PC Spec for a custom build

[Som Prasad]

I know we have been over PC Specs so many times, but everyone has different requirements. I am finally planning to replace my PC.

I use Lightroom and Photoshop together with Topax Photo AI, Topaz Gigapixel, The Nik Suite and occasionaly Luminar Neo.

My Cameras are Nikon Z9 and Z8, Fujifilm GFX 100sii, Leica Q3.

I do not use pixel shift to get huge files, but do shoot RAW all the time

I very occasionally do some small video clips on DaVinci Resolve, but this is minimal so not a major consideration.

I am thinking custom built or self build. I am based in India.

So what should I go for:

1. Intel or AMD and with either waiting a month or two get me something better? Intel Chip naming and generations have all become a bit confusing.

2. GPU – The Nvidia RTX 5060 will be released in May in India, so I am thinking probably wait for that, unless AMD has something with similar performance.

3. 64 GB DDR5 RAM should be enough?

4. Motherboard will obviously depend on chip choice, but something with 2 x NVME and at least 4x SATA - any suggestions.

5. Should I plan to put in high capacity HDDs or keep most of my images on a NAS or DAS and just have about 4 TB HDD (besides the NVME SSDs) in the PC.

Case and Power Supply I can sort out, I have Monitors already (will run a two monitor setup.

Budget, most of you will not be familiar with prices of components in India, but if we think US prices - about 2500 USD I can stretch to.

Thanks for any input

PS: I am not interested in a Mac

 

[BobKnDP]

First:

I'm a PC hobbyist. Amateur. Not an expert on hardware or software.

The latest Intel CPUS are LGA1851. Their new naming convention is confusing, but you still get I5/I7/I9.

Intel,LGA 1851 Desktop CPU Processor | Newegg.com

(This is a US source, but I hope that it's relevant to you.)

The K suffix still means an unlocked multiplier, and F indicates no integrated GPU.

Having 4 SATA ports seems common. Having more than 4, not so common.

As regards graphics cards, I have seen no reviews of the RTX 5060 yet. If it's like the models that have already been released, its performance increase over an RTX 4060 will be fairly minor. Both are PCI-E X8. Whether the 5060 ever benefits from having a PCE-E 5.0 bandwidth (in a matching motherboard), I can't guess. Seems likelier to be of slight use in gaming.

Here's a dummy list:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bzhcFZ

In the US, looks like meeting a 2500USD budget would be easy enough.

I picked the Ryzen 7 9700X, figuring that if it's good enough for Puget Systems (expensive boutique PC seller), it'd be OK for most. I think Puget may have gone with that when the fear over Gen13 and Gen14 Intel CPUs was at its peak.

Intel system:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Nv2cFZ

In my personal PC, I use an 18TB Seagate Ironwolf Pro (3.5") drive for mass storage. More sophisticated users use a NAS or DAS.

I hope that this helps.

 

[bmoag]

For your use case--image processing, light video, no gaming--there is no significant difference between similarly tiered AMD and Intel CPUs. On paper, but not in real life perception, Intel CPUs will be "faster."

The most cost-effective AMD CPU for your purposes is an 8 core 7xxx series or 9xxx series, whichever is less expensive. On the Intel side the most cost effective solution is the 14th gen i714700k (although for what you do the less expensive, less hot 14700 will be indistinguishable in real world performance). In the real world 6 core variants have essentially the same throughput for image processing programs, particularly PS, because they just don't use all those cores.

Problems with 14th gen Intel CPUs seem to be fixed with the latest BIOS. For what its worth I have had no problems with my sample of 2.

AMD CPUs use less power than Intel but run equally hot so both platforms do best with water/AIO cooling.

The current generation of Intel CPUs, Core Ultra, are minimally different in performance to 14th gen parts but the CPUs and motherboards are more expensive.

In my experience throughput with similarly tiered AMD and nVidia GPUs in image processing programs is indistinguishable. Adobes are problematic with all video drivers but are slightly less problematic with nVidia GPUs but in most cases if you don't game you are better off with AMD or nVidia. Studio drivers for better stability in Adobes. Technically DaVinci will run better on nVidia, because Cuda, but I doubt you would notice any difference for light tasks.

If you can get a last gen 4060 and save money on the GPU I would do that. Except for high end video rendering and gaming there is little to be gained by GPUs above the mid-tier. In my experience with a variety of GPUs going back a few generations I have been underwhelmed by what upgrading the GPU brings, as compared to upgrading the CPU, to image processing.

32gb of RAM is more than adequate for your use case but that's up to you.

