PC for rendering raw pictures and photoshop only.

Sup08

I am building a PC for rendering raw pictures and photoshop only for a friend. Any comments on this build?

Item|Price
BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower USB 3.0 black, ohne Netzteil|€53.03
Intel Core i5-3470 Box, LGA1155|€169.94
WD Caviar Green 2TB Sata 6Gb/s|€86.09
ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Performance, Sockel 1155, ATX|€115.49
Samsung SH-224BB bare schwarz|€17.19
Intel SSD 330 Series 120GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€116.43
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 650W|€75.72
2 x 8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€106.78
Club 3D Radeon HD 7950 13Series, 3GB GDDR5, AMD Radeon HD 7950, PCI- Express|€259.35
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1019.01

Lu Tze

Graphics card is overkill if not gaming, could save some money there, assuming he is willing to spend it the full budget i would be inclined to double the ram, the ASRock boards come with an easy to use ramdisk utility which should give a boost to performance if using large files etc.

Genghiz Cohen

Would putting less money into the graphics and more into an i7 help?

robdsherlock

any interest in * core amd variants?? 350 been the quickest. might be worth looking into as the 8350 is a main competitor of an i7 but a lot cheaper.
have a look into it anyway, plus maybe a quicker clock RAM stick? SSD I would pick the Samsung series. mobo, I would pick Asus but that's only as I prefer them to others and is only a personal preference. HDD looks good value, don't know the PSU or graphics as I don't have much knowledge on them.
That's just my opinion anywhoo:D

frozenfrozen

For best performance in photoshop, get the most amount of cores, 32gb ram, a fast SSD for your OS and photoshop, and a fast RAID array as that will be half of the bottleneck. I'd go for nvidia graphics as adobe loves cuda, too.

What sort of budget is there? Do they also have a good IPS monitor and proper peripherals? I know a couple of people who spent 2k+ on their "professional" systems for graphics but don't have a wacom or decent colour balanced monitor, or good mouse and keyboard... All of which are far more important than 15 seconds difference in saving files time.

BloodBath

An 8350 isn't far off a 3770k for the likes of photoshop and far better than the 3470. It's by far the best value and can be overclocked further.

If he's not gaming a 7950 is overkill. Something like the card below will still handle 3 monitors fine with easy connections and still have reasonably good gaming power if he decides to do a little gaming on it.

It will also be a lot quieter + I doubled the ssd space with a better ssd and upped the hdd to a faster 3tb one.

Item|Price
AMD FX-8350 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€180.24
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.29
Gigabyte GA-970-UD3, AMD 970, AM3+, ATX|€79.79
16GB-Kit G.Skill Sniper PC3-14900U CL10|€110.97
Samsung SSD 840 250GB SATA 6Gb/s|€148.00
Seagate Barracuda 7200 3000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€113.39
Cooltek Antiphon Black, ohne Netzteil|€64.00
Samsung SH-224BB bare schwarz|€17.19
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W|€53.45
ASUS HD7790-DC2OC-1GD5, Radeon HD 7790, 1GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort|€132.49
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€947.80

Dubwat

**Not an expert**

http://www.pfeifferreport.com/AdobeCS5_Photoshop64bit_Rep.pdf
This Adobe-commissioned report about CS5 reckons that there are huge benefits upto 16Gb of RAM but only marginal improvements after that.

http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace/2012/10/how-to-tune-photoshop-cs6-for-peak-performance.html
CS6 can now use the graphics card for extra power so it might be worth gettting a decent, rather than top-flight, graphics card? That link also has suggestions on scratch disks etc.

I'd also suggest budgeting for your photo backup solution now rather than later!!

Sup08

BloodBath wrote: »

An 8350 isn't far off a 3770k for the likes of photoshop and far better than the 3470. It's by far the best value and can be overclocked further.

If he's not gaming a 7950 is overkill. Something like the card below will still handle 3 monitors fine with easy connections and still have reasonable good gaming power if he decides to do a little gaming on it.

It will also be a lot quieter + I doubled the ssd space with a better ssd and upped the hdd to a faster 3tb one.

