[beerguy0]

My ancient (nearly six years old) PC is starting to die on me. (Freezes, problems rebooting, etc.) I need to buy a new one, but really don't know what I should be looking at. My main usage is Lightroom, editing RAW files. I also plan to do some HD video editing of files from my Canon 7D. Any recommendations as far as CPU, memory, OS (64 bit?), and video requirements would be welcome. I don't keep up much with PC technology, so I'm not well versed in what's current.
 
Note: I'd like to keep it around $1000 or so, although I could go a little higher.

 

[Arainach]

Are you looking to buy or build?  Desktop or laptop?

 

[beerguy0]

Quote:

Are you looking to buy or build?  Desktop or laptop?

Looking at desktop, probably a mini tower to accommodate hard drives. I've built PCs in the past, but I'm not convinced it's worth the time and effort, give the commodity status of PCs today. I'm also less inclined these days to put in the time picking components and building the box. I would much prefer to buy a box.
 
I already have dual monitors (22" Viewsonic CRT and a 20" Samsung LCD. I plan on doing some video editing, which probably means I will need better than on-board GPU?

 

[midoo1990]

Quote:

Looking at desktop, probably a mini tower to accommodate hard drives. I've built PCs in the past, but I'm not convinced it's worth the time and effort, give the commodity status of PCs today. I'm also less inclined these days to put in the time picking components and building the box. I would much prefer to buy a box.
 
I already have dual monitors (22" Viewsonic CRT and a 20" Samsung LCD. I plan on doing some video editing, which probably means I will need better than on-board GPU?

well,i just built a pc myself 3 weeks ago and it takes no more than 2 hours and another 2-3 hours to buy the parts.
 
anyway,i would recommend the intel i5 2500k. its arguably one of the best processors outthere and insane for the value.its also overclockable to 4.9Ghz stable.
as for the ram,if you are not planning on gaming,making movies.. and stuff,then 4gb more than enough.look at Corsair as they are one of the best.
as for GPU,anything will be suffice since you are not doing intensive stuff. look at the Radeon line,they are very good.
PSU,there are many options outhere.get something 500-750watts just incase you wanted to upgrade your GPU in the future.
motherboards,look at Asus or Gigabyte.they are both very fine.
 

 
 

 

[Dynobot]

Since its already starting to die, try Linux.
 
Linux has some great photo editing software and much much more.
 
Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Lubuntu [light-weight], or Bodhi [light-weight] all work great out the box.
 
All you need is a 2gig USB stick or a empty DVD.  You can probably download it and have it installed in less than 30 minutes.

 

[beerguy0]

Quote:

Since its already starting to die, try Linux.
 
Linux has some great photo editing software and much much more.
 
Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Lubuntu [light-weight], or Bodhi [light-weight] all work great out the box.
 
All you need is a 2gig USB stick or a empty DVD.  You can probably download it and have it installed in less than 30 minutes.

I use Adobe Lightroom for my RAW processing, and do not plan to change software. I may play with Linux on my older machine once I get the new one. The software guys in the group I work in are all Linux guys, so I have plenty of people I can use for information sources.
 

 

[mark2410]

starting to die? i strongly suggest what you need is to just reinstall windows

 

[Jon L]

I recently found out, to my dismay, that thumbnail view of RAW files is not supported in 64 bit Windows 7!  You can still open the RAW files and use whatever software to edit/convert, etc, but you cannot preview the RAW files before opening the file.  It is a pain and the reason I'm still using my 32 bit Windows 7 machine for my RAW processing because I can preview and know which photo it is before having to open it in editing program.  Apparently this is a well-known issue with 64 bit Win 7.
 
If anyone knows something new to enable thumbnail viewing of RAW files in 64 bit Win 7, let me know pls. 

 

[beerguy0]

Quote:

starting to die? i strongly suggest what you need is to just reinstall windows

The PC in question is six years old, and not really adequate for 25 MB RAW files. Rendering previews takes forever, as does exporting jpegs. HD video is out of the question - I can't even play the files from my 7D, let alone edit them. It's not worth the time to reload Windows. I've been postponing the inevitable, but it's finally time to replace the old girl.
 
 

 

[fraseyboy]

I rebuilt my PC last week too. Ended up going with Intel i5-2500k for the CPU. Ridiculously good value seeing how overclockable it is. I can get it up to 4ghz with stock cooling and I apparently a cheap $40 cooler can get it up to 5ghz. Intels Sandy-bridge is pretty much on top at the moment, until AMD comes out with something else. 
 
