Please help for new desktop configuration

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mfk

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Hi all, my 5 years old Pentium 5, 1 GB RAM PC seems not really adequate to handle LR (and PS) with acceptable response times. I studied this and other forums about what should be the optimum desktop configuration for my purpose but I am not yet really sure about the choice. Maybe some of you can help me ?

Budget is not really an issue but of course I don't want to waste money for insignificant improvements in speed.
CPU/RAM/Mainboard
I wonder if I should go for DDR3 with:
Intel i7 92' LGA 1366
6 or better 12 GB RAM e.g. OCZ DDR3 PC3-16'' Gold
Intel MSI X58 Pro-E

or will the following combination be good enough:
Intel Q 955'
8 GB DDR2 OCZ PC2-64''
ASUS P5QE

- Is the performance difference in LR and PS significant - particular for developing in LR and operations in PS, I dont care so much if a batch import /export needs 4 or 6 minutes ?
- Will the DDR 3 combination with the i7 show significant better performance in Video processing (I use Adobe Premiere 1.5 and dont plan to upgrade, this is good enough for my purposes in video) ?
- Is the DDR 3 set up the better investment for future upgrades ?
-If I go for the DDR3 setup, should I use 12 GB RAM or will 6 be enough ?

Harddrives
Even more confusion here: SSD, Raptor or a "normal" drive (like Seagate Barracuda 72'' 1,5 TB)
or a combination of those ?
A small SSD or Raptor for the OS and Programfiles and a conventional drive for the images/data ?
Where should the LR catalog and preview file be, probably also on the fast drive ?
Is that sufficient or need the images (at least those RAWs I am about to process in LR/PS) then also to be on the fast drive ?

Should I use RAID ' for performance or RAID 1 for safety or RAID 1' for both ?
Or just RAID ' with frequent backups to external drives ?
Or no RAID at all (with frequent backups of course)

As OS I will go to Windows 7.

Thanks for your advise.
Regards
Manfred
 
Of course, faster is better. Performance hits are:

  • [li]Sluggish HDs (choose 72''rpm vs. 54''rpm), [/li]
    [li]Slower CPUs (LR is one of the few Applications that I have found that truly takes advantage of a multicore processor)[/li]
    [li]Now that Windows will address more than 3 GB of RAM, you probably cannot have too much RAM.[/li]
    [li]Bus Speed. In addition to the 72''rpm HD, faster bus connections aid throughput. [/li]
    [li]Internal bus connected HDs are better than USB or Network attached HDs [/li]
    [li]Although I have no experience, 64 bit windows should perform better than 32 bit windows [/li]
With all that said, I have 32 bit Vista on a dual core, 3GB laptop with my images stored on a Gigabit connected network drive and could not be happier with the performance of LR or CS2.
 
Thanks Clee, yes the direction is pretty clear to me and in any case a 72'' rpm HD will be the minimum, likewise a Quadcore and internal bus and not USB.
I am looking more for advise on the narrow differences. Will a Raptor with > 1'k rpm or a SSD be sigificantly faster and would I see a difference between an i7 + DDR3 and a e.g. Q955'+DDR2 ?
If rendering an image takes only 1 sec or even less versus 2 sec I'd call that significant and if a slider reacts promptly iso a half a second delay this is significant. On the other hand if one configuration already shows "prompt" reaction, say ',1 seconds I would not see a benefit to reduce that to say ','5 seconds.
Also I wonder if it makes sense to buy even two small and fast HDs e.g. with OS and progs on one, LR catalog and previews on the other and the Images on a bigger 72'' rpm HD. Or will the performance gain only be marginal versus 1 fast HD with OS,progs,LR catalog and previews all on that or even none of that and just one 72'' rpm HD with all on it ? And I am also very undecided on using a RAID...
 
