# Need a new PC. looking for suggestions **URL:** \ **Category:** NYSpeed Off Topic\ **Created:** [September 14, 2012, 10:16am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-new-pc-looking-for-suggestions/225948 "2012-09-14T10:16:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dlatone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b19c9b/32.png) [@dlatone](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/dlatone)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 10:16am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-new-pc-looking-for-suggestions/225948/1 "2012-09-14T10:16:36Z")
ok, so my system is getting a little outdated. it is ok for general web browsing etc. i do not do any gaming. but i am doing a good amount of photo editing in lightroom and photoshop. processing RAW images of about 20MB really kills my system. here is what i have: win 7 4gb ram AMD 64 X2 7850 2.8G AM2 CPU i can look at other specs if need be too. couple of questions: what is my best option for photo editing? more cores or faster processor? does the video card factor in to it? i would like to swap out the Mobo, cpu and ram and try to keep everything else. is that a good idea? any suggestions or help would be appreciated. thanks. ---
**Author:** ![llink78](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/llink78/32/8037_2.png) [@llink78](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/llink78)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 10:21am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-new-pc-looking-for-suggestions/225948/2 "2012-09-14T10:21:09Z")
was this home build to begin with? or bought from a store? ---
**Author:** ![dlatone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b19c9b/32.png) [@dlatone](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/dlatone)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 10:28am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-new-pc-looking-for-suggestions/225948/3 "2012-09-14T10:28:54Z")
home build. so i would like to keep my case, HD, and dvd burner in tact if i can. not sure how the drivers will transfer over. ---
**Author:** ![evane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6bbea6/32.png) [@evane](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/evane)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 10:49am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-new-pc-looking-for-suggestions/225948/4 "2012-09-14T10:49:16Z")
Case, HD and DVD Burner should be fine to re-use. For Lightroom and Photoshop best performance, a 4-core system, with at least 4gb of memory, but I would suggest 8. Also it would be very helpful to do your processing on a SSD drive. Not sure what your budget is like but here are some part suggestions… [Intel Core i5 3550 (for 20 more the 3550k can be had but it is only useful for overclocking](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116505) [Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H (really any Asus or Gigabyte Z77 board will do](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128546) [G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428) [SanDisk Extreme SSD 240 GB SATA 6.0](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006EKJ8UI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tonymacx86com-20) ---
**Author:** ![dlatone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b19c9b/32.png) [@dlatone](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/dlatone)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 11:11am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-new-pc-looking-for-suggestions/225948/5 "2012-09-14T11:11:10Z")
that looks way above my budget haha. im thinking $250ish. i would love a SSD, but i have like 300gb of pics. i guess i could do them temporarily on the ssd then move them over when im done. but it seems like a pain. what would be a good AMD equivalent? someone is selling a quad core phenom x2 rig on CL for $200. but i thought i might as well spend the extra money on hardware and not duplicate case dvd drives etc. i have an i7 HP elitebook for work, but i would rather not use that. though i guess it might be a possibility. ---
**Author:** ![honda4life](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/honda4life/32/5300_2.png) [@honda4life](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/honda4life)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 11:18am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-new-pc-looking-for-suggestions/225948/6 "2012-09-14T11:18:06Z")
> [@evane](#): > > Case, HD and DVD Burner should be fine to re-use. > > For Lightroom and Photoshop best performance, a 4-core system, with at least 4gb of memory, but I would suggest 8. Also it would be very helpful to do your processing on a SSD drive. Not sure what your budget is like but here are some part suggestions… > [Intel Core i5 3550 (for 20 more the 3550k can be had but it is only useful for overclocking](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116505) > [Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H (really any Asus or Gigabyte Z77 board will do](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128546) > [G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428) > [SanDisk Extreme SSD 240 GB SATA 6.0](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006EKJ8UI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tonymacx86com-20) Gigabyte blows ASus is way better ---
**Author:** ![evane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6bbea6/32.png) [@evane](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/evane)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 11:29am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-new-pc-looking-for-suggestions/225948/7 "2012-09-14T11:29:02Z")
> [@dlatone](#): > > that looks way above my budget haha. im thinking $250ish. i would love a SSD, but i have like 300gb of pics. i guess i could do them temporarily on the ssd then move them over when im done. but it seems like a pain. what would be a good AMD equivalent? someone is selling a quad core phenom x2 rig on CL for $200. but i thought i might as well spend the extra money on hardware and not duplicate case dvd drives etc. > > i have an i7 HP elitebook for work, but i would rather not use that. though i guess it might be a possibility. AMD’s are not in the same performance league, I think you won’t get much out of that one, but if you are insistent there is always something like this combo [http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1064768](http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1064768) ---------- Post added at 02:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:25 PM ---------- Another one that is a bit more. [http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1064771](http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1064771) ---
