Input on my Lightroom Build?

[strydersilverton]

Greetings!

I have built a number of Gaming Systems, but this is a first for me. My buddy would like me to build a Lightroom PC for him to be used primarily for editing photo's and some light video work. After some research, this is my guess at a system. Would have the OS and Lightroom on the M2 as well as the lightroom catalog. Active photo's and video on the SSD with a RAID on the 4GB drives for long term backup. Does this look reasonable? Do I need to go 32gb on the RAM? Any thoughts and recommendations are welcome!

Stacy


CPU: Intel - Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI - Z170A GAMING M5 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Black 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Black 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card
Case: Fractal Design - Define R5 w/Window (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Asus - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit
Case Fan: Fractal Design - FD-FAN-SSR2-140 66.0 CFM 140mm Fan
Total: $2197.22

 

[kanewolf]

If I had to build today I would do an X99 build. More memory bandwidth and more cores. The X99 is getting old and will be replaced by the X299 later this year.

 

[envy14tpe]

Looks fine, but why not get a 7700k + Z270 + good liquid cooler? If he does it right he can hit 5.0GHz on overclocking. Nice boost to system. Also, get a case with better airflow since you have lots of drives.

 

[USAFRet]

I do a lot of the same stuff...Lightroom, photo processing, etc.
Hover over my avatar for current specs.

Changes:
Different CPU cooler - 5 years ago, the Hyper 212 might have been the goto. Today, there are better choices. Cryorig H7 or R5 Ultimate possibly.
HDD drives + RAID - Put those in a NAS box. Qnap or Synology.
RAM - Yes, increase it to 32GB.

 

[bambiboom]

Greetings!

I have built a number of Gaming Systems, but this is a first for me. My buddy would like me to build a Lightroom PC for him to be used primarily for editing photo's and some light video work. After some research, this is my guess at a system. Would have the OS and Lightroom on the M2 as well as the lightroom catalog. Active photo's and video on the SSD with a RAID on the 4GB drives for long term backup. Does this look reasonable? Do I need to go 32gb on the RAM? Any thoughts and recommendations are welcome!

Stacy

CPU: Intel - Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI - Z170A GAMING M5 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Black 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Black 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card
Case: Fractal Design - Define R5 w/Window (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Asus - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit
Case Fan: Fractal Design - FD-FAN-SSR2-140 66.0 CFM 140mm Fan
Total: $2197.22

Stacy,

A very smart component selection.

A couple of ideas:

CPU: Most Adobe applications are poorly multi-threaded and the important functions rely on the single-core performance, so a fast 4-core makes sense. Puget Systems configure their systems according the to the software used and their Lightroom oriented system is not dissimilar to the proposed system, having an i7-7700K instead of i7-6700. Given the small difference in cost, I'd say that would be worth the expense as the i7-7700K does have the highest single-thread potential of any CPU today.

CPU Cooling: For efficient and quiet CPU cooling, consider the Noctua NH-D15 SSO2 D-Type Premium CPU Cooler, NF-A15 x 2 PWM Fans > $88 There is also a Noctua 12.

Large and a bit expensive, but has a high thermal efficiency and is rated to be very quiet. Image effects, (particularly After Effects) processing can be running every thread at 100% over a long period.

Case: On the subject of quiet, consider a noise surpressing case,for example: Thermaltake Suppressor F31 ATX Mid Tower Tt LCS Certified Gaming Silent Computer Case CA-1E3-00M1NN-00 > $100

RAM: Also, as photos today can be 400MB and more, consider using 2X 16GB to start, completing one channel but leaving two RAM slots open for the future potential of 64GB. Recently, when making 3180 X 2160 renderings of a 152MB 3D model, VRay required 37.1GB of RAM during setup and then settled down to 18.9GB for the actual rendering. When editing / resizing / color correcting 10 of the resulting images and the System+ Sketchup + AutoCad + Photoshop + Browser + Corel Technical Designer were using 17GB. For workstation use, in which there is higher compute / memory bandwidth ratio, consider dropping back one or two speeds- perhaps 2666 or even the native 2400. If you notice, the Puget Systems Lightroom system offers 16, 32, and 64GB options for the RAM, but all the options are running at 2400.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

HP z620_2 (2017) > Xeon E5-1680 v2 (8-core@ 4.1GHz) / 64GB DDR3-1866 ECC Reg / Quadro P2000 5GB / HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 256GB + Intel 730 480GB + Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB / ASUS Essence STX PCIe sound card / 825W PSU / Windows 7 Prof.’l 64-bit > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) / Logitech z2300 2.1 Sound

[Passmark Rating = 6166 / CPU rating = 16934 / 2D = 820 / 3D= 8849 / Mem = 2991 / Disk = 13794] 4.24.17 Single Thread Mark = 2252