Built new fast computer for Lightroom

[jfriend00]

I was interested in upgrading from my 5 year old i7-3770 computer that I use Lightroom on to something that could really speed up my workflow.

After reading all the excellent articles and benchmarks at Puget Systems combined with all the general experience here, it seems pretty clear that Lightroom cares mostly about fast single core speed and fast memory, though it will take advantage of multiple cores for some operations such as import, export or bulk preview building. As I'm sure everyone appreciates faster import/export and preview building, the speed I cared most about in my workflow was just working through each image in both Library and Develop modes in Lightroom.

Puget themselves offers a range of systems that are purported to be very good with Lightroom and Photoshop. The system I was most interested in consists of an i7-9700k, 32GB RAM, 500GB M.2 SSD drive for the OS and a mid-range Nvidia 1060 graphics card (which is really all LR can take advantage of). I have another M.2 drive (for LR catalog) and other hard drives from my current build that I would move over to the new build. As configured from Puget, such a system would cost $2446 and it comes with a 1 year warranty.

So, I got curious what it would cost if I built a similar system myself (order the parts, assemble it, test it). I've done this a few times before and, if you have the inclination to do this sort of thing, it can be a fun project.

I priced things out on http://www.pcpartpicker.com and ended up getting my whole system for about $1800 by leveraging some Black Friday deals (including taxes and rebates). If you're looking for high performance memory (memory that is certified for over clocking to at least 3600MHz), then I found prices vary a lot from week to week and it pays to keep an eye on it daily, know when a better deal is available and jump on it. I don't know why that is, but my theory is that there must be a varying supply of tested overclockable memory and that causes price fluctuations. Some of the other parts (like the motherboards, power supplies and SSDs) do occasionally have special deals on them, but don't vary as much as the memory did. Right now pcpartpicker shows my build at about $1980. You can perhaps do a bit better than that if you know what you want, watch prices for several weeks and buy a given component when there's a deal. I could imagine there being some post holiday deals after Christmas on some components.

So anyway, I got my computer for about $500 less than a Puget Systems. The Puget Systems option comes with a 1 year warranty. With mine, each component has its own warranty - some as long as that, others not that long. The biggest difference with my build is that I have a higher level motherboard that is capable of significant overclocking, has one more M.2 SSD slot on board and has more SATA ports. My build is air cooled, the Puget Systems build is water cooled. As water cooling tends to require some maintenance over time and I didn't see any reason to need water cooling, I went with air cooling.

You can see my build here: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/jfriend00/saved/#view=2HsgwP.

You can configure a similar build here on Puget Systems https://www.pugetsystems.com/nav/deluge/A2/customize.php.

My build was this:

Intel i7-9700k Processor

Noctua NH-D15 Air Cooler

ASRock Z390 Taichi Motherboard

G.Skill Trident Z 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4-3733 Memory

Samsung 970 EVO 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD

EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB super clocked Video Card

Fractal Design Define R5 USB-C ATX Mid Tower Case

Corsair RMx 750W ATX Power Supply

Microsoft Windows 10 Home

One could build this in a somewhat smaller case if that was relevant to you. I selected the larger case because I wanted the large air cooler, wanted very good case ventilation, but wanted it to be quiet and wanted the ability to hold 3-5 hard drives plus a couple SSDs. I currently have two M.2 SSDs and three hard drives in it.

One other significant thing. I bought a motherboard that allows me to overclock and has a power sub-system for stable overclocking. While I'm not expert on overclocking, I had previously overclocked my i7-3770k from my previous build and felt comfortable doing basic overclocking (nothing extreme or pushing the envelope). Since Lightroom is so dependent upon single core speed, if I could overclock some, it might make a meaningful difference.

I was able to overclock my DRAM to it's rated speed of 3733MHz (that was trivial in the BIOS since it was already XMP rated for that) and with some more research, it would probably go to at least 4200 and this should really help Lightroom a bunch.

With some tweaking and lots of testing, I was able to overclock the processor from 3.6GHZ to 5.1GHz and I have a stable overclock of all 8 cores at 5.1GHZ under full stress test (Prime95/blend stress test) while maintaining adequate temperatures. Because the i7-9700k already has a turbo boost mode for a single core at a time to 4.9GHz, the overclock to 5.1GHz of all cores helps most when engaging more than one core or doing an operation that lasts longer than the turbo boost would normally stay engaged. I didn't take the time to benchmark the system before and after overclocking to understand its full benefit. I might be able to do that sometime in the future.

