Bob Locher Loc: Southwest Oregon

I had been doing post processing, using "Affinity" on my Dell 17" laptop. And in truth it worked fairly well. But on several occasions I was quite dissatisfied and decided to bite the bullet and try for a better system.

It has all come together, and I offer here my approach to getting a good system on the cheap.

First - the computer. What started this approach was finding a refurbished computer on Amazon that seemed to offer terrific specifications for a very modest price. I had been pricing out a similar system at Dell, and found myself looking at a price closing in on $1000 - and then I would still need a monitor.

The refurbished computer was a HP 8200 low profile tower. It was offered with an Intel Quad Core i-5 processor running at 3.1 gHz., with a 1 terabyte hard drive, a 256 gigabyte Solid State Drive, 8 gigabytes of RAM, a DVD drive, a bunch of USB ports, and Windows 10 Professional. All of this was offered at US $285.00, shipping included. It did NOT have WiFi, tending to prove it was used in either a corporate or a government environment. But a WiFi adapter that plugged into USB was US $17.00

It was too good a deal to pass up - I bit. It came in in about a week. The case suggested the computer was clearly not new - but then it was not promised to be. On the other hand the inside was immaculate. I hooked up an old monitor and fired it up - all worked perfectly. Except I got nastigrams from Microsoft that the Windows 10 Professional had not been registered. Well, the limited documentation that came with the computer did state that this might be the case, and gave simple instructions on registering the Windows system, using the Windows sticker number on the side of the computer, and five minutes later that was done.

I never hooked up the WiFi card - the computer is set up about 5 feet from my router so I simply used an Ethernet cable and all was well.

Right - but the monitor I had was no better than the one on my lap top. I researched monitors on the internet, and decided that the BenQ PD2700Q with its 2560 X 1440 was about the sweet spot for size, resolution, technology and capability, and offered on Amazon at US $329.00 Ouch - more than the computer! I went to eBay to see what I could find. And there it was - the selfsame identical BenQ monitor being offered by BenQ direct as a refurbished version for US $ 235.45, shipping included, and with a full manufacturer's warranty. I ordered it.

That still left one hole in the package - a video card. The HP computer included on-board VGA video, but that is an analog standard with a maximum resolution far below the capability of the BenQ monitor. I studied this carefully. There are a number of video cards offered at between $100 and 300 US - again, budget busters - but they are designed for gamers and feature terrific speed. They also use a lot of power. Well, I am not a gamer - this computer is intended primarily for Post Processing, and while I desire speed, it need be nothing like the 60 - 80 frames per second the gamer cards offer. Also, the gamer cards use a lot of power, more than the HP computer power supply would be comfortable with.

Long story short I ended up buying a PNY Nvidia GeForce 710 card. I went to the local BestBuy to get their confirmation that it would work, and bought it for US $49.38. They were asking $59 for it but cheerfully matched Amazon's price. The card came with the required low-profile brackets, which I had to install myself, that requiring 10 minutes with a pliers and a screwdriver. There was one aspect I was concerned about - the specs for the card said it should only be used with a computer having a 300 watt power supply. Well, the HP has a 240 watt supply. I won't bore you with the details, but I did some further research that in the end demonstrated to my satisfaction that the computer had the power reserve to handle the video card without problem.

The video car included a VGA output, so I installed the card, hooked up my old monitor to the new VGA port, then downloaded the video drivers and installed them. All was well.

Two days later the monitor arrived, in perfect condition in every way. I hooked everything up, but this time instead of the analog VGA output I used the HDMI output, with the supplied cable from BenQ, and turned on the power. I would have expected to say it was anticlimactic - but it wasn't! The monitor performance is beautiful - stunning to my eye - every bit as much as I had hoped for, and more than I expected.

I had loaded Affinity to the new computer already, as well as FastStone, and put both through their paces. Beautiful.

And that is my story - I have assembled a very good PP computer setup for less than the cost of one of many good zoom lenses. It certainly is not top of the line - for that level think 3000 - 4000 US dollars and more - maybe lots more. But it is a very solid system. I see no reason why it won't give me years of performance and satisfaction.

This project might be bit bit much for someone who has no skills at all in working with computer hardware, but only a very modest level of skill is required. There are plenty of YouTube videos showing all you need. Or, the neighborhood geek could do this with his eyes closed, probably for the price of a pizza.

One last note - the computer I bought can be had without the SSD drive for about US $ 90 less - but I love the quick boot time of the SSD, enough to pay the extra.

Here are some links to what I got:

The Computer: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0763LLRPK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The Monitor: https://www.ebay.com/itm/BenQ-PD2700Q-27-1440p-Designer-Monitor-Refurbished/152684170395?hash=item238caf8c9b:g:sd8AAOSwAP1anSW6

The video card: https://www.amazon.com/PNY-NVIDIA-GeForce-Profile-PCI-Express/dp/B01B2300O4/ref=pd_sbs_147_19?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01B2300O4&pd_rd_r=5WMNHGX3W5FGCCFN0C40&pd_rd_w=ShT7h&pd_rd_wg=xTfyu&psc=1&refRID=5WMNHGX3W5FGCCFN0C40

I have no stock in, or any other form of interest or compensation from any of the above in any form. All I can promise you is that this set-up works for me and I am delighted with it. Cheers!

