New Computer Build

ggbutcher

Its automatic .. the GPUs have multiple cores now and the software that knows how to use GPUs know how to address the cores on the GPU.

Automatic... I'm just not ready yet for this P exposure mode, self-driving-car world...

sevencrossing

It is advised to get a monitor that is 99-100% adobe and sRGB capable AND get an x-rite pro Calibrator..

I am getting a new monitor soon my current one is a Dell 3008WFP
any recommendations. I do not want anything smaller
or should I start a new thread

Ironheart

Its automatic .. the GPUs have multiple cores now and the software that knows how to use GPUs know how to address the cores on the GPU.

Automatic... I'm just not ready yet for this P exposure mode, self-driving-car world...

The OpenGL libraries are coded to take advantage of the GPU if available. You can also turn off this behavior if you want.

heartyfisher

Its automatic .. the GPUs have multiple cores now and the software that knows how to use GPUs know how to address the cores on the GPU.

Automatic... I'm just not ready yet for this P exposure mode, self-driving-car world...

I hangout with a large group of photographers ..( our outings can get to about 130 people and average about 50 ) My photographer friends cringe when I say I am in "P" mode :-) I say why worry when the camera can do most things well.. I only switch modes when the camera gets confused and in most cases the back dial in P mode is all I need.

gmckeown

It is advised to get a monitor that is 99-100% adobe and sRGB capable AND get an x-rite pro Calibrator..

I am getting a new monitor soon my current one is a Dell 3008WFP
any recommendations. I do not want anything smaller
or should I start a new thread

Dell has a series of Premier Color monitors (http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/campaigns/dell-ultrasharpmonitor_color)

I have the 24" and it's very good. They just brought out 4k versions that are 100% sRGB and Adobe RGB. They are factory calibrated, but you still need to get a calibrator. Get the i1Display Pro - it's worth the money. Other calibrators I have tried to not set the monitor's LUT (Look Up Table) correctly. If it's not set correctly, then it comes down to the video driver - which is not what you want.

For the 4k versions, you have to make sure your graphics card can drive the higher resolution. Quadro 2200 can (and multiple monitors too) using DisplayPort. 4K requires display port 1.2. FirePro W5000 or W4900 are fully capable as well and are a little less expensive. Personally, I like the nVidia cards. Have had both.

There are quite a few 10bit capable displays from Eizo, HP, NEC, LG, Samsung, etc. Some are better that others. You can see how your current system stacks up using a 10bit ramp and see if it displays bands on your monitor. http://www.imagescience.com.au/kb/getattachment.php?data=MTUyfDEwIGJpdCB0ZXN0IHJhbXAuemlw

gmckeown

Thank you for your excellent posts gmckeown and ggbutcher lots of great information!

gmckeown, do you think I would be okay with an MSI model # GE60-I7 2PL Cobra Lite I7 4710 HQ, 850 GEForce Graphics card, 16 GB Ram? Only 2.5 GHZ... I wonder about the monitor now. I would also run the OS, Lightroom and CC off a 1 TB Samsung 850 SSD drive. So far I am still using my old piece of crap system, but I have purchased the $600 SSD drive already.....

Have a look at the reviews of the MSI Notebook and judge for yourself. The Samsung 850 rocks, but the reviews are pretty clear. They state "The MSI GE60 is a pure consumer device and is not intended for professional graphics designers or photographers. "
See http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-MSI-GE60-i789W7H-Notebook.77855.0.html

Not many notebooks (including MacBooks) are 10bit capable. Is 10bit important? From my point of view, you need to see your images as pure and as accurate as possible. There's noting worse that color correcting a photograph on a system that has no color management, or not intended for color correction. Having said that, it depends on your situation.

sevencrossing

..... make sure your graphics card can drive the higher resolution.

My computer has the AMD Radeo HD 7700

but you still need to get a calibrator

I use a spyder

Many thanks seven

kanuck

Thanks for sharing gmckeown, an interesting review on the MSI GE60-i789W7H Notebook. However, please note that this is the 2012 model from nearly 3 years ago and has the I7 3610QM with the 650 GeForce card. The one I am after is the Sept 2014 MSI GE60-i7 2PL Cobra Lite (1TB). http://www.umart.com.au/umart1/pro/Products-details.phtml?id=10&id2=160&bid=2&sid=222866

Although this is a release for the Korean market, I believe this review is close as it seems to be called the Apache model in other regions: http://www.cnet.com/products/msi-ge60-apache-pro-003/

Photobug

All, somewhere in one of these threads I left a message about upgrading my Dell Computer and asked about upgrading the Lexar 2.0 USB card reader. Could not find it so I am dropping my note here.

