Build Complete Build advice for Lightroom 90%/Photoshop 10%

[mojo-cutter]

The PC will only be used for editing and storing photos in LR/PS. No gaming. This is a hobby for me, where I’m willing to spend money on.
My previous build from 2018 (https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/upgrade-pc-for-photo-editing-lightroom.3566123/ ) is now to slow, especially with the new AI-features like denoising in LR.

I‘m planing a new build and will only reuse my SSDs and one nvme:
- Crucial CT1000MX500SSD1
- Crucial CT500MX500SSD1 (Win 11)
- Crucial CT2000MX500SSD1
- Crucial CT4000P3PSSD8 (Gen3 NVMe) (LR)
- Crucial CT4000MX500SSD1
A NAS (old Synology 211 and an external HD) for back-ups are in use.

I’m definitely not looking for the cheapest possible system, but for good quality for the price payed. My requirement would be in that order:
Reliability, Durability, Speed (for LR), Noise (less of course)

I read a little bit at Puget System. It seems Intel has a marginal lead on AMD and came up with this first draft:

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/xxMHHG

My problem is that e.g. when choosing a motherboard, like a Z790, there are so many, that I get confused. I want to go with DDR5, possibility to expand nvme-storage, definitely no OC, reliable and hopefully lasts 6-8 years.
Even so I like to tinker, I’m by far no expert. That said I would really appreciate concrete advice and not „any Z790“ will do or „xy has good coolers“, because than I‘m as lost as now.

If more information is needed for good advice, please just ask.
Thanks in advance.

 

[NedSmelly]

Looks fine to me. Probably only comment I have is that PS/LR is beginning to leverage the GPU more for neural filters, so a 4070 Super or higher might be worth considering if you intend to use them a lot.

Benchmark für LR - KI-Entrauschen

Hallo zusammen, ich habe einen kleinen Benchmark aufgestzt, um festzustellen welche Hardware aktuell bei LrC (Adobe Lightroom Classic) den größten Einfluß auf das KI-Entrauschen hat. Anleitung: ZIP herunterladen: https://www.digicam-beratung.de/pic/Benchmark-4.zip Katalog öffnen alle 4 Bilder...

www.computerbase.de

 

[mojo-cutter]

Looks fine to me. Probably only comment I have is that PS/LR is beginning to leverage the GPU more for neural filters, so a 4070 Super or higher might be worth considering if you intend to use them a lot.

Benchmark für LR - KI-Entrauschen

Hallo zusammen, ich habe einen kleinen Benchmark aufgestzt, um festzustellen welche Hardware aktuell bei LrC (Adobe Lightroom Classic) den größten Einfluß auf das KI-Entrauschen hat. Anleitung: ZIP herunterladen: https://www.digicam-beratung.de/pic/Benchmark-4.zip Katalog öffnen alle 4 Bilder...

www.computerbase.de

I actually used that Benchmark and my old system had 6 min 20 sec. The faster Systems clock around 20-30 sec.

 

[mojo-cutter]

I‘d love clarification of a couple of question.

1. for my build of a content-PC (LR/PS) with all the constrains these Adobe programs bring: since one of the constrains of the programs are access to where the program, the scratch disk and the actual fotos are stored, there are recommendations to use 3 separate locations for these parts, so that, while accessing these, there are no bottlenecks (that‘s my understanding and it may be wrong - please correct if that is so. Source: https://www.beyondphototips.com/how-to-set-up-photoshop-and-lightroom-to-work-well-with-your-ssds/ Quote „One way to do this is by having multiple fast drives delivering data to the processor, RAM and GPU via dedicated data streams“
   My question: Would it make sense to use than faster PCIe5 and three nvme Gen5 to achieve that goal and be good for the next couple of years?
2. This leads to my second question: when looking for motherboards who support PCIe5 (and Thunderbolt for fast transfer to external HD) (https://geizhals.de/?cat=mbp4_1700&xf=17969_tb4exist%7E19225_2%7E317_Z790%7E493_4x+DDR5+DIMM%7E7977_6000%7E8405_PCIe+5.0+x4 ) I came upon this thread:
   https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...and-m2-drive-gen5-question-on-config.3838064/
   Please excuse my ignorance: Does that mean, that after putting a GPU in, I can‘t use the nvme -Slots in PCIe5, but „only“ in PCIe4?
3. That leads me to my final question: When looking at the specs of the selection of Mobo (https://geizhals.de/?cat=mbp4_1700&xf=17969_tb4exist%7E19225_2%7E317_Z790%7E493_4x+DDR5+DIMM%7E7977_6000%7E8405_PCIe+5.0+x4 ) is my selection even correct and is there a Mobo who supports a GPU and 3 nvme Gen5?