Item|Price
AMD FX-8350 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€180.24
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.29
Gigabyte GA-970-UD3, AMD 970, AM3+, ATX|€79.79
16GB-Kit G.Skill Sniper PC3-14900U CL10|€110.97
Samsung SSD 840 250GB SATA 6Gb/s|€148.00
Seagate Barracuda 7200 3000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€113.39
Cooltek Antiphon Black, ohne Netzteil|€64.00
Samsung SH-224BB bare schwarz|€17.19
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W|€53.45
ASUS HD7790-DC2OC-1GD5, Radeon HD 7790, 1GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort|€132.49
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€947.80

Thanks for this. Rendering photos is all this machine will be doing. Never gaming and will only have an OS and photoshop with one other photo manipulation software. Rendering is the big thing as he want to be able to render 150-200 photos at a time.

BloodBath

You might need another sata cable, I'm not sure how many come with that mainboard. There's usually at least 2 with most boards.

robdsherlock

if you could upgrade that mobo to the Gigabyte GA-990FXA-D3, AMD 980FX, AM3+, ATX, I think going from the 970 to the 990fx will complement the 8350 better IMO, and for an extra €30. or even the Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3, AMD 980FX, AM3+, ATX for €2 more
what ye reckon?

sorry I dont know how to link to HWVS

tuxy

robdsherlock wrote: »

I think going from the 970 to the 990fx will complement the 8350 better IMO, and for an extra €30.

Do you know the difference between the two chipsets?
Do you think he is going to need the extra PCI-E speed for crossfire?
There is no way he will need a multi GPU setup at any stage now or in the future.

frozenfrozen

Dubwat wrote: »

**Not an expert**

http://www.pfeifferreport.com/AdobeCS5_Photoshop64bit_Rep.pdf
This Adobe-commissioned report about CS5 reckons that there are huge benefits upto 16Gb of RAM but only marginal improvements after that.

Photoshop needs RAM to not have to use cache drives, if you run out of your ram operating at 5GB transfer read and write, you're reduced to your 500mb up and down SSD. Not fun or fast. Just checking my usage now and I've got 17gb used up, and I'm not even making anything for print at 600dpi at the moment!

BloodBath

I don't think it will make any difference, he could still get 5ghz on that board.

Maybe not with the 212 evo but it shouldn't be too far off.

robdsherlock

tuxy wrote: »

Do you know the difference between the two chipsets?
Do you think he is going to need the extra PCI-E speed for crossfire?
There is no way he will need a multi GPU setup at any stage now or in the future.

I do know the difference between them yes.

I don't know if he needs multi GPU because I don't do rendering,I dont know if two GPU set-ups are better/worse than one. but I do know about components and I am trying to advise him on parts to get, IF there is a higher performance part for little difference in money, why would you not make him aware of it?? I imagine for rendering you need high performance components, correct? admitted I'm no expert but I would have thought with it been Image based, good graphics setup would be needed. obviously not, and thanks for the info, ya learn something new everyday!:)

tuxy

robdsherlock wrote: »

IF there is a higher performance part for little difference in money, why would you not make him aware of it??

But there is no difference in performance between the two chipsets. The more expensive one just supports an additional 16x pci-e slot.
It would have been better to ask the OP if an extra 16x pci-e slot was required.

Saying " the 990fx will complement the 8350 better" is just misleading and false info.
It would be like saying a motherboard with a thunderbolt connection is a good match for an i7

Sorry this is way off topic and the OP seems to be on track to getting the right build

Serephucus

I'd go with Bloodbath's build, swapping in this GPU instead of the 7790 to take advantage of CUDA for Photoshop.

indough

also bear in mind future adobe products will also make better use of amdcards if you plan on keeping uptodate software. but we dont know how well they will perform yet

BloodBath

I thought photoshop had opencl support already. Depends which version you're using I guess.

tuxy

BloodBath wrote: »

I thought photoshop had opencl support already. Depends which version you're using I guess.

Yeah as of Photoshop CS6 it supports both opengl and opencl so both nvidia and amd card work.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Photoshop-CS6-GPU-Acceleration-161/

The 7750 looks like great value for someone who uses photoshop regularly.
It's not like gaming, the budget cards seem to keep up wit the high end cards.

BloodBath

Might as well go for a 7750 if using CS6 then. It's only €75 for this one.

Scratch that. That's a ddr3 model. This one then.

That would leave enough in the budget to go to 32gb of ram if it's needed.

Seems a bit much to me even for video editing.

Case is available in silver or white as well.

Gumbi

BloodBath wrote: »

Might as well go for a 7750 if using CS6 then. It's only €75 for this one.

Scratch that. That's a ddr3 model. This one then.

That would leave enough in the budget to go to 32gb of ram if it's needed.

