Photography PC Build

scobyobrien

1. What is your budget? €1,000

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Photography/Processing Raw images for time lapse videos. No gaming

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Nothing, currently have laptop

5. Do you need a monitor? Yes, possibly two

5a. If yes, what size do you need. 21inch or similar size

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future?No

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? yes, everything.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? No

8. How can you pay? laser/credit card

9. When are you purchasing? soon

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Northside of Dublin

If you need to go higher then €1,000 then please do so......within reason.
I was thinking of busting the credit card and going for the Apple 27" 5K but then I looked in the mirror and slapped myself in the face for even considering paying for just a name.

Haven't built in years (10+) so don't want to blow up anything in doing so. Currently trying to do everything on a Lenovo Z500 i5, 6gb ram but takes about 3-4 hours to process 10 seconds of time lapse footage. So, ram will be priority as is screen quality.

ED E

Can you give details on your workflow? My gut says you've probably got some inefficiency. I've done some short lapses recently and even with mp4 output it only takes a few minutes to process on a low voltage avoton, or a little more with my tablet.

The difference though could be I'm compiling from JPEG not RAW, so your IO would be high and CPU would be high if you're doing any processing on them.

Batch processing from PS/LR to correctly sized PNGs then compiling a h264 MP4 with FFMPEG may lead to a much faster run time.

scobyobrien

ED E wrote: »

Can you give details on your workflow? My gut says you've probably got some inefficiency. I've done some short lapses recently and even with mp4 output it only takes a few minutes to process on a low voltage avoton, or a little more with my tablet.

The difference though could be I'm compiling from JPEG not RAW, so your IO would be high and CPU would be high if you're doing any processing on them.

Batch processing from PS/LR to correctly sized PNGs then compiling a h264 MP4 with FFMPEG may lead to a much faster run time.

I edit in lightroom and process raw files which could be 300 - 600 at a time. 30gb an average I use when I go out on a shoot. I've had the laptop for years but I just want something with a lot more ram to be honest and have two monitors too as in my day job I now use two screens and its dead handy. Don't want to be stuck with a high end laptop that I cannot upgrade either.

I used 10,000 raw images in one video I did but it was painful waiting and waiting and waiting on the processing of each clip. I just need more ram and tbh, an updated system

Digital Solitude

No idea what any of that means Are we looking at a Dual Core or Hypertheading machine ED?

scobyobrien

Digital Solitude wrote: »

No idea what any of that means Are we looking at a Dual Core or Hypertheading machine ED?

The best of the best...........or what €1,000 will get you

ED E

TBH I dont really buy that you do, encoding video like that doesnt need it as it only has to open a few bitmaps at a time to run compression against. Its not like editing footage.

I plan on generating a set of RAWs from a 600D tomorrow time permitting, let me get back to you with numbers (based on a dual core 15W CPU and 6GB).

scobyobrien

ED E wrote: »

TBH I dont really buy that you do, encoding video like that doesnt need it as it only has to open a few bitmaps at a time to run compression against. Its not like editing footage.

I plan on generating a set of RAWs from a 600D tomorrow time permitting, let me get back to you with numbers (based on a dual core 15W CPU and 6GB).

I appreciate that, but I know from doing these for over the last year that my system is not up to scratch, hence why I am just asking for some guidance in what I could get for €1,000 or more. The laptop was bought prior to me even considering doing time lapse footage, so it wasn't and is not designed to handle what I want to put it through in my opinion. Maybe I am wrong, but I want a faster machine that can handle editing hundreds of raw files quickly

Digital Solitude

If what you're doing only uses 2 cores then a €400 PC will be more than enough, no need to jump into an OTT i7 build for no reason

scobyobrien

Digital Solitude wrote: »

If what you're doing only uses 2 cores then a €400 PC will be more than enough, no need to jump into an OTT i7 build for no reason

Ok, thanks

FAILSAFE 00

I believe Adobe creative suite or Creative Cloud as it's now called can be configured in settings to use more CPU cores and allocate more of your RAM for utilisation in which ever Adobe application you are using.

