PC for photography

[reel2real]

Hi,

I'm intending to use the pc with nikon's capture nx2, cs5 and maybe lightroom 3.
No gaming, just want something that i'll be happy editing photos on for years to come.

I like the sound of usb3.0 for faster backups to external drive. Not sure how i'll know which ports are usb3.0 if some usb2?

I've read that 6gb/s is not needed for HDD but the WD Caviar seems well regarded. Is there a 3gb/s equivalent of similar quality?

Processor cooler - i don't know if there's any need/advantage of something more than the standard cooler.

I presume the wireless pci card as an option will be better than the wireless dongle via usb i currently use?

Answers to above and anything else much appreciated.

----------------

Case
COOLERMASTER SILEO 500 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55D-E: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ ***SPECIAL PRICE***
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTS450 - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - DirectX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1155/1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Wireless Desktop® MK300 Keyboard and Mouse Combo (£19)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 11 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £838.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-core-i3-pc/

 

[shades]

That's almost identical to the spec I've gone for and for the same purpose!

Main difference being that I've now changed to the Coolermaster 690 II Advanced case. The primary reason was because the Sileo has been out of stock (think they've got more due in this week though, and I don't think they're ever out of stock for long).

Having now changed to the 690 though I'm glad I did as it has the rather handy feature of an external hard drive bay.

One thing I'd definitely recommend you do is add the silver warranty. It's only £5 and you then get the full year collect and return rather than just one month.

 

[pengipete]

Hi,

I like the sound of usb3.0 for faster backups to external drive. Not sure how i'll know which ports are usb3.0 if some usb2?

I've read that 6gb/s is not needed for HDD but the WD Caviar seems well regarded. Is there a 3gb/s equivalent of similar quality?

Processor cooler - i don't know if there's any need/advantage of something more than the standard cooler.

I presume the wireless pci card as an option will be better than the wireless dongle via usb i currently use?

Answers to above and anything else much appreciated.

You'll find that the USB ports are different colour - I believe it's blue for USB3 and black for USB2 - and they are set slightly apart. The details will be in the motherboard's user manual anyway so you'll be okay. In fact, you could download the manual from the Asus website - give you something to do while you're waiting for your new PC to arrive - http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

Those WD Caviars work very well on the Sata2 headers but if you want a Sata2 alternative, the Green versions are popular. Having said that, the 6GB Sata is worth having. If you're like me and have thousands of photos stored, in makes a noticable difference especially when it comes to generating thumbnails,

Wireless cards - there's no hard and fast rule and reception depends on the antenna as much as the card. I prefer internal cards for neatness and because I need all the USB ports for other things.

CPU cooling - if you are not going to overclock or run the CPU flat out for prolonged sessions - video editing, for example - then the stock cooler is fine. Even then, you may find that a better cooler has benefits as a more efficent cooler doesn't need to spin the cooling fan so quickly and as a knock-on effect of better cooling, the case fans can also spin more slowly - all of which can have a big impact on noise levels. I doubt the stock cooler will bother you but if you want the quietest possible experience, a better heatsink is the way to go. You won't need anything too fancy for stock settings but don't skimp if you think you may want to try overclocking at some point. If I had my recent life to live over again, I'd go for the Coolit self-contained water cooling options - good cooling and (relatively) low noise - sadly, a lot of money to get the best one and just outside of my budget.

One other thing - there's a section on the forum dedicated to photography and other arts using PCs so you'll have to show us some of your work.

I can tell you that running CS5 and Lightroom with these quad cores and a load of fast RAM is just awesome - I literally burst out laughing when I saw how fast and smooth it is.

 

[Tom DWC]

Looks good and some great advice above!

You will use the Caviar Black as a boot drive though right?

 

[shades]

Looks good and some great advice above!

You will use the Caviar Black as a boot drive though right?

I was wondering that. The way I've got mine set up is with a 500gb Caviar Black as the 1st (and boot drive) and the second drive a 1tb.

 

[reel2real]

Thanks everyone for the quick replies.

shades - i hadn't spotted that on the warranty. Cheers!
pengipete - i'm happy to go with the 6gb/s WDs if they do make a difference. I just read that HDDs don't even saturate 3gb/s.
wireless - yeah i would prefer a neat setup if the reception is good enough. I suppose i could always resort to a dongle
even if there is a wireless card if necessary?
so would the "Super Quiet 22dBA triple copper heatpipe CPU cooler" be a good choice. I don't mind paying a bit more
for something that makes a difference although i won't be overclocking and don't plan to do video editing?
i'll check out the photography forum.
Tom DWC - Agree with shades. you may need to explain the benefits to me i have no expertise. I was vagualy aware i should have
OS and programs on one disk and photo's etc on the other.
And would a WD Caviar black 500gb be a better option thatn the standard 500gb serial ATA 3 GB/s?


ps should be reel2real - can't type...

