Photo Editing with Dual 4k Monitors

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robbyv17

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Sep 7, 2012
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Hello,

I have a photographer friend who would like to build a computer for photo editing (no video editing, no gaming, maybe watching of 4k video). He'd like to use dual 4k monitors. Any recommendations as to a GPU, CPU, and how much RAM would be necessary? No specific budget in mind, but the lower the better. Thanks.
 
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Bearmann
That's a nice build, but personally I'm not in favor of the NVMe drive unless he is going to be video editing or working with multiple files at once in Lightroom. It can actually be slower at many tasks than a conventional SSD. Although booting is faster, posting is much slower such that the total time form pushing the power button to ready for use takes longer. The NVMe is great for sequential processig like video and huge databases, but not so great for random processing like he will be doing unless he does a lot of huge stitched photographs. Lightroom rendering may also benefit if, for example, he is a wedding photographer and does the same edit to perhaps 100 photographs at once. He should read reviews of people who have had the...
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He'd probably be best off with an i7 and at least 16GB of RAM (probably more if he wants lots of photos open at once). He could probably get away with just the onboard iGPU (since he's not playing games or anything) but a GTX 950 or 960 is probably all he needs if he wants a dedicated GPU.
 
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Yeah, I kind of thought an i7 and 32GB of Ram were the way to go. If he were to go the iGPU route, would he need a MoBo with two Displayport jacks to get 4k at 60Hz? If so, do you know of any that have two DPs?
 
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This would be a nice set-up. He may be able to get by with the iGPU, but I'm doubtful especially with two 4K monitors. There just hasn't been much testing, however, Adobe is gradually moving more processing to the GPU with each new upgrade. The small SSD is for the Lightroom catalog. If he doesn't use Lightroom , he can omit it. If his file sizes are moderate, he could get by with 16GB of RAM. The build could be higher priced with a nicer case, etc. or lower priced with less expensive components. This is sort of mid-grade. I hope that his vision is excellent, as I believe that there are still scaling problems with Photoshop and 4K monitors.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($233.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($127.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($108.00 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($39.88 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial MX200 500GB M.2-2260 Solid State Drive ($133.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($63.22 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card ($194.99 @ Micro Center)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($48.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $996.03
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-27 16:24 EDT-0400

Here is my personal Photoshop build for a comparison. I don't use Lightroom. The sound card and HDD's were transferred over form my previous build.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (Purchased For $260.00)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler (Purchased For $75.94)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (Purchased For $153.03)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (Purchased For $163.86)
Storage: Sandisk Extreme Pro 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $137.00)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (Purchased For $170.69)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Titanium) ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $87.22)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA P2 650W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $78.31)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home Full - USB (32/64-bit) (Purchased For $90.00)
Sound Card: Asus Xonar DX 24-bit 192 KHz Sound Card (Purchased For $0.00)
Keyboard: Logitech G710 Plus Wired Gaming Keyboard (Purchased For $71.00)
Total: $1287.05
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-27 16:31 EDT-0400

 
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Thanks for the input! My buddy is really keen to have an M.2 SSD and the latest i7 apparently, so I think we're leaning towards something like this (taking into consideration your suggestions):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($334.88 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.33 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-E ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($104.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($90.00 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($316.05 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card ($219.99 @ Micro Center)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($72.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($85.49 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $1693.25
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-29 13:50 EDT-0400
 
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That's a nice build, but personally I'm not in favor of the NVMe drive unless he is going to be video editing or working with multiple files at once in Lightroom. It can actually be slower at many tasks than a conventional SSD. Although booting is faster, posting is much slower such that the total time form pushing the power button to ready for use takes longer. The NVMe is great for sequential processig like video and huge databases, but not so great for random processing like he will be doing unless he does a lot of huge stitched photographs. Lightroom rendering may also benefit if, for example, he is a wedding photographer and does the same edit to perhaps 100 photographs at once. He should read reviews of people who have had the 950 Pro for a while. If he uses Lightroom, he should have an extra SSD for the catalog- it can be very small. Photoshop processing depends on fast CPU frequency and adequate RAM, while some functions in Lighroom can benefit from more than 4 cores. Storage speed primarily affects opening and closing files (photographs).

https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-Adobe-Photoshop-139/Hardware-Recommendations

https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-Adobe-Lightroom-141/Hardware-Recommendations
 
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