Want to build Basic Photoshop/Movie Editing PC

[Ven9eance]

Hey guys, I want to build a PC for my wife so she can use it for basic Photoshop editing and some light Adobe Premiere Pro movie editing. She has a fashion blog where she needs to use Photoshop to do some light edits to her photos before she posts them. Also the movie editing will be with Adobe Premiere Pro which is for some short YouTube videos.

I have done hours of research on my own and have come up with an idea build for her, but would love some expert advice. I was trying to build this PC for around $1000, as she does not need the best of the best. Just something nice and solid to get the job done with a smooth experience while editing. Thanks for the help.

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/nTwY9W

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Idk but i think a pair of smaller (than 27") widescreens might be more useful for that kind of editing.

 

[slozomby]

I take it you have a second hard drive you plan to install that's not listed on the parts list here?

also the NVidia 1050's are just around the corner. so you might want to wait for those.

other than that it looks like a decent light editing rig.

 

[peche]

Hey guys, I want to build a PC for my wife so she can use it for basic Photoshop editing and some light Adobe Premiere Pro movie editing. She has a fashion blog where she needs to use Photoshop to do some light edits to her photos before she posts them. Also the movie editing will be with Adobe Premiere Pro which is for some short YouTube videos.

I have done hours of research on my own and have come up with an idea build for her, but would love some expert advice. I was trying to build this PC for around $1000, as she does not need the best of the best. Just something nice and solid to get the job done with a smooth experience while editing. Thanks for the help.

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/nTwY9W

seems like you are from canada,
the build also could be better, but somethings might change? $1000 its the max budget?
do you need entire rig + display + os no peripherals?

Regards,

 

[pigulici]

As a guy who make money with PS I can tell you that better go with a intel as cpu (i5), also with win 10, also better to have more ram even it have less speed(no downside to have 1333 instead of 1600)...as monitor, try one with IPS at least...

 

[krusha03]

How about this?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor ($234.75 @ Vuugo)
Motherboard: ASRock H170A-X1/3.1 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($79.98 @ NCIX)
Memory: Team Dark 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($89.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Crucial MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($89.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Windforce OC Video Card ($274.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Zalman Z1 ATX Mid Tower Case ($45.96 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.98 @ NCIX)
Monitor: LG 24MP48HQ-P 23.8" 60Hz Monitor ($159.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $1045.63
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-11 13:04 EDT-0400

I am not sure if PS now uses GPU acceleration or not. If you don't need the GPU you can get a faster CPU and / or bigger screen. You should try to get a IPS screen for photo editing

 

[Ven9eance]

I take it you have a second hard drive you plan to install that's not listed on the parts list here?

also the NVidia 1050's are just around the corner. so you might want to wait for those.

other than that it looks like a decent light editing rig.

Yes I do have a 2TB external HD already to use.

seems like you are from canada,
the build also could be better, but somethings might change? $1000 its the max budget?
do you need entire rig + display + os no peripherals?

Regards,

I am not too strict on the price for $1000, a couple hundred more is ok. I do wish to keep it under $1500 though.
I do need the rig + monitor + OS + mouse/keyboard. I already have another HD for space and the editing software

As a guy who make money with PS I can tell you that better go with a intel as cpu (i5), also with win 10, also better to have more ram even it have less speed(no downside to have 1333 instead of 1600)...as monitor, try one with IPS at least...

I know intel is the better quality choice, however I am leaning towards AMD since she will only be doing light editing and thought it would save some money? The decision for Win7 is because she just prefers it personally over Win10. You think I should bump up the ram to 32gb? If it would have a noticeable performance increase over 16gb? Her typical PS workload right now is around 5 picture tabs open at a time, she said she would have more (up to 10) but her current MAC she's using is old and can barely run that as it is.

I am not sure if PS now uses GPU acceleration or not. If you don't need the GPU you can get a faster CPU and / or bigger screen. You should try to get a IPS screen for photo editing

I am not sure about this either. After my research on graphics cards and PS, it looked like some people said it's not important while others said a good GPU is important

Thanks for the replies everyone, really appreciate it. I did not know about the IPS monitors, I will definitely look into those

 

[Jetster]

Not much to change.

 

[i7Baby]

Monitor - try Asus, IPS eg http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/VWtWGX/asus-vp239h-p-230-60hz-monitor-vp239h-p

 

[eidairaman1]

SSD for OS, 16GB ram or higher.