At least 4gb of DDR3-1333 is a must. You could probably benefit from more if you're editing videos and such. There is also DDR3-1600 but I don't think you'd really benefit from the extra RAM speed.  
 
Video editing probably requires a dedicated graphics card but I'm not really sure. You can get something quite cheap anyway so it's probably worth it. Something like the HD6850/HD5850 (same card) or the HD5770 if your budget can't stretch. I went with the HD5850 and its been great for gaming.
 
Don't skimp on the motherboard either. Something with the P67 chipset if you're going sandy-bridge. 
 
Edit: www.tomshardware.com is a great resource for charts and reviews.

 

[ocswing]

If you're going purpose built for photo/video editing you just need something that's multi-core (preferably quad). More speed will help, but something with 4 cores should be faster than 2. For video editing you don't need a separate graphics card, unless you are using a program that is able to make use of the gpu for processing power. The current Intel Sandy Bridge chipset with the right motherboard (either H68 or Z68) does have a neat way of using the onboard graphics processor to do video processing and is supposed to be very good at it. For RAW editing if you have a lot of them open at the same time you're going to want a lot of RAM. I'm not sure about the person that said 4gb at most. Of course to make use of anything more than 3gb of RAM you'll need a 64-bit OS, but apparently Windows 7 has issues with the thumbnail preview (read from a previous post) so that might be an issue. I'm not sure if you have an external drive for storage, but I would get something like this:
 
Intel i5-2500k
Z68 Mobo
16gb DDR3-1333 RAM
250GB 7200rpm HDD (for the OS)
2TB 5400rpm HDD (for storage any speed)
Win 7 64bit Home Premium
 
 
If you're not keen on building yourself I'm sure you could find something at Dell/HP that would have those specs, but you're paying a little extra than doing it yourself. 

 

[fabio-fi]

 
Quote:

Intel i5-2500k
Z68 Mobo
8gb DDR3-1333 RAM
1TB 7200rpm HDD (for the OS)
2TB 5400rpm HDD (for storage any speed)
Win 7 64bit Ultimate
nVidia GTX470

Fixed this for you. 

 

 

[ocswing]

I'm looking specifically at his requirements for the computer, and I don't see why adding a video card and decreasing the RAM or getting Ultimate is somehow a better build for his purposes. Yes, that would be a more popular build for an all around computer, but I don't think he'll see anything by spending extra money on the OS or gfx card if his main uses are photo and video editing.
 
Quote:

 

Fixed this for you. 

 

 

 

[beerguy0]

Quote:

I rebuilt my PC last week too. Ended up going with Intel i5-2500k for the CPU. Ridiculously good value seeing how overclockable it is. I can get it up to 4ghz with stock cooling and I apparently a cheap $40 cooler can get it up to 5ghz. Intels Sandy-bridge is pretty much on top at the moment, until AMD comes out with something else. 
 
At least 4gb of DDR3-1333 is a must. You could probably benefit from more if you're editing videos and such. There is also DDR3-1600 but I don't think you'd really benefit from the extra RAM speed.  
 
Video editing probably requires a dedicated graphics card but I'm not really sure. You can get something quite cheap anyway so it's probably worth it. Something like the HD6850/HD5850 (same card) or the HD5770 if your budget can't stretch. I went with the HD5850 and its been great for gaming.
 
Don't skimp on the motherboard either. Something with the P67 chipset if you're going sandy-bridge. 
 
Edit: www.tomshardware.com is a great resource for charts and reviews.

I was looking at this kit from Tiger Direct:
 
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=692378&CatId=4149
 
 
ASUS P8Z68-V PRO Core i7 Unlocked Barebones Kit
This Bundle Includes:

