Computer for Lightroom

[Rus Cristian]

Hello ,

Currently I own a laptop with i3 2310M , 4GB DDR3 , 500GB HDD , Intel HD3000 + Nvidia GT520M Video Cards but I'm not very satisfied with it when I work in Lightroom and when import more than 500 photos (Canon 6D RAW files). So , I want to buy a new limited budget desktop.

Do you think it will be a remarkable difference with i3 4160 & 8GB of RAM or should I choose an i5 haswell ? There are enough 8GB of RAM ? What about a SSD ?

Thank you.

 

[sakete]

A stronger/faster processor will definitely be helpful in Lightroom (I'm an avid user of Lightroom myself).

There are actually a few things you can do to speed up Lightroom:
1. A faster processor (so go with the i5 if your budget allows it)
2. An SSD on which you store the Lightroom database, so that after importing all your RAW files the actual editing will be done through the SSD and not the slower HDD.

I will be building a new PC this week myself and I plan on storing all my RAW files on a 4TB RAID 1 setup, but will have the Lightroom database stored on the SSD for faster access and processing. And I will also install a Core i7 processor which again will help speed up processing times.

 

[Cerb]

I'm just a support guy, not a user.

Some operations may be slightly faster with more threads, and an FX-83xx actually won't be bad, but enough will stay limited by single-thread performance that an i3 would be an overall faster option. An i5-4460 or 4590 (for the turbo, which will help importing by a smidgen) would be hard to go wrong with, though. An i7-4790K even better (4.4GHz!), but, you know, budget and all.

An SSD might help, but the CPU never seems to be fast enough, and it can use a quad core. A desktop Haswell i5 aught to be noticeably faster than the mobile Sandy Bridge i3. A 4460 has 50% in clock speed alone, another 10% or more from the newer core, double the cache, and isn't sharing the cores. An i3 would be much faster, too, by about the same amount for the first 2 cores; but if you're going to build, you're going to be in for $3-600 before the CPU, so don't go saving $75 on a dual-core, IMO.

P.S. https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Lightroom-CC-6-CPU-Multi-threading-Performance-649/

 

[lehtv]

8GB is a good idea, as it is the recommended amount for Lightroom.

Importing RAW files is dependent on disk speed, to a degree - however an SSD is not going to help there since you'll be storing photos on a less expensive mechanical drive. SSD will help with how responsive the program is to use but it won't really affect things like import speed or applying effects. All you really need here is a decent 7200RPM storage drive, then it's mostly down to the CPU.

i3-41xx should be fine, obviously i5 is better if you can afford it, but a Haswell i3 is no slouch. The difference between i3 and entry level i5 is actually pretty marginal. i3-4170 is 12% faster than i5-4460 in 1-2 threaded tasks and loses by about 25% in quad threaded tasks. Not worth it IMO, you can always upgrade the processor later if you want.

The i3-4170 below is 3.7GHz versus your laptop's 2.1GHz so that's a 76% boost in clock speed plus another ~15% from being two generations newer technology.

i3-4170 560 ron
2x4GB Patriot DDR3-1600 295 ron
Gigabyte B85M-HD3 288 ron
Kingston HyperX Fury 120GB 290 ron
WD Blue 1TB 260 ron or Toshiba 2TB 380 ron
(Asus DVD-RW 69 ron)
Seasonic G360 300 ron
Thermaltake Versa H25 182 ron
= 2175 ron with the smaller HDD and no DVD drive

How's that price?

You'll need a copy of Windows too. Maybe you can get away without buying a new copy though - if you're a student can you get one through your school? Also, you might be able to use a Windows key on the bottom of your laptop, see here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...under-my/242b10cc-1f49-e011-8dfc-68b599b31bf5

If there's a COA SLP key on the bottom, use that to download the media from here and create a bootable USB, or use a friend's Windows DVD to install.

 

[lehtv]

P.S. https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Lightroom-CC-6-CPU-Multi-threading-Performance-649/

Nice one! Tried finding something like this.

 

[CoPhotoGuy]

Really for LR you would want a quad-core if possible. Combine that with a good amount of RAM and an SSD for the catalog to get the best performance. You can speed up some things with GPU acceleration now as well.

Anyway I have a 6-core, 32GB RAM system and it runs LR very well.

