Question New System approval/advice (mainly for Adobe Photoshop)

[Littlelupo_01]

Hi Guys,

Below is a system I put together to replace my old PC primarily used for Photo editing with Adobe Photoshop. Gaming capability is not required. Any suggestions/advice from some of you "system build wizards" would be greatly appreciated. 🙂

Approximate Purchase Date: anytime before September 2025

Budget Range: approx. 2800 Swiss Francs (approx 3350 US$ / shipping is free in Switzerland) but obviously not unhappy if it comes in cheaper.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Photoediting in Adobe Photoshop, in the future "maybe" some simple film editing but this is not so important.

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: No (will run on Win 11)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: www.digitec.ch

Location: Zürich, Switzerland

Parts Preferences: AMD Ryzen CPU, MSI or Gigabyte Motherboard, Corsair or Seasonic PSU, Noctua CPU coolers

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 or 1920x1200

Additional Comments: I am particularly unsure on my choice of GPU. Air CPU cooling prefered to water cooling. RAM modules picked as they are low in height in order to fit under CPU cooler

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Current System is 10 years old and still running Win 10. Need to upgrade to Win 11 by October 2025. ALso it struggles a bit with Foto editing larger files.


The System:

Motherboard
Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER

CPU
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

RAM
2 x 32GB Kingston FURY Beast

M2 SSD
2 x Samsung 990 Pro 2000GB with Heatsink

2nd HD for mass storage
4GB WD Blue

GPU
Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Twin Edge

PSU
Seasonic Prime PX

CPU Cooler
Noctua NH-D15 Chromax

Case
Fractal Define 7 Black

Many thanks & kind regards

Littlelupo

 

[Why_Me]

Hi Guys,

Below is a system I put together to replace my old PC primarily used for Photo editing with Adobe Photoshop. Gaming capability is not required. Any suggestions/advice from some of you "system build wizards" would be greatly appreciated. 🙂

Approximate Purchase Date: anytime before September 2025

Budget Range: approx. 2800 Swiss Francs (approx 3350 US$ / shipping is free in Switzerland) but obviously not unhappy if it comes in cheaper.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Photoediting in Adobe Photoshop, in the future "maybe" some simple film editing but this is not so important.

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: No (will run on Win 11)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: www.digitec.ch

Location: Zürich, Switzerland

Parts Preferences: AMD Ryzen CPU, MSI or Gigabyte Motherboard, Corsair or Seasonic PSU, Noctua CPU coolers

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 or 1920x1200

Additional Comments: I am particularly unsure on my choice of GPU. Air CPU cooling prefered to water cooling. RAM modules picked as they are low in height in order to fit under CPU cooler

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Current System is 10 years old and still running Win 10. Need to upgrade to Win 11 by October 2025. ALso it struggles a bit with Foto editing larger files.


The System:

Motherboard
Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER

CPU
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

RAM
2 x 32GB Kingston FURY Beast

M2 SSD
2 x Samsung 990 Pro 2000GB with Heatsink

2nd HD for mass storage
4GB WD Blue

GPU
Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Twin Edge

PSU
Seasonic Prime PX

CPU Cooler
Noctua NH-D15 Chromax

Case
Fractal Define 7 Black

Many thanks & kind regards

Littlelupo

That all works together. 1000W is overkill when a 750W psu will do for that system. 850W if you want a bit of overhead.

 

[Why_Me]

Here's a few alternatives to consider.

https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/produc...lga-1851-intel-z890-atx-motherboards-49745683
MSI MAG Z890 TOMAHAWK WIFI 265.00 CHF

or ...

https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/produc...lga-1851-intel-z890-atx-motherboards-50252294
ASUS TUF GAMING Z890-PLUS WIFI 263.00 CHF

https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/produc...series-2-5-lga-1851-250-ghz-24-core--53974721
Intel Core Ultra 9 285 556.00 CHF

https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/product/be-quiet-pure-rock-pro-3-155-mm-cpu-coolers-54955429
be quiet! Pure Rock PRO 3 50.90 CHF

https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/product/samsung-990-pro-2000-gb-m2-2280-ssd-22097721
Samsung 990 Pro 2TB 154.00 CHF (x2)

https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/produc...0w-atx31-black-850-w-power-supply-pc-52432720
Seasonic Core GX-850-V2 850W ATX 3.1 129.00 CHF

 

[LOGAN54321]

 

[Misgar]

Your proposed system looks very similar to the one I built in 2022 for PhotoShop and Topaz Video AI (7950X, 4070, 64GB Fury, NH-D15 Chromax Black). I chose the 7950X over the 13900K because it dissipates less heat and my ancient Lian Li case is not well ventilated.

I run three M.2 NVMe drives. One for Windows + programs, the second for the Adobe swap file and the third for work-in-progress. Excessive perhaps for Photoshop, but it might speed up Premiere Pro and Topaz Video.

If you want to save money, consider a Thermalright cooler instead of the Noctua.