When I was all done, I was able to compare an export to JPEG of 100 24MP images in Lightroom. An operation that took 2:56 on my prior overclocked i7-3770k computer takes 1:27 on my new overclocked i7-9700k system using the exact same drives. That's a bit more than twice as fast. The feel in the Develop mode in Lightroom is significantly faster too. Building previews is a lot faster. Overall, I'm quite pleased with my build. The performance might be appreciated even more if you were dealing with 54MP images.

 

[Gesture]

1. Enjoy the build.

2. Were you running off solid state drives before?

3. See no need for a K processor. But if you bought it. Fine. Didn't see your parts list, but among the benefits of building your own is picking a good power supply, including modular, which these days are affordable.

 

[jfriend00]

1. Enjoy the build.

Thx.

2. Were you running off solid state drives before?

My catalog and OS were on SSD before and after. RAW files are on 6TB hard drive (a decently fast one). Same drives in both systems (literally moved from the old system to the new system) so the speed difference with the new system is not because of disk drive changes.

I may start experimenting with importing to SSD, working on the images there and then moving them over to the hard drive for longer term storage (which is fortunately is just a drag/drop in Lightroom) when I'm done with the main set of edits.

3. See no need for a K processor. But if you bought it. Fine. Didn't see your parts list, but among the benefits of building your own is picking a good power supply, including modular, which these days are affordable.

If you want to overclock, you want the K version. Also, don't even see the i7-9700 for sale these days, only the i7-9700k.

My parts list is right there in the post. I do have a good modular power supply.

--
John

 

[BillyBobSenna]

His John, sounds like a nice computer and it looks like you had fun building it.

Exactly what in the development module seems faster other than previews? I have never really perceived an issue in the development module even with D850 files.

 

[gipper51]

Nice build, that will be a smokin' system for LR/PS use.

My only comment/question: Why 8x4GB on the RAM instead of 2x16GB? Was the price for the bigger sticks a lot higher at that speed?

 

[tkbslc]

An operation that took 2:56 on my prior overclocked i7-3770k computer takes 1:27 on my new overclocked i7-9700k system using the exact same drives.

Cool system and all, but that's a lot of money to save 89 seconds.

 

[jfriend00]

Nice build, that will be a smokin' system for LR/PS use.

My only comment/question: Why 8x4GB on the RAM instead of 2x16GB? Was the price for the bigger sticks a lot higher at that speed?

When looking for higher clocked RAM (mine is certified to 3733MHz) at non-ridiculous prices, you have to go with what you find at the time. The 4x8 was available at the fairly decent price I found, the 2x16 was not. In my research on the difference between 4x8 and 2x16, I could find no actual test evidence that there was a meaningful performance difference (there is lots of chatter both ways, but not backed with any actual testing evidence).

There are potentially some thermal advantages to having 4 sticks instead of 2 (you have four heat spreaders on the RAM sticks instead of just 2) if you are really stressing things (which I'm probably not) and no real disadvantages unless you want the flexibility to go higher than 32GB. I forsee no reason to ever go above 32GB within the lifetime of this motherboard so further expandability wasn't an issue for me.

 

[jfriend00]

An operation that took 2:56 on my prior overclocked i7-3770k computer takes 1:27 on my new overclocked i7-9700k system using the exact same drives.

Cool system and all, but that's a lot of money to save 89 seconds.

Well, it's indicative of a complicated CPU and disk sensitive operation that is twice as fast as the previous system.

Obviously, I didn't do this just to save 89 seconds (that's just an indicative test). Twice as fast applies to lots of other operations too and is meaningful to me. When it makes sense for anyone to spend on an upgraded system is obviously a personal decision. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[jfriend00]

His John, sounds like a nice computer and it looks like you had fun building it.

Exactly what in the development module seems faster other than previews? I have never really perceived an issue in the development module even with D850 files.

Render in develop pane when switching images, speed of render at 100% when zooming in to look at detail, speed of render when moving sliders. time to go from one image to the next before you can see and edit it. Basically, it's just zippier to move around in than before. Same thing for Library view.

FYI, I have a 2560x1600 monitor so that increases the display demands too. And, I'm often processing hundreds of images from a bird-in-flight shoot or a sporting event shoot trying to sort through lots of images to find the fewer number of good ones. It's just faster for me to do that.

 

[Carey Brown]

I was interested in upgrading from my 5 year old i7-3770 computer that I use Lightroom on to something that could really speed up my workflow.

After reading all the excellent articles and benchmarks at Puget Systems...

If you're looking at Puget Systems then also look at Digital Storm. I like their hardware choices better as well as their prices. I have two machines they built for me and I'm a satisfied customer. I like my machines close to bleeding edge and the speeds did not disappoint.

 

[Robert Zanatta]

Nice. Great clock speed on the processor.