 

[Som Prasad]

Thanks,

That is very useful

 

[XiaoDeer]

5. Should I plan to put in high capacity HDDs or keep most of my images on a NAS or DAS and just have about 4 TB HDD (besides the NVME SSDs) in the PC.

If you want to access a large image collection from multiple devices a NAS is attractive. However, it's not a trivial financial investment.

If most/all of the usage will from with a single computer, get a larger case and install HDD's of suitable capacity.

 

[New Wrycuda]

I know we have been over PC Specs so many times, but everyone has different requirements. I am finally planning to replace my PC.

[Storage].

Should I plan to put in high capacity HDDs or keep most of my images on a NAS or DAS and just have about 4 TB HDD (besides the NVMe SSDs) in the PC.

How much storage do you need, either in the computer itself or on NAS/DAS?

Do you have any plans for backup, or will you be satisfied with NAS/DAS?

Are you familiar with the difference between NAS and DAS?

Rather than go with HDD, about 5 years ago I moved to totally SSD systems, particularly with regard to data storage. Long-term backup is still HDD.

• NVMe SSD for boot drive.
• SATA SSD for data.
• USB SSD for quick backup.

For my uses, I prefer SATA SSD as the data can be more easily recovered in the case of system failure.

Additionally, I have designated one of the computers as the "Data Server" with larger SSDs, and this acts like an "intelligent" NAS that can also be used for general computing.

Good luck with your project. I'd be interested to hear of the outcome, particularly any tariff-related price surprises.

 

[BobKnDP]

5. Should I plan to put in high capacity HDDs or keep most of my images on a NAS or DAS and just have about 4 TB HDD (besides the NVME SSDs) in the PC.

If you want to access a large image collection from multiple devices a NAS is attractive. However, it's not a trivial financial investment.

If most/all of the usage will from with a single computer, get a larger case and install HDD's of suitable capacity.

How many 20TB HDDs would you want? ;-)

 

[Carey Brown]

I know we have been over PC Specs so many times, but everyone has different requirements. I am finally planning to replace my PC.

I use Lightroom and Photoshop together with Topax Photo AI, Topaz Gigapixel, The Nik Suite and occasionaly Luminar Neo.

My Cameras are Nikon Z9 and Z8, Fujifilm GFX 100sii, Leica Q3.

I do not use pixel shift to get huge files, but do shoot RAW all the time

I very occasionally do some small video clips on DaVinci Resolve, but this is minimal so not a major consideration.

I am thinking custom built or self build. I am based in India.

So what should I go for:

1. Intel or AMD and with either waiting a month or two get me something better? Intel Chip naming and generations have all become a bit confusing.

2. GPU – The Nvidia RTX 5060 will be released in May in India, so I am thinking probably wait for that, unless AMD has something with similar performance.

3. 64 GB DDR5 RAM should be enough?

4. Motherboard will obviously depend on chip choice, but something with 2 x NVME and at least 4x SATA - any suggestions.

5. Should I plan to put in high capacity HDDs or keep most of my images on a NAS or DAS and just have about 4 TB HDD (besides the NVME SSDs) in the PC.

Case and Power Supply I can sort out, I have Monitors already (will run a two monitor setup.

Budget, most of you will not be familiar with prices of components in India, but if we think US prices - about 2500 USD I can stretch to.

Thanks for any input

PS: I am not interested in a Mac

DigitalStorm for an example of a custom build in your price range. check out the component list.

 

[Robert Zanatta]

I know we have been over PC Specs so many times, but everyone has different requirements. I am finally planning to replace my PC.

I use Lightroom and Photoshop together with Topax Photo AI, Topaz Gigapixel, The Nik Suite and occasionaly Luminar Neo.

My Cameras are Nikon Z9 and Z8, Fujifilm GFX 100sii, Leica Q3.

I do not use pixel shift to get huge files, but do shoot RAW all the time

I very occasionally do some small video clips on DaVinci Resolve, but this is minimal so not a major consideration.

I am thinking custom built or self build. I am based in India.

So what should I go for:

1. Intel or AMD and with either waiting a month or two get me something better? Intel Chip naming and generations have all become a bit confusing.

2. GPU – The Nvidia RTX 5060 will be released in May in India, so I am thinking probably wait for that, unless AMD has something with similar performance.

3. 64 GB DDR5 RAM should be enough?

4. Motherboard will obviously depend on chip choice, but something with 2 x NVME and at least 4x SATA - any suggestions.

5. Should I plan to put in high capacity HDDs or keep most of my images on a NAS or DAS and just have about 4 TB HDD (besides the NVME SSDs) in the PC.

