Build advice for photo editing, web design and media streaming?

MediaMan

Hi, I'm looking to build a system for photo editing, web design (including graphics) and media storage and streaming. A lot in one system, but hopefull it can be done. Looking to spend 600-700 euro - more if needed.

Here's the details:
Apps and usage: Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, web site development, multimedia storage and streaming. Little or no gaming.
Storage: 2TB (2x1TB?). I have a 500GB SATA drive lying around that I can thow in if it will fit.
OS: Windows 7.
Monitor: 23 or 24 inch HD.
I also need: DVD/RW, Wireless (ideally 802.11n), Decent keyboard and mouse (ideally wireless).
Would like the system to be fairly quiet and low-power (as much as makes sense consistent with the spec), ideally with auto sleep/wake functionality, for its media streaming role.

I've been reading through other suggested builds, and am going to go digging on hardwareversand to see what I can come up with. In the meantime if anyone has any advice or suggested builds, please post!

Cheers,
MediaMan.

MediaMan

First pass through the HWVS configurator:

HV20I5K5DE Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 188,78 €
HV1130RZDE ASRock Z68 Pro3 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX 92,81 €
HV20KI17DE 4GB Kingston ValueRAM PC3-10667U CL9 19,27 €
HV203KB3DE Antec Three Hundred, ATX, ohne Netzteil 52,01 €
HVR530L8DE be quiet! PURE POWER CM BQT L8-CM-530W 66,75 €
HV1025UADE ASUS EAH5570/DI/1GD3 (LP), ATI Radeon HD 5570, 1GB, PCI-Express 64,56 €
HV13SBG1DE SEAGATE Barracuda Green 1TB 5900.3 SATA II 46,11 €
HV13SBG1DE SEAGATE Barracuda Green 1TB 5900.3 SATA II 46,11 €
HV207A5DDE ASUS DRW-24B3ST Retail SATA schwarz Nero 9.0 22,00 €
HV21ML48DE ASUS ML248H 189,71 €
HV202CPUDE Cherry PURE Wireless Desktop 26,24 €
HV33E7H6DE MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version Englisch 87,07 €
HVZPCDE Rechner - Zusammenbau 20,00 €
Sum: 921,42 €

I'm winging it a bit here as I am trying to work from other builds which may be too high-spec for what I need. My thoughts after this first effort are that I should go for a lower spec CPU and motherboard. Any thoughts?

Serephucus

I should point out that PS CS5, and I think Lightroom, support GPU acceleration, so it might be worth looking into a cheap NVIDIA card.

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=48614&agid=707

That's the lowest card that still supports CUDA.

MediaMan

I'm a bit behind with understanding the current complexities of graphics cards. Following a bit of googling I understand that CUDA is about using the graphics card's processing power to perform general-purpose compute activities - right? I'll definitely look at getting a card that supports this, assuming it will help.

Any comments on cpu/motherboard/psu selection for a mid-range, modest power consumption, quiet-ish system?

Cheers.

Serephucus

If you're not going to be overclocking, I'd have a look at the i5-2400. Probably a bit less heat - and therefore slower spinning fans, meaning less noise - than the 2500K.

I'd definitely have a look at a third-party cooler for the CPU; the stock one is a barely-good-enough solution, and won't be particularly quiet. I haven't used air coolers in a while, so I'll leave it up to someone else to suggest one for you, but from what I remember, Noctua's best one - UD14 or something - it very good.

Monotype

You could go for a lower spec CPU and board and it is still likely be powerful but a 2500K has the potential to last you a long time. Overclocking is extremely easy and you can quickly have a processor beating anything out there. If your photoshop works gets heavy, the additional power could be useful.
If noise is important, the fractal design R3 has sound proofing and is very quiet.

You could leave out the graphics card altogether. A good powerful processor is the main thing that you'd need in photoshop - and RAM - you should probably get 8GB as it's fairly cheap at the moment. Integrated graphics of this generation is good and will easily handle HD videos.

I agree with the heatsink, especially if you want to keep noise down. I notice that you're not assembling it yourself and HWV won't install the heavier coolers. The mugen 3 is good but is a pain to install but maybe the arctic freezer pro 13 would suit best, it looks easier and seems good.

Don't get a keyboard from there as it will be a German layout.
I'll look at that PSU and the other stuff tomorrow.

JMcL

Hi, I built a very similar system about two months ago, based on deconduo's list in the 2nd post here. The only significant deviation was I upped the processor to an i7 2600k.

I'm very happy with it, it's very quiet - even with the 4 disk RAID array in it, and has taken everything I've thrown at it. Total cost was about €910.

