Custom PC Building Guide for Photography and Video

Custom PC Building Guide for Photography and Video

I had been using a Mac since I first started photography and retouching. Over the years, I upgraded my Macs and used them without a problem, and all software that I have been using worked flawlessly. The Mac has several advantages such as ease of use, a perfect interface (OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is still my favorite by the way), advanced file and folder tagging, and security, but there was a problem that led me to change my mind and switch to Windows: very high price tags and limited customization options.

First of all, I wasn’t after a portable solution, as I already own a MacBook Pro Retina for tethered shooting and on-location use, but I was definitely looking for a reliable workstation to use. While I was searching Mac Pro specifications and price, I decided to look for an alternative solution and that was the time when I started thinking about switching to the dark side: Windows and PC. I had never built a custom PC before, and I haven’t been using Windows since 2004. All I remember about PC and Windows was problems and errors. Everything about picking the parts and building it by myself was exciting but at the same time, I still had hesitation. I finally made up my mind when I calculated the total price of the parts of my custom PC. It cost roughly $1,600, whereas a Mac Pro with similar specs was about $4,700. Mac Pro was really small and its design was really good, but I wouldn’t spend three times more just for that. I thought that I should take this risk and switch all my system and daily computer habits as well.

The Mac Pro specifications and pricing on Apple.com

Choosing the Parts

Processor and Motherboard

I said that I wasn’t after a portable solution, but I always hated the big-sized usual PC cases. To make it compact enough, I decided to go on with a small-sized (Mini-ITX) motherboard and a case. While it has some advantages about size and look, it has also some disadvantages such as limitation of adding extra graphics card or a sound card, as it has only one PCI-E slot. But it wasn’t a big deal for me, as I was only aiming to use this machine for retouching on Photoshop and 3D rendering purposes. Also, as it is stated on Adobe’s website, there is no need for a second graphics card:

Photoshop currently doesn't take advantage of more than one graphics processor. Using two graphics cards does not enhance Photoshop's performance.

Also, I chose a six-core processor over a four-core processor to get better performance in Photoshop and better computing performance, especially for 3D modeling and rendering. According to Adobe:

Photoshop generally runs faster with more processor cores, although some features take greater advantage of the additional cores than others. For most users, the increase in performance that more than six cores provide, doesn’t justify the increased cost.

Graphics Card

NVIDIA cards are rapidly evolving and I wanted an affordable graphics card with sufficient specs for my workstation. I chose a compact-sized GTX 970 to run some Photoshop features flawlessly, and so far, I’m happy with it. In the future I can upgrade it whenever I want. Also, keep in my mind that a good graphics card accelerates some specific features in Photoshop.

 

RAM

Having 16 GB of RAM would have been enough, as the minimum requirement for the latest Photoshop version is 8 GB, but if you are working with multiple images with lots of layers you can experience memory problems. Therefore I decided to use 32 GB of RAM in this build.

Photoshop uses random access memory (RAM) to process images. If Photoshop has insufficient memory, it uses hard-disk space, also known as a scratch disk, to process information. Accessing information in memory is faster than accessing information on a hard disk. Therefore, Photoshop is fastest when it can process all or most image information in RAM.

Complete Parts List

Total cost is approximately $1,600.

Windows 10 Experience

To be honest, I still miss OS X, and it really took some time to adapt to Windows and its shortcuts. Within this period, I already started using this PC as my default workstation, and luckily I haven’t seen any blue screen, or unexpected program errors. Also, I modified most things on Windows with native customization options to achieve a OS X-like look, such as a black-colored mouse cursor and top-positioned task bar. So far, the performance is already perfect, and day by day I’m getting used to it. In the meantime, I barely have gotten used to the Windows keyboard and started using a mechanical keyboard which I really like more than my Mac keyboards.

Photoshop and Retouching Experience

I tested my new system with 16-bit 36 MP and 80 MP raw images. Working with these images in Photoshop was really flawless and even with multiple images opened, I couldn’t notice any decrease in performance. The only problem I noticed was in saving 4-5 GB PSB files was taking a bit long and I think it is because of the SSD, which was connected via SATA port. A PCI-based SSD would probably handle this faster, but that would be too much expensive. Other than that, the only thing that slowed me down at the beginning was the placement of "alt" and "Windows" keys, which is used frequently in Photoshop. So, if you are thinking of switching to Windows from Mac, be prepared to learn all of Photoshop's shortcuts once again. 

