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.

 

[goatfarmer]

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.

United States,

Video outputs do not really matter. Right now, I use adapter cables for things, although that is not preferred. If I keep my current monitor(s) and TV, I would need HDMI and DVD-I. Wouldn't be adverse to all HDMI or Display Port.

Thanks for the monitor recommendation!

 

[goatfarmer]

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.

I was going to use Photoshop and Lightroom, but as you said, do not like the monthly fee. Am up to trying alternatives. I use a Canon, so they have their own software, but I have yet to delve into it.

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.


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.

I have a 500GB Crucial SATA SSD. I also have an old WD 500GB 7200RPM SATA drive(spinning). I use the former for boot drive and programs, and the latter for storage.

I shoot in RAW+JPG, so as you have mentioned, I will need a lot of storage.

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.


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.

Thanks for the monitor recommendations. I am out of touch on them and TV, having not bought new ones in a decade.

I am wondering if I could "get away" with using my old Antec 900 case. It is very big and bulky(which isn't an issue) but has tons of space for hard drives and an optical drive.

 

[goatfarmer]

I put this together real quick. I was looking to spend in the $500 USD range, which this exceeds.

The $0.00 items are current parts that can be reused.

I was also wondering if my old Antec Nine Hundred case would suffice to save a bit of money on a new case?

Any more economic video cards that I could use instead? Or, would a CPU with onboard graphics suffice instead of an independent GPU?


https://pcpartpicker.com/list/xTn4qH

 

[Darkbreeze]

United States,

Video outputs do not really matter. Right now, I use adapter cables for things, although that is not preferred. If I keep my current monitor(s) and TV, I would need HDMI and DVD-I. Wouldn't be adverse to all HDMI or Display Port.

Thanks for the monitor recommendation!

And what is your desired maximum budget for everything you need? Realistically. And if this is something you don't plan to do until like a few months down the road, then I'd recommend you just wait until you are ready to purchase because anything we recommend now will almost certainly have entirely different prices and likely other parts will be better options by that time. PC part prices fluctuate so rapidly and so dramatically that it makes no sense to spec anything out more than a few days or at most a couple of weeks before you're ready to buy. Sometimes, even the next day is too long.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I put this together real quick. I was looking to spend in the $500 USD range, which this exceeds.

The $0.00 items are current parts that can be reused. I was also wondering if my old Antec Nine Hundred case would suffice to save a bit of money on a new case?

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/cpugoat/saved/GPcqhM

Your part list is private. You need to make it public or simply make the build on the main PCPP page and link to that without saving it as a personal build.

System Builder

pcpartpicker.com

 

[goatfarmer]

Your part list is private. You need to make it public or simply make the build on the main PCPP page and link to that without saving it as a personal build.

System Builder

pcpartpicker.com

Corrected in original post.

 

[goatfarmer]

And what is your desired maximum budget for everything you need? Realistically. And if this is something you don't plan to do until like a few months down the road, then I'd recommend you just wait until you are ready to purchase because anything we recommend now will almost certainly have entirely different prices and likely other parts will be better options by that time. PC part prices fluctuate so rapidly and so dramatically that it makes no sense to spec anything out more than a few days or at most a couple of weeks before you're ready to buy. Sometimes, even the next day is too long.

Looking to purchase before Christmas. Thus the next few weeks. I have been contemplating for 10 months now. And as you have said, prices fluctuate as I have seen. Not always in a good way.............

 

[Darkbreeze]

I'll take a closer look and offer an alternative build later today when I get back, but for now I can tell you that you probably absolutely want to avoid that Intel based Sparkle graphics card. You can do much better probably for less going with an AMD or Nvidia option. And, likely see much better video processing performance out of either of those options as well. Few other tweaks I saw immediately but will recommend better when I get back.

