PC Computer choice (early 2013)

heartyfisher

Maybe Hearty's running only DOS and Unix command-line apps!

lol

studio460

FYI:

If anyone is considering the ThinkPad X230T tablet I had mentioned earlier, beware that if choosing the "outdoor" screen ("glossy," Gorilla glass option), note that this screen is only "stylus-touch" activated, not "finger-touch" activated. The regular (matte) screen for the X230T (and the X230 laptop) is both finger- and stylus-touch activated.

TaoTeJared

Excellent topic and one that I will bookmark for when I purchase a new computer later this year. Lots of great information and perspectives here thanks guys. Any concerns with running Windows 8 Tao? 24GB of RAM wow thats insane! That would be a D800 Killer for sure. It looks like there is plenty of support so far for the i7...

Actually it is 32gb of ram and it will be here tomorrow!!!!

I do have concerns with widows 8 but not any technical ones at all other than adopting a new OS within the first year. I try to stay away from doing that and allow others to be the "guinea pigs." Actually, my concern with it was learning the new user interface or better put, fears that it would "get in the way" of my daily work that I must do on Day 1 of owning it. It appears also that win 8 pro is not out? At least I couldn't choose and I wanted the remote access and a few other things that only pro versions have. Win 7 pro I know will not get in the way and won't frustrate me.

If I a computer for general use I wouldn't hesitate getting win 8. I just don't have the time and the patience to learn a new OS now. That is also 99% of the reason I didn't get a Mac. My lack in experience with them in the last 10 years leaves me frustrated to no end when something simple needs to be changed and I can't find it or if there is some issue, I have no idea even what questions to ask to know how to fix it. That is my definition of a system getting in the way of my work and that makes it an unacceptable choice for me personally. I'm sure Mac users may have the same feelings about Windows machines or almost any of us with Linux.

[Deleted User]

Bought a new PC in November last year. The slowest item in your PC is the harddisk. So buy the latest i7, 16gb+ RAM, due to HDR photography, when you combine 3 x D800 RAW files with 4gb RAM in 32-bit HDR Photoshop, your PC goes black, very simple. So to speed up I bought a 256gb SSD (€ 156.-), put W7-64bit on it and all my software, total 80gb.
Very important, adjust my SSD settings (look on Google how to set it to run well), no indexing, no defrag, pagefile 1gb etc. include in your PC, 3 x 2gb USB 3.0 harddrives (move files with 120mb sec.), 1 to work on, 1 for backup, 1 for whatever.

Put the Lightroom catalog on the SSD, import photo's from the camera on the SSD to work on. After basic editing and renaming, move the photo's to the harddrive 1, (backup hardrive 2). Everything works with a blink of the eye.

studio460

In an earlier post, I was mistaken--I was originally looking at the ASUS P9X79 LGA 2011-motherboard, not the ASUS P8Z77-V. I was mainly considering the P9X79 for its generous array of DIMM slots--eight of 'em! While it's an otherwise excellent motherboard, unfortunately, it lacks built-in Thunderbolt I/O.

Again, here's the ASUS board I mentioned earlier which does have on-board Thunderbolt I/O (but sports only four DIMM slots):

ASUS P8Z77-V

studio460

Oddly, the 16GB mSATA SSD "display option" (the mini-SSD card bay is in the X230's monitor) has disappeared from the Lenovo site in all of their X230 build options!

studio460

Hmmm . . . now I'm back to looking at OS X machines.

heartyfisher

Bought a new PC in November last year. The slowest item in your PC is the harddisk. So buy the latest i7, 16gb+ RAM, due to HDR photography, combine 3 x D800 RAW files with 4gb RAM in 32-bit Photoshop and your PC goes black, very simple. So to speed up I bought a 256gb SSD (€ 156.-), put W7-64bit on it and all my software, total 80gb.
Very important, adjust my SSD settings (look on Google how to set it to run well), no indexing, pagefile 1gb etc. included 3 x 2g USB 3.0 harddrives (move files 120mb sec.), 1 to work on, 1 for backup, 1 for whatever.

Put the Lightroom catalog on the SSD, import photo's from the camera on the SSD to work on. After basic editing and renaming, move the photo's to the harddrive 1, (backup hardrive 2). Everything works with a blink of the eye.

I was thinking of doing something like this.. but have not thought it through.. thanks for detailing your set up.. I am happy some one has done it and it works as I thought it may ..

studio460

Yes, after-market SSDs are finally, now <$1 per GB, so they're some pretty good values to be had from Crucial, Samsung, Aura (Other World Computing's house brand), and others.

studio460

Yup, I'm looking at a MacBook Air again now! Although I really like the Windows8 OS and the new line of Win8-aware touchscreen laptops, I really don't want to deal with any virus/malware/BSOD issues again, which for me have been non-existent in our all-iMac household (we ditched all the PCs in the house and switched to all-iMacs in 2008).

We have a one-year-old Lenovo laptop that's completely unusable--can't get past the boot screen without it continually re-booting itself due to a virus. It's a tough decision because there's some really cool Windows-only apps I like, but I think OS X has won me over.

TaoTeJared

I got my computer up and running! Now starting to move the LR catalogues.

Only regret I have is the 128gb SSD was way too damn small or the OS and programs. 70% already and that is with zero user files and only Win 7pro, Google chrome, LR4.3, Elements and Premiere loaded. Only 30gb remaining.

I wanted the LR catalogue on the SSD but now I am scared I will max the drive out.
I have an additional 500gb hybrid drive (6gb/s) as a second drive. If anyone has any real "user advice" (read: "this is what I have done" - not the "I think" or "I have read") I would appreciate any suggestions.

My thought was to download my photos to the 500gb drive, LR catalogue on the SSD, and move old projects off. Is there a better idea?