Case and Power Supply I can sort out, I have Monitors already (will run a two monitor setup.

Budget, most of you will not be familiar with prices of components in India, but if we think US prices - about 2500 USD I can stretch to.

Thanks for any input

PS: I am not interested in a Mac

DigitalStorm for an example of a custom build in your price range. check out the component list.

 

[Som Prasad]

Thanks so much for the detailed reply, probably help me save some money without significant performance compromise.

Regards

Som

 

[Som Prasad]

I think I would need 20 to 30 TB, which may be too expensive to go all SSD.

I could put 3 or 4 HDDs into a large case, and the have the NAS/DAS as a backup with a 3rd copy of all data on external HDDs which I would keep off site.

I know there are more robust backup strategies, but I think the above should be adequate if not ideal.

As I doing this in India, I don't anticipate any tariff related problems.

Thanks for the advise.

Som

 

[The Point and Shoot Pro]

I think I would need 20 to 30 TB, which may be too expensive to go all SSD.

I could put 3 or 4 HDDs into a large case, and the have the NAS/DAS as a backup with a 3rd copy of all data on external HDDs which I would keep off site.

I know there are more robust backup strategies, but I think the above should be adequate if not ideal.

As I doing this in India, I don't anticipate any tariff related problems.

Thanks for the advise.

Som

If you do any work in davinci get an intel based system. Hyper sync (I think it's called) is a very welcome addition. Doing video work with intel based systems take 1/2 the time as AMD because of this. Tech Notice (youtube) channel did a video on comparing Mac/intel/amd and the Macbook air finished first with a time of 7:46 for a 15 min project, the intel did it in 10:21 respectable since there was no external GPU used and hyper sync helped it, and the AMD was 21 mins plus because of lack of Hyper Sync.

Just some food for thought.

 

[New Wrycuda]

I think I would need 20 to 30 TB, which may be too expensive to go all SSD.

I thought that might be the case; I don’t do any video, so smaller SSDs are O.K.

I could put 3 or 4 HDDs into a large case, and then have the NAS/DAS as a backup with a 3rd copy of all data on external HDDs which I would keep off site.

Should be fine provided you allocate data logically. (Video to E: Photos to F: etc.).

I know there are more robust backup strategies, but I think the above should be adequate if not ideal.

There have been many discussion on backup on this forum. Much depends on the complexity of your system and the amount of data involved.

Your computer would be a case where a system recovery disk would be a good idea, while incremental backup might appeal for your relatively large amount of data (Only new or modified files are added to the initial backup set).

Personally, I don’t bother with a system recovery disk for my fairly basic PCs, but I’m rather keen on incremental data backup, which can be carried out in a matter of seconds using Robocopy.

 

[BillyBobSenna]

This is my build report from a few months ago.

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/68032998

 

[Carey Brown]

I know we have been over PC Specs so many times, but everyone has different requirements. I am finally planning to replace my PC.

I use Lightroom and Photoshop together with Topax Photo AI, Topaz Gigapixel, The Nik Suite and occasionaly Luminar Neo.

My Cameras are Nikon Z9 and Z8, Fujifilm GFX 100sii, Leica Q3.

I do not use pixel shift to get huge files, but do shoot RAW all the time

I very occasionally do some small video clips on DaVinci Resolve, but this is minimal so not a major consideration.

I am thinking custom built or self build. I am based in India.

So what should I go for:

1. Intel or AMD and with either waiting a month or two get me something better? Intel Chip naming and generations have all become a bit confusing.

2. GPU – The Nvidia RTX 5060 will be released in May in India, so I am thinking probably wait for that, unless AMD has something with similar performance.

3. 64 GB DDR5 RAM should be enough?

4. Motherboard will obviously depend on chip choice, but something with 2 x NVME and at least 4x SATA - any suggestions.

5. Should I plan to put in high capacity HDDs or keep most of my images on a NAS or DAS and just have about 4 TB HDD (besides the NVME SSDs) in the PC.

Case and Power Supply I can sort out, I have Monitors already (will run a two monitor setup.

Budget, most of you will not be familiar with prices of components in India, but if we think US prices - about 2500 USD I can stretch to.

Thanks for any input

PS: I am not interested in a Mac

DigitalStorm for an example of a custom build in your price range. check out the component list.

Are you sponsored my Digital Storm?

No I'm just a satisfied customer for 10+ years. I've purchased 3 very nice top end machines from them.

