Build Advice New build for Photography, Streaming and Internet ?

[goatfarmer]

Hi everyone!

I have an ancient build that has served me well for over 16 years since I built it in 2008:

CPU: E8400
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP35-DS3L
Memory: 4 GB DDR2
Video Card: 8800GT PCI-e
Hard Drive: 500MB SATA II
Case: Antec 900

I upgraded to theses components about 4 years ago to string it along:

CPU: Q9400(Overclocked to 3.3)
Memory: 8GB DDR2
Hard Drive: 500GB SSD

I have a 32" TV connected via a DVI-D to HDMI cable, as well as a 1080p 22" monitor via DVD-D.

I have recently gotten into photography. Thus, I will need a system for photo editing and storage. This system will also be used for streaming video, movies, and online events. It will not be used for gaming. It will be used for internet surfing and Microsoft applications too.

Basically, it will need to function for photo editing and streaming simultaneously. I am also looking to add/upgrade monitors/TV and possibly run up to three simultaneously.

Due to age, about the only useful components will be the 500gb SSD drive and possibly the case. Although, I might turn this old system into a server with Linux for cloud storage,

Looking for suggestions for a build to suffice for the above. Would like to spend around $500-$750 USD(if that is even possible) for the system components alone and not including monitor/TV upgrades. The less the better.

Wondering if something like this would suffice?

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X /5600G or Ryzen 7 5700X
Motherboard: AM4 B550
Memory: 32GB DDR4
Video Card: ????? (Need at least three outputs for system)
Hard Drives: one for dedicated system drive(500GB?)
2-4TB of drives for photo storage
Video Card: ?????
Case: ?????
Power Supply: Is 650W Gold + enough?
Monitor: What size and specs for photo editing

Thank you for suggestions!

 

[Darkbreeze]

What country are you in and what is your max budget?

WHICH type of video outputs MUST you have? Like, two HDMI, one DP. Three HDMI. Whatever it is you need. Assuming you intend to continue using the tv, plus the current monitor, plus a new monitor? I'd probably recommend like a 27-32" 1440p monitor if you don't want to spend a bunch of money on a 4k unit.

 

[Misgar]

I have recently gotten into photography. Thus, I will need a system for photo editing and storage.

Do you have any thoughts as to which photo editing software you'll be using (if any)?

The 5600X is perfectly acceptable for modern apps such as "full blown" Photoshop and Lightroom, but these days Adobe charges a monthly fee for their use. If you have an old copy of stand-alone Photoshop CS6 or CS5.1/5.5 that will suffice.

You might be better off purchasing a copy of Photoshop Elements, to avoid Adobe's monthly subscription fees. There are alternative free programs such as The Gimp.

If you own a camera from one of the big manufacturers, Canon, Nikon, Sony, et al, you can download their free programs instead of paying for Adobe apps.

Complex filters in Photoshop benefit from a fast graphics card, but a low to mid-range GPU is fine if you're prepared to wait a few more seconds for tasks to finish.

Hard Drives: one for dedicated system drive(500GB?)

Hopefully you'll be using an SSD and not a hard disk drive for your system drive (Windows?). 500GB is more than enough for Windows and a whole bunch of programs. If your B550 motherboard has an M.2 slot for NVMe drives, there's a wide choice of inexpensive 480GB and 512GB NVMe drives.

2-4TB of drives for photo storage

I use spinning hard disks for the bulk of my photo storage. Capacity depends on the number of photos you already have in your collection and how many you intend to take in near future.

If you start shooting in RAW, you'll need 3x more storage capacity than if you stick to JPG, but RAW is the way to go if you want to extract more detail from dark shadows and "blown" highlights.

I set my cameras to shoot RAW + JPG so I end up with two photos each time I press the button.

JPG is fine for normal use, but in difficult scenes, with washed out highlights or dark murky shadows, RAW saves the day. Open Photoshop, click Auto and hidden detail magically appears in highlights and shadows. RAW files contain additional detail discarded when cameras create heavily compressed JPG files.

Power Supply: Is 650W Gold + enough?

650W will be plenty for any GPU that fits inside your budget. Something like a Corsair RM650 would be my pick. It has a 6+2 pin +12V power lead for a mid-range GPU card.

Monitor: What size and specs for photo editing

Professional photo editing monitors are big and very expensive ($1000's). You could get away with a 24" screen, but 27" is better.

I use an old second-hand 30" Dell 16:10 aspect ratio monitor (from eBay) because modern 16:9 aspect ratio monitors are less suited to the 3:2 (36mm x 24mm) ratio of my full frame DSLR image sensors. If you shoot 16:9 images, that won't affect you.

Case: ?????

I buy old Lian Li and Cooler Master Aluminium cases on eBay with plenty of bays for 3.5" hard disk drives and the occasional Blu-ray or DVD Writer. Fractal Design do a good range cases and my R5 mid-size case contains 8 hard disks (running TrueNAS Core).

If you take enough (too many) photos and videos, a 4TB hard disk will soon fill up. Whatever you decide on, make sure to backup all important files to at least two other hard disks, USB devices, the cloud, optical disc, etc. If your computer gets hit by lightning (I've suffered two strikes) or is attacked by Ransomware, you be glad you made backups.