Computer Upgrade Advice

I currently have an almost 8 year old Windows 7 PC and exclusively use Lightroom Classic CC for image processing. I would like to consider a performance boosting modification of my current machine in order to get a few more years usage out of it, and I am really not interested at this time to invest in a new machine. The current configuration is as follows:

- Intel Core i5-650 @3.20 Ghz (dual core)

- 12 gb ram (motherboard max would be 16 gb)

- ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics board - 2560 x 1600 max supported resolution - does not support Lightroom graphics acceleration

- Dell 20" ultrasharp LCD

 

What I am considering is (a) adding an SSD drive, (b) a 27" 4K monitor, © and a graphics card that supports Lightroom graphics acceleration and a 4K monitor.

 

I currently process 16 MB RAW files and do not anticipate files any larger than 24 MB (in the next 2 or 3 years).

 

Does the above wish list make sense? Any other suggestions / changes that would help? How large an SSD drive do I need? I assume I would need to move the operating system, lightroom catalogue, and the previews to the SSD but would keep the image files on the existing hard drive. The budget is limited since I want to invest as little as possible in an 8 year old machine.

I just replaced the 128GB SSD drive on mine and installed Windows 10 at the same time. I only kept programs and operating system on it and it was up to over 100GB used space. I was using Lightroom and Photoshop CS6. I put a 500GB into it less than a year ago. I still only keep programs and the operating system on it. It's not up to 100GB yet. I should be good for a long time.

I'd recommend a 500GB, but maybe a 250 would suffice.

Can't believe how inexpensive SSD drives are these days. Here is an example (click). Not sure how many programs you will have to install, I'd suggest 500GB to be used for the programs and possibly cache.

 

Memories are not that expensive either. 32GB is great but perhaps you can use a little less. Surely get a better graphic card.

 

Good luck.

Does the above wish list make sense?

 

Yes. Get the best graphics card you can afford. And up the RAM to 16 GB.

Lightroom graphics acceleration ranges from small improvement for some operations to slower performance for most things. There's a lot of data on the web about how it isn't particularly useful. A faster drive will make far more difference in performance.

I, too, have a ten year old Windows 7 system. I recently upgraded my boot drive from an old Western Digital Black 750 GB to a 1 TB Crucial MX-500 SSD. It think it gave me the best bang per buck of any upgrade (short of a new computer) I could make. I chose the Crucial because it carries a 5-year warranty and came in less expensive than the Samsung. Since I purchased it, the price has dropped about $40 making it an even better deal.

 

In 2020 when I build a new computer, I will pull the SSD, put it in an external USB 3.1 Gen 1 enclosure, and use it for my daily off-line backups.

 

I am not sure how much advantage a 4K monitor will give you editing still images. It will depend upon your camera. If you print the images, probably not that much. If you view them perhaps some, but only if you view them on another 4K capable monitor.

The 4K monitor may or may not give you an advantage in editing, but I can guarantee it will give you an advantage in viewing and appreciating your photos and those of others—unless you have poor eyesight, in which case there's no point.

The 4K monitor may or may not give you an advantage in editing, but I can guarantee it will give you an advantage in viewing and appreciating your photos and those of others—unless you have poor eyesight, in which case there's no point.

 

Once again, it depends upon the camera taking the image. If the camera is capable of taking a 4K image, say a Nikon D850, you may see some improvement. On the other hand, I doubt I would see any improvement for images taken with my old Canon PowerShot Pro 1, or any of my various cell phones.

I want to invest as little as possible in an 8 year old machine.

You sound like somebody capable of stuffing whatever you'll need into that case for the next 24 years.

The most borderline investment on your shopping list are the missing 4GB of RAM, since you might upgrade to a different socket motherboard that is still in production when you current one falls apart.

To me 27" 4K screens seem nice to get blown away by ones images but not ideal to work on one's pixels,, especially when you are working on photo.net postings that will get viewed by others on their lower pixel density screens.

I'm not familiar enough with LR to comment on sane SSD sizes.

I think I'd get a reputable moderate sized SSD for the OS and add a less expensive bigger one for other LR catalogs (I read one should thrive to keep one's small) and images currently under construction and back it up to a HDD regularly.

 

Will Your PSU cope with a thirsty GPU and a 2nd or even 3rd drive?

Have you looked at your Taskmanager and windows performance index, to determine which part of your current machine is busiest and or slowest?

It's a good time to by SSDs, the teething problems with TLC flash SSDs are mostly over by now. It's also a pretty good time to buy CPUs, 8 core consumer CPUs are now a reasonable thing thanks to AMDs newest offerings forcing Intel to compete again. Graphics are meh, but at least the run on them for mining nerd-scrip seems mostly on the wane so prices should be acceptable. RAM is still in the middle of a giant bout of price fixing, advice being given is don't buy any more than you need. That's your weather report for PC parts.

Once again, it depends upon the camera taking the image. If the camera is capable of taking a 4K image, say a Nikon D850, you may see some improvement. On the other hand, I doubt I would see any improvement for images taken with my old Canon PowerShot Pro 1, or any of my various cell phones.

 

I think it's assumed we're using high-resolution sensors here. You don't need a D850 for 4K resolution; a D700 will suffice. And there is no need for speculation about whether a 4K monitor will make a difference. I promise you will see the difference if your eyes are good enough.

Maybe quality IPS 1440p display on possible Displayport would be change enough while waiting for new computer. SSD shortens the boot time and windows explorer previews generating time on massive image folders. I have had mostly luck with 256GB and 500GB SSDs. I am not sure SSD is best for everything, on some computers while starting programs there is some waiting that is not due high processor use or low memory, so what could it be. Edited August 5, 2018 by hapien

Maybe quality IPS 1440p display on possible Displayport would be change enough while waiting for new computer. SSD shortens the boot time and windows explorer previews generating time on massive image folders. I have had mostly luck with 256GB and 500GB SSDs. I am not sure SSD is best for everything, on some computers while starting programs there is some waiting that is not due high processor use or low memory, so what could it be.

