard has (4 ports - and you've got 3 HDDs, 1 DVD drive. Keeping drive bays and sata ports clear might be a prudent approach given your needs. Plus a 6TB drive will probably be a lot faster than a 3TB drive, e.g. for copying files.

As well as another case, you can also consider the Asus TUF motherboard which has 6 Sata ports (assuming you don't add another M.2 drive, as ports 5/6 are shared with M.2_2 - but at least you have the option).

 

[HappyHaggis]

Thanks for the reply.
I thought, wrongly, that all drives were the same size. I’ll look at some other cases, but a lot seem to have too few drive bays. The £1500 budget is something I’d like to keep close to, if possible. Maybe I should reconsider my storage options in the short term and add extra storage as funds allow. I looked at the i7 but that adds another ~£140 to the cost, which is probably stretching my budget a wee bit too far. Maybe the i5 8600k would be a nice compromise?
That link to benchmarks was very informative - thank you.

 

[Oussebon]

Some are physically larger than others, or have screw holes in different places. As I recently found out too.

Perhaps cutting down on storage, more of which can easily be added later, is the way to go. As opposed to upgrading a CPU or other core components, as this is more expensive and more hassle.

I suggest you look at the i7 8700 (without the k), which is just under £100 more than the i5 8600. Once you factor in turbo boost frequencies it's only about 100MHz slower than the 8700k. And is faster than the i5s and also, being an i7, has hyperthreading. It's £50 cheaper than the -k version. This would be the better compromise in my opinion.

 

[HappyHaggis]

Thank again Oussebon. I’ll cost up the i7. I’ve found the Fractal Design R6 which will accept the 6Tb HDDs, so I may run with that.
Your help is very much appreciated.

 

[Frank100]

Hi,

I'm wading into the thread a little late but have you considered and ruled out moving to a home NAS for all your films and other data? Leaving this PC running all the time you want access to those will cost more on electricity, whereas streaming movies, music and other data to a TV or smart device means you can leave your PC off when not in use. A NAS will use far less electricity.

Just a thought.

Frank100

 

[HappyHaggis]

Hi,

I'm wading into the thread a little late but have you considered and ruled out moving to a home NAS for all your films and other data? Leaving this PC running all the time you want access to those will cost more on electricity, whereas streaming movies, music and other data to a TV or smart device means you can leave your PC off when not in use. A NAS will use far less electricity.

Just a thought.

Frank100

Many thanks for the suggestion. I must admit I’ve never really looked into NAS options, I use JRiver Media Centre for streaming and found on their forums that some folks had problems using one, so dismissed it. I tend to only switch the PC on in the evening for music/films etc. or during the day, when photo editing. At other times, I listen to my vinyl collection, old fashioned I know, but I love the whole experience and it brings back memories of my (long distant) youth!
I will have another look at NAS though, as I may have dismissed it too quickly.
Thanks again.

 

[Oussebon]

There are a lot of NAS solutions out there, many with a couple of bays where you can fit your own HDDs.

There are also solutions like the WD MyCloud which is an ultra-easy NAS package.

 

[SpyderTracks]

There are a lot of NAS solutions out there, many with a couple of bays where you can fit your own HDDs.

There are also solutions like the WD MyCloud which is an ultra-easy NAS package.

Furthermore there are actually media servers that you can host on a NAS such as Plex which is absolutely superb and free.