Seems a bit much to me even for video editing.

Case is available in silver or white as well.

Definitely a bit much, especially considering how RAM prices are going these days.

BloodBath

Well it depends what you're doing in photoshop I guess. Some people will need it, others won't.

Gumbi

BloodBath wrote: »

Well it depends what you're doing in photoshop I guess. Some people will need it, others won't.

Fair enough. I get the feeling, though, that people who need that much will know they need that much, instead of going by the logic of "as much as I can fit in my budget".

Serephucus

^ That's generally the case, yeah.

Sup08

Thank for all the input guys.

OK should I settle on this build. Personally I always used Intel, but always wanted a bulldozer, pity it won't be mine. BTW this will never be OC.
Only want a 2tb HDD in it as most will be backed up externally.

Item|Price
AMD FX-8350 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€180.24
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.29
Gigabyte GA-970-UD3, AMD 970, AM3+, ATX|€79.79
2 x 16GB-Kit G.Skill Sniper PC3-14900U CL10|€221.94
Samsung SH-224BB bare schwarz|€17.19
BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower USB 3.0 black, ohne Netzteil|€53.03
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 650W|€75.72
WD Caviar Green 2TB Sata 6Gb/s|€86.09
Samsung SSD 840 250GB SATA 6Gb/s|€148.00
XFX Radeon HD 7750 Core Edition, 1GB GDDR5|€85.04
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€995.32

Sup08

Also went with the BitFenix as I have this case myself and has 2 x 3.0 USB ports on the top.

Gumbi

If not OCing (free 25 percent plus increase in CPU speed, why say no to that?), then why the 212 EVO and the OCable mobo?

tuxy

Gumbi wrote: »

If not OCing (free 25 percent plus increase in CPU speed, why say no to that?), then why the 212 EVO and the OCable mobo?

It take many hours to be sure an overclock is stable. When building a PC for someone else you may not have that much time.
No need for the 212 EVO
450 watt psu will be enough
I don't know anything about am3+ motherboard so can't comment on that

Gumbi

tuxy wrote: »

It take many hours to be sure an overclock is stable. When building a PC for someone else you may not have that much time.
No need for the 212 EVO
450 watt psu will be enough
I don't know anything about am3+ motherboard so can't comment on that

Tru-ish. I mean, you can just tell someone to overclock their 3570k on stock voltages to 4.0ghz. That's easy. And a decent boost in speed.

tuxy

Gumbi wrote: »

Tru-ish. I mean, you can just tell someone to overclock their 3570k on stock voltages to 4.0ghz. That's easy. And a decent boost in speed.

Would you give that advice to someone who does not know what a bios is?
Can the AMD CPU be overclocked by just changing the multiplier? Isn't there more steps?

Gumbi

tuxy wrote: »

Would you give that advice to someone who does not know what a bios is?
Can the AMD CPU be overclocked by just changing the multiplier? Isn't there more steps?

That's why I said tru-ish :P I completely take your point on the AMD side.

BloodBath

The cooler is as much for noise levels as it is overclocking. As was the choice of case. The cooltek is noise dampened and comes with 3 fans opposed to the 1 with the shinobi.

You could save money on the board if you wanted though. Most of the lower end boards don't have a usb 3 header for the front/top usbs though.

Sup08

BloodBath wrote: »

The cooler is as much for noise levels as it is overclocking. As was the choice of case. The cooltek is noise dampened and comes with 3 fans opposed to the 1 with the shinobi.

You could save money on the board if you wanted though. Most of the lower end boards don't have a usb 3 header for the front/top usbs though.

Thanks, will consider the case change, but don't need the cooler so will probably use the stock one. Thank for the input and will post it when built.

Snowie

FX 8350 is an amazing peace of kit for its money i use it with photoshop light room bridge and well so far ive rendered 10,000 raw images into DNGs and its been nothing but a trooper its very snappy in photoshop light manipulation is amazing.. Well for its money.

My Mobo is a Asus 990 fx sabertooth r2.0 and im so happy with it id probably say save your money on two things like the case and the cooler master cpu cooker and maybe go for water cooling.

But 32 gb of ram seems a little overkill or maybe im just jealous :pac:
but yep bang for buck you cant go wrong with 8350 :cool: id drop the ram to 16 and get a better cooling system and worry about the ram in the future

but ye 8350 is a whooper of a cpu for its cost good look

marco_polo

tuxy wrote: »

Would you give that advice to someone who does not know what a bios is?
Can the AMD CPU be overclocked by just changing the multiplier? Isn't there more steps?

