My Build for Photo Editing

[Alan G]

First of all, thank you for a great resource and parts recommendations. Building a PC is pretty close to child's play (maybe it should be 'adult child'). Everything went smoothly and the system booted up the first time I hit the start button. I needed a new computer to replace my old noisy one which needed some case fan replacement for sure and the video card was having intermittent issues that were not attributable to the driver. I don't play games, so overclocking and absolute speed are not an issue for me. Most of my photo editing is done in Adobe Lightroom and I only use Photshop for final editing as needed. I seldom do panoramas which are more processor intensive. For those reasons I opted for an Intel Ivy Bridge i5 rather than an i7. I wanted fast boot up and program loading so I installed an SSD for that purpose. I also wanted a case that was quiet and had enough expansion capabilities for more hard drives as needed (though if one is keeping photo files in Lightroom with xmp instructions the file size is much smaller than TIF files).

My hardware selections were:

Case - Fractal Designes Arc Midi R2 (it has 3 fans a fan controler and lots of room for wires and a CPU cooler, it also has a removable 5 bay internal drive which I took out as I don't need it at present)
CPU - i5 Ivy Bridge 3470
Motherboard - Ausus P8Z77-V LGA
CPU Cooler - Enermax ETS T40 (really easy to install and is quiet)
Video Card - MSI GeForce GTX 660 (I'm stcking with NVIDIA chips because of my bad experience with ATI)
SSD - Samsung 840 128GB (just after I did my build Amazon had the 256GB Samsung 840 for less than I paid for 128!)
HD - Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB (my case has room for 5 more drives if I ever need them)
Memory - 4x4GB Crucial DDR3 PC3-12800
PS - SeaSonic X650 Gold (get a modular power supply so you don't end up with wires you are not using in your build)
Optical Drive - ASUS DVD/CD RW (I don't watch Blue Ray movies on my computer so I don't need that feature)

This system sits on my desk top about 18 inches away and one can just hear the case fans at the middle speed. It also has support for USB 3 on the mother board which is nice as well.

One interesting issue that surfaced during software installation was with the optical drive cranking incessantly when trying to load some of my older programs that were still on CDs. I use Bitdefender as my anti-virus program and the default setting is to scan all drives (CD/DVD, USB, SSD, HD). If you have 'trusted' discs you should uncheck the scan option for your optical drive. I originally thought that my optical drive was damaged when I tried installing the first program until I figured this out. I know that other security programs such as Microsoft Security Essentials do not do this.

I now have a system that should serve me well and if there are issues I can diagnose them and do the repairs (if needed) myself. My new video card works great and the first set of test images that I processed showed that this is a great set up for photo editing. For those who do video editing, maybe an i7 CPU is needed and of course much more storage space would be required. The Fractal Case has plenty of room and my system runs quiet and cool. If I do need to upgrade the SSD, it's easy enough to do as I only have the OS and the few programs that I use on it. I put a 128GB SSD in because is was slightly cheaper and even after installing everything it's only at 60% of capacity so I'm OK in that regard. I likely will add a 256GB SSD when the prices drop and mirror the OS and program installation.

Final cost of the build: $1400 Installation labor: 6 hours including OS installation

[zburns]

Congratulations on an 'excellent post' regards Adobe. I think you covered all bases very well. Your explanations are concise and clear.

One simple point in the background that struck me as a 'feature' we generally ignore is this quote from above:
I needed a new computer to replace my old noisy one which needed some case fan replacement
So I looked up this article regarding computers and decibels: http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/decibels.html

Decibels is a universal system of 'specification' for noise, be it 'a whisper (meaning very low noise)' or 'a jet plane' or 'a cannon going off'. My computer was built in 2008; the fans are 'quiet' but still there, about 2 feet away from the keyboard. I would prefer less noise, and, I think all of us should give more consideration to fan noise when selecting a case.
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You picked a modular power supply which is fine according to many reviewers and users. Many manufacturers use the modular technique which would appear to be validation for this type psu. I always recommend and prefer non-modular. A modular psu is cheaper to build than an equivalent non-modular. The modular psu with multiple plug outlets all 'may' have 'tin plated' pins which are subject to corrosion over time particularly if any of the tin plate is 'scratched'; bad connections can occur as a result of corrosion causing problems with the computer in the long run. I fully admit such problems with modular would be rare. Antec is the largest non modular psu manufacturer, I think. They also have given in and do manufacture a small number of modular psus. I would also point out that Antec uses 'gold plating' for some or all plug in terminals.
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One interesting issue that surfaced during software installation was with the optical drive cranking incessantly when trying to load some of my older programs that were still on CDs.
For the long run, would you prefer your data (I assume you have a lot of image data) from a permanent storage viewpoint be on CD/DVD versus using alternate hard drives or SSDs? Other than being slow, does storing on CD/DVD represent the 'safest' and 'best long term' method of storage? I say this in the 'context' that one can protect the CD/DVD physically over a very long period of time as compared to a HD. If you drop a DVD in its case, likely no harm done. If you drop a HD and it hits on a corner, no way to know long term whether damaged or not!