Well a few days ago my new Lexar Professional card reader USB 3.0 arrived. I just got done moving 76 files from the memory card, SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/S. Holly crap. There is a huge difference between the Lexar Professional card reader USB 2.0 and the 3.0 version. I love the new speed.

michael66

Well a few days ago my new Lexar Professional card reader USB 3.0 arrived. I just got done moving 76 files from the memory card, SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/S. Holly crap. There is a huge difference between the Lexar Professional card reader USB 2.0 and the 3.0 version. I love the new speed.

And timings? Maybe of the same SD card with each reader? I just use the built-in reader and it is... come back tomorrow and I will tell you. When its done. :-))

tcole1983

Well a few days ago my new Lexar Professional card reader USB 3.0 arrived. I just got done moving 76 files from the memory card, SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/S. Holly crap. There is a huge difference between the Lexar Professional card reader USB 2.0 and the 3.0 version. I love the new speed.

And timings? Maybe of the same SD card with each reader? I just use the built-in reader and it is... come back tomorrow and I will tell you. When its done. :-))

Is it USB 2 or 3? It makes a pretty big difference.

TriShooter

I was preparing to build a system with the i7 5960 and decided against it because of reading about the new i7 6700 cpu system with the Z170 motherboards. For me the bandwidth and flexibility of the Z170 motherboards with a cpu that outperforms the i7 5960x in everything but the most CPU intensive operations, which does not include Adobe PS or LR, is hands down the winner for my work.

Seriously, anyone building a new system now will be well served to take a look at the relative inexpensive Z170 motherboard platform that is built around Intel's modestly improved i7 6700. The new intel cpu is good, but only marginally better than the already excellent i7 4790; however the Z170 motherboards are incredibly designed for people like us that need fast data access with amazing flexibility and bandwidth speed.

The proof is in the putting: Intel i7 6700 Tests

PS: The whole point of this system is that the cpu is top notch for photo editing, at a reasonable cost, with awesome bandwidth for video cards, and has multiple storage options like m2, sata express, usb 3.1, and sata raid to support ssd. and video options for a very fast machine. adamz is absolutely right on his configuration points below.

adamz

I'm jumping into this discussion so sorry if I repeat some things.
The cpu is not as important as gpu, both Lightroom and Photoshop can utilise this function w/o any problems.
Get a second smaller ssd just to work as photoshop scratch disk - 64GB should be enough.
Ram is extremely important for editing big files. I have 64gb and when I play with pano from d800 I can lag the system (MacPro i7 2xD700 FirePro). Get at least 64gb if you work with big files.
Storage is less important than main ssd. I use a setup of ssd from apple and lace raid. works perfectly for me.

Photobug

@TriShooter - can you please fix the link. Thanks.

TriShooter

@TriShooter - can you please fix the link. Thanks.

Done.

I'm jumping into this discussion so sorry if I repeat some things.
The cpu is not as important as gpu, both Lightroom and Photoshop can utilise this function w/o any problems.
Get a second smaller ssd just to work as photoshop scratch disk - 64GB should be enough.
Ram is extremely important for editing big files. I have 64gb and when I play with pano from d800 I can lag the system (MacPro i7 2xD700 FirePro). Get at least 64gb if you work with big files.
Storage is less important than main ssd. I use a setup of ssd from apple and lace raid. works perfectly for me.

I agree with the configuration points adamz makes. Small ssd drives are cheap now, so using them as a scratch disk is what I do too, along with a good graphics card

Killerbob

And if you want something just that little bit faster than SATA III SSDs, get a PCIe card like the Accelsior, with PCIe SSD storage, or the Sonnet Tempo Pro, with SSDs in Raid0...

In this video it is not important that the Mac Pro is a few years old, or that they use a regular HHD. They also compare an SSD with the Accelsior...

tcole1983

Guess I'll chime in since I started the thread. Love everything I got. You can get a 500 gb 850 evo for $150 now. I haven't had a single problem. System boots fast. Lightroom doesn't stutter at all and 24 MP files exports to a regular hard drive are almost instant. Games on high everything run great. I think I posted everything I got previously. Worst part was wireless internet. It took a while to find a stable wireless setup with Windows 7, 64 bit. Eventually got an asus pce-ac56...fast and works awesome.