What are the timings of your RAM at the overclock settings?

 

[jfriend00]

Nice. Great clock speed on the processor.

What are the timings of your RAM at the overclock settings?

Straight out of the XMP, I'm running it at 3733MHz with the timings of 17-17-17-37. I have not yet had the time to experiment with faster timings or faster clock beyond what was in the XMP.

 

[jfriend00]

I was interested in upgrading from my 5 year old i7-3770 computer that I use Lightroom on to something that could really speed up my workflow.

After reading all the excellent articles and benchmarks at Puget Systems...

If you're looking at Puget Systems then also look at Digital Storm. I like their hardware choices better as well as their prices. I have two machines they built for me and I'm a satisfied customer. I like my machines close to bleeding edge and the speeds did not disappoint.

I like what Digital Storm has to offer - they seem to offer good choices with plenty of configurability. When I configure their system to be comparable to mine, it's still more expensive (around $2400), but they are building it for you and offer a system warranty and they offer nice choices.

 

[gipper51]

Nice build, that will be a smokin' system for LR/PS use.

My only comment/question: Why 8x4GB on the RAM instead of 2x16GB? Was the price for the bigger sticks a lot higher at that speed?

When looking for higher clocked RAM (mine is certified to 3733MHz) at non-ridiculous prices, you have to go with what you find at the time. The 4x8 was available at the fairly decent price I found, the 2x16 was not. In my research on the difference between 4x8 and 2x16, I could find no actual test evidence that there was a meaningful performance difference (there is lots of chatter both ways, but not backed with any actual testing evidence).

There are potentially some thermal advantages to having 4 sticks instead of 2 (you have four heat spreaders on the RAM sticks instead of just 2) if you are really stressing things (which I'm probably not) and no real disadvantages unless you want the flexibility to go higher than 32GB. I forsee no reason to ever go above 32GB within the lifetime of this motherboard so further expandability wasn't an issue for me.

Makes sense. RAM prices really seem to skyrocket once you get past 3200MHz.

 

[jfriend00]

Nice build, that will be a smokin' system for LR/PS use.

My only comment/question: Why 8x4GB on the RAM instead of 2x16GB? Was the price for the bigger sticks a lot higher at that speed?

When looking for higher clocked RAM (mine is certified to 3733MHz) at non-ridiculous prices, you have to go with what you find at the time. The 4x8 was available at the fairly decent price I found, the 2x16 was not. In my research on the difference between 4x8 and 2x16, I could find no actual test evidence that there was a meaningful performance difference (there is lots of chatter both ways, but not backed with any actual testing evidence).

There are potentially some thermal advantages to having 4 sticks instead of 2 (you have four heat spreaders on the RAM sticks instead of just 2) if you are really stressing things (which I'm probably not) and no real disadvantages unless you want the flexibility to go higher than 32GB. I forsee no reason to ever go above 32GB within the lifetime of this motherboard so further expandability wasn't an issue for me.

Makes sense. RAM prices really seem to skyrocket once you get past 3200MHz.

Yeah, perhaps they're testing and binning by speed and there just aren't as many chips that rate above 3200MHz so the price is quite a bit higher.

 

[Ernie Misner]

Congratulations, you got some great components and saved money at the same time, plus there is a great deal of satisfaction, fun, and knowledge to be gained.

I just did a similar build/upgrade and purchased the parts at Newegg here in the US using an i8700k, MSI ACE 390 MB, 1TB Sumsung NVM.2 SSD, and a GTX1080 card. Also have 4, 4TB WD Black HDD's in 2 separate RAID1 (mirrored) formations using the MB for the RAID1 controller. I have a good relationship with the local computer shop and they charged me $200 for the installation, setup, and testing. So in the end I came out a bit cheaper than the Puget build but with better components. Kudos to you for doing the build yourself.

 

[jfriend00]

Congratulations, you got some great components and saved money at the same time, plus there is a great deal of satisfaction, fun, and knowledge to be gained.

I just did a similar build/upgrade and purchased the parts at Newegg here in the US using an i8700k, MSI ACE 390 MB, 1TB Sumsung NVM.2 SSD, and a GTX1080 card. Also have 4, 4TB WD Black HDD's in 2 separate RAID1 (mirrored) formations using the MB for the RAID1 controller. I have a good relationship with the local computer shop and they charged me $200 for the installation, setup, and testing. So in the end I came out a bit cheaper than the Puget build but with better components. Kudos to you for doing the build yourself.

Nice build. Is your RAID setup for reliability reasons (mirroring) or does it make disk access any faster?

I also ended up buying most of my components from Newegg. They just seem to have more inventory and slightly lower prices than others on these types of components.