Should have I loaded the programs on the 500gb?
Should I load all the programs and OS on the 500gb?
Buy a second SSD and keep everything as it is and use it as for the catalogue?

I also have a nas drive with old/finished projects and a USB 2.o drive for, Less than current, but keep close files.
In essence I move my files - Current edits=on machine, finished projects <60 days=USB, finished projects/archive=NAS. I am not worried about that at all. Just what to do with current projects. I will be updating the USB 2.0 to 3.0 soon as well.

Ironheart

How big is your LR catalog today? I personally find that it is faster on SSD than spinning stuff due to the largely random access. The programs themselves do not benefit as much from SSD as they are relatively small and get mostly loaded into RAM. You will notice a difference in startup time of the program, but its only been a few seconds difference for me. That makes it not worth the real estate on the SSD IMHO.

Elvishefer

I keep my LR catalog on a WD Black SATA 3 drive, nothing too fancy but not bottom of the line either, and I don't feel it slows me down. OS and apps are on the SSD.

I guess in an ideal world I would have my catalog on an SSD, but similar to your situation, my LR cat is pushing 70GB and wouldn't fit on the 128GB SSD I'm using.

PB_PM

The ideal solution would be to have two SSD's and then large traditional hard drives for storage and backup.

I would configure a desktop like this: C Drive, 64GB or 128GB SSD with only the OS. D Drive Programs, 128GB or 240GB SSD, E Drive, Images and other user data, two 2TB WD RED in RAID mirroring. I go with the newer RED drives because they are designed to use used in a RAID setup, run cooler than Blacks, and have high quality parts borrowed from the high end server line of RE drives. F Drive, backup drive(s) either single or RAID.

studio460

I thought the Windows volume can grow with use, so I would assume the largest C: drive SSD would be recommended?

TaoTeJared

How big is your LR catalog today? I personally find that it is faster on SSD than spinning stuff due to the largely random access. The programs themselves do not benefit as much from SSD as they are relatively small and get mostly loaded into RAM.

-I have 5 catalogs 3 stay on the NAS and are archives, 1 is current stuff and 1 is ongoing personal projects. The last two total is around 15gb but that jumps to 30gb as I edit new projects.
-As for the programs, I think that is a bit backwards, programs are huge in comparison to files. I would think that the programs are what needs to move fast. That is how it has always been in the past, did something change? I don't keep up with this stuff much anymore.

Thanks for the other thoughts. I am past "ideal" or "in theory" - this $3,000 machine is now sitting on my desktop. I was hoping to hear ideas on set up with what I have if there is a better way other than what I have now. (Not swapping hardware, or should have bought this or that.) With this group, might be wishful thinking - we may get into a D400 discussion in 3 posts

studio460

Tao: I vaguely remember researching this a while back. A quick Google search reminded me that a bit of Windows tweaking should be able to get your boot volume under 60GB. I turned up an older post on Tom's Hardware which advises disabling hibernation, moving the page file, temp file, and trash directories to a standard HDD. Here's a thread which details the process:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/17419-63-windows-installation-size

Although I have no personal experience with these techniques, I'm sure a more thorough search will yield more complete, and more current advice.

studio460

Another older article, but from a reliable source--ZDNet:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/windows-7-and-ssds-cutting-your-system-drive-down-to-size/2941

TaoTeJared

Thank you Studio460!

studio460

You're welcome! A little tweaking and you should be on your way!

Ironheart

@TaoTeJared, the LR4 executable is about 988MB on my computer. For comparison PS CS6 is 535MB, Capture NX2 about 75MB. LR4 takes about 10 seconds to start from a spinning disk and about 8 seconds to start from SSD on my computer. Since I'm not too worried about startup time I don't see the need to keep on SSD. Once the program is started it very rarely goes back to the disk for the executable bits. The technical term is "demand paging", but the most than can ever be loaded is 988MB which should fit in RAM.

Compared to a 15-30GB catalog, I'd say the program is much smaller than the files. The real issue is that catalog access is random (the very nature of a database) and running a program is sequential. SSDs shine in random access scenarios, but aren't all that much faster than a spinning disk on a pure sequential load.

Anyway, just my thoughts, try it for yerself :-)

studio460

Hmmm . . . i7 MacBook Air and Retina-equipped MacBook Pros too expensive. Now, I'm back to the MacMini!

PB_PM

Why the Mac Mini? Those machines are okay, but unless you need a specific external monitor an iMac is much better choice.

studio460

Oh, yes! That's right . . . I was thinking of another iMac. I forgot, I was planning to put my existing 3.06GHz Core2Duo (which works fine) from my home office into the bedroom, then buy a new, more powerful iMac for the office. Adam said that the newer iMacs no longer support the Apple VESA accessory mounting adapter. Have the check into that, since it would be a huge plus if both iMacs are wall-mountable.

This is going in the bedroom where'd like to be able to surf/type from bed (where I used to use my Lenovo netbook a lot), so I need a super-long monitor arm that has to traverse the space between the bed and the wall (to provide walking access to the opening of the sliding glass door--the back of bed is up against a sliding glass door).

studio460

It's true--Apple confirms that the new, late-2012 iMacs do NOT support VESA-mounting:

http://www.mactrast.com/2012/12/apple-confirms-new-27-inch-imac-does-not-support-vesa-mounting/

For older 24" and 27" iMacs (e.g., "late-2009, mid-2010, early-2011 27" iMacs"), this Apple VESA adapter allows you to replace its desk-stand, and mount your iMac on any VESA-compatible monitor arm (this is what I have on my 2008 27" iMac now):

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD179ZM/A/vesa-mount-adapter-kit-for-imac-andled-cinemaor-applethunderbolt-display