Having a PC custom built for photo editing

[Stephen D]

My PC seems to be 10 years old!

With all the AI built into Photoshop it is running slower and slower.

I'm too old and set in my ways to think of changing to a Mac.

Does anyone in the UK have any experience of having a PC built specifically for photo editing?

Specifications?

Recommendations?

All the best

Steve

 

[Steve F]

Dell laptops are very customisable. I didn't get the very latest generation intel chip, but it's still a very good spec. I try to get the best machine I can afford so it's future proofed for longer. Dell XPS is seen as one of, if not the best, photo editing equivalent of Apple machines for Windows.

 

 

https://www.techradar.com/news/best-laptops-for-photographers-and-photo-editing-in-photoshop

 

p.s. just saw request was for pc. well, if anyone needs a laptop this might be useful!

Edited December 13, 2023 by Steve F
pc not laptop

[Steve Hyde]

3 hours ago, Stephen D said:

My PC seems to be 10 years old!

With all the AI built into Photoshop it is running slower and slower.

I'm too old and set in my ways to think of changing to a Mac.

Does anyone in the UK have any experience of having a PC built specifically for photo editing?

Specifications?

Recommendations?

All the best

Steve

 

 

Hi Steve,

 

I found myself in the same position as you a few months ago. My old PC was about 6 yrs old and was really struggling with some of the new features in photoshop, my third party plugins and especially Topaz. I dont use the PC for anything other than photo editing and run it with three monitors. I asked a friend, who's heavily into astrophotography (for which he has a fairly hefty computer) and has forgotten more than I ever knew about PC's, to spec up a new machine for me at around the £1000 mark ( I went just over that). I found that if you want a DVD and a card reader your choice of cases becomes limited. I bought a third party USB card reader from Amazon and as yet not bothered with a DVD Reader.

 

I went with what he suggested and also went with his suggestion to use a UK company called PC Specialist to place my order. I've copied the spec sheet below. The order took just under three weeks to arrive. So far I've been really pleased with the new machine. It certainly processes everything a lot quicker, especially images in Topaz. PC Specialists were good to deal with. They called me during their test stage to say they thought there was a compatibility problem  with the RAM I'd selected and the Motherboard. They suggested an alternative, with the same spec, and it was £10 cheaper. They refunded the money the same day.

 

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

 

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

 

Case CORSAIR 175R RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU) AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core CPU (4.0GHz-5.2GHz/38MB CACHE/AM5)

Motherboard ASUS® PRIME A620M-K: Micro-ATX (DDR5, USB 3.2, ARGB)

Memory (RAM) 64GB PCS PRO DDR5 4800MHz (2 x 32GB)

Graphics Card 8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3050 - HDMI, DP, LHR

1st M.2 SSD Drive 2TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (3500 MB/R, 3100 MB/W)

1st Storage Drive 2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NOT REQUIRED

Power Supply CORSAIR 550W CV SERIES™ CV-550 POWER SUPPLY

Power Cable 1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)

Processor Cooling DeepCool AG400 Performance ARGB CPU Cooler

Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING

Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Card ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT

Wireless Network Card WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6E AX210 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz
PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0

USB/Thunderbolt Options MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT
PORTS

 

Edited December 13, 2023 by Steve Hyde

[IKuzmin]

I'm not in the UK, in the US I would select something like this (Dell XPS):

 

Components

Option	Selection	SKU / Product Code	Quantity
Processor	13th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-13700K (24 MB cache, 16 cores, 3.40 GHz to 5.30 GHz Turbo)	[338-CHEB] / GJYP1N4	1
Operating System	Windows 11 Home, English, French, Spanish	[619-AQKD] / G2F4EVD	1
Graphics Card	NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4060 8GB GDDR6	[490-BJRS] / G3L02O9	1
Memoryi	64 GB: 2 x 32 GB, DDR5, 4800 MT/s	[370-AHLW] / G10VG2L	1
Storage	512 GB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD (boot) + 2 TB, 7200 RPM, 3.5-inch, SATA, HDD (storage)	[400-BOSK] / G5T63O2	1
Chassis Options	460W Platinum	[321-BIKS] / G3PZECQ	1
Cooling Option	Advanced CPU air cooling	[321-BIKM] / GHA29IK	1
Optical Drive	No Optical Drive	[429-AAXO] / GHV2IPR	1
Wirelessi	Intel® Killer™ Wi-Fi 6E AX1675, 2x2, 802.11ax, Bluetooth® wireless card	[555-BIHW]	1
Keyboard	Dell Multimedia Keyboard-KB216 Black (English)	[580-AILI] / GGUBZ5O	1
Mouse	Wired Mouse, Black MS 116	[570-AATH] / G963OAD	1

 

 

But most likely I would buy it w/o dedicated graphics and with built-in 8Gb RAM, and then buy these items separately which would save me ~$300-350.

The major things I consider are the processor and GPU which in the configuration above seem most balanced for price/quality/longevity in my opinion.

[Inchiquin]

I was in a similar position 3 or 4 years ago. I could easily have built one for myself (always have done in the past) but a friend who builds PCs for other people asked if he could do it because he wanted to increase his knowledge or Ryzen-based systems. I'm not going to go into details because you will have plenty of recommendations in this thread, but the point I want to make is that if possible, keep your old PC running for day-to-day admin work, browsing etc. PCs very quickly get clogged up with detritus that over time slows down performance. My new PC was for all creative work - video and music as well as photography and I wanted to maintain peak performance for as long as possible.

 

I'm very happy with my setup. There is no noticeable drop in speed from my 'creative' computer and I am happily doing everything else on a PC which is at least 10 years old, if a little slow at times.

 

Alan

[Graham]

Try Chillblast. They have machines configured for various purposes as standard, and they can be customised as required. They will discuss specs over the phone if you need it. My last 3 PCs have all been from Chillblast.