First bulld for photo-editing

[Meekyman]

Everyone,

I am a photographer generating scanned images of around 0.5GB and digital images of around 25MB. I use Capture Nikon NX2 (notoriously slow) and photoshop elements for editing. I do not take video and am not a gamer. I understand that neither editing programmes uses advanced graphics cards that much and so plan on going with the integrated CPU graphics. I am purchasing a monitor which incidentally is a 10 bit panel and so would like displayport in order to be able to use this in the future - neither editing software I use at the moment supports 10 bit.

I don't want to constantly upgrade and would like a computer to last me 5-6 years. I have looked at three UK vendors who build systems and have come up with the following:

Case

FRACTAL DEFINE R4 BLACK PEARL QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4670 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache Motherboard
ASUS® Z87-PRO: USB3.0, SATA 6GB/S, XFIRE, SLi, WiFi
16GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB) Memory (RAM)
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
650W FSP RAIDER SERIES RA-650 80 PLUS® BRONZE (£59)
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
2 x 12CM Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof) (£9)
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)
USB Options

MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Is this OK? Balanced? Room for expansion in the future (e.g graphics card)?

How do I connect the CPU displayport to the monitor displayport input?

Thanks

Graham

 

[USAFRet]

Main issue is that you have a non-OC CPU paired with an OC motherboard. Consider changing one or the other. Possibly the Asus H87 instead of the Z87.

For the DisplayPort? Just need a displayport cable.

 

[bambiboom]

Graham,

As far as I can see those are very good choices all through- motherboard, SSD (Intel are said to be long with Samsung the most fuss-free) and the WD. The Haswell CPU's improved the integrated graphics and the Intel HD4600 on a good system using Passmark baselines can outperform in 2D dedicated cards like GTX 670. The 3D is not the ultimate, but would still be competent for some 3D modeling such as Sketchup.

You can see in the detail photo in the link below. the labeled Displayport connection in the back panel of the ASUS Z87-PRO LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard >

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131979

My concern though is whether this system could be sufficiently expanded in terms of significantly improved image quality as even upgrading to Photoshop CS will not necessarily provide > 10-bit color, processing, high anti-aliasing, subtle color and shadow gradients, and so on. The i5 Haswells, while they have HD 4600 and virtualization technology, they do not support hyper-threading which is very useful for effects processing and especially for any future that includes rendering.

For a system that, in my view, would be a better long term prospect in terms of professional image quality capabilities, I would suggest a Xeon > ECC error correcting RAM > Quadro system >

BambiBoom PixelDozer PhotogCadagrapharific Blazomatic Modelrama IV ®™$#©™_6.30.13


1. Intel Xeon E3-1270 V2 Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 69W Quad-Core Server Processor BX80637E31270V2 > $344

2. COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler > $35.

3. ASUS P8B WS LGA 1155 Intel C206 ATX Intel Xeon E3 Server/Workstation Motherboard > $230.

4. Kingston 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333 Server Memory Model KVR1333D3E9SK2/16G > $160.

5. NVIDIA Quadro K600 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Workstation Video Card $160.

6. SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD128BW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $150.

7. Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive > $90

8. SeaSonic M12II 520 Bronze 520W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply > $80

9. ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM $17.

10. LIAN LI PC-7HX Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $100.

11. Microsoft Windows 8 Professional 64-bit (Full Version) - OEM $140


TOTAL= about $1,450.

Sorry about the US $ prices- knowing UK prices a bit, I would imagine this to cost about £1,300. The Quadro K600 may not necessarily perform better in 2D or even 3D then the HD46000 but the drivers are specialized for Adobe, as well as Solidworks, and Autodesk programs and such a system will be artifact free, have 10 bit color, and the hyperthreading can improve processing , resizing, and so on time. This would have a reasonable rendering capability too and with a higher level Quadro, 3D modeling and rendering.

Just a thought.

Cheers,

BambiBoom


[ Dell Precision T5400 > 2X Xeon X5460 quad core @3.16GHz > 16 GB ECC > Quadro. FX 4800 (1.5GB) > WD RE4 / Segt Brcda 500GB > Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit > AutoCad, Revit, Solidworks 2010, Sketchup Pro, Corel Technical Designer, Adobe. CS4 MC, WordP Office, MS Office ]

 

[Meekyman]

Thanks folks.

BambiBoom, you clearly put a lot of thought into your answer...I was lost a little and am now looking up multi-threading, at the least! I looked up one supplier of Xeon systems and their basic kit came in at £1300, as you suggested! I am really a little overwhelmed.

In my original choice, is the MOBO OC and how do you tell?

Cheers

Graham

 

[bambiboom]

Graham,

The system I listed last time was from a group of workstation solutions that I made a couple of weeks past. I've discussed workstations on this forum so often that for efficiency I quickly made a list for seven workstation systems between $850 and $17,000 that specialized in various kinds of tasks and for different levels of cost. The Xeon E3- 1270 V2 has a particularly good cost / performance ration and in combination with ECC RAM and workstation cards has those considerable benefits for graphic work. And, not necessarily at a substantial rise in costs.

An important benefit of the Xeon E3 above the i5[ though it requires a dedicated graphics card -will be in multi-threaded applications as mutli-threading in effect fills in slack time in the cores so that it's getting full benefit. A quad core CPU is really seen as having more or less eight cores. this makes a big difference in rendering. Those who render constantly will buy Xeon systems using two CPU's to have as many cores as possible. When I run renderings- I have a dual quad-core Xeon system giving eight cores and sixteen threads- the time difference between using four threads and the twelve I typically use is very noticeable. I've not measured it, but it does seem like it's three times faster. The multi-threading is not very extensive- rendering and animation mainly, but for a future-looking system having many threads will more and more utilized. I think in three years or so there will be a substantial number of imaging applications that use it.

GPU acceleration is another strong trend with an increasing number of imaging application using it>

http://www.nvidia.com/object/gpu-accelerated-applications.html

- and note that in your realm Adobe Photoshop and etc.

As for overclocking on the ASUS Z87 Pro, it was born for it >

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z87-haswell-motherboard-review,3524-6.html

Anyway , it's a complex equation and I thought I might only add a workstation alternative to the mix.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

"No matter your wealth, power, or friends, the cheapest things in life are free."