Photoshop Build - Large files, many layers

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LeslieinNH

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Nov 16, 2011
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Approximate Purchase Date: Would like to buy soon, but can hold off if suggested due to new releases reducing prices on existing HW

Budget Range: (e.g.: 300-400) Was originally shooting for around $1,000 - $1,200 - had no luck pricing under around $1,500.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Photoshop 95%. Occasional basic video editing.

Are you buying a monitor: No.

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: None really.

Location: NH

Parts Preferences: by brand or type (e.g.: Intel CPU

Overclocking: Not likely

SLI or Crossfire: Not likely (?)

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200

Additional Comments: Trying to minimize cost but also maximize ease of upgrading. Currently use an OLD (2012) i7 setup that is lagging a decent amount on Photoshop CC 2017. Going to reuse system for another purpose and not reuse parts as I assume even the old SSD (2014ish) isn't worth integrating into a new box.

Current PCPicker list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ZN4pLD

Intel - Core i5-7600K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor
Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
MSI - Z270-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Corsair - Vengeance LED 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
ADATA - Premier SP550 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Samsung - 850 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Seagate - Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB SC GAMING Video Card
Fractal Design - Core 2300 ATX Mid Tower Case
EVGA - SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Samsung - SH-222AL/BSBS DVD/CD Writer
Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit

Thinking Samsung SSD for OS and apps; ADATA SSD for scratch and active files; Seagate for file storage

Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!
 
Solution
velocityg4
By the way. For Photoshop RAM speed makes very little difference. You could save money with DDR4 2400Mhz RAM.
RAM: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Photoshop-CS6-Memory-Optimization-182/page2

As for the CPU. Most tasks don’t benefit from more cores. Excepting a few instances. An i5-7600K will perform nearly the same as an i7-7700K if they are both overclocked to the same clock rate.

CPU (note that a 3.0 Ghz Deca-Core i7-6950x is beat by a Quad-Core 3.8Ghz i5-7600K): https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Photoshop-CC-2017-Intel-Core-i7-7700K-i5-7600K-Performance-879/

If you aren’t gaming or using Premiere much. You can down the GPU performance and free up money for a larger NVMe SSD. When it comes to the...
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velocityg4

velocityg4

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Nov 21, 2006
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What are the specs of your old system? Have you checked resource monitor to see if you are maxing out any of your CPU cores or your RAM? It could just be a simple upgrade needed. Such as installing a PCIe hard drive controller. As your PC is 2012 it could be using SATA- II instead of SATA-III.

As for your new build.

- The Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo is a bit dated. There are much better coolers in that price bracket.
- The EVGA Supernova NEX is pretty low quality.
- The case doesn't have very good cooling
- That GPU will be loud. Dual fan models are quieter, run cooler and OC better.
- Hitachi hard drives have a better reliability record (luckily it is also cheaper)
- The Intel 600p is faster than the Samsung 850 Evo in that price range

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7600K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($228.79 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - PURE ROCK 51.7 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI - Z270-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($109.95 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($243.97 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Sandisk - Z410 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($139.59 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Storage: Intel - 600p Series 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($171.40 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Hitachi - Ultrastar 7K4000 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.88 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB Dual Video Card ($244.98 @ B&H)
Case: Corsair - 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($58.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($76.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Asus - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.69 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($92.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1484.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-18 10:07 EDT-0400

NVMe SSD are so fast for single user work that they have virtually no delay. They are so fast that real world workstation benchmarks between a lower end NVMe SSD and top of the line NVMe SSD usually show less than a 1 second difference for heavy workloads. Indicating that for workstation tasks they work near instantaneously. Leaving all other components and the user as bottlenecks. This excludes the aforementioned Intel 600p. Although NVMe it is especially slow for NVMe but much faster than SATA. Which is why I recommended it over the 850 Evo.

Unfortunately, going 1TB NVMe will go over your budget. If you want the fastest (the Samsung 960 Evo is the best priced buy in the 1TB category). Then go with one of these over the Intel 600p paired with the Sandisk Z410. Depending on your 2014 SSD and hard drive. You may want to keep using them. Freeing up money for a high performance NVMe, Intel i7-7700K and/or GTX 1070 8GB.