1. ASUS P8Z68-V PRO Intel Z68 Motherboard - ATX, Socket H2 (LGA1155), Intel Z68 Express, DDR3 2200MHz (O.C.), SATA 6.0 Gb/s, RAID, 8-CH Audio, Gigabit LAN, USB 3.0, Bluetooth, CrossFireX/SLI Ready
2. Intel Core i7-2600K BX80623I72600K Unlocked Processor - Quad Core, 8MB L3 Cache, 3.40 GHz, Socket H2 (LGA1155), Retail
3. Corsair CWCH50-1 Hydro H50 CPU Liquid Cooler - 120mm Fan, Copper Cold Plate, Aluminum Radiator, LGA775, LGA1366, LGA1156, AM2/AM3
4. Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B Vengeance Desktop Memory Kit - 8GB (2x 4GB), PC3-12800, DDR3-1600MHz, 9-9-9-24 CAS Latency, Intel XMP Ready, Unbuffered
5. Seagate ST31500541AS 1.5TB Hard Drive - 5900RPM, 32MB Cache, SATA-3G
6. Corsair CSSD-F40GB2-A Force Series F40 Solid State Drive - 40GB, 2.5", SATA II, 3Gbps
7. EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti Free Performance Boost Video Card - 1GB, GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0 (x16), Dual DVI, HDMI, DirectX 11, SLI Ready
8. LG GH24NS50R 24x Internal CD/DVD Drive - DVD±R 24x, DVD+RW 8x, DVD-RW 6x, DVD+R DL 16x, DVD-R DL 12x, DVD-RAM 12x, CD-R 48x, CD-RW 32x, SATA, 2MB, Black, OEM
9. Corsair Obsidian Series® 650D Mid Tower Case - ATX, Micro ATX, 4x Ext 5.25", 6x Int 3.5", 2x 200mm Fans, 1x 120mm Fan, 4x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, 1x IEEE 1394, 4-Channel Fan Controller
10. Corsair CMPSU-750TXV2 Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 Power Supply - 750 Watts, ATX, 140mm Fan, 80 Plus Bronze, SLI Ready, Active PFC

 
Add a copy of Windows 7 64-bit Professional.
 
 

 

[ocswing]

Hah, that thing is a powerhouse. You won't be lacking power for anything you want to do, it just goes beyond the scope of what you mentioned in your first post. 
 
EDIT: The price is pretty good too. You'd have to do a fair amount of deal shopping to beat it piecemeal.
Quote:

I was looking at this kit from Tiger Direct:
 
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=692378&CatId=4149
 
 
ASUS P8Z68-V PRO Core i7 Unlocked Barebones Kit
This Bundle Includes:

1. ASUS P8Z68-V PRO Intel Z68 Motherboard - ATX, Socket H2 (LGA1155), Intel Z68 Express, DDR3 2200MHz (O.C.), SATA 6.0 Gb/s, RAID, 8-CH Audio, Gigabit LAN, USB 3.0, Bluetooth, CrossFireX/SLI Ready
2. Intel Core i7-2600K BX80623I72600K Unlocked Processor - Quad Core, 8MB L3 Cache, 3.40 GHz, Socket H2 (LGA1155), Retail
3. Corsair CWCH50-1 Hydro H50 CPU Liquid Cooler - 120mm Fan, Copper Cold Plate, Aluminum Radiator, LGA775, LGA1366, LGA1156, AM2/AM3
4. Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B Vengeance Desktop Memory Kit - 8GB (2x 4GB), PC3-12800, DDR3-1600MHz, 9-9-9-24 CAS Latency, Intel XMP Ready, Unbuffered
5. Seagate ST31500541AS 1.5TB Hard Drive - 5900RPM, 32MB Cache, SATA-3G
6. Corsair CSSD-F40GB2-A Force Series F40 Solid State Drive - 40GB, 2.5", SATA II, 3Gbps
7. EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti Free Performance Boost Video Card - 1GB, GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0 (x16), Dual DVI, HDMI, DirectX 11, SLI Ready
8. LG GH24NS50R 24x Internal CD/DVD Drive - DVD±R 24x, DVD+RW 8x, DVD-RW 6x, DVD+R DL 16x, DVD-R DL 12x, DVD-RAM 12x, CD-R 48x, CD-RW 32x, SATA, 2MB, Black, OEM
9. Corsair Obsidian Series® 650D Mid Tower Case - ATX, Micro ATX, 4x Ext 5.25", 6x Int 3.5", 2x 200mm Fans, 1x 120mm Fan, 4x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, 1x IEEE 1394, 4-Channel Fan Controller
10. Corsair CMPSU-750TXV2 Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 Power Supply - 750 Watts, ATX, 140mm Fan, 80 Plus Bronze, SLI Ready, Active PFC

 
Add a copy of Windows 7 64-bit Professional.