Build and Installation Notes

  • When using high capacity RAM, some motherboards don’t recognize them and don’t boot due to an un-updated BIOS version, so it is better to find low capacity RAM such as 4 GB or 8 GB just to boot the PC and update the BIOS.
  • The Wi-Fi card on the motherboard that I used was really unstable and some other user reviews also supported this issue, so I changed that with an Intel Wi-Fi Card.
  • If you want more options for your system, don’t limit yourself with the Mini-ITX's form factor. You can get a Micro-ATX size motherboard (one size bigger than the tiny sized Mini-ITX) which would allow you to install dual graphics cards or PCI-E based SSD.
  • If you are living in a hot place, be sure that your computer is cool enough to run properly. It is better to create good air circulation inside your case with additional fans. If you set your fan speeds properly, you wouldn’t hear any annoying fan noise.
  • Building a PC by yourself is really fun and exciting, and it has many advantages such as the ability of changing and upgrading the parts whenever you want. Even if it looks too complicated and technical, don’t hold back yourself, there are lots of tutorials on YouTube and the manuals that come with the parts are very useful. This was my first building experience and it took about 45 minutes with watching some videos and reading the manuals. If I've done it, you can do it.
  • If you are migrating from Mac, be aware of the difference in file type systems. On this new PC, I started using my backup hard drives in exFAT format which can also be read and written by Macs. It is better to avoid using third-party file format compatibility software as they can cause errors on your disk which may result in data loss. This is the only thing that bothers me right now as I have lots of archived data in my hard drives which are in HFS+ format (the default OS X format with zero Windows compatibility).

Conclusion

Using a Mac or Windows is like using a Nikon or a Canon camera (Pentax would be considered Ubuntu at this point), however, after a while it is really easy to adapt a new operation system, and the result is satisfying for me. Even though I still miss OS X, the performance that I got for this price point and the new Windows 10 made everything easier. If you have similar experiences in switching systems or custom PC building, please share in the comments below.

Burak Erzincanli's picture

Burak is a photographer and creative retoucher specialising in fashion and advertising, working with international clients from Canada, Europe and Australia.

Currently lives and works in Manchester, UK.

Log in or register to post comments
92 Comments
Previous comments

There are several drivers available that allow MAC volumes to be read by Windows. Some free others cost low bucks. Using ExFAT is not a good idea as the file system has no resilience and is very inefficient on large disks. Better to NFTS. I Believe it is also possible to read NTFS on Macs.

To run OSX in a virtual computrer is easy using VMware - there are some prebuilt VM machines available on the net to save you having to do it yourself.

Keith

I found myself in a very similar situation. I converted to a Mac Mini back in 2011, and it was great for general use, but as my needs grew for a more powerful computer and the Mini was just pretty much a closed appliance once you upgrade to SSDs and 16GB or RAM. As I shopped the Mac lineup for a new computer, I found the iMacs were out, I did not want to buy a screen and then a matching screen for dual monitors. Laptops were out, too many performance compromises made to save battery power and size. That left the Mac Pro, at $7000 for the system I would like. <cough cough> Sure they are well made systems. Server grade processor, server grade memory. Even a bit of wiggle room on adding cards to it. But still pretty locked down on HW compared to a PC. But Macs are also yesterday's tech, even when new. The long development cycles really hurt.

Being no stranger to building my own Windows PCs, I naturally started looking at that route. Windows has made great strides in closing the gap with OSX (while Apple has only made modest improvements) to the point that Windows 10 vs OSX is a bit of a yawn. Even some advantage to Windows, because if you did not like the way Apple did something in OSX, Apples official answer is "our way or the highway". With Windows, you can customize or find an program to let you do so.

I came up with a i7-6900k, water cooled running at 4.4 Ghz, 64GB of RAM, GTX 980 GPU, 500GB M.2 system SSD. So for $2900, I have a system that out performs the $7000 equivalent Mac Pro. I am pleased with how quiet I could make my computer. I did not care about looks, it all goes in an under desk cabinet.

Apple really needs to consider "opening up the box" with an enthusiast type system that can be upgraded and tinkered with. They are missing out on what remains of the desktop market, and just going after people who need a "pretty appliance" to accessorize their life.

You are definitely right David,
by the way, it is a really good setup, and probably my next move will be something like this

Its a minor mistake choosing an Nvidia gpu for users of Adobe and, well, nearly all of the photo editing software today. They have all abandoned CUDA in favor of OpenCL. Unfortunately, Nvidia still emphasizes their CUDA performance and their OpenCL performance has stagnated. A user migh as well skip the high end GPU. A 3 or even 4 generation old GPU will have awfully similar performance to a brand new 10x0. Its one of the few places where an AMD GPU is the superior choice. You may get much, much better performance in those optimized tasks with an AMD GPU. The advantages are even more noticeable with video editing.