Multiplier only overclocking is the exact same on CPUs labled as "Black Edition" for AMD. While only a few select phenoms models had such a version (955/965), I think every single one the newer FX series and a good chunk of the FM2 range are BE versions.

From what I have seen, without touching voltages, about 4.2 GHz would to be a reasonable enough expectation for overclocking most of the FX range.

Sup08

Bought today, transfer be done in the morning.
Thank for all the input guys.
Final build.

Item|Price
AMD FX-8350 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€181.27
Gigabyte GA-970-UD3, AMD 970, AM3+, ATX|€78.65
2 x 16GB-Kit G.Skill Sniper PC3-14900U CL10|€226.18
Samsung SH-224BB bare schwarz|€17.19
BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower USB 3.0 black, ohne Netzteil|€53.03
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 650W|€74.88
WD Caviar Green 2TB Sata 6Gb/s|€87.14
Samsung SSD 840 250GB SATA 6Gb/s|€137.99
XFX Radeon HD 7750 Core Edition, 1GB GDDR5|€85.04
Ultron Cardreader 75-in-1, intern, schwarz|€8.91
3 x Good Connections® SATA 6Gb/s Anschlusskabel mit Metallclip, 0,5m|€4.02
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€973.29

frozenfrozen

That's a lovely build now. Do you need the CD drive? could save 17 quid, I don't have one on my laptop or desktop and don't miss it, loud clunky slow things!

Sup08

Yes, need one for burning DVD's for clients to choose photos for their albums and portraits.

BloodBath

Great build but you could have saved €25 getting the psu I recommended originally . That system will use 300-350w max.

Could have saved some on the board as well since it's not being overclocked.

Sup08

BloodBath wrote: »

Great build but you could have saved €25 getting the psu I recommended originally . That system will use 300-350w max.

Could have saved some on the board as well since it's not being overclocked.

Thank for all the input, maybe in the future the owner might sell it on and with the extra power and OCable mobo it would be a good buy for someone that wants to overlclock and maybe add more graphics etc.

BloodBath

No problem.

True. He could even overclock it himself at some stage if he wanted a bit more power.

Sup08

Ok guys. All the parts came today but somehow the mobo does not recognise the ssd. I've changed the setting to AHCI but nothing.
I formatted the SSD in a drive dock and still nothing but it recognised all other drives.
Any ideas?

Gumbi

Sup08 wrote: »

Ok guys. All the parts came today but somehow the mobo does not recognise the ssd. I've changed the setting to AHCI but nothing.
I formatted the SSD in a drive dock and still nothing but it recognised all other drives.
Any ideas?

Are you sure both the SATA AND the power cable is connected?

Sup08

Gumbi wrote: »

Are you sure both the SATA AND the power cable is connected?

Yes. The drive shows up in the bios in IDE settings but doesn't show for the OS install.

tuxy

Sup08 wrote: »

Yes. The drive shows up in the bios in IDE settings but doesn't show for the OS install.

So it's window installer that does not detect it but the motherboard does?

In windows installer press shift+f10 to bring up a command prompt

type "diskpart"
then "list disk"

Both with out quotes

Is the SSD drive listed?

Sup08

tuxy wrote: »

So it's window installer that does not detect it but the motherboard does?

In windows installer press shift+f10 to bring up a command prompt

type "diskpart"
then "list disk"

Both with out quotes

Is the SSD drive listed?

Will try it this evening and let you know the result. Thanks

Sup08

Ok. DISKPART lists the ssd but says there is no free space but the size is 232gb. I formatted the disk before I put it in after trying it without a format.

tuxy

Try these commands

To use the command line to bring a disk online, create a partition, and format it, run the following commands:

List disk
Select disk n (where n is the number that was given for your SSD in List disk)
Clean
Create partition primary align=1024
Format fs=ntfs quick
Active

Sup08

tuxy wrote: »

Try these commands

To use the command line to bring a disk online, create a partition, and format it, run the following commands:

List disk
Select disk n (where n is the number that was given for your SSD in List disk)
Clean
Create partition primary align=1024
Format fs=ntfs quick
Active

Tuxy your a life saver.
Excellent stuff.
I had already ran the clean on the drive so went straight to the rest you listed.
Thanks a million.

tuxy

You're welcome, glad you got it sorted.