 

[Darkbreeze]

To begin with, you absolutely don't want to try and roll the dice on those Vengeance LPX sticks working with that, or any Ryzen motherboard. In my experience and from the vast number of instances I've seen on this and other forums where basically almost all Ryzen motherboards didn't want to play nice with Corsair Vengeance LPX sticks, I'd highly recommend avoiding them. Sure, there are likely some success stories using them on some motherboards, but having seen so many instances where they either wouldn't work at all or there were significant problems, it is not worth the risk.

Second, you have no CPU cooler included. True, you CAN use the stock cooler, but I'd advise against it especially since you plan to do some CPU intensive work including photography/video editing, streaming, etc., if you like to keep your sanity. Because, the stock coolers for all of the Ryzen models that come with one, while adequate, barely, will drive you insane with their ceaseless ramping up and down and loud operation during intense workloads. This 18 dollar cooler solves that without breaking a sweat.

The motherboard you chose IS slightly better than the one I picked, however, the areas in which it is slightly better are really not relevant to your use case. With only a 5600x CPU you really don't need to have the minutely better VRM configuration because that CPU simply isn't going to push the VRMs anyhow. If you like that board and don't mind spending a little extra for it, that's totally your call, but for your use case I think the Prime B550-Plus is more than adequate and is a solid low cost option.

I threw in a 1TB SSD instead of the 1TB mechanic hard drive you chose, because, well, it's a hell of a lot faster and is only five bucks more. Doesn't make much sense to chose a HDD these days unless you're opting for very large storage capacity.

I also chose the Teamgroup G50 M.2 NVME drive over the Crucial P3 Plus you chose because the P3 Plus uses QLC NAND memory, which has a significantly lower lifespan than the TLC NAND used in the G50, and only a 250TB written lifespan spec while the G50 has a 650 TB written lifespan and also has a much faster max sequential write speed. And is cheaper.

I chose an Nvidia RTX 3050 8GB graphics card because it has better 3D performance but more importantly it has a MUCH higher 2D performance, which is what you'll mostly be worried about for photo and video editing and processing.

I chose the Corsair case for a number of reasons. The thermal performance is as good or better and I don't think you realize how big that Montech case actually is, being able to accommodate an E-ATX motherboard. Technically it probably ought to be listed as a Full tower case, not a mid tower case. It's not tremendously larger than the Corsair case, but it's definitely bigger. Additionally, I think it looks much nicer unless you have your heart set on unicorn puke RGB. You could go either way on this, or even spend a bit more and get a case much nicer than either of these, but that aspect I'll leave up to you. So long as you don't choose a case with poor airflow, the rest are really just "nice to haves". Not too sure about the fans in that Montech though. Generally, included fans aren't great performers although this build doesn't need really outstanding case cooling with only a 5600x and a slot powered graphics card that isn't power hungry.

I'd recommend something like this, as a place to start. Much better parts in some key areas, and a dollar cheaper.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor ($105.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Assassin X 120 Refined SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($17.89 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B550-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Patriot Burst Elite 960 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: TEAMGROUP T-FORCE G50 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus DUAL OC V2 GeForce RTX 3050 8GB 8 GB Video Card ($204.99 @ ASUS)
Case: Corsair 3000D AIRFLOW ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.91 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RM650 (2023) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $697.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-11-28 18:24 EST-0500

 

[goatfarmer]

To begin with, you absolutely don't want to try and roll the dice on those Vengeance LPX sticks working with that, or any Ryzen motherboard. In my experience and from the vast number of instances I've seen on this and other forums where basically almost all Ryzen motherboards didn't want to play nice with Corsair Vengeance LPX sticks, I'd highly recommend avoiding them. Sure, there are likely some success stories using them on some motherboards, but having seen so many instances where they either wouldn't work at all or there were significant problems, it is not worth the risk.

Second, you have no CPU cooler included. True, you CAN use the stock cooler, but I'd advise against it especially since you plan to do some CPU intensive work including photography/video editing, streaming, etc., if you like to keep your sanity. Because, the stock coolers for all of the Ryzen models that come with one, while adequate, barely, will drive you insane with their ceaseless ramping up and down and loud operation during intense workloads. This 18 dollar cooler solves that without breaking a sweat.

