Is the Core i7 860 good enough for Digital Image Editing

spodeworld · Dec 31, 2016

Hi. I have the following machine http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883113121

It has a Core i7 860 and the HDD just blew (yup, it's fried).

My main use is for digital image editing for photography, and I mainly use Lightroom and Photoshop. I don't really do gaming, but digital editing is processor intensive and the files tend to get quite large.

The cheapest route by far is to replace the HDD. I'd also add a USB 3 port via a pci card. A new performance machine with a lot of RAM and storage would cost much, much more.

I'm wondering if it is time to bite the bullet and buy a new machine or if the existing processor is powerful enough to justify replacing the hard drive and keeping the current machine for a few more years.

Thanks

Supahos · Dec 31, 2016

I'd use the opportunity to buy a SSD personally. But either way just buy new storage. If you're doing 20+ minute renders often it may be worth the upgrade if not.... Don't worry about it.

spodeworld · Dec 31, 2016

Since I have to restore from emergency disks that I created when I first got the machine, I don't think I can do that directly to SSD. I'm thinking of getting a SSHD.

Thanks

Supahos :

4745454b · Dec 31, 2016

It's not just USB3 but SATA3 you should be interested in. And unlike with the cards, native SATA3 will allow you to boot from the SATA3 drive. I do think you are reaching the point where it makes more sense to buy a new board and whatnot. If you don't have the funds then get a new drive now. But a new system would be MUCH faster.

spodeworld · Jan 1, 2017

Thanks for the input....

So, I have one member saying the current system is good enough for general photoshop type stuff as a hobby, so in light of what it is intended for, I should replace the hard drive and upgrade a bit. In that case I would replace the HHD with a SSHD (to do a restore), add another SSHD in an internal bay to mirror the boot drive, and then in one of the external bays I would add a 3TB HDD. Although the motherboard is SATA, it's not SATA 3 and gets 3 Gb/sec. I assume though, after a bit of learning, the SSHD would learn what to put in the SS part and performance would be noticeably improved over the prior configuration.

Another member is saying that it is really worth upgrading to a new system for what I do, at considerable expense. But, with SATA 3 the performance increase that it would be enough to justify a new system (which would have to be configured with a lot of RAM, storage space, etc.) vs the above approach, would would be dramatically more cost effective.

Any other thoughts?

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Is the Core i7 860 good enough for Digital Image Editing

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