Start fresh with a new setup for Photography, Streaming, and Internet?
Start fresh with a new setup for Photography, Streaming, and Internet?
Hi everyone!
I own an older build that has been reliable for more than 16 years since I first assembled it in 2008:
CPU: E8400
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP35-DS3L
Memory: 4 GB DDR2
Video Card: 8800GT PCI-e
Hard Drive: 500MB SATA II
Case: Antec 900
I upgraded these parts about four years ago to extend its life:
CPU: Q9400 (overclocked to 3.3V)
Memory: 8GB DDR2
Hard Drive: 500GB SSD
I have a 32" TV connected via a DVI-D to HDMI cable, plus a 1080p 22" monitor through a DVD-D.
Recently, I’ve started photography, so I need a system for editing photos and storing them. It will also handle streaming video, movies, and online events. Gaming isn’t part of this setup. It should support photo editing and streaming at the same time. I’m planning to upgrade monitors or TVs and possibly run up to three devices at once.
Because it’s quite old, only the 500GB SSD drive and maybe the case will still be useful. I might even repurpose this system into a server running Linux for cloud storage.
I’m aiming to spend around $500–$750 USD for the main components, not including any monitor or TV upgrades. The less I spend, the better.
Curious if something like this would work?
Updates: CPU options could be AMD Ryzen 5 5600X/5600G or Ryzen 7 5700X; motherboard AM4 B550; memory 32GB DDR4; video card needs more info; hard drives—one dedicated 500GB drive and possibly 2–4TB for storage. Video card specs are unclear; case is unknown; power supply should be at least 650W Gold; monitor size and specs needed for photo editing.
Thanks for your help!
Which country are you located in and what is your maximum budget?
What video output type do you require? For example, two HDMI ports, one DP, three HDMI ports, or any other configuration? Whatever you need, I suggest a 27-32 inch 1440p monitor if you don’t want to invest heavily in a 4K model.
Do you have any thoughts as to which photo editing software you'll be using (if any)?
The 5600X is perfectly acceptable for modern apps such as "full blown" Photoshop and Lightroom, but these days Adobe charges a monthly fee for their use. If you have an old copy of stand-alone Photoshop CS6 or CS5.1/5.5 that will suffice.
You might be better off purchasing a copy of Photoshop Elements, to avoid Adobe's monthly subscription fees. There are alternative free programs such as The Gimp.
If you own a camera from one of the big manufacturers, Canon, Nikon, Sony, et al, you can download their free programs instead of paying for Adobe apps.
Complex filters in Photoshop benefit from a fast graphics card, but a low to mid-range GPU is fine if you're prepared to wait a few more seconds for tasks to finish.
Hopefully you'll be using an SSD and not a hard disk drive for your system drive (Windows?). 500GB is more than enough for Windows and a whole bunch of programs. If your B550 motherboard has an M.2 slot for NVMe drives, there's a wide choice of inexpensive 480GB and 512GB NVMe drives.
I use spinning hard disks for the bulk of my photo storage. Capacity depends on the number of photos you already have in your collection and how many you intend to take in near future.
If you start shooting in RAW, you'll need 3x more storage capacity than if you stick to JPG, but RAW is the way to go if you want to extract more detail from dark shadows and "blown" highlights.
I set my cameras to shoot RAW + JPG so I end up with two photos each time I press the button.
JPG is fine for normal use, but in difficult scenes, with washed out highlights or dark murky shadows, RAW saves the day. Open Photoshop, click Auto and hidden detail magically appears in highlights and shadows. RAW files contain additional detail discarded when cameras create heavily compressed JPG files.
650W will be plenty for any GPU that fits inside your budget. Something like a Corsair RM650 would be my pick. It has a 6+2 pin +12V power lead for a mid-range GPU card.
Professional photo editing monitors are big and very expensive ($1000's). You could get away with a 24" screen, but 27" is better.
I use an old second-hand 30" Dell 16:10 aspect ratio monitor (from eBay) because modern 16:9 aspect ratio monitors are less suited to the 3:2 (36mm x 24mm) ratio of my full frame DSLR image sensors. If you shoot 16:9 images, that won't affect you.
I buy old Lian Li and Cooler Master Aluminium cases on eBay with plenty of bays for 3.5" hard disk drives and the occasional Blu-ray or DVD Writer. Fractal Design do a good range cases and my R5 mid-size case contains 8 hard disks (running TrueNAS Core).
If you take enough (too many) photos and videos, a 4TB hard disk will soon fill up. Whatever you decide on, make sure to backup all important files to at least two other hard disks, USB devices, the cloud, optical disc, etc. If your computer gets hit by lightning (I've suffered two strikes) or is attacked by Ransomware, you be glad you made backups.
United States,
Current video outputs aren't crucial. At the moment, I rely on adapter cables, though that's not ideal. If I maintain my existing monitor and TV, I'd prefer HDMI and DVD-I connections. It wouldn't be a problem to support all HDMI or Display Port options.
Appreciate the monitor suggestion!
I was planning to use Photoshop and Lightroom, but since you mentioned not liking the monthly charges, I’m open to exploring other options. I own a Canon camera, so they have their own software, though I haven’t tried it yet.
My storage setup includes a 500GB Crucial SATA SSD and an old WD 500GB 7200RPM SATA drive (spinning). I use the SSD for booting and programs, while the spinning drive holds my storage.
I shoot in RAW+JPG format, which means I need a lot of space.
Thanks for the monitor suggestions. I’m out of touch with TV options and haven’t purchased new ones in ten years.
I’m considering using my old Antec 900 case—it’s large and bulky (though that’s fine), but it offers plenty of room for hard drives and an optical drive.
I assembled this quickly. I was aiming for around $500 USD, which is higher than what I need.
The $0.00 items are current components that can be reused.
I also wanted to check if my old Antec Nine Hundred case would help cut costs on a new one.
Are there any other budget-friendly video cards available? Or should I consider using a CPU with built-in graphics instead of a separate GPU?
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/xTn4qH
And what is your ideal maximum budget for all the items you require? In reality. If this isn't something you intend to do until several months from now, I suggest you hold off until you're prepared to buy. Anything we suggest at the moment will almost certainly have completely different prices, and other components might turn out to be better options by then. PC part costs change so quickly and significantly that it doesn't make sense to specify anything more than a few days or at most a couple of weeks before you're set to purchase. Occasionally, even the following day is too long.
I'm planning to buy before Christmas. So the coming weeks are important. I've been thinking about this for ten months now. As you mentioned, prices change a lot, and not always in my favor....