But never, ever build a system for photo or video editing around an AMD CPU.

Other than that the performance of AMD's architecture, sure..... its the performance of an i3 to i5 while drawing 95 - 225W(!) of power. The only folks who should be buying AMD Cpu's should be the budget conscious who want a strong IGP.

We'll talk Zen later this year...

And on a tech blog I saw a few days ago the author claims Nvidia is much better than AMD for photo editing. Confusing..

Good timing. Thank you.

Good stuff! There are definite pluses and minuses to both Mac and PC platforms, but for budget and ease of upgrade per $, a PC is pretty compelling. Thats why I have my old 2013 Macbook Pro for location but my workstation is PC

Thanks Hans! From now on, I'll go on with the exact same system

"A PCI-based SSD would probably handle this faster, but that would be too much expensive."
You can get a blazing fast Samsung M.2 for <$1GB, it will be 4x faster than the SATA drive. Using it for a project drive and moving the completed folder off would be cost efficient.

Nice post, I topped my computer build off with a 34inch ultra wide... http://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-34UM95-P-ultrawide-monitor

I have a PC build that, apart from a drive and GPU upgrade in 2014, is now 4 years old. It works very well; in fact, since the last Lightroom update, it in fact runs better than ever. So, I should be completely satisfied. However, lately I've been watching Linus Tech Tips, Tek Syndicate, Paul's Hardware and a bunch of other channels on YouTube lately. None of this is helping out with my PC GAS at all...

Photoshop likes to have his own ssd as scratch disk. So one ssd for OS, and another as scratch disk.

"Photoshop likes to have his own ssd as scratch disk. So one ssd for OS, and another as scratch disk."
I don't think Photoshop will ever use the scratch disk with 32GB RAM and 5GB files.
Also, one M.2 at 1.5GB/s will be faster than adding another SATA SSD like he has now.
I doubt he'd notice an improvement from 2 Samsung 950s over one, nor can the current motherboard support 2 anyway.

I decided to build a PC when I purchased a Nikon D800. I'm now using a D810, and after a few upgrades the PC is still working well despite being a few years old. If you buy the "K" processors they overclock very well and don't run too hot if you keep it reasonable.

I'm running an i7 2600K which is 3.4GHz native but mine is stable at 4.3GHz with air cooling. Even under load (LR import) it only gets to about 60C. Along with a Radeon R9 390, 32GB of RAM, 2 SSDs, and 4 HDD it makes short work of any photo edits.

I'm here to see the Mac users comments....

Nice setup but if it was me I'd save money on the processor and graphics card. If you were using the PC for gaming or video editing then it would be worthwhile but 6 CPU cores and 1,600 GPU cores is overkill for Photoshop. Memory and SSD speed will be your bottlenecks, not processor cores.
I'd also question using a second internal hard drive for backups. You really should be backing up to a NAS (and offsite).

Disagree based on my own testing. RAM is key, followed by CPU then graphics. The SSD will be able to keep up with any operations PS or LR throw at it.

I used a few benchmarking tools to determine that I had to add RAM, now I'm CPU limited despite running at 4.3GHZ. Disk is no where near max. This is based on analyzing the most intensive processes: import and export.

I do agree that NAS and offsite are key to good 3-2-1 backups. One extra drive in the case is better than nothing but asking for trouble.

I have build a similar Hackintosh setup with cost 1400$ with a bigger case for my RAID backup and i have the best result from both worlds!! The best solution for a pro, that wants, mac Osx and better performance with the half of the price!

Hi Marios,
In the near future, I'll try to install Hackintosh as well, is your system stable and is it getting effected by updates? Especially your drivers such as network and soundcard?

No problems at all, Burak, the only thing is that i must send it to my tech guy when i need an update in Osx, but ones a year!

I guess if you're a heavy PS user making files with tons of layers and applying CPU/GPU-intensive filters, this makes sense. OTOH, as an event pro I do all of my work in Lightroom & DxO, culling thousands of images and cranking out hundreds of finished files at a time for delivery, and a modest 2012 13" dual-core non-Retina Macbook Pro with an SSD in the optical bay for OS, apps and LR catalogs is plenty fast enough. Got it hooked up to fast external storage and a 27" NEC display.