 

It could be many things. Two things come to mind:

 

1) Paging. Use Windows Resource Monitor to check this.

2) Your Anti-Virus program.

Thank you all for your responses. I believe I knew of the Lightroom graphics accelerator issues, but will likely upgrade the graphics card so that it can drive a 4K wide screen monitor. 1 additional question, if I use the SSD as the boot drive (C drive) and rename the existing HD, I assume that my image files (still on the HD) will need to be redirected in LIghtroom to the renamed drive. Is this a difficult process?

Thank you all for your responses. I believe I knew of the Lightroom graphics accelerator issues, but will likely upgrade the graphics card so that it can drive a 4K wide screen monitor. 1 additional question, if I use the SSD as the boot drive (C drive) and rename the existing HD, I assume that my image files (still on the HD) will need to be redirected in LIghtroom to the renamed drive. Is this a difficult process?

Yes you need to teach LR where the images reside now. Easiest solution is to target the top 'directory' folder of all images and use the Update Folder Location contextual menu command.

I think it's assumed we're using high-resolution sensors here. You don't need a D850 for 4K resolution; a D700 will suffice. And there is no need for speculation about whether a 4K monitor will make a difference. I promise you will see the difference if your eyes are good enough.

4K resolution is 3840x2160. So any 8MB camera would fill up the screen. Of course, newer cameras have better light cells and dynamic range.

What I am considering is (a) adding an SSD drive, (b) a 27" 4K monitor, © and a graphics card that supports Lightroom graphics acceleration and a 4K monitor.

 

BTW, you misplaced a couple of the numbers (letters) in that sentence. To preserve parallelism, it should have read:

 

 

You're welcome.

Does the above wish list make sense? .... The budget is limited since I want to invest as little as possible in an 8 year old machine.

 

A bit late....

I'm going to swim against the advice given so far: no, I would not invest a dime in an 8-year old system. I would put the money aside to start saving up for a new system instead. The big exception is a monitor, since you don't need change monitors when you change desktops, so those "upgrade paths" can run independent of one another.

But at this point, adding RAM or a SSD to a system that statistically is increasingly likely to fail, to me sounds like a waste of good money.

Sound advice.

My present PC was built piece by piece with a Gamer’s perspective in mind. I’ve never played games but the learning curve on what was fast for video processing gave me a bit of time to assemble a list of compatible components. That was 4 years ago so I’m sure it is all outdated now.....

Edited August 18, 2018 by Moving On

If the OP replaces the CPU to a 4, 6 for 8 core version, it also will mean a new motherboard and with all the other changes, that's basically a new computer which he specifically stated he doesn't want to do. If you want to stretch what you have for another year or 2, than maxing the ram at 16 (the limits of the board), get your new video card and maybe 512 SSD as you home drive. The monitor is nice too and you will still have that for the next machine. You can use you current drive for data, photos etc. Put you operating system and programs on the SSD and keep you photos on a separate drive. You will still be spending some money to get this to where you want it to be.

Sound advice.

My present PC was built piece by piece with a Gamer’s perspective in mind. I’ve never played games but the learning curve on what was fast for video processing gave me a bit of time to assemble a list of compatible components. That was 4 years ago so I’m sure it is all outdated now.....

Yeah, a lot of this stuff can be next generation tech in the blink of an eye. I 'm working on upgrading about every 5-6 years it seems. Of course my last upgrade happened after my lap top got stolen...<snif>

Yeah, a lot of this stuff can be next generation tech in the blink of an eye. I 'm working on upgrading about every 5-6 years it seems. Of course my last upgrade happened after my lap top got stolen...<snif>

True. A few years ago I upgraded my 2012 system (6 years old now) with a new CPU, replaced the C: drive with a 1TB Samsung SSD, added a 4tb internal drive (now total 7tb). Don't remember if I also upgraded the graphic card. The system always has 32gb ram, so this aspect has not changed. Anyhow, the system flies - no sign of old age.

I've been using MacBook Pros with an external monitor at home for about 12 years or so, not so easy to upgrade the laptops, but portability is necessary and the MBPs, configured to 15" version, work very well for photography.

A faster drive will make far more difference in performance.

Wow, will it ever - I just replaced a 1TB HDD with an Intel 500g SSD in a simple Ryzen powered Win10 HP Pavilion with 12g of RAM on a Sunflower MB, and the performance increase is astounding! It boots so much faster that everything is up and running within 30 seconds. And Intel's SSDs don't benchmark as high as many others for overall performance, so you can do even better with the latest Samsung etc.

 

My photos are all on NAS with traditional HDs, so my next upgrade will be SSDs in the NAS - just as soon as the prices drop on 1TB units :)

Edited August 29, 2018 by otislynch

My photos are all on NAS with traditional HDs, so my next upgrade will be SSDs in the NAS - just as soon as the prices drop on 1TB units

 

I am not sure that replacing the NAS drives with SSDs will buy you all that much. In Lightroom, and to an extent in Photoshop, the image files are read once, at the start of processing and, for Photoshop, written once at the end of processing. Lightroom writes all the updates to its catalog (unless you use XMP files). All the processing is done in RAM memory, the applications cache memory on disk, or the systems page data set. As long as Lightroom Catalog, the cache, and page data set are on SSD, where the image itself is stored should have very little impact on processing time.

 

Having the images on SSD will speed up the import time, but that happens just once.