Lightroom-focused build

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henkc

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I am looking at replacing my PC, with a focus on photography with Lightroom as my primary software. I'll probably add the Nik Software Suite soon.

What I think I need is:
  1. At least 8GB of RAM. That's what I currently have. I'll most likely get new, faster RAM.
  2. A fastish i5. I've never noticed Lightroom using more than 4 cores.
  3. Motherboard will be an H87 or Z87. If there are differences, please let me know. I'm not planning to overclock anything. My overclocking days involved tweaking the jets on Weber carbs and timing in Alfas BTDT.
  4. A 128GB SSD for boot, system and basic software. My current software requirements are around 30GB.
  5. 3 2TB drives for data in RAID 5 configuration. This is the one I'm least familiar with.
  6. Some or other graphics card. I'm not gaming, so speed isn't really an issue. I'd appreciate any recommendations here as well as warnings on what to avoid.
  7. A wireless card.
  8. All this needs to go into a case. I'm looking for something which is as minimalist as possible as well as being as quiet as possible.
  9. I'm having a small internal conflict regarding a keyboard. One of the things I am trying to do is to minimise clutter. A wireless desktop would make a great deal of sense, except that I have a sentimental and ergonomic attachment to my Microsoft Natural keyboard.

What I'm wondering is whether the RAID idea is worth the effort for performance and/or redundancy.
 
henkc said:
I am looking at replacing my PC, with a focus on photography with Lightroom as my primary software. I'll probably add the Nik Software Suite soon.

What I think I need is:
  1. At least 8GB of RAM. That's what I currently have. I'll most likely get new, faster RAM.
  2. A fastish i5. I've never noticed Lightroom using more than 4 cores.
  3. Motherboard will be an H87 or Z87. If there are differences, please let me know. I'm not planning to overclock anything. My overclocking days involved tweaking the jets on Weber carbs and timing in Alfas BTDT.
  4. A 128GB SSD for boot, system and basic software. My current software requirements are around 30GB.
  5. 3 2TB drives for data in RAID 5 configuration. This is the one I'm least familiar with.
  6. Some or other graphics card. I'm not gaming, so speed isn't really an issue. I'd appreciate any recommendations here as well as warnings on what to avoid.
  7. A wireless card.
  8. All this needs to go into a case. I'm looking for something which is as minimalist as possible as well as being as quiet as possible.
  9. I'm having a small internal conflict regarding a keyboard. One of the things I am trying to do is to minimise clutter. A wireless desktop would make a great deal of sense, except that I have a sentimental and ergonomic attachment to my Microsoft Natural keyboard.

What I'm wondering is whether the RAID idea is worth the effort for performance and/or redundancy.
Click to expand...

1. Unless you want to use R1100+- on new RAM, you could just use the RAM you have given that it's DDR3.

2. Depends if you want to have the ability to overclock or not.
Don't want to overclock: Intel Core i5-4670 - R2,701
Want to overclock: Intel Core i5-4670K - R2,937

3. The Z87 has CPU overclocking and can run triple (3 GPU) SLI/Crossfire while H87 lacks CPU overclocking and can only do run normal (2 GPU) SLI/Crossfire configurations.

4. Sure sounds good, I would recommend this one: SAMSUNG 840 EVO 120GB

5. I'm also not too familiar with RAID, however I'm led to believe that this is the drive you would want: WESTERN DIGITAL CAVIAR RED WD20EFRX - R1,320

6. Not really should on what graphics card to recommend here, comes down to budget and what connections you might require. You might not need a graphics card at all if you get a motherboard with HDMI and DVI, the built in graphics on the CPU is pretty good for non gaming applications. Otherwise have a look at these: SAPPHIRE R7-250 - R1,142 and PowerColor AXR7 260X - R1,799

7. One like this: D-LINK DWA-566 - R363

8. I would recommend one of these cases: Cooler Master Silencio

9. There is a wireless version of your keyboard: Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000
 
lightroom can easily run on 4gigs of ram with no issue, I personally am looking at the all in one options,
 
Also add colour calibration hardware like the Spyder if you do not have this already.

I find the Nvidia Quadro cards require less calibration shift than the gaming cards. One of these should help in getting good image accuracy.

There seems to be a lot of debate on the reliability of RAID 5 with high capacity drives. Maybe going for RAID 1 with the extra cost might be worth it?
 
Thanks for the comments and keep them rolling in.

I'm having 2nd thoughts about RAID. It sounds like the risks and costs possibly outweigh the benefits.

Interesting about the NVIDIA cards. I have a very basic one in my current machine which probably needs recalibration. For that I already have a Spyder.

I'm also thinking about building a very basic machine around a small itx board. It will help reduce clutter.
 
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