I and many others have been saying for over a decade that Apple should make a headless iMac. Then Apple's laptops became fast enough for me to run my event photo business, so I no longer need a desktop machine. Would like to see Apple make a more affordable headless semi-pro desktop Mac, though.

from own experience 4.2 GHz on 4-core CPU gives better boost than 6-core with 3.3 GHz.. just saying

yeah probably but I also started 3D, thats why I chose 6-core over 4-core

I also built a custom pc earlier this year. Also with 32gb of RAM. Adobe says they will use RAM before scratch disk but i found with this RAM there was still 8Gb or so written to scratch disk. So i created a RAM disk of 10Gb and set this as the scratch disk which I have found to work really well. Cheers Shaun.

Hi Shaun,
How did you set the ram as scratch disk?

Sorry have been overseas the last couple of weeks with out much internet.
Basically as Marcin has pointed out in the article just use a piece of software that treats the ram as a HDD. Just need to be aware that if you lose power etc that anything in the scratch disk will be lost.

@Lee what timing. I just ordered parts for my newest PC for photo and video. I have received most of the stuff with the rest coming in on Friday. Do you think if I wrote about why I ordered each specific part maybe you could share it as an article as another perspective and opinion from another photographer about why he went with these specific components.
Components ordered and to be built:
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Tempered Glass Black Case
I7-6700k CPU
Gigabyte ZX-Gaming 7 Mobo
Samsung M.2 NVMe 512gb SSD
2x Samsung Evo 512gb SSD
6TB Western Digital Caviar Black HDD
GTX 980 Ti gfx card
G.Skill 32gb DDR4 2400 RAM
Corsair H80i v2 CPU water cooling
4tb Western Digital External HDD

And I'll post more. About to board my flight

And 2x Dell Monitors: UltraSharp UP2716D and UP2516D

Isn't the GPU way overkill? They go for $800 to $1000 but PS and LR uses very little GPU power.

Good article and very timely. Apple does not care about us, the pro creative market anymore. They make way more money selling iPhones to the general public and began to phase us out a few years ago.

It started with killing Aperture and turning Final Cut into a kiddy toy. Then they released the Mac "Pro" that wasn't upgradable. The only computer they seem really excited about is the MacBook with no ports that is useless to me.

The writing is on the wall. Apple doesn't want our business anymore. I really dread the inevitable switch to Windows that is in my future.

I own a MBP (inherited) and a custom built PC. I have been building PC's for years. Both have their merits but at the end of the day I would never spend 3-4 k on a mac when I can spend half that or less on a PC that can handle more. I do like how Apple products seamlessly operate with one another. That is really nice. I wish windows could operate similarly. Macs also have some really cool production software you can't get on PC. Macs are just too expensive though and I also play games so PC is it for me. Macs are also really great for people who don't understand tech jargon and just want/ need something to work right out of the box.

suggestion on any Monitor???

Hi Aniket,
You should check my post about monitors:
https://fstoppers.com/originals/introduction-monitors-photographers-vide...

Thanks...

As an AMD "fanboy", mainly due to pricing. I'm waiting for the new ZEN processors from AMD, 8 Core 16 Thread. Put it some 32GB of DDR4 and a GTX 1070.
Now...well, FX8320 + 16GB Corsair Vengeance and GTX 960...it works good :)

Thank you for sharing your experience with us!

Happy New Year!

Just purchased all the components for my new PC. In Canada, due to weak dollar, a $2000 PC is actually $2800. So I had to pay extra attention to cost.

So here is my list:

- Define R5 case (great sound proofing)
- Gigabytes z170x gaming 7 mobo
- i7 6700k CPU
- Crucial Balistix Sport 32GB RAM.
- Master Cooler CPU cooling fan.
- MSI ATX 1050 Ti GPU. I originally wanted the GTX 1070 but after talking to the guy in the store, I took the 1050. Saved almost $300 and put the saving towards M.2 SSD.
- Samsung 1TB M.2 960 EVO SSD (the most expensive component).
- Samsung 1TB SSD 860 EVO.
Master Cooler 650v power supply.

The only components that I was not sure about was the graphic card. I spoke to a few people who know their stuff (including a Matrox employee) and all said the photo editing with LR and PS does not require any special graphic card. My GTX 1050Ti is way more than enough.

Any thoughts guys?
Cheers.

Hi Motti!

Great parts! (by the way I switched to Dfine Nano S after a while due to noise problems) You have enough ram and a good processor for PS and LR, and you can switch to a better card in the future whenever you want

Hi Burak, sorry for the late reply, I don't visit here often (enough). It is a powerful PC but LR manages to slow it down very quickly...ON1 here I come :-)