I think my old mouse is wigging out though. Keeps stopping working for no reason. Thought maybe it was too far away and moved the usb dongle thing and it still does it.

Photobug

Hey tcole, change the battery in your mouse and see if that solves your inconsistent issue.

tcole1983

Hey tcole, change the battery in your mouse and see if that solves your inconsistent issue.

That was the first thing I tried.

Thought maybe we need a mouse pad, but we shouldn't with a fairly new mouse.

adamz

I went with most major mice on the market and the one I love most is the Logitech Anywhere MX. Not the cheapest one but worth every cent spent on it.

tcole1983

I went with most major mice on the market and the one I love most is the Logitech Anywhere MX. Not the cheapest one but worth every cent spent on it.

I am going to try a spare I have out and make sure that is the problem. If it is I'll check it out adamz.

Snowleopard

I am sure there are allot of die hard mac fans here, but locally, allot of the photographers here use Macbook Air's or Macbook Pro's which become $1500 paper weights every few OS revisions that Apple releases. And then Adobe won't support the older versions of OS X.

The problem has gotten worse since Steve Job's passing with updates that create more bugs and problems. The one exception to this is the Desktop Mac Pro model (The little black trash can) with the xeon processors, which is not a laptop.

For the last 25 years I have built my desktops and started building my own laptops (starting with a base laptop and tearing it down and replacing parts)

I would argue that anyone that spends the money on a desktop mac pro can get the same or more power of out a similarly configured PC cheaper and upgrade parts and the system will last longer than a Mac Pro.

Having said that, I did pick up an Apple Macintosh Powerbook 1400CS 4 weeks ago for $60 that runs System 7.5.3 and Photoshop 2.0.3 for Mac OS great. For some reason it won't edit files from my D700 or D810 though.... I think my thumb drive has more space than the hard drive in that laptop.

Killerbob

I won't say that's complete BS, but it some of it is!

My Mac Pro 3,1, from 2008, is still running, and running well. It is on the latest Mac OS, 10.11, El Capitan, which hasn't even been released yet... And it is running Adobe CS... I have uprgaded it with Accelsior cards, GTX680 videocard, and more RAM.

My MacBook Air 1,1 wont run Yosemite, but that is a laptop also from the beginning of 2008, and it was EOL a few years ago. It does still run OSX 10.7 (Lion), and it runs it OK. I have another MacBook Air, also from 2008, but ver 2,1, and it runs OSX 10.10 (Yosemite) quite well, and it also has Adobe CS on it.

I do not have a Windows based laptop from 2008 (I probably threw them out a few years ago). I don't even have one from 2010. My oldest HP laptop, is a 2011 Pavilion dv7, top-end, which really struggles with Windows 8.1. So much so, I won't be porting it to Windows 10. I have upgraded to SSD and more RAM, but it still sucks.

My point is; you may spend more on Apple products, but they last significantly longer. And through that lifetime, TCO is much much lower than a similar Windows-based PC/Laptop.

manhattanboy

I have another MacBook Air, also from 2008, but ver 2,1, and it runs OSX 10.10 (Yosemite) quite well, and it also has Adobe CS on it.

Thank you for your post... I have a 2,1 MBA too and have not upgraded it, but its nice to know it runs when when upgraded. Will now do so.

My point is; you may spend more on Apple products, but they last significantly longer. And through that lifetime, TCO is much much lower than a similar Windows-based PC/Laptop.

I think in general that statement is true. However, there are more OPTIONS in a PC, and that is important to some folks. Neither Windows or Mac is operating fast and thorough enough to deal with the major issue facing computers today which is security. If relatively obscure free BSD OS's like Junos have APTs, then all of us are in trouble. :O

tcole1983

The first PC I built for around $1200 lasted almost 9 years. I think laptops in general of any brand go out of date quickly. Just because it can still be used doesn't mean it is up to date and able to use current software and operating systems.

@Killerbob....I have heard from everyone so far that Windows 10 is superior to 8. Faster is something I have heard from everyone using it so far...why wouldn't you upgrade if you are using 8?