Looking for Photo Edit build advice

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MrMellowMan

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Oct 17, 2013
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My sister is a photographer, not just your neighborhood hobbyist, so her computer is heavily used for editing photos in photoshop. CS4, soon to upgrade to CS6
Right now she has an HP Pavilion Elite m9510
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200
8GB RAM
750GB HDD
nVidia GeForce 9500GS (512MB dedicated video memory)
Vista home premium
She also mentioned the HDD is nearly full and has to keep deleting stuff.

She said it is performing extremely sluggish and has to wait forever to do anything. So she has been thinking about getting a new machine. I recently built my own rig and told her that building is a lot better than buying a prebuilt. So she has come to me for help.

I am just wondering what would be the best thing to do here. Salvage the RAM, HDD, and the video card and go for a new build? Or just try and replace the CPU? Or try installing another hard drive, maybe an SSD?

She wants to save as much money as possible, but is willing to invest in a new computer, if it comes to that, sometime next year. So no rush, but I would like to give her an estimate or a few ideas.
Just looking for ideas and advice on what to do here! Thank you for your time.
 
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Captdonno

Captdonno

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Oct 1, 2013
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Honestly, it has been my recent experience that a SSD is a fantastic upgrade for running any photo editing software. Salvage the RAM and video card and use the 750HDD to backup all of her photos, but use the SSD to do all the heavy lifting.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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One reason it might be 'slow' is the perpetually almost full and probably fragmented HDD.

But if you're going to salvage anything and put in a new box, I'd advise against trying to keep that GPU. It's only 512MB, and badly outclassed by newer hardware.

As for the rest...replace one, and you have to replace all. CPU/motherboard/RAM. All revolve around each other. Any CPU replacement for that motherboard won't be much of a change.

The HDD you can keep for sure, but augment with an SSD boot drive, and maybe another HDD.
And suggest you go with a newer OS. Win7 or 8.
 
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MFBLO96

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Dec 12, 2013
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I just put together a photo/ gaming rig myself.
I would at least go with a new mobo and cpu, upgrading an old socket will cost more for less preformance

For CPU i would go with an i7 4770 (290$) Thats what im using, i do landscapes, and it does 21mp raw conversion in 4 secconds, the fastest by far of the computers in our house. (our other desktop is simmilarly a core 2 quad, and raw converts in 33 secconds)
The i7 has integrated graphics, i used them for a week before i got a gpu for gaming, but integrated graphics is just fine for productivity and would save some money. (our school computers use integrated graphics, and CS6)
mobo ASUS Z87-a, (140)
Photoshop will benifit from faster ram. new 1600mhz ram will help (~70)
I would reuse hard drives

Thats what i would do (~500 for the upgrade)
it should be quite a significant improvement

 
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ronintexas

ronintexas

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Here is a build similar to mine - and it loads photoshop in 1-2 seconds, and other than a few of the advanced filters and 3D rendering, it is lightning fast. The limitation on the filters (less than 5 of the 50 filters built in CS6) and 3D rendering is the graphics card. Spending $200-$250 on a graphics card would speed that up - but for 99% of photo editing, she wouldn't need the graphics card.

The price was with a core i5-3570k (I spent an extra $100 for the core i7-3770k - but my wife's has the core i5-3570k and is almost as fast (maybe 1-2 seconds slower here and there).

You may be able to save a buck or two by reusing Windows 7 (if she has a license), the keyboard and mouse. This build would give her amazing speed as compared to what she has....plus it has a 27" monitor to really display the pictures. If she is very picky on colors on the monitor - spending an extra $100 for a better monitor might be the way to go...

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2tpw6

$1120.87 total
 
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MrMellowMan

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Oct 17, 2013
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Yeah I was checking out the CPU's for that socket on the motherboard and realized there is really nothing much... Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it
 
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MrMellowMan

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Oct 17, 2013
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Ok so here is something that I am thinking of...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($114.29 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($94.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.93 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Antec Three Hundred ATX Mid Tower Case ($58.69 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 400W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($70.10 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $661.98
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-02 16:49 EST-0500)

I went with the FX-6300 because in my opinion it is the best bang for your buck, that I could find anyway. I use an FX-8320 in my own rig.
For now, I would probably salvage the GPU she has right now, seeing that in CS6 all you really use is 512MB of VRAM anyway. Well it looks like thats the minimal anyway.. But I can ask her later if she believes its worth investing more money to get a better GPU. Which brings me to the PSU, I went with 400W incase she does want to upgrade.
If there are any suggestions to a better case around that price range that would be great.

I greatly appreciate all your replys, thank you!
 
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ronintexas

ronintexas

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Depending upon her camera equipment - 16GB of RAM vs. 8GB may make a huge difference. Processor wise, this will have an effect on processing filters on the computer - on my i-7, most filters are 1-2 seconds for rendering (non-3D - I am using onboard graphics). My wife has an i-5, and it renders in 3-4 seconds. If she is fine with a render time of 8-10 seconds (estimating) for filters - you can go cheaper on the CPU. $100 will get her into the 3-4 second range.

The WD Blue hard drive is their entry level drive - the black drives are going to run about $30 more - but if she has a good camera - it can generate some very large files quickly....you might want to consider the hard drive switch....I do run blue drives on non-intensive setups (i.e. web surfing, word documents, email), but always stick with the black drives on the intensive applications (gaming, photo/video editing).

So - starting with a Price of $661 for a "good machine" (It will be a big improvement over what she has), or going spending the extra approximately $200 (processor upgrade, memory upgrade, hdd upgrade) may make a huge difference.
 
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Wisecracker

Wisecracker

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Jan 15, 2007
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You will likely find some DDR3 2x4GB 1866MHz or even 2133MHz RAMs at that price point that are qualified for your motherboard.

Here's the G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 for $82 before 10% off with code EMCWVVN28, ends 1/2/14

Asus qualified the GSkill *SR* kits at 1866MHz 9-10-9-28 1.5v 4 DIMMS.

Otherwise, your build looks great ... and that FirePro V4900 runs so cool you don't need additional power :) for it.

 
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