 

[Tom DWC]

Settings -> Edit Profile if you want to change your username.

It would make more sense to have the Caviar Black as the boot drive as it's faster than the standard drives and the PC should boot/run slightly faster. I would set it up the way Shades has personally, with a Caviar Black as a primary drive and a standard secondary drive.

 

[reel2real]

Thanks Tom.

I wonder if there's any advantage to both drives being WD Caviar Black. Are these a better reliability bet?
Also what do you think about the Corsair 650W TX Series? I know the build has been rated as fine with 450W
but reading round some people think the quality of a branded PSU very important. Plus it would allow
additional stuff to be added in future?

 

[Nemesis]

Funnily enough similar to mine too except i aint no photographer, youll have to share some of your photos with us on a thread in the photography section

Yes the corsair 650W TX would allow for add ons in the future what might you be adding, do you know?

 

[shades]

I went for the 600w power supply as I'm definitely going to be adding at least one additional HDD and at some point would like to upgrade the boot drive to an SSD. Also will at some point want to add a decent sound card. I think it's definitely worth being a little over cautious in that area.

 

[reel2real]

Thanks guys. As shades says i might find a need for another HHD and go to SSD for the boot drive.

 

[reel2real]

Tweaked a bit and went for an extra HDD and Caviar Greens. Will have Video and music on 3rd drive.
Really i've just been thinking about this a week and ideas are changing but i think i'm just about there
with your help.

I've read a bit the past week about how the Caviar Blacks run hot so didn't want 3 of them. The Greens
are supposed to be plenty quick enough for storing/retrieving media files and run cool...

I like the minimal soundproofed case but it's got very few vents and fans like some and don't want a system that gets hot.
Is there a case fan that cools the HDD's?

Can anyone answer this

The PSU desciption says "600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan"
but for the "CORSAIR 650W TX SERIES (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU" there's
no mention of the 120mm case fan. Does that mean it doesn't have the case fan?

Case
COOLERMASTER SILEO 500 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55D-E: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ ***SPECIAL PRICE***
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTS450 - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - DirectX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD5002AALX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
3rd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD20EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1155/1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Wireless Desktop® MK300 Keyboard and Mouse Combo (£19)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 11 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £930.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[Nemesis]

No they both have fans. dont worry why ever they have specified that on one psu but not the other is odd but oh well

the corsair i believe is single rail which will result in better power delivery tho i hope someone else can step in to explain that better
I hope all goes well for you and your new computer
regards nemesis

oh and the 120mm fan is part of the psu, not an extra fan im pretty certain

 

[reel2real]

Cheers, thanks again for the help, first time with a custom build and a steep learning curve!
Maybe you can read too many reviews!!!

 

[pengipete]

oh and the 120mm fan is part of the psu, not an extra fan im pretty certain

You're right. There's a 120mm fan inside the PSU.

You'll never hear it beyond a slight wooshing if you put your ear very close. SilentPC's review put it at 21db at one metre - that's close to being officially inaudible - and they described it as "extremely quiet performance, close to the very best we've encountered in any PSU."

 

[reel2real]

Final post in choosing i hope...

I'm thinking of the Fractal R3 rather than Sileo - reading around seems a better case, both quiet and minimal.

Still pondering cooling, mainly because of my inexperience and not knowing how everything will run.
I'm happy in my mind with all the component choices so just thinking now how it will run.

So bear with me but if i get the R3 and all the previously mentioned components how many fans
will there be in total inside the case including fans on components? And is this sufficient for the setup?


Cheers once again.

 

[andme]

I'd also strongly recommend getting their data recovery offering which strikes me as being excellent value for money. Important to read the small print though and remember to register it on arrival to ensure you're covered in what one would hope is the most unlikely eventuality of an HDD failure!!

Also interested to note your purpose as that's what I also want a new dt for and now wonder whether I'm underspecced ???

 

[reel2real]

It's hard to know but i've had good feedback on my choices, so hopefully you will too. As for data recovery, I think a good backup routine is also important so you're not relying on the one disk.