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Well done! And on a low budget to boot!

Andy

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

Don't forget you have CUDA cores! For some programs (like Handbrake) you can utilize the processing power of the video card and speed up your rendering.
Wired is faster- sometimes 10x faster- than wireless.
And *10* built in USB ports is a big plus.
What could strain your power supply is an added hard drive- mostly on startup. If you get a bigger one, replace that 1tb. not just add another.
And yes you got a great deal!

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Too many people do not realize that modern parts are so color coded and plug unique that it is hard to make a mistake... no not hard... impossible,,,, I have built and upgraded for decades. I recall when 250 meg was a big hard drive... and memory was 128 meg. 8088,,, then came the wow fast 286 CPU !!! Ran at 8 meg Turbo at 12 meg

Like Virginia Slims ad said... "We have come a long way, Baby"
-------------------------
HaryO said "Don't forget you have CUDA cores!" Yep, also needed if you are to install Google's DeepDreams on our computers.

gerdog

Excellent! Nice thing about a tower is the ease of working on it yourself. If a hard drive starts to fail you can replace it in minutes. Add drives, add memory, even change the CPU all by yourself if you ever want to.

tomad Loc: North Carolina

Nice work. You put together a good system for under $600!

mikedent Loc: Florida

Good for you! I love stories of such hacks and besting "the man". I would, for me, look for an I7 chip and 16-32 ram memory especially if at a similar discount reduced price. Have fun!

d3200prime

You are a man after my own heart. Kudos and good shooting to you.

mikedent Loc: Florida

Thanks!

sandiegokim1

I did something similar, except I used ebay and lucked into a local seller. Got an HP 8300, 16 MB RAM, i5 quad processor, 500GB SSD drive, & 1TB hard drive, win 10 pro and WiFi plugin. Keyboard and mouse. All for $350. I was able to pick it up from seller. Got a dell monitor from FB marketplace, also from another local seller fir $60. I am set!

P.S. My first pc was in 1984, a 64k Morrow "portable" that weighed @ 25lbs. It was a cool piece of technology in the day.

BebuLamar

Back in 2014 I needed a PC to do my PP for my camera bought in Dec 2013. I bought from Ebay a used HP Z600 with dual Xeon E5620 2.4Ghz, 12 GB RAM and 1 TB hard drive for $400. It has the ATI Firepro with 2 DVI outputs. I bought 2 NEC LCD2190UXp for $60 each. I use my old Spyder2 and NEC Spectraview II software to calibrate the screens. They are good enough for me.

parishard

You can buy refurbished computers from Walmart and Bestbuy. The prices range from $100 to $300. The combinations of memory and spec's are almost endless; you do not need terrabytes on memory. If you want to add more RAM (the secret is RAM not hard-drive) memory, you can go to http://www.crucial.com. They make a huge variety of memory cards. I paid $75 to upgrade one of the computers from 4GB RAM to 8GB RAM. I use both computers to work with the AFFINITY photo processing program. These desktop Dell boxes will run with almost any monitor, audio/video card and anything else you have; basically it boils down to don't ever throw anything away these days, it all works. I am currently experimenting with the 'focus merging' feature of AFFINITY. The system works perfectly with a stack of 40 highest resolution JPEGS that my D7200 can produce; but it takes 8GB RAM, not 4. The lens is an OLD 28mm Nikon non-autufocus lens with a manual focus arc of about 200 degrees; from KEH for about $150 (I don't remember exactly). I am absolutely flabbergasted at how inexpensive the entire system was and how easy the 'focus merging' feature is to operate with near perfect results. The lens is important. Nothing matters except sharpness, large diameter glass and f16 or f22 stopped to about f11. All else is manual. Focusing is easy, 'you start out of focus at the near point, you end out of focus at the far point'. The computer and program handles everything after that. The entire setup (including AFFINITY program) cost about $250 using an old spare monitor I had (also not counting camera and lens). I can shoot a focus stack of 40 on an SD card, insert the card into the computer, run the program and have the first rough result (JPEG) in about 15 minutes total elapsed time. Not bad IMHO.

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

...I'm kind've a geek, but not so much that I pretend to know everything. I *have,* however, built three 'puters and know my way around that act. Mine are max'ed out, circa 5 years ago (I won't go into the giga-whatses, no need) with full boat RAM and SSD's, and I'm thinking I'm ready to make a super-max model to take me out there with Kirk. BUT, your project is intriguing, and I'm inspired to look around a bit before getting into it. Your specs are solid, but the one aspect I would change, and it won't break the bank, is your power supply. I've had to change a couple out, even after geeking the specs to death, and it's hard to diagnose when your power supply is failing, there are so many things affected. Just better to overkill on that part, IMO.

parishard

One thing I forgot to mention. If in doubt about any of this, call the company. They are all very helpful and usually very knowledgeable. You do not have to know. 'all about everything' to do this. All you really have to do is keep the phone numbers at hand, have a sharp pencil and pad of paper and act on the advice you get.

chikid68 Loc: Tennesse USA

not a bad decision and you can easily upgrade the ram to a max of 32 Gb in the future