The only part of the build that I felt a little iffy with was installing the CPU cooler, getting the surfaces completely clean, putting the thermal paste on and mounting the heat sink without messing up the thermal paste. I never know how much thermal paste is the right amount.

Then, the most tense part of the build is the first time you boot it up. You flip the switch and see things turn on and you hope to see the BIOS logo on screen and no smoke coming from anywhere. Once you're into the BIOS to start setting a few things (like Boot drive priority), you feel like you're home free, though in reality there's a lot more to do (install Windows, get all the right drivers installed, get your software installed, play with overclocking, etc...).

 

[Ernie Misner]

Congratulations, you got some great components and saved money at the same time, plus there is a great deal of satisfaction, fun, and knowledge to be gained.

I just did a similar build/upgrade and purchased the parts at Newegg here in the US using an i8700k, MSI ACE 390 MB, 1TB Sumsung NVM.2 SSD, and a GTX1080 card. Also have 4, 4TB WD Black HDD's in 2 separate RAID1 (mirrored) formations using the MB for the RAID1 controller. I have a good relationship with the local computer shop and they charged me $200 for the installation, setup, and testing. So in the end I came out a bit cheaper than the Puget build but with better components. Kudos to you for doing the build yourself.

Nice build. Is your RAID setup for reliability reasons (mirroring) or does it make disk access any faster?

I also ended up buying most of my components from Newegg. They just seem to have more inventory and slightly lower prices than others on these types of components.

The only part of the build that I felt a little iffy with was installing the CPU cooler, getting the surfaces completely clean, putting the thermal paste on and mounting the heat sink without messing up the thermal paste. I never know how much thermal paste is the right amount.

Then, the most tense part of the build is the first time you boot it up. You flip the switch and see things turn on and you hope to see the BIOS logo on screen and no smoke coming from anywhere. Once you're into the BIOS to start setting a few things (like Boot drive priority), you feel like you're home free, though in reality there's a lot more to do (install Windows, get all the right drivers installed, get your software installed, play with overclocking, etc...).

Thanks for the update on your build. You are still my hero and I'm glad for no smoke! Studying the Puget System builds then looking through the offerings at Newegg, and reading reviews is tons of fun.

My RAID1 (mirrored) setups are just for redundancy when storing the photo files and no gain in speed with RAID1. I'm also backing up to a LaCie RAID1 external drive for yet another backup. I try to keep my total photo files to under 4TB and do a lot of culling every winter to pare it down. Dunno if I can stick to the 4TB as time goes on but it seems insane to hang on to a zillion raw files that are "almost" good enough to edit. The 2nd set of RAID1 HDD's in the computer is going to be for archiving some of the older stuff I think.

 

[Johann Kruger]

So in 2019 for that amount of money you spent we still have to export ARWs, CRWs, and NEFs to JPG, or dumb down ARW s, CRWs, and NEFs to DNG in order to efficiently edit under LightRoom?

 

[DtEW]

Nice build, that will be a smokin' system for LR/PS use.

My only comment/question: Why 8x4GB on the RAM instead of 2x16GB? Was the price for the bigger sticks a lot higher at that speed?

When looking for higher clocked RAM (mine is certified to 3733MHz) at non-ridiculous prices, you have to go with what you find at the time. The 4x8 was available at the fairly decent price I found, the 2x16 was not. In my research on the difference between 4x8 and 2x16, I could find no actual test evidence that there was a meaningful performance difference (there is lots of chatter both ways, but not backed with any actual testing evidence).

There are potentially some thermal advantages to having 4 sticks instead of 2 (you have four heat spreaders on the RAM sticks instead of just 2) if you are really stressing things (which I'm probably not) and no real disadvantages unless you want the flexibility to go higher than 32GB. I forsee no reason to ever go above 32GB within the lifetime of this motherboard so further expandability wasn't an issue for me.

I believe it is also less of an issue with Intel i7-based systems. In this case, the integrated memory controller is less sensitive to memory subsystem complexity. This would not be the case with AMD Ryzen-based systems, for which 2x16gb would definitely be preferred over 4x8gb.

And 32gb is ample for stills work. Puget Systems even notes that their PS CC 2019 benchmark will only be impacted below 24gb/32gb for the 8-bit/16-bit color depth modes, respectively. And the workload in those is beyond what I typically do (eg. photomerging 7x 42mpx RAWs), YMMV.

Puget Systems hasn't released their LR benchmark alpha as of yet, but their Photoshop CC 2018 and 2019 benchmarks are there. Have you tried running those to see what numbers (both black box and raw times) your new system is able to pull, and how they stack relative to Puget System's own reference builds ?