Quantus5

Looks like some great specs!! :-)

I think your best decision is to go with a Desktop itself, i.e. not a laptop.. You'll be able to upgrade in a modular fashion down the road, and support the fastest graphics cards.

Like Jerry said -- the case is a very important consideration. I especially like having room to work around. I did a motherboard/cpu upgrade on my system and it was a breeze working inside of a full tower case.

MrT Loc: Gilbert, AZ

I just built a new computer not having any issues and maybe over did a couple I7 7700K. 32GB ram. Most of it sits dormant 16 would have been enough. 500mb m.2ssd c: drive no data stored on it 2 2TB hard drives for data storage. One failed just. Replacing both with 4TB drives. No video card. Intel 630 graphics on the cpu is driving 2 27" 2560X1440 monitors. Thinking about a GTX 1070 but prices are too high waiting for them to come down. Full sized case with 5 fans and over clocking by 10%. I use Lightroom and Photoshop elements. Going to go with the cc subscription. I'm looking at NAS storage as a backup for my photos. I lost many with the hard drive crash. With a machine like that get a separate backup device. I have a Nikon D800 and most captures are 53MB each. No performance issues even with many files open at the same time. Good luck.

Sorry for bad grammer. Fingers are too big for the phone.

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

I've read/heard that all high powered video cards, even those not of the absolutely latest design, remain in great demand (and thus, high priced) due to their value in cryptocurrency server farms. If that particular bubble ever pops we should see a return to "normal" price curves for those cards, where later versions produce lower demand/prices for earlier versions.

johntaylor333

I would make your 1GB SSD a M.2 device, even quicker for the same money. Buy a Samsung 960 Pro

For your video card, I would get the best you can afford. I suggest an NVidia GTX 1070/8GB or better. You can do 4k with HDMI or DP - good cards have both

P.S. I wouldn't bother with 48GB of RAM unless you are going to be doing humungous Ps files. For Lr or most Ps, 32GB should be fine

Make sure you get plenty of case fans for when you do big batch processing of files - even a AIO water cooler

TBPJr Loc: South Carolina

I would disagree with those who suggest less memory. I have built myself two six-core machines, the first with 24 GB of RAM and the second with 32 GB of RAM (long story short: I built the second to replace the first because I didn't figure out that the first had two bad video cards and couldn't solve the problems they caused otherwise--until they caused the same problem on a new motherboard and with a new CPU...so now I have two pretty powerful computers). Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that one of the major factors in my building my own overkill computers was that I had tried to use Premier Elements to do some video work years before, and my computer (which was custom-built and powerful when it was made) would load the program and the video selections, and then just sit there--I never knew whether it was actually hung or working very hard and I gave up because it was slow.

I finally did some video work with one of the six-core machines (I think it was the second one)--it was the only time I saw all twelve threads maxed out (using 100% of the CPU), and all the memory in use, and they stayed that way for about twenty minutes processing the video clips and about the same amount of time burning the DVD (I don't know why that part required so much power, but perhaps the writing included conversion to a DVD format).

Go with the 48 GB of RAM--you'll be glad you did at some point. Oh, and be sure to go with Windows 10 Pro.

The other thing I forgot to mention before is how strongly I recommend using two sets of mirrored hard drives (RAID 1), one set for your operating system and programs (usually C:\), and one for your data (pictures) (D:\ or whatever you prefer). That is what I have done since I experienced hard drive failures before I built my own (another long story); it has saved me a lot of problems since I started using it, including hard drive failures with the machines I built. I also recommend that you make your programs use your data disks (in directories you select) to store everything other than the programing itself (i.e., your email .pst files should be on your data drives, along with your word processing files, with the word processing templates, dictionaries, etc.) and most especially including all of your pictures, your edits, and the catalog files for whatever post processing programs you use (you can make Lightroom and Elements both use the directory of your choice for their catalogs). Most software will let you back up the customizations you create in the programs; those backups should be on your data drives.

