PC for Photoshop/editing.

[Vdubchaos]

We are looking to build a rig for Photoshop. Budget about $1000-1200 for Desktop itself.

We are shooting for highest CPU HP (I7 2011) but wondering if it's even worth it over 1055 socket. 2011 boards seem expensive. Would 1055 do the trick? Speed is of an essence!

Also wondering about GPU. Seems like photoshop is not very GPU intensive though (will onboard be enough?).

I'm steering away from anything prebuild/apple etc. Any advice on hardware would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

 

[mfenn]

LGA 2011 would only be worth it over LGA 1150 (I'm assuming that's what you mean by 1055) if you go with a 6-core processor. Otherwise the 1150 (Haswell) processors are strictly faster.

Whether or not the 6-core is worth it depends on how much of your time you spend waiting for filters to apply and how much your time is worth (i.e. are you getting paid to do it).

 

[Vdubchaos]

Time is money/yes, getting paid to do it.

1055 is faster? Noticed there is more motherboard choices/cheaper prices with 1055.

How about rest of the hardware. From what I understand PS is CPU/RAm intensive?

Any other recommendations would be appreciated.

 

[lehtv]

1150, not 1055.

This is from hardwarecanucks' Ivy Bridge-E review:

As you can see, the 4770K is faster than the 4820K, and in this particular test which doesn't appear to be that heavily multithreaded (not everything in Photoshop is), it's even faster than the hexacores.

PS is RAM intensive, yes. At least 16GB recommended. You'll probably also want a mid range graphics card for OpenCL acceleration.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Your budget's a little light for a hex core, so I'd stick with LGA 1150 and a Xeon E3 1230 V3.

 

[Vdubchaos]

4770k is def the primary choice right now (has been before this thread).

Any recommendations on GPU? I'm struggling to find many benchmarks on this subject but it seems like few years ago Adobe started to utilize GPU?

Also any specific RAM I should be looking at (speed wise).

 

[lehtv]

PugetSystems did some tests on Photoshop CS6 GPU acceleration. By the looks of it, you can "max out" PS CS6 with a pretty inexpensive card. The 7750 here performs practically the same as high end cards, it is equivalent to current generation R7 250X (in terms of GFLOPS, see GPUboss). If you're going to buy a GPU, then you most likely won't need the 4770K over the Xeon E3 1230 V3 (which is just a server segment version of the i7, with some additional features you don't need, locked multiplier and no IGP).

RAM speed is not that important, just buy the standard 1600MHz 1.5V stuff, cheapest you can find with lifetime warranty and standard height profile. What you want to ensure is you don't run out of RAM because that will result in data being cached into the comparatively slow SSD for memory addressing. I would get a 2x8GB kit first and later add another kit for 32GB if needed. On Windows 7, you need Professional to use more than 16GB, but on Windows 8, all you need is the standard license.

 

[DSF]

I agree with lehtv about the RAM. Quantity is more important than speed by a long-shot. His plan of getting 2x8GB to leave room for expansion to 4x8GB (32 total) is right on.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Thanks guys, def going with 8gb x2 (1600MHz 1.5V)

Any recommendation for Power Supply. I think we are down to that now. I'm thinking Seasonic or Antec.

Guessing around 500watt.

For now we are going with onboard graphics 4770k and see how that works. Worst case scenario and we can add a midrange card after that.

I actually found those benchmarks posted above prior to my thread but noticed that the date was from 2012.

What's an equivalent to 7750 card now days?

 

[lehtv]

What's an equivalent to 7750 card now days?

As I said above, that would be the R7 250X. It's not 1:1 in all respects but in terms of GFLOPS, or GPU computing performance, it's practically the same.

Any recommendation for Power Supply. I think we are down to that now. I'm thinking Seasonic or Antec.

I'd probably get a Rosewill Capstone 450W with Gold efficiency and top-of-the-line 7 year warranty, as well as support for high end graphics cards with dual PCIe connectors. Despite being under 500W rated, the unit is no slouch, you could comfortably run a 200W graphics card on it (the R9 250X consumes half that).

For now we are going with onboard graphics 4770k and see how that works. Worst case scenario and we can add a midrange card after that.

If you're not intending to overclock, the i7-4770 would be the CPU to get, it's the same as the K but locked. In the same vein, the Xeon E3 1230 V3 is locked, and the price difference between the Xeon and the i7-4770 is large enough that it might just make more sense to get an entry level graphics card along with the Xeon. E.g.

i7-4770 = $310
Xeon E3-1230 V3 = $245 AP

-> $65 difference. For $70 after rebate, you could get a Sapphire R7 250 which has nearly the same floating point performance as the R7 250X. The differences like in memory bandwidth and shaders which are not very important for GPU computing...

 

[Vdubchaos]

Wow, Rosewill power supplies ehh? Seems like they REALLY got into the game recently.

Reading some great things about those too.

We will stick with 4770k and see how it goes. AMD GPU will be on the list (its under 100, no big deal). We do want to capability of Overclocking down the road.

Thanks again for all advice, feel free to keep it coming. Ordering end of the week.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Wow, Rosewill power supplies ehh? Seems like they REALLY got into the game recently.

Rosewill has a variety of PSU's that they source from different OEM's, but the Capstone line is sourced from SuperFlower, a top-tier OEM!

 

[lehtv]

Rosewill has a variety of PSU's that they source from different OEM's, but the Capstone line is sourced from SuperFlower, a top-tier OEM!

Top-tier for gold/platinum units yes. I would avoid Superflower-made bronze or lower units unless proven good quality in reviews

 

[Throckmorton]

I would go with the best bang for the buck quad core processor, and not worry about spending extra money for slightly more power. You also need lots of RAM and preferably an SSD to work from.