**Author:** ![dlatone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b19c9b/32.png) [@dlatone](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/dlatone)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 11:55am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-new-pc-looking-for-suggestions/225948/8 "2012-09-14T11:55:52Z")
i guess the real question is, how much performance will i gain? even if i have a top of the line system, will i still have to wait around for things to process? is that just the nature of photo editing? i am very impatient…i would love to have a mac, but i cant justify that much for a computer right now. ---
**Author:** ![evane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6bbea6/32.png) [@evane](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/evane)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 12:34pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-new-pc-looking-for-suggestions/225948/9 "2012-09-14T12:34:35Z")
> [@dlatone](#): > > i guess the real question is, how much performance will i gain? even if i have a top of the line system, will i still have to wait around for things to process? is that just the nature of photo editing? i am very impatient…i would love to have a mac, but i cant justify that much for a computer right now. Typically your biggest bottleneck is IO. But check this and [Optimize Lightroom performance](http://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/optimize-performance-lightroom.html) and this [Optimize performance Photoshop](http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-performance-photoshop-cs4-cs5.html) out ---
**Author:** ![dlatone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b19c9b/32.png) [@dlatone](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/dlatone)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 1:24pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-new-pc-looking-for-suggestions/225948/10 "2012-09-14T13:24:58Z")
good reads. thanks. seems like where i am storing the pictures might be a problem. it is a SATA hard drive, but i think it is only 5400 rpm. maybe i can improve a lot more with just switching to a SSD. i will have to research and see if i can have that as a slave or if i need to have my OS on the SSD to realize the bump in performance. ---------- Post added at 04:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:49 PM ---------- [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227551&nm\_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm\_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227551&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-)_-na-_-na-\_-na&AID=10440897&PID=404255&SID=272579 how about this one? seems like a good price. ---------- Post added at 04:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:23 PM ---------- hmmm. reviews are garbage. ---
**Author:** ![LZ1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@LZ1](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/LZ1)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 1:35pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-new-pc-looking-for-suggestions/225948/11 "2012-09-14T13:35:03Z")
You need to have you OS on the SSD to get better performance ---
**Author:** ![evane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6bbea6/32.png) [@evane](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/evane)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-new-pc-looking-for-suggestions/225948/12 "2012-09-14T16:22:22Z")
> [@LZ](#): > > You need to have you OS on the SSD to get better performance Not necessarily with Lightroom and Photoshop but overall it will be helpful. > [@dlatone](#): > > good reads. thanks. seems like where i am storing the pictures might be a problem. it is a SATA hard drive, but i think it is only 5400 rpm. maybe i can improve a lot more with just switching to a SSD. i will have to research and see if i can have that as a slave or if i need to have my OS on the SSD to realize the bump in performance. > > ---------- Post added at 04:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:49 PM ---------- > > [OCZ Vertex 2 2.5" 115GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G - Newegg.com](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227551&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=404255&SID=272579) > > how about this one? seems like a good price. > > ---------- Post added at 04:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:23 PM ---------- > > hmmm. reviews are garbage. Vertex 2 aren’t all that great. [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006EKJCWM/ref=as\_li\_ss\_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tonymacx86com-20](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006EKJCWM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tonymacx86com-20) [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167092](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167092) But you could also look at the Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drives, [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148591](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148591) ---
**Author:** ![ProgRocker](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/progrocker/32/5434_2.png) [@ProgRocker](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/ProgRocker)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-new-pc-looking-for-suggestions/225948/13 "2012-09-14T17:04:28Z")
THe SSD is going to help load the program. A good CPU is going to help more with all the actions, rendering, etc. The video card isn’t _as_ important. I’d throw AT LEAST 8GB of ram in, since memory is stupid cheap now. ---
**Author:** ![ZOMGVTEK](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/zomgvtek/32/5063_2.png) [@ZOMGVTEK](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/ZOMGVTEK)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 10:06pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-new-pc-looking-for-suggestions/225948/14 "2012-09-15T22:06:34Z")
If you decide to get an SSD, which you should, the only choice right now is Samsung 830. Any capacity is fine, 256 would be preferred.