I can recommend the Phantom Spirit 120 SE which has 7 heatpipes and is cheap. It's at least as good as the NH-D15 but perhaps not as pretty. Make sure your case is deep enough for a big air cooler.
https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/producttype/toplist/brand/cpu-coolers-29/thermalright-497

If you want to compare the performance of different components in Photoshop, check out the charts at Puget Systems. Unlike video editing systems, you don't need an insanely fast GPU for Photoshop.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/soluti...ons/adobe-photoshop/hardware-recommendations/

2nd HD for mass storage
4GB WD Blue

Perhaps our needs differ, but I installed five available hard disks in my system (2 x 8TB, 1 x 6TB, 2 x 4TB). I generate 600GB+ of RAW/JPG files each vacation and drive space soon disappears.

 

[Littlelupo_01]

Thank you very much for your inputs., they are very much appreciated.

I have taken some of your changes on board and adjusted the build (changed the GPU. PSU and RAM). I do however have a couple of questions just in case you have time to answer them.

1. Is there a particular reason to switch the AMD for the Intel CPU. I was led to believe that for photo editing the AMD is somewhat better?
2. The Thermaltake and beQuiet coolers are way cheaper which is nice. Unfortunately I have no experience with them and have been super happy with my current Noctua which has run well for years. Do the Thermaltake or beQuiet compare positively to the Noctua?

The adjusted System:

Motherboard
Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER

CPU
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

RAM
2 x 32GB Kingston 64GB DDR5 6000MT/S CL30 DIMM

M2 SSD
2 x Samsung 990 Pro 2000GB with Heatsink

2nd HD for mass storage
4GB WD Blue

GPU
Gainward GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Python III OC

PSU
Seasonic Core GX-850-V2

CPU Cooler
Noctua NH-D15 Chromax

Case
Fractal Define 7 Black

Again thank you & kind regards

Littlelupo

 

[Littlelupo_01]

Thank you Why_Me & LOGAN54321 for your help with this.

Thank you also Misgar, I found your help and the link to Pugetsystems very helpful. It was interesting to see that the benchmarking on the 9700 Ryzen is more positive when it comes to working in Photoshop.

"600GB+ of RAW/JPG files each vacation" - our needs definetly differ. Are your vacations 6 months long or are you taking photos with the Hubble telescope? :-DDD.

The parts are orderd, all in all the build came in about 400$ cheaper than what I was looking at before your suggestions. I will soon be posting a build I need for 18 PCs for work (a charitable institution) where unfortunately our funds are very limited and every penny saved is a big deal. So your help and expertise is very very appreciated.

So once again a big thank you and kind regards to you all.

Littlelupo

 

[Misgar]

I was led to believe that for photo editing the AMD is somewhat better?

As you'll see if you browse Puget's suggested systems, both Intel and AMD solutions are offered. I chose AMD in 2022 because the AMD 7950X dissipated less heat than the Intel 13900K. For budget video editing systems, Intel CPUs with H.265 HEVC encoding and decoding can be an advantage.

If by "AMD is somewhat better" you mean graphics cards, some people recommend Nvidia in preference to AMD GPUs, because Nvidia may have better support in OpenCL and OpenGL. You might not find it makes much difference in Photoshop if you use NVidia or AMD GPUs. Unless you make your living processing thousands of images per month in Photoshop, I wouldn't worry too much about which brand you choose.
https://vtechinsider.com/amd-vs-nvidia-photoshop/.

I have no experience with them and have been super happy with my current Noctua which has run well for years.

I have an NH-D15 on the 7950X, an NH-D14 on the 3800X and a whole bunch of smaller Noctua heatsinks on older Intel and AMD machines. Some people don't like the old Noctua brown colour scheme, but Chromax black is another option on recent coolers.

More recently I've been buying Thermalright, including Peerless Assassin 120 SE for an Intel LGA2011-3 Xeon server build and an SI-100 low profile for a home cinema system. Noctua have a certain cachet for aesthetics and build quality, but if you don't have transparent side panels on your case, a Thermalright will perform the same (or slightly better) for considerably less money.

I don't know if my Thermalrights will still be working in ten years time, but when they're one third the price of a Noctua, I won't be too unhappy.

Are your vacations 6 months long or are you taking photos with the Hubble telescope? :-DDD.

No, my vacations are "only" 3 to 4 weeks long, but when they include 5-day festivals and I've established a close relationship with everyone, I can easily shoot 1,000+ photos per day. I take 2 or 3 shots at several focal lengths of each person and choose the best for printing. Other days I might only take 100 shots when travelling or it's pouring with rain.

I will soon be posting a build I need for 18 PCs for work (a charitable institution) where unfortunately our funds are very limited and every penny saved is a big deal

I bought 9 Dell laptops from a college and donated them to schools in the villages where I take take photos. It could explain why I get to take far more pictures than other tourists, because I return with 1200+ prints of the previous festival.

If you're looking for desktop PCs, check out suppliers of reconditioned office computers that are 3 to 4 years old. HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc. They should still have plenty of life left but you might need to update them from Windows 10 to 11. For anyone still using stand-alone Photoshop CS5.1/5.5 or CS6, modern hardware is almost irrelevant. Not everyone needs CC and A. I find bulk-rendering RAW images in Topaz Photo AI (Photoshop plugin) goes faster on my new RTX 4070 than my old RTX 3060.

When using eBay to purchase bulk systems, I limit my search to a 25-mile (40km) radius, so I can check condition when collecting in person. You might need a van for 18 computers and monitors!