Hi All,
I have spent quite some time at the end of 2010 to build a brand new PC for myself. The goal was to make Lightroom and CS5 (and also any other image processing programs) run as fast as possible on a reasonably priced high-end PC.
My previous PC was one with an Intel Q6600 quad processor and 8GB main memory and it was showing it's age of 3.5 years. After upgrading Lightroom to version 3.1, it has slowed down terribly. When I clicked on a new raw file from my 5DII, it took LR 8-10 seconds before it was rendered on screen (if the rendered version was not already in the cache). Mind you, my main monitor is 30" so even the previews in LR are rendered at 1:1 size which may explain the long rendition times a bit. As a result, browsing a large shoot of say more than 300 pictures took ages and made culling very cumbersome. Also, LR was very unstable and would crash after every 10th picture rendered or so. Photoshop wasn't very responsive and would take ages when I was processing my GB sized stitched panos. My pano stitching program (PTAssembler) would take ages to stitch and render the end results. Most importantly, my favorite HDR program SNS-HDR would take some 4-6 minutes to process a simple 3x bracket scene. Clearly, it was time for me to do something about it.
Once the decision was taken, I have spent a lot of time to refresh my know-how on processors, memory and storage; the 3 most important aspects for photo editing. I have also studied the behavior of LR with respect to the use of preview and caches. I won't bore you with the details but I have eventually settled down on the following components. If you want any details as to reasons and the processes behind the choices made, please feel free to ask.
Processor: Intel Core i7-i950 quad core hyper threaded processor overclocked to run at 4.1 GHz (rock stable running Linpack Intel Burn tests and Prime95 tests for >24 hours reaching a maximum CPU temp of 78 degrees centigrade, the daily operational temp @ 38 degrees) !
Motherboard: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R rev2, 6xDDR3 slots, 2x USB3, 2xSATA3, 6xSATA2, 2xESATA
Processor cooling: Noctua NH-14 Dual Fan push-pull cooler
Memory: 3x4GB (12GB) Kingston DDR3 @ 9-9-9-24 triple channel (It is a myth that faster latency memory is better. It does not contribute significantly to the performance. More memory is always better than less but faster memory).
OS/Apps HD: OCZ Vertex2 SSD 60 GB MLC, Trim, SandForce controller
PS scratch, LR catalogs and previews, LR Cache: OCZ Vertex2 SSD 120 GB MLC, Trim, SandForce controller
Internal storage: 4x1.5 TB 7200 rpm (Seagate) and 2x2TB 5900 rpm (Samsung) hard disks (JBOD, not configured as a raid array)
Graphics card: MSI R6850 ATi, PCI-e, 1 GB DDR5, DirectX 11, HDMI, 1xDisplayPort, 2x DVI-D
Power supply: Tagan 850W
Case cooling: 3x12cm intake fans and 1x12cm and 3x8cm exhaust fans.
Case: Cooler Master Stacker tower with 11 bays
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
What about the resulting performance? I am now the proud owner of a blazing fast PC which does everything I throw at it without slowing down and is 100% stable (not one single crash so far). LR rendering has gone down from 8-10 sec to 1-2 sec for new pictures! Using adjustment brushes in LR does not crash or freeze the LR. LR itself still crashes once in a fortnight but I am pretty certain that it has got to do with the bugs present in LR 3.3 (more about it later if anyone is interested). PS CS5 starts up in 5-6 seconds and it can process 4GB+ large files while the efficiency still remains at 100%. Once as a test, I have opened some 16 images -which together were more than 25GB in size- to make PS crash or freeze but it was rock stable and fast all the way. I could just keep on working and apply calculation intensive filters and add layers upon layers easily as if nothing special was going on, whilst the history states were set to 1000. I was truly amazed. The SNS-HDR now processes the same bracketed image in just under 1 min instead of the 4-6 min it used to take previously. PTAssembler runs also 3-4 times faster now. Actually, every single program I use runs incredibly fast. I have a feeling of euphoria, which unfortunately is fading now that I have gradually gotten used to having this hellish speed at my disposal, lol.
I hope that this info will be valuable to those who might be considering building a new pc like I did. Again, please feel free to discuss further. Have you done something similar? If so, what were your experiences?
Cheers,