 

[Rus Cristian]

Thank you guys for your answers. I appreciate.
@lehtv - Sounds good. My budget is thereabouts. Windows license is not a problem for me because right now I'm student and i have acces to differents operating systems costless.

Do you think that integrated video card from i5 it might boost editing in the new edition of Lightroom ? (version 6)
Is there any remarkable difference between i3 mobile CPU (Sandy Bridge) and i3 desktop CPU (Haswell) ? (just for general knowledge)

Thank you.

 

[lehtv]

i3-4160's integrated video is fine for Lightroom - there's very little if any difference between the integrated video components of i3 and i5. So if you buy an i5, you buy it for the two extra cores.
https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/lightroom-gpu-faq.html
"For Intel cards, 4400 or later are required."

Dedicated GPUs can accelerate image processing in some ways, but it's not required. You can easily add a graphics card later if you find that it could benefit you.

Is there any remarkable difference between i3 mobile CPU (Sandy Bridge) and i3 desktop CPU (Haswell) ?

There's not really any difference in mobile vs desktop except clock speed, the i3 you have is lower clocked than its desktop counterparts (in order to keep thermals low enough for mobile use).

As for Sandy vs Haswell, the main improvement with Haswell is in integrated graphics performance then in CPU performance per watt. You can check the detailed differences in features and supported technologies (which don't really matter for your use case) here:
http://ark.intel.com/products/52220/Intel-Core-i3-2310M-Processor-3M-Cache-2_10-GHz
http://ark.intel.com/products/77488/Intel-Core-i3-4160-Processor-3M-Cache-3_60-GHz

One more thing - it would probably be a good idea to get a motherboard with four DIMM slots so you can add more memory later without replacing the earlier modules, i.e. you can go 4x4GB instead of 2x8GB. Asrock B85 Pro4 is pretty good at 320 ron, or MSI H97 PC Mate (395 ron) which lets you upgrade to an upcoming Broadwell i5 processor (~5% faster per clock).

 

[sm625]

but I'm not very satisfied with it when I work in Lightroom and when import more than 500 photos (Canon 6D RAW files).

What is your cpu usage % when doing this import? If its not 100% then an i5 wont help. Also watch RAM usage during that time as well.

 

[Rus Cristian]

Well ... I tried to export 30 photos and this is what happens (picture below) :
But the same photos on a configuration like i3 2100 + 4GB ram (CPU ~ 60% always) it took less time to export than on my laptop. I don't understand why.

 

[Cerb]

^ They are the same chip (unlike i5 and i7, that can vary between mobile and desktop by quite a bit), but the i3-2100 runs at 3.1GHz, where the i3-2310M runs at 2.1GHz. The i3-2100 has the potential to perform up to 47% faster.

 

[mfenn]

Well ... I tried to export 30 photos and this is what happens (picture below) :
But the same photos on a configuration like i3 2100 + 4GB ram (CPU ~ 60% always) it took less time to export than on my laptop. I don't understand why.

That's a CPU bottleneck if I ever saw one! Upgrading to a newer CPU with a much higher clock (nearly double) will greatly improve your export speeds.

 

[Cerb]

That's a CPU bottleneck if I ever saw one! Upgrading to a newer CPU with a much higher clock (nearly double) will greatly improve your export speeds.

The clock speed and newer core will help import the most. Exporting can use all the threads of an FX-8000 or i7 (a good reason to try make it to an i5, if on a low budget).

 

[Rus Cristian]

Thank you once again. What do you think about AMD FX-6300 for Lightroom ? Is it a better option ?

 

[redzo]

A FX-6350 is faster than a haswell i3.
Go for at least an haswell i5 or FX-8XXX! They're the best price / performance regarding lightroom. Lightroom loves full cores. i3's are too weak because they're just dual cores.
Check i3-4330's performance bellow!
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/CPU-H...cialsCPU-fuer-Photoshop-und-Lightroom-1109093

 

[Cerb]

The FX is faster when doing more than just importing, so there's a trade-off (check the Puget article). Processing done to the image will generally use many cores effectively, and based on AMD's results, looks primarily bound by some basic ALU work.

 

[Rus Cristian]

Thank you guys. I will buy an i5. What about operating system ? Windows 7 or 8.1 ? Which is better ? Or there's no difference in lightroom & internet browsing ?

 

[mfenn]

There's no real difference in terms of performance or application compatibility at this point, and both with be eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 10. Get whichever one you're more comfortable with.