This is the build I came up with the above: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/rLWkN6

 

[NedSmelly]

Question 1:
IMHO there's no "best" answer as it depends on your workflow. Working professionally, I generate a new file folder and LR catalog for every new client session as this helps me keep track of them for when clients ask me for copies 1,2, or 5+ years later. The catalog lives in the same folder as the image files. This means sacrificing a little performance, but it's nothing compared to time wasted searching for old images in one giant monolithic catalog. It also means I can drag a session folder onto a portable drive and take it with me. As well as a corrupted catalog not taking the whole shebang down with it.

I have tested running LR catalog on HDD vs SSD, and it's honestly not that huge a performance difference.

Adobe themselves recommend that, for Photoshop, the scratch disk is NOT shared with the boot or application drive.

My current professional setup is NVMe C: drive with OS and apps (PCIe 4), NVMe D: drive with scratch disk & preview caches (PCIe 3), and various archive drives (E:, NAS, portables all backed up in triplicate) for the client session image files and LR catalogs. The performance bottleneck in my editing is the organic neural network seated opposite the screen.

Questions 2 & 3:
Seems the consensus at the moment is that PCIE 5 in consumer-level PCs is immature tech: for the concerns you raised (compromised GPU lanes) as well as thermals/heat and little real-world improvement for the trouble right now. See that linked PC Gamer article for the CPU-chipset gymnastics you need to perform to get your PCIe 5 lane fix.

Would it make sense to use than faster PCIe5 and three nvme Gen5

Not possible with a consumer board, if you want all the lanes. Quoting PC World: "...if you have an Alder Lake processor [i.e. Intel 12th Gen] and a PCIe 5.0 x4 NVMe M.2 slot, your graphics card slot will only operate at half speed with a PCIe x8 connection." But AMD AM5 and Intel 13th/14th Gen should permit PCIe 5 x16 for GPU and one PCIe 5 x4 M.2 SSD. And chances are that if you use a PCIe 5 SSD it'll be your boot drive, which won't be used for scratch disk / cache / catalog / data anyway.

Thunderbolt, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 and USB4 is really only of concern if you are desperate for 20Gbps (2.5GB/s theoretical) or faster transfer. To be fair, that's kinda overkill for majority of digital still imaging work. Especially LR, where IMHO the bottleneck is the trash Adobe code and not your hardware.

 

[mojo-cutter]

@NedSmelly : Wow. Thanks for your advice and workflow. I‘m just an amateur and it seems that I’m overthinking the whole build .

 

[Silas Sanchez]

Basically a fairly powerful CPU, I have the 7950x which is overkill for photowork but will remain powerful for many years to come. New, good core count, high clock speeds basically.

DDR5 Ram should be lowest latency like CL30-32, no need to OC anything, my stock 4800MHz corsair ram is fast enough for anything, faster speeds like 6000 make no noticeable diff. Only use two sticks not four.

I use ASUS proart x670e which has two PCIe 5 nvme slots and 3 USB-C (2 40Gb/s) ports on rear. Its pricy but will last years to come as far as function.
The USB-c slots are used for fast external nvme drives that with a enclosure with a 40Gb/s controller can do up to 3000MB/s read/write speeds. So 3 additional usb-c slots allow for alot of drives like video & photo & hubs.

As far as storage drives go just get PCIe 4 nvme, no need for Gen 5 as they offer nothing of any use. The real thing you need with nvme is random read/writes which gen 4 match gen 5. Go samsung pro 4TB as example as they are very fast and good. Avoid Crucial Gen 5 at all costs as they have issues that cant be solved by firmware & bios upgrades.

I use the one single drive for OS, scratch disks, cache etc and they are so dam fast it doesn't matter. Thats the beauty of nvme, none of this nonsense need separate drives for this and that

For reliability, geta big case with good cooling design, good noctua cpu cooler, top tier PSU, stock up on spares like mobo. Have a good data back up plan.

But sadly you are at the mercy of the awful state of windows and bloated software today.

 

[mojo-cutter]

Since not everything was in stock, I had to change some items. I hope not for the worse. I just ordered the following: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/Rsqjz6

@Silas Sanchez “…have a good back up plan…“ I definitely have to work on that one. I‘m way to sloppy with bu. That will be my next project!