My advice would be:

• Don't skimp on RAM, go for at the absolute minimum 8Gb. Photoshop and Lightroom will benefit most from loads of RAM especially if you're running them together. I went for 16Gb as it's so cheap at the moment. You'll see the benefit especially if say you're into stiching large panoramas (though only more recent versions of PS, CS4 onwards?, can really take advantage of large quantities of RAM. Lightroom will happily use it though).
• Consider an SSD for the OS and loading programs. They're getting to be quite good value these days and will give a decent performance boost
• Don't get a keyboard from HWVE - it'll be German
• I'd really recommend an IPS monitor for photo work. It'll give a much wider field of view for working than cheaper tech. The drawback is that they're expensive - you'd probably be looking at over €500 for a 24". I have a HP 20" from a few years back, which has served me well, I think they do a 24" as well, and from what I remember they offered very good value in that space
• Also regardless of what monitor you get, profile it! You can get a PANTONE hueyPRO or Spyder 3 Express for about €80, but if you can't stretch to this, at least use Adobe Gamma which comes bundled with PS

Anyway that's getting a bit off topic for the forum that's in it Good luck

Monotype

Item|Price
Total build cost: €979.13 + €30 shipping
Super-Flower SF450P14XE Golden Green Pro 80plus gold|€62.81
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€187.64
WD Caviar Green 2TB Sata 6Gb/s|€64.88
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€90.41
LiteOn iHAS122-18 schwarz SATA|€16.94
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version Englisch|€87.07
Rechner - Zusammenbau|€20.00
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 13 Pro(Sockel 775/1155/1156/1366/754/939/AM2/AM2 +/AM3/AM3+/FM1)|€22.51
ASRock Z68 Pro3 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX|€93.83
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€34.67
LogiLink Wireless LAN 300 Mbps PCI Karte 802.11n 2T2R|€16.87
ASUS ML248H|€189.71
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse DEFINE R3 Black Pearl|€91.79


I've decreased the wattage on the PSU and improved the efficiency as you won't need that much power but it sounds like you will be using it a lot. You could save €20 here if you wanted to go with the 450W Amazon, which would still do the job well.
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=30074

Don't buy two green hard drives - you don't really save much power with them, so go for two fast hard drives like the F3 or the 2TB green drives (because they're cheaper).
I've added in an SSD as it can save you a lot of time loading up photoshop.


I've switched the DVD drive for a cheaper one, added RAM, the case and heatsink I was suggesting. I've added wireless too. If you want a solid connection, powerline adapters (AKA homeplugs) are good, although some people find they interfere with radio equipment. (something like this).

JMcL has good points too about the monitor, if it's for professional work. I just added the the one that you picked out. It depends on what you can afford; that's a very solid system, but a few items can be scaled back if needs be.

MediaMan

Folks, many thanks for the replies and suggestions. Plenty to get stuck into! In hindsight my 600-700 euro budget was never going to stretch to include a monitor. Getting this spec machine as listed by Monotype and including monitor and SSD for under a grand is impressive.

Some thoughts on the points raised.
- Was thinking of 2 x 1TB disks so I could do backup between them to protect against disk failure. But this doesn't protect against house-burning-down failure, so probably best to go with the 2TB disk and off-site or cloud backup.
- Graphics card - would be great if I can avoid getting a separate graphics card. I will do that with the initial build and maybe add one in future if needed.
- Monitor - would love to get an IPS monitor, but last time I looked (couple of years ago) they were crazy money. Also, I have a DELL TN panel at work and it is pretty good - I think the viewing angle on TN panels has improved a lot in recent years. But... looked just now at the HP 24" IPS (http://www.dabs.ie/products/hp-zr24w-24--widescreen-1920-x-1200-7ms-dvi-d-vga-lcd-monitor-6P7V.html) and it looks like a good deal for a little under 400 euro. Tempting...
- Absolutely agree about monitor profiling - I have a Spyder profiler (can't remember which model) and the before-and-after difference is amazing. No more too-dark off-colour prints due to too-bright too-blue monitors!
- SSD - don't know much about these but seems to make sense to have Windows and Apps on that, and I presume everything else on the HDD.

Other stuff:
- That case looks good, thanks
- Thanks for the advice on the CPU cooler - I forgot entirely about that!
- Extra memory makes sense given the price
- Having thought about it, I will probably build the thing myself - especially if HWVS don't install the cooler, which I understand is the only tricky part of the whole thing.

Last questions:
- If I want to add a GPU later, will that 450W PSU be enough to power it?
- Wake-on-LAN - just dawned on me that that won't be much use if I'm using wireless only. I've just been reading about Wake-on-Wireless-LAN, but it it looks like it's not widely supported, and it needs the wireless adapter to be integrated on the motherboard. So I guess if I want WoL then I need to go for those powerline adapters. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks again.
MediaMan.

Monotype

450W is fine for up to midrange cards, say something like present 6850. This would be around the mark for games at 1080p, so you can still upgrade to a good bit of power. That would be even with an overclocked processor.
The Intel graphics will run two monitors for standard use, but you could get any of AMD's current cards to run 3 monitors (with the correct adapters).