The motherboard you chose IS slightly better than the one I picked, however, the areas in which it is slightly better are really not relevant to your use case. With only a 5600x CPU you really don't need to have the minutely better VRM configuration because that CPU simply isn't going to push the VRMs anyhow. If you like that board and don't mind spending a little extra for it, that's totally your call, but for your use case I think the Prime B550-Plus is more than adequate and is a solid low cost option.

I threw in a 1TB SSD instead of the 1TB mechanic hard drive you chose, because, well, it's a hell of a lot faster and is only five bucks more. Doesn't make much sense to chose a HDD these days unless you're opting for very large storage capacity.

I also chose the Teamgroup G50 M.2 NVME drive over the Crucial P3 Plus you chose because the P3 Plus uses QLC NAND memory, which has a significantly lower lifespan than the TLC NAND used in the G50, and only a 250TB written lifespan spec while the G50 has a 650 TB written lifespan and also has a much faster max sequential write speed. And is cheaper.

I chose an Nvidia RTX 3050 8GB graphics card because it has better 3D performance but more importantly it has a MUCH higher 2D performance, which is what you'll mostly be worried about for photo and video editing and processing.

I chose the Corsair case for a number of reasons. The thermal performance is as good or better and I don't think you realize how big that Montech case actually is, being able to accommodate an E-ATX motherboard. Technically it probably ought to be listed as a Full tower case, not a mid tower case. It's not tremendously larger than the Corsair case, but it's definitely bigger. Additionally, I think it looks much nicer unless you have your heart set on unicorn puke RGB. You could go either way on this, or even spend a bit more and get a case much nicer than either of these, but that aspect I'll leave up to you. So long as you don't choose a case with poor airflow, the rest are really just "nice to haves". Not too sure about the fans in that Montech though. Generally, included fans aren't great performers although this build doesn't need really outstanding case cooling with only a 5600x and a slot powered graphics card that isn't power hungry.

I'd recommend something like this, as a place to start. Much better parts in some key areas, and a dollar cheaper.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor ($105.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Assassin X 120 Refined SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($17.89 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B550-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Patriot Burst Elite 960 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: TEAMGROUP T-FORCE G50 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus DUAL OC V2 GeForce RTX 3050 8GB 8 GB Video Card ($204.99 @ ASUS)
Case: Corsair 3000D AIRFLOW ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.91 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RM650 (2023) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $697.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-11-28 18:24 EST-0500

Thanks a lot for all this great information! Much appreciated!

 

[Darkbreeze]

For sure. If you have any questions or want to bounce anything off me, just let me know.

 

[goatfarmer]

For sure. If you have any questions or want to bounce anything off me, just let me know.

Seen as I keep systems a long time, does the Asus Prime B550 Plus offer a decent processor upgrade path as an AM4 motherboard?

 

[Darkbreeze]

It offers the same upgrade path as the B550-A Pro. Now, if you think you might someday want to upgrade to one of the upper tiered Ryzen 7 or 9 processors, then you might want to at least consider an X570 board with a high end VRM configuration, for a couple of reasons.

For one, the VRM configurations on the mid to upper tiered X570 boards tend to be a bit beefier, in general, than the majority of B550 boards plus the X570 boards tend to have some additional nice to haves that might not be found on some of the B550 boards. But that board will likely handle most of the Ryzen 7 CPUs that are compatible without much trouble so long as you aren't overclocking. If you plan to go with a CPU someday that has a significantly higher TDP or if you may decide to overclock, then you probably want to look into a higher end board like the ASUS TUF or ROG models, MSI Tomahawk or Carbon equivalent models, ASRock Taichi or any of the higher end boards. It's really just a matter of what you can actually afford to throw at a board selection.