The chief advantage of the dual mirrored sets is that it isolates your pictures and other data from the things that can go wrong in the operating system, while providing a large degree of safety for your operating system files and program files and separately for your data (with healthy mirrors, you can replace one hard drive that has failed or is failing with another one, and the other drive will re-sync with the new one to restore your mirror)--one drive failure will not wipe out your system or your data; if your OS has to be reinstalled for whatever reason, you will probably have to reinstall all of your programs as well, but you won't lose your data/pictures in the process. In short, double your hard drives; Windows 10 does software RAID pretty reliably, and much more easily than setting up hardware RAID. I have been saved by the RAIDs both for the operating system and for my data.

You should also keep a copy of your downloaded software (the installation files, updates, and patches) on your data disks (of course, you have to keep a list of your product keys/serial numbers/codes that will allow you to install them, too, in a form you can read without having the software installed); it would be a good idea to copy your installation disks to the same directory for the programs for which you have physical media--you can even do that for Windows, too, which can make it easy to repair your OS without the physical disks at hand.

I think a lot have mentioned using a good backup system, with at least one backup away from your primary physical location. While almost everything else can be replaced with enough money/insurance, that does not apply to your work and the things you create (including pictures and your edits). Back up and keep your backups safe.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Lots of good advice and a couple of comments. Definitely agree that storage should be redundant (note the comment by the user who lost a drive and data). RAID 1 (mirroring) is fine, and while you can do a SW implementation using Windows, there’s typically a speed advantage to using a HW implementation. If you choose to use a NAS for your data storage, and are willing to use more drives, then other RAID levels become a workable possibility (although you can do RAID 5 with Windows, it’s not really a good fit for large files like imagery). Remember if you choose a NAS, that it owns the file system, and there is nothing more important in terms of your data, so choose well. I highly recommend a 3rd copy of your data off-site. At this moment in time, the most reliable storage media is an MDisk if it’s large enough for you (there are 100 GB sizes available), hence the suggestion for a BluRay/MDisc recorder. Your other good 3rd copy off-site DR choice is the cloud if you have good internet access. Ignore the naysayers - you can’t possibly implement anything this robust at home provided you choose a major cloud provider such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc. Finally, although some use it, I’m not a fan of CPU water cooling - expensive, complex, prone to leaks and unnecessary unless you overclock to extreme in which case just spend the money on a higher performance CPU instead. I’ve seen too many failures including leaks in data centers that cost many hundreds of thousands of $ to replace the damaged equipment. It has its place in high performance storage, but not a great design choice for a home system.

alx Loc: NJ

I would second that.

alx Loc: NJ

He who dies with the most toys wins!

johntaylor333

I agree about having RAID drives.

What I do (for Lightroom and Photoshop) is have a 1TB M.2 (Samsung 960Pro) drive which has the OS and the folder I'm currently working on (they are typically about 100 GB).

Then I have a 2TB SSD (Samsung 960 Evo) which holds most of my current 6 months or so of pictures and videos.

Then I have a 5TB HDD for longer term storage (all pictures)

Then I have an external 4 drive RAID 5 array which holds 12 TB (3TBx4) but only about 8TB in RAID 5 configuration

Then I have a cloud backup of about 2TB

I sleep well at night

P.S. my comment about only needing 32GB of RAM was for me, basically only doing photos, not video production

Haenzel Loc: South Holland, The Netherlands

You for sure take it seriously, however how well do you sleep after realizing files might get corrupted? Backing up corrupted files is not a good practice.
I don't know what you've already done to overcome this; perhaps you anticipated....

It's important to think this over and build your backup scenario in such a way that corruption can't

a. be happening
b. if it happens it won't be replicated to your backups.

I'm currently using ZFS based storage that will prevent files from getting corrupted and I never overwrite my backups. I'm pretty sure people do not realize this and think they're save...

SteveR Loc: Michigan

And I thought I had to go to the movies to see monsters. That computer sounds like one bad monster!!

Jakebrake Loc: Broomfield, Colorado

Thanks to all for the advice, recommendations and links. I will let you all know what I wind up with after getting it built.