Check the spec please.

Big Andy

Big Andy

Suspended / Banned
Messages
3,652
Name
Andy
Edit My Images
Yes
I'm on the verge of ordering a new computer which will be 90% for image editing, from the computing power point of view, so no gaming etc. I've had some advice from a family member who understands computers so it should be right for the job. On the other hand he's not a photographer so knows nothing about image editing and what's required so if those in the know could scan their eyes over the below spec and would like to voice an opinion that would be great thanks.

Intel quad core i5 320Ghz
16Gb ram DDR3 2x8GB
120 GB SSD
WD 2TB HD + raid mirror
GeForce GT720 silent graphics card
500w power supply
GIGABYTE GA-H81M mother board
Corsair hydro H55 quite liquid cooler
Windows 8.1OS although I hope 10 comes out before I get this as I hate 8 on the laptop.

I'll be getting the monitors from elsewhere and already have keyboard, mouse etc. The cost for this should be under £800 although not by much, so if anybody has a thought about other things I could adjust please let me know.
 
If you're not gaming and mainly doing 2D image editing I'm not sure why you need a dedicated graphics card, rather than using the onboard on the motherboard. (edit - there appear to be myltiple GA-H81M motherboards all with different extra letters and specified slightly differently, some might not have onboard graphics)

Not sure what you plan to do with 16GB of RAM either. I've got 8GB on this box and it rarely uses half of that, even when I have multiple browser tabs open and all the other stuff running.

So, overspecified in some respects for your planned useage would be my opinion, but having said that it provides a degree of future-proofing which is no bad thing.
 
Last edited:
I'd increase your ssd a little if you can and make sure it has decent read and write speeds
 
@onomatopoeia Ok I'll agree the graphics card may be over the top and I added that after the initial spec had been suggested, as it was only an extra £30 or so it may be useful in the future. The extra ram was a deliberate decision by me with the thought of stitching large panoramic images together as it's landscapes that flick my switch. Would you still say that would be overkill?

@James Wheeler The read/write speed of the chosen ssd is 450MB/sec read and write which seemed quite close to the top spec ones at around 520MB/sec. Does that sound about right? As for the size I could double it for only another £35 I guess you think that would be worth while.
 
Last edited:
I had a 120GB SSD for my OS and ended up battling with space which was pretty irritating, for the few extra quid you could give yourself some more breathing room. Depends on how much you think you'll install on it / use it for I suppose. R/W speed sounds OK, just worth checking, sometimes they bundle quite slow drives in with machines so thought I would mention it.
 
James Wheeler said:
I had a 120GB SSD for my OS and ended up battling with space which was pretty irritating, for the few extra quid you could give yourself some more breathing room. Depends on how much you think you'll install on it / use it for I suppose. R/W speed sounds OK, just worth checking, sometimes they bundle quite slow drives in with machines so thought I would mention it.
Click to expand...

You're right they did bundle a slower drive in with it but that had already been spotted, OK I'll re-spec the ssd to something around 250GB. (y)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top