 

[pigulici]

Well, I changed my amd 8350 with a intel, and I will never come back to Amd(at least with what they have today), as ram, I have photos of 1.5mb size on disk, when I open in Ps it occupy 2gb of ram, so more ram=better. I preferred too win 7 , but after I tested win10 vs 7 with Ps CC on modern hardware, the performance advantage toward win 10 it is too big for me to stay with 7. For me light editing it is open 1 image use levels, save, close image. I have a friend who use a fx6100 for Ps, not too happy about it, also for Ps , as performance hardware, too much is never enough...

 

[i7Baby]

Pigulici - "I have photos of 1.5mb size on disk, when I open in Ps it occupy 2gb of ram"

more than 1000x the original size? Doesn't sound right.

 

[pigulici]

Of course not for average Joe, for pro tools/software it is not so uncommon, but this is for another threat...

 

[RCoon]

Photoshop isn't really capable of using GPU acceleration besides applying certain effects and filters which are not widely used at all. GPU is totally irrelevant for Photoshopping, so if you're not gaming I'd go for the integrated graphics on an Intel CPU instead. Even video rendering can't make good use of a GPU unless its a big beefcake, at which point you'd be looking at hundreds of dollars for something worthwhile. If anything, the most important thing to Photoshop is RAM, as it stores just about everything it can into it.

Here's a list of stuff that can be GPU accelerated in Photoshop:
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html
Note how most of it is OpenGL. It's also a difference of mere seconds between processor and GPU hardware acceleration.

For NextPowerUp I tried out both NVENC, OpenGL methods for video rendering, and H.264 just provides a better quality render. I even tried Intel's QuickSync rendering, and while quick, there's a distinct loss of quality at lower video bitrates. You'd need to be rendering at 6000Kbps+ for QuickSync to come into it's element, and enabling the rendering method can be a pain in the ass that requires digging in the BIOS and using some virtual display adapters.

 

[pigulici]

Nope, the GPU it is not ''totally irrelevant for Photoshopping'', but yes, they are other things before gpu to consider, first display/monitor, second Ram, then Cpu, storage, and after that gpu/tablet; it is very useful a good Gpu, at least for me for panning and zooming, if you don't have 30'' display, you will have to do a lot of zoom/panning(aside some effects/brush that use gpu), this can be done with intel vga but I tested myself when I got from a 2gb vram 128b vga to 4gb vram 256b vga, it was more faster in zoom/panning, BUT(and it is a big one), it depend a lot of what kind of work will do in Ps, the fact that I most do retouch/web design and I need a wacom tablet, don't necessary make mandatory a tablet for somebody who just apply effects on whole image, but it is useful to have...in last 10yrs 2/3 of my monthly income it is from Ps work, so I tested hardware and software(as OS) on real work field...aside of monitor and ram size, the config of krusha03 look good to me...

 

[peche]

I am not too strict on the price for $1000, a couple hundred more is ok. I do wish to keep it under $1500 though.
I do need the rig + monitor + OS + mouse/keyboard. I already have another HD for space and the editing software

There you have lad, watch this link!

Regards,

 

[Ven9eance]

Thanks so much for the tips guys! This is really helping a lot. I have to run to work but I quickly revised the build based on all of your suggestions.

I think I will go Intel instead then. I didn't realize I only had DDR3 ram so I bumped that up to DDR4 along with the other changes. And switched the OS to Win7 Pro, as I just found out Home Premium only supports max 16gb ram, if we decide to go bigger (scared to go with win 10 and her being really frustrated trying to learn it. Also I've never used it so I wouldn't be of much help to her). On the fence about the GPU, I read both your points @pigulici and @RCoon and I think in the end I would feel a lot more at ease sticking with a GPU.

Revised build: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/4GtrGf

Monitor - try Asus, IPS eg http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/VWtWGX/asus-vp239h-p-230-60hz-monitor-vp239h-p

I really like the look of this monitor, love the thin bezel, forgot to say I definitely prefer that design. I was wondering if you have used this monitor yourself? Because I noticed the reviews saying there is another black border around the sides and top of the screen, kind of killing the point of the thin bezel? Other than that concern it looks great, also the smaller size (24) is fine, I convinced her 27" would be more than necessary for what she wants to do.

Thanks again everyone

 

[i7Baby]

I wish I did get an Asus IPS. I've got an Asus VE247 TN panel monitor. It's OK. But for editing, an IPS would be better.

See http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1709?vs=1646 for Cinebench Multi-threaded benchmark. The i5 has faster cores but the FX8370 has more of them.