 

[drsnoopy]

I think I would need 20 to 30 TB, which may be too expensive to go all SSD.

I could put 3 or 4 HDDs into a large case, and the have the NAS/DAS as a backup with a 3rd copy of all data on external HDDs which I would keep off site.

I know there are more robust backup strategies, but I think the above should be adequate if not ideal.

As I doing this in India, I don't anticipate any tariff related problems.

Thanks for the advise.

Som

I had similar processing requirements to yours, including 45MP R5 files and panoramas, but you appear to need a lot more storage. My new PC build is Intel i5 14500 (low power consumption for low noise), fairly basic socket 1700 ASUS TUF motherboard (2 x NVME but only 2 x SATA), Noctua air cooler, 2TB NVME SSD, 64GB DDR5, ASUS NVidia Dual EVO 4060 8Gb (quietist from reviews), 8TB HDD plus a 4TB I already had. 600W PSU, Fractal case (insulated, super quiet).

It’s very fast for PS, LR, DXO, Topaz, plus my favoured panorama software (Autopano Pro, obsolete but great). Cost was under 1500 UK Pounds.

All my back catalogue to 2003 fits within the 8TB HDD with space to spare. I’m not good at culling so could easily reduce it further. I also have a 12TB Synology NAS and multiple external HDDs for backups.

 

[BobKnDP]

I think I would need 20 to 30 TB, which may be too expensive to go all SSD.

I could put 3 or 4 HDDs into a large case, and the have the NAS/DAS as a backup with a 3rd copy of all data on external HDDs which I would keep off site.

I know there are more robust backup strategies, but I think the above should be adequate if not ideal.

As I doing this in India, I don't anticipate any tariff related problems.

Thanks for the advise.

Som

If you do any work in davinci get an intel based system. Hyper sync (I think it's called) is a very welcome addition. Doing video work with intel based systems take 1/2 the time as AMD because of this. Tech Notice (youtube) channel did a video on comparing Mac/intel/amd and the Macbook air finished first with a time of 7:46 for a 15 min project, the intel did it in 10:21 respectable since there was no external GPU used and hyper sync helped it, and the AMD was 21 mins plus because of lack of Hyper Sync.

Just some food for thought.

I have no experience with video, but it's called Quick Sync .

Requires an Intel CPU with an integrated GPU. (No F suffix.)

I was a little surprised that it has existed so long. I thought it began with Intel Gen10, but less mature versions go back much further.

 

[BobKnDP]

I think I would need 20 to 30 TB, which may be too expensive to go all SSD.

I could put 3 or 4 HDDs into a large case, and the have the NAS/DAS as a backup with a 3rd copy of all data on external HDDs which I would keep off site.

I know there are more robust backup strategies, but I think the above should be adequate if not ideal.

As I doing this in India, I don't anticipate any tariff related problems.

Thanks for the advise.

Som

Are you a professional photographer? If you take pictures for a living, you may want a more robust backup solution than for a rank amateur like me.

My own data drive is an 18TB Seagate Ironwolf Pro SATA 6Gbps. Paid a little more to get a NAS rated drive (24/7 use. Which I don't need.)

One of my backup drives is a similar 16GB drive in an external USB enclosure. The write speed is as fast as if it was directly connected to a SATA 6Gbps port.

 

[Som Prasad]

Thanks,

Sounds like exactly the setup which would serve me well, I could look for a Motherboard with 2 NVMe and 4 SATA, so add in more HDD, but the rest would do me fine. Since you are using more or less the software I am using, that is a very useful recommendation.

 

[BobKnDP]

Thanks,

Sounds like exactly the setup which would serve me well, I could look for a Motherboard with 2 NVMe and 4 SATA, so add in more HDD, but the rest would do me fine. Since you are using more or less the software I am using, that is a very useful recommendation.

I don't know if this would help with a choice between Gen14 and Gen15 (Core Ultra), but it may be worth reading.

Is it Worth Upgrading to Intel Core Ultra 200S Processors for Video Editing? | Puget Systems

Short version: there seems to be little advantage to the Gen15 CPUs. I believe that their integrated GPUs may be better, but that's of little use to you.

The AI features are of problematic value at this time. (Do you want a Copilot + PC?)

There seems to be no Gen15 low-power equivalent to the I5-14500 at the moment.

A potential niggle: I don't know if it applies to the I5-14500, but some motherboards made overvoltages that damaged some Gen14 CPUs. If you get an LGA1700 motherboard, make sure it has the latest firmware. That should avoid the issue. The damage wasn't instantaneous, so you'd have time to do a firmware update if needed.