New Desktop PC

JimClark · November 21, 2013

Need to update my desktop contemplating dropping down one step in processor speed so I can afford more memory. I am thinking the memory is more important than the processor since I mainly use bridge, ACR and photoshop but I might use lightroom. Looking at either a core I7 with 8gig or a core I5 with 16 gig's of ram. Either will be lightyears faster than my current pc.
Comments?

Jim

ZBlack · November 21, 2013

I think you'd be fine with the i5 and 16gig will be way better than 8. I'm running a core i7 with 8gigs (albeit 3 generations behind now) and the processor is never taxed for very long, but the memory usage is consistently really high. I'm not an expert by any means, but the processors these days are so powerful unless you're really needing the horse power for high res video editing and rendering. The bottlenecks for performance usually lie elsewhere. You're definitely right with more ram is the better choice.

lifeinfocus · November 21, 2013

Ram is cheap - buy as much as you can afford. It has been two years since I built my machine. It is a i7 with 16gb ram. I use LR, PSE, Audacity, Proshow Producer, Portrait Pro and others. Proshow Producer is often used as test software in computer magazines when testing configurations. Runs great. I use it almost exclusively for photo and photo/slideshow.

Note that when you buy 8gb you are getting two 4gb cards - right? What happens when you need to upgrade. I think you throw out the old and buy 2 - 8gb ram. $129 for Kingston 16gb ram at Newegg - two 8gb cards.

You may want to watch for deals coming before or during black Friday. Cyber Monday, which I think is the Monday after Thanksgiving, is big too.

Good luck,
Phil

denisegoldberg · November 22, 2013

I would agree that more memory is important.

A good source for memory is www.crucial.com. That's where I purchased the memory (to replace the not enough memory that came in the computer) for my all-in-one computer. I'm running with 16GB, quite happy.

--- Denise

Pictus · November 23, 2013

One of the best upgrade you can have is a SSD
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-recommendation-benchmark,3269.html

For the CPU, check some benchmarks:
-Photoshop
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/25
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/cpu-charts-2012/-33-Adobe-Photoshop-CS-6,3169.html

-Lightroom
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/5522/intel-core-i7-4770k-haswell-4th-gen-cpu-and-z87-express-chipset-review/index8.html

-For memory 8GB or more, in Photoshop is easy to know if more memory is needed, just check the
Efficiency percentage.
http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace/2012/10/how-to-tune-photoshop-cs6-for-peak-performance.html

-A graphic card is not needed, the modern on-board Intel® HD Graphics 4600 will be fine.
else need 10-bit output check http://www.imagescience.com.au/kb/questions/152/10+Bit+Output+Support

-Power Supply reviews and calculator
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/page/power
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Build Your Own PC http://www.tomshardware.com/t/build-your-own/articles/

JimClark · November 24, 2013

Thanks for the great info

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