So if you are game to reuse old parts. Please list them for better advice.

 
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velocityg4

velocityg4

Glorious
Nov 21, 2006
5,390
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By the way. For Photoshop RAM speed makes very little difference. You could save money with DDR4 2400Mhz RAM.
RAM: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Photoshop-CS6-Memory-Optimization-182/page2

As for the CPU. Most tasks don’t benefit from more cores. Excepting a few instances. An i5-7600K will perform nearly the same as an i7-7700K if they are both overclocked to the same clock rate.

CPU (note that a 3.0 Ghz Deca-Core i7-6950x is beat by a Quad-Core 3.8Ghz i5-7600K): https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Photoshop-CC-2017-Intel-Core-i7-7700K-i5-7600K-Performance-879/

If you aren’t gaming or using Premiere much. You can down the GPU performance and free up money for a larger NVMe SSD. When it comes to the few GPU accelerated tasks in Photoshop. There isn’t much difference in most of those tasks between a GTX 1050 Ti 4GB and GTX 1080 or Titan X(p). Let alone a GTX 1060 and 1050 Ti.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Photoshop-CC-2017-NVIDIA-GeForce-GPU-Performance-899/

While the GTX 1060 is a considerable advantage for a few Adobe Premier tasks over the 1050ti. As 95% of your work is in Photoshop. I think this build is better optimized for your needs. If Premiere was a major concern then I'd also be recommending an i7 over i5.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7600K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($228.79 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - PURE ROCK 51.7 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI - Z270-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($109.95 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Flare X 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($449.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Hitachi - Ultrastar 7K4000 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.88 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB ACX 2.0 Video Card ($129.89 @ B&H)
Case: Corsair - 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($58.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($76.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Asus - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.69 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($92.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1464.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-18 10:38 EDT-0400
 
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LeslieinNH

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Nov 16, 2011
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Thank you for taking the time to help me out! I will dig through my old specs and see if I want to pull anything from it - it is SATA3, but I don't want to hobble a new machine with five year old hardware. I greatly appreciate your efforts to create a solid build for my needs!

EDIT: Actually, I have one question - dropping to one SSD and one storage HDD - I usually have a separate SSD for scratch (no longer needed?). Would you be suggesting to have OS, Apps, scratch, and active work files on the SSD (two partitions?) and then data on HDD?
 
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L

LeslieinNH

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Nov 16, 2011
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I added this to my 'solution' response, but perhaps that won't be noticed, so I am making this a separate post.

I have one question - dropping to one SSD and one storage HDD - I usually have a separate SSD for scratch (no longer needed?). Would you be suggesting to have OS, Apps, scratch, and active work files on the SSD (two partitions?) and then data on HDD?

Thank you again!
 
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velocityg4

velocityg4

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Nov 21, 2006
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If you get the Samsung 960 Evo in my second build. There is no need to run dual SSD. That M.2 NVMe SSD is blistering fast. Much faster than the combined sustained transfer rate or IOPS (random 4K files) of the Intel 600p or Samsung 850 Evo combined with a cheap SSD scratch disk.

While one can argue about exactly which high performance SSD can theoretically get the best results in Photoshop. With a heavy workload you won't notice the difference going from one to another. Because the random reads/writes and sequential reads/writes in a heavy Photoshop workload are well below the performance threshold of these NVMe SSD.

Here you can see the real world time differences in Adobe products between the different top tier NVMe SSD. The Mixed Random Workload and Mixed Sequential Workloads are most relevant for Photoshop.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/how-we-test-storage,4058.html#p9

Given the reads and writes numbers in the Futuremark PCMark 8 Storage Testing. They are well below the capabilities of any of those SSD.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/how-we-test-storage,4058.html#p9

The NVMe units are designed for very heavy workloads in a server, virtual machine or productions environment. Where there is a very heavy load of requests coming in. In a single user computer. They barely break a sweat. In random reads and writes they don't even peak below a Queue Depth of 8 to 16. In sequential writes the 960 Evo could save a 2GB file in a little over a second and read it in a little under a second. Any delays in load/save times will likely be the result of your SSD waiting for the CPU to process the request.
 
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