Of course, one can do both, HD and CD/DVD. Since I asked the question on this forum, I just googled for answers. This seems like a good one from 2012, so not so old: http://www.rlvision.com/blog/how-long-do-writable-cddvd-last-400-discs-put-to-the-test/
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Back to your Thread and your post. It is superbly written and covers all the important topics.

Thanks again for the post!!

[Alan G]

Congratulations on an 'excellent post' regards Adobe. I think you covered all bases very well. Your explanations are concise and clear.

For the long run, would you prefer your data (I assume you have a lot of image data) from a permanent storage viewpoint be on CD/DVD versus using alternate hard drives or SSDs? Other than being slow, does storing on CD/DVD represent the 'safest' and 'best long term' method of storage. I say this in the 'context' that one can protect the CD/DVD physically over a very long period of time as compared to a HD.

Of course, one can do both, HD and CD/DVD. Since I asked the question on this forum, I just googled for answers. This seems like a good one from 2012, so not so old: http://www.rlvision.com/blog/how-long-do-writable-cddvd-last-400-discs-put-to-the-test/

Thank you for the nice comment. Regarding storage of images, I'm pretty paranoid and also ruthlessly selective about what I archive. If the image is really not all that interesting I'm quick with the delete key as I know that I'm not going to do anything with it in the future. I do 95% of my work in Lightroom and do not convert to DNG but keep the Nikon NEF files intact. All my processing instructions are in the small xmp sidecar files which are of negligible size. The NEF files are about 14MB (Nikon D300 but I probably will upgrade cameras to a larger sensor Nikon which means larger file sizes). I use Mozy Home for Cloud Storage; it's moderately priced. I'm not convinced about the archival nature of recorded DVD/CD at this point.

[zburns]

Put my foot into mouth once more!! CD/DVD recording is a mechanical process in that a laser has to burn the digital data to the disc. No comparison, resolution wise,to any kind of electronic storage such as the NEF files and ultimate storage on HDs or any other comparable 'electronic storage'.

Anyhow, your post is excellent reading for any computer or photo oriented individual.

[zburns]

Statement in above post, further explanation: CD/DVD recording is a mechanical process in that a laser has to burn the digital data to the disc.

Here is a statement from a url on DVD burning: 'In both cases, the DVD must be spinning as the laser moves outward from the center.' The URL for this statement is here: http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4568071_laser-burn-dvd.html

[zburns]

Statement in above post, further explanation: CD/DVD recording is a mechanical process in that a laser has to burn the digital data to the disc.

Here is a statement from a url on DVD burning: 'In both cases, the DVD must be spinning as the laser moves outward from the center.' The URL for this statement is here: http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4568071_laser-burn-dvd.html

When one uses a desktop computer and is looking at the output of a DVD on the computer monitor, what the electronics see (receive 'electrically') is the output of a laser 'seeing' a reflective surface (a 'digital 1') or a non-reflective surface ('a digital 0') which the laser passes over but the surface having no reflection causes the laser to send out a 'zero' (ie. no electrical output, a digital 0, no electrical signal from the laser - a 'nothing or zero output'). Additional explanation, laser passes over a reflective surface (a reflective dot on the disk surface) and sends a electrical signal to the electronics. Laser passes over a dark spot (a dot that is not reflective) and the laser does not send any electrical signal because the dot is non reflective.

Once more, laser passes over 'a reflective dot' and laser sends out a signal; laser passes over 'a non reflective dot' and laser does not send any signal. The presence of a laser signal is a 'digital 1', lack of a laser signal is a 'digital 0'.

The 'laser reader' is composed of the laser and a spinning platform (ie turntable) that the DVD disc lays on. The assembly is essentially a 'mechanical apparatus with an 'electrical output -- digital 1' or no electrical output 'digital 0'.

Relative to Gigahertz (millions of cycles per second), the DVD reader rotates mechanically (spins). The laser can only send data out at a rate determined by the 'spinning' DVD disc; the spinning disc is 'very slow' compared to the movement of data from RAM storage thru the cpu -- a huge difference in favor of RAM and the cpu. The RAM and the cpu are 'thousands of times' faster than a 'laser/DVD disc player'.
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Storing data on a DVD disc and recovering it to feed into RAM/cpu use is much, much slower. Storing the same data on SSD gives the fastest access to the RAM/cpu; storing the same data on the Hard Drive is slower than the SSD but 'hugely' faster than storing on a DVD.

For storage safety and durability, the DVD is the best from a 'ruggedness' viewpoint but the 'slowest to use'. Storing on the (active) hard drive for 'years' means that at some point the HD will 'fail'. Storing on the SSD has its own long term limits but is 'less prone' to breakdown than a Hard Drive.

Access time to the cpu is fastest via the SSD, HD is next in access time to cpu, DVD is by far the slowest. DVD is the most 'durable' means of storage; HD is next but 'handle carefully'; SSD needs to be 'protected well', mechanically and electrically.