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Computer for Editors
Im about to upgrade my Mac Tower computer. It runs great but the OS is older and some programs wont run on it now  I m going to buy used since thats what I can afford. What OS and power of computer, core, ram etc.. do you think would be a good balance for Photoshop? I ve seen where some people buy them and say its way more computer then what they need for photoshop. So Im trying to not over spend. But I will spend as much as I need too! Thanks for you help  Apr 12 17 06:01 pm Link I recently built my own computer using mid-range but the newest and state of the art components for $700 (including os) and it works flawlessly with Photoshop and Lightroom. It consists of an intel core i5 (series 7) 3.ghz processor, Gigabyte ITX motherboard with H270 chipset, 16gb DDR4 - 2400, and an Intel NVme 500gb SSD all in a nice Mini ITX case. Total time from turning on computer to operating Photoshop is 15 seconds. 7 seconds if I didn't use Datacolor 4 calibration. Can import RAW files made from a 25megapixel camera from Lightroom to Photoshop and back flawlessly. By comparision my 2 year old computer was an AMD a10, 32gb ram. 3 to 4 minutes to boot up. Lightroom was slow as molasses. Importing and Exporting between LR and PS would take minutes, not seconds. The motherboards featuring Z270 or H270 chipsets were introduced in January, so it's pretty hard to find a mass produced computer (HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer... etc) that has those components, but they'll probably start showing up in the high end machines around Christmas time. If you don't know how to build your own computer you could purchase all the parts and pay some techie guy a few bucks to do it. It shouldn't take any more than an hour fto go from separate components to fully up and operating system. If you load the Windows OS from a thumb drive the full installation is about 7 minutes. Apr 12 17 08:55 pm Link A second-hand Mac Mini should do if you're working with photoshop. Apr 13 17 08:38 am Link Apr 13 17 03:11 pm Link Yani S wrote: Pictus wrote: I don't have time to read all of the articles but the one from photographylife.com is listing what's already considered old technology. The turbofuture.com is also listing mostly old products. None of the stuff is outdated... actually far from it... but there are better, faster, lower price motherboards and components that recently came on the market. Apr 13 17 06:31 pm Link Lightroom is much more picky about graphics than Photoshop is, which is basically why my AMD systems were operating poorly. Any of the Intel core processors made in the last few years have built in graphics that are supported by Lightroom. Supported AMD systems require a fairly expensive graphics card to work well. Because I use Lightoom the most, and Lightroom is more picky than Photoshop, I built my system to specs that Adobe recommends.: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/li … u-faq.html Apr 13 17 06:53 pm Link Yani S, before you invest in a new used system check out the videos on how to upgrade unsupported Macs to MacOS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQz5OQHOTAA Its free and lots of people have including me. Another and in my view better option is to use Opensource programs like Krita and Dartable which are arguably as good as CS and Lightroom. Running Linux on your Mac is easy and you may find it more responsive and again all free. Nothing wrong with custom builds like SayCheeZ! suggests. However he from what I can tell is a experienced builder. Paying someone to put your system together may not be cheap and still requires a Windows license. ( some websites offer activation for less the $30.00 though.) Give my idea a try. Its free and Krita, Darktable and even GIMP are fantastic and all free. Apr 13 17 07:22 pm Link Can't comment on OS as I'm not a mac user. Pay attention to what generation is the cpu you'll buy. 5th and 7th generation from intel are much faster than older ones. An old generation i7 can be much slower than new generation i3 / i5. RAM minimum 8 or 16. Graphics card, check their list: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/ph … d-faq.html And here I see some info about what macOS you need: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/syste … ments.html I would recommend two hard drives, one for os, one for cache, but you can do this upgrade later if you need more speed. Apr 14 17 12:46 pm Link For retouching work, even an older i5 should be sufficient. i7 is only worthwhile if you want to work on videos or use 3d applications. More important is: max out the RAM, and add a SSD as a working hard-drive. I work with a 512gb SSD as a system/work drive. Then archive finished jobs on normal hd. Apr 21 17 11:46 am Link Get a lot of RAM, as much as you can afford, and put all scratch files on a ramdisk. SSD is not the right medium for scratching. You can install your OS and apps on SSD for faster reads but deliberately adding writes to an SSD is a technological no-no. Apr 22 17 02:45 am Link Thanks guys!!! Apr 28 17 08:57 am Link I am a long time Mac fan. Currently using a Mini which I bought used. I was tempted by an I-Mac and was close to grabbing one, but I have to say for the most part, the Mini serves me pretty well. Maybe I should add I am using Photoshop Elements if that is relevant . Every one of my computers has been Mac. And all but one were bought used. If I kept them all I would have a small Mac museum. Apr 28 17 09:45 am Link anchev wrote: M.2 is the way to go. May 10 17 08:47 am Link WIP wrote: M.2 is ~2x slower even than the slowest DDR3 simply because RAM is faster than ROM. It will always be because of the way it works. May 10 17 09:31 am Link anchev wrote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdF_aerWcW8 May 10 17 09:59 am Link WIP wrote: This is completely unrelated to what I said. May 10 17 03:02 pm Link You mentioned SSD... my reply is a follow up M.2...a lot faster than a hard disk drive platter. You could also mention ram as in what the mobo can take that's the first thing to figure out. May 10 17 05:02 pm Link WIP wrote: M.2 NVme is the latest and greatest and faster version. If possible get a motherboard that supports it. May 10 17 08:19 pm Link WIP wrote: Of course it is faster than HDD but I haven't even mentioned such a comparison, so I am not quite sure why this follow up. My word was about RAM vs SSD. M.2 is SSD, just a different one. You could also mention ram as in what the mobo can take that's the first thing to figure out. I could also mention that Photoshop memory management sucks. It doesn't free up memory correctly, it doesn't use CPU and GPU properly and all the rest of it. However if you work wisely (optimizing your OS and program settings, not using too many layers etc) with 32GB RAM you will rarely feel the need for more, even for 50Mpx+ images. The perfect solution would be to have a software which is not as 90's as PS but unfortunately we are using the least worst. May 11 17 12:06 am Link It's all getting a bit theoretical (to my mind). In practice, for retouching with Photoshop, this is all I need. Processor 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 Memory 16GB 1600 MHz DDR3 In other words, a 2015 Mac Mini. Add a tablet, a hard drive for storage and a good monitor, and you've got all you need. Yes, it can start to slow down a little as files approach 1GB, but it works fine with files up to1.5GB and beyond. I know it's tempting to always want the fastest, most powerful, latest set up. But what you want and what you need are two different things. May 11 17 01:24 am Link SayCheeZ! wrote: My fav gfx cards being Firepro .. not for games. May 11 17 02:02 am Link |