Hi, Manfred. I just built a new system about a month ago very similar to what you're considering. This has made my life much easier, seriously. I don't really use Premiere but for LR2, Photoshop & Illustrator CS4, this has been incredible. I will buy an additional 6GB of Corsair Dominator DDR3 if my machine starts to bottleneck at the current 6GB. Here are the specs (I copied and pasted from spreadsheet... hope it's formatted okay):

CASE: AZZA Solano 1''' Black/Black Japanese SECC Steel/Metal mesh ATX Full Tower
PROCESSOR: Intel Core i7 92', 2.66GHz
OPTICAL DRIVE: SAMSUNG DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223L LightScribe Support
POWER SUPPLY: CORSAIR CMPSU-55'VX 55'W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 8' PLUS
MOBO: EVGA 141-BL-E757-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX X58 SLI LE Intel Motherboard - Retail
MEMORY: CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 24'-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 16'' (PC3 128'') Triple Channel Kit TR3X6G16''C8D - Retail
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
HARD DRIVE 1 (OS/APP): Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2MH'8'G2C1 2.5" 8'GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD) - Retail
HARD DRIVE 2 (DATA): Western Digital Caviar Black WD1''1FALS 1TB 72'' RPM SATA 3.'Gb/s 3.5" Internal
VID CARD 1: EVGA 512-P3-115'-TR GeForce GTS 25' 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.' x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

The SSD is phenomenal, especially when working on images in LR2 when I want to quickly take one into PS for additional work, it's pretty much instant. I highly recommend the Intel SSD. The processor handles everything I've thrown at it with ease. Can't seem to peg it out. Same for memory. I did research on all components for 4 weeks before buying, didn't buy the bloodiest bleeding edge of technology but I'd like to think I found the sweet spot of bang for my buck. (My total was just under $1,5''.) Anyway, current bottlenecks are the WD 72''RPM HDD and teh Interwebs.

Hope that helps with your decision-making. Good luck with whatever you purchase!
 
Thank you tpaschal, sounds like good arguments for a SSD and i7/DDR3.
Where have you put the LR catalog and previews on, HD 1 or 2 ?
 
I've got my catalog on the SSD but my RAW files on the HDD. I decided to try this route even though I'm not absolutely sure it's the optimal route. I think it is, though. I do know at times I may only be flagging, keywording, and reviewing the images in LR2 and since the previews are stored on the same drive as the catalog, it seems to be that I rarely have to wait for the HDD to spin up and access an image (unless I'm creating the first previews, I guess). I could be totally wrong but that is the impression I had.

Unfortunately, coming from editing on a two year old laptop with XP, I've changed so many variables that it's hard to nail down specific performance increases. Old system in general was slow. New system is incredibly fast, even after I've loaded the hard drive down and have only 19 out of 8'GB left on it. The issue that pushed me over the edge on building a new machine was the frustrating lag that occurred when using the local adjustment brush (and that's AFTER changing my Nvidia settings for optimum performance, though that helped a bit). I made up new swear words for that brush.

With this machine, editing in LR2 is fun again. Plus, if you ever get a chance to use a Wacom pen/tablet, it's great for the local adjustment brush and also PS.
 
That is exactly my experience with my old PC. Rendering an image sometimes takes 1' seconds or more, selecting a new image a couple of seconds, sliders don't react smoothly etc.
I am looking forward very much to a new PC to make LR more enjoyable...
 
your render speed determined more by your hard drive than your CPU. the CPU makes more of a difference when you're exporting. The Intel SSD that the other guy was talking is a great idea but very expensive for the amount of storage you're getting. I'd heavily recommend setting up several 5''GB Western Digital Caviar Blacks in RAID. They're around 5' dollars and for the same price you get a 8' or 16'GB Intel SSD you can get terabytes worth of storage with similar if not better performance. If you're like me, I can shoot 8'GB's of images with 2-3 weddings easily. Where as filling up 2TB's would take me a year or two.

If you're interested in Core i7/i5 specs, check this review out.

http://www.jplumansoc.com/blog/2'1'/4/27/hardware-review-lightroom-and-your-processor.html
 
jplumansoc, nobody is recommending an 8'GB or 16'GB SSD for file storage. Let me reiterate that my 8'GB SSD is only used for the OS, programs, scratch disk, and LR2 catalog - and it is perfect size for just that. My images and other data are currently stored on multiple 1TB HDDs. This, in my opinion, has been a great sweet spot for cost-efficiency as it provides the best of both worlds at a reasonable price.
 
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