I recently assembled a new computer for photo and video editing, and this blogpost is dedicated to it.
Here is a little background. It had been over 6 and a half year, since I bought my Core2Duo E4500 based computer and with Photoshop CC 2014 and Lightroom 5.6, it had started to show its age. Even though I had constantly added/upgraded various components to it, over the years.
Last straw came when I was editing and exporting my first time-lapse clip. Lightroom processing brought my computer to its knees and it took well over two and a half hour, to export a 15 second time-lapse clip!
While I can deal with slightly slow performance and processor being the bottleneck in games, there was no way I was going to waste hours processing a single time lapse clip! So even though I couldn’t plan and budget this build like I would have loved to, I decided to take the plunge anyways and built a mid-range photo/video editing computer.
While my first two computers were based on AMD processors, over the years, AMD hasn’t been able to keep up with Intel in performance/power efficiency ratio. So I decided to go with Intel Core i5 4440, 4th generation processor, even though I could have gotten better performance with AMD processor, had I been willing to foot much larger power bill (Core i5 4440 has max TDP of 84watts, while AMD FX-8320 has a max TDP of 125watt).
Since I was planning to use quite a few parts from my earlier build, I decided to only order components which were necessary for the build and everything was ordered from Flipkart.
Here is the list of components I ordered.
Intel 3.1 GHz LGA 1150 i5 4440 Processor
Gigabyte GA-B85-D3H Motherboard
Corsair DDR3 4 GB RAM (Value Select) x 2
Cooler Master K281 Mid Tower Cabinet
From my previous build, I carried forward following components:
MSI HD 6670 1GB DDR5 Graphic Card (dual fan variant)
Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus 460W Power Supply
Cooler Master Hyper 212 CPU Cooler
All this is plugged into Dell U2412M IPS Monitor, which too was carried forward to this build, along with other peripherals. I also decided to stick to Windows 7 Home Premium, since I am least interested in shelling out for Windows 8.1 upgrade.
I decided to not use Zebronics Bijli Cabinet for this build, since although it is airy, it is tough to build in and cable management was non-existent. Cooler Master K281 in comparison is a much better case to work with, although short length of my PSU’s cables ensured that I couldn’t do proper cable management.
I will be replacing my power supply next year with hopefully a modular one, which would lead to better cable management. I also have plans to add more storage (both SSD and HDD) next year, along with 16GB RAM.
Even though as per Windows Experience score, it is the graphic card which is the bottle neck now. However since I am a casual gamer, it is way down my priority list.
Same time-lapse export which was taking over 2 and a half hour on my earlier computer, now takes a little over 15 minutes. Add to that, performance in games has improved quite a bit and the system as a whole seems quite fluid and fast, especially while editing large image files in Lightroom and Photoshop.
Although initially things weren’t as rosy, thanks to Kaspersky 2015 causing install errors for Battlefield Bad Company 2 and slowing down Photoshop and Lightroom considerably. Downgrade to earlier version of Kaspersky Internet Security fixed this issue, although it did take me a week to pinpoint the exact issue and fix it!
At the end of the day, for someone who spends 10-16 hours each day in front of his computer, this upgrade has been a real blessing. Even though initially I wanted to wait a while and invest in a much more powerful system. But sometimes things we perceive initially as compromise actually turn out to be much better fit, than initially imagined!
13 Comments
YS.. mean machine… i would like to have some thing like this few years down the line… the links of the components really helped…. Thank you..
Thanks Rahi 🙂
Great blog. Given that you work with very large image and video files, wouldn’t it have made the build future proof if you would’ve considered ddr4?
Internet says that premium for ddr4 should come down to around 30-40% by end 2014.
Also, any particular reason (other than cost) for not choosing i7? You do a lot of cpu intensive work.
As far as I know, there is no current processor from Intel which supports DDR4. The first processor which will likely do that would be Haswell-E based i7 Extreme, which is expected to be launched by the end of this month.
I didn’t go for i7 because it wasn’t fitting in my budget. As I mentioned in blogpost, this was an unplanned spend and at the moment I am only interested spending on photography gear.
I remember pulling your leg about this post sometime back and suddenly, in such a short time, I am in a position where I was looking for exactly the same info.
I am planning to build one for myself because the current one is failing to do, almost anything I am trying to,,,!!
This is the perfect start for me. Thanks for sharing the details!!
Would you mind sharing the amount you shelled out for building it up. Or, in other words, what budget should I keep in my mind as I start to build mine?
The difference in my case will be, I have nothing in my old system which I can re-use and, my primary objective is to have smooth working while video and image processing. Smooth HD videos, That’s all!
Thanks again!!
Rajiv, I spent around 27k on processor, motherboard, RAM and computer case. Rest were salvaged from earlier system, so I have around 50k.
As for budget, well it truly depends on how much you are willing to spend. An i5 4th generation processor with 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD, 2TB HDD, decent computer case and power supply would be a good starting point. You will of course need to pair these with a good IPS monitor, if you want to edit photos. In short, expect to spend around 50-60k. You can spend less than that and then add stuff later.
Great, my calculation was in the same line too.
Only question here would be, why an IPS and why not a good LCD?
Or, in other words, how much difference would it make?
IPS is just a type of panel, that goes in to LCDs and LEDs. TN panel based LCD/LED would be cheaper, but won’t give you full range of colors to work with. Even in IPS displays, quality varies with price. You can read more about them here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPS_panel.
Okay!!
Thank you again. Now let me move towards materializing it 🙂
All the best.
__/\__ 🙂
YS, great build there. Can you please explain the role of SSD in your daily work. Do you have it solely for the OS or do you also use it during editing videos etc? How much of an improvement have you noticed over an HDD?
Thanks
Thank you Amit.
Apart from OS and Applications, my SSD also houses OS swap file, Scratch Disk for Photoshop and Lightroom Catalog. So whenever the system is a little low on RAM, SSD helps keep the system going faster than it would, on a HDD. Add to that, it really helps in multitasking, while running heavy tasks, especially while launching programs.
I do only basic video editing at the moment, so SSD’s role isn’t much, but I do move the clips I am editing to my SSD, so that initial preview etc. is generated faster.
With an SSD, system almost never feels sluggish, unless the CPU is maxed out.