I'd highly recommended at least a quad core CPU and 32gb of RAM if the budget permits it.

scobyobrien

FAILSAFE 00 wrote:

I believe Adobe creative suite or Creative Cloud as it's now called can be configured in settings to use more CPU cores and allocate more of your RAM for utilisation in which ever Adobe application you are using.

FAILSAFE 00 wrote:

I'd highly recommended at least a quad core CPU and 32gb of RAM if the budget permits it.

Yeah, I've done that but just seems slow in processing. I follow a few photographers on YouTube and they go through the processing and editing stages of Time lapse photography and my system just isn't up to standard. I was thinking 16gb of RAM minimum anyway. The budget is also to include a good monitor or monitors and a lot of storage space and all the accessories too, keyboard,mouse....etc. Not sure I'd get that for €400 as quoted above.

Digital Solitude

I pulled €400 from my arse now, it wasn't an estimate moreso an example. I did a bit of googling an I reckon an i5 is good for you.

i5 6600 €250
B110 board €70
2tb HDD €90
120gb SSD €60
120gb SSD €60
Backup HDD €90
300w PSU €40
Nanoxia DS3 €70
16gb DDR4 €80
Total €830

€200 on a monitor and rest on keyboard and mouse.

I'd say you'll enjoy a 1440p monitor for your needs

How's that looking?

scobyobrien

Digital Solitude wrote:

I pulled €400 from my arse now, it wasn't an estimate moreso an example. I did a bit of googling an I reckon an i5 is good for you.

Digital Solitude wrote:

I pulled €400 from my arse now, it wasn't an estimate moreso an example. I did a bit of googling an I reckon an i5 is good for you.

Digital Solitude wrote:

i5 6600 €250 B110 board €70 2tb HDD €90 120gb SSD €60 120gb SSD €60 Backup HDD €90 300w PSU €40 Nanoxia DS3 €70 16gb DDR4 €80 Total €830

Digital Solitude wrote:

I'd say you'll enjoy a 1440p monitor for your needs

Digital Solitude wrote:

€200 on a monitor and rest on keyboard and mouse.

Digital Solitude wrote:

How's that looking?

Spot on my man. Cheers for that

Solitaire

Bear in mind that new monitor(s) may swallow up a bigger chunk of the budget than usual, as photography work usually demands reasonable-quality monitors with panels derived from some variant of IPS for better colour reproduction.

scobyobrien

Solitaire wrote:

Bear in mind that new monitor(s) may swallow up a bigger chunk of the budget than usual, as photography work usually demands reasonable-quality monitors with panels derived from some variant of IPS for better colour reproduction.

Yeah I am unfortunately aware of that!! Don't mind spending more on the monitor however. No point in buying and building a good machine if the final output is pure muck when I look at it on screen. If I have too, I'll spend the money on one good monitor instead of two ok monitors.

perry123

Digital Solitude wrote: »

I pulled €400 from my arse now, it wasn't an estimate moreso an example. I did a bit of googling an I reckon an i5 is good for you.

i5 6600 €250
B110 board €70
2tb HDD €90
120gb SSD €60
120gb SSD €60
Backup HDD €90
300w PSU €40
Nanoxia DS3 €70
16gb DDR4 €80
Total €830

€200 on a monitor and rest on keyboard and mouse.

I'd say you'll enjoy a 1440p monitor for your needs

How's that looking?

pardon me jumping in OP.

@Digital Solitude;

is B110 board €70 a motherboard?

Are all those parts available from one place and how do you ensure a sound card has stereo mix. Could you suggest a sound card Thanks

Digital Solitude

perry123 wrote: »

pardon me jumping in OP.

@Digital Solitude;

is B110 board €70 a motherboard? Yep

Are all those parts available from one place? Yep, mindfactory or computer universe are two well priced examples

how do you ensure a sound card has stereo mix. Could you suggest a sound card? I don't know the first thing about soundcards, built in soundcards do most people so I've never needed to know, sorry

Answered in quote

perry123

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Answered in quote

ok thanks

EDIT. Would a fan/heatsink come with cpu? if not would any do?