I'm in the process of building a new computer ....

I'm in the process of building a new computer and, so far, I have only
got to the paper stage.

I am not looking for the right-now blazingly fast but I would like it
to stay out of the bog-slow for the next five years.

I have a number of questions upon which I would like comments.

1. How many threads are Photoshop/LightRoom likely to be able to use
over the next five years? Anyone who knows DxO sufficiently well is
also welcome to comment.

2. With how much RAM should should the machine be equipped?

I have a zillion other questions but that will do for a start.

nospam is welcome.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On 25/07/2016 09:34, Eric Stevens wrote:
I'm in the process of building a new computer and, so far, I have only
got to the paper stage.

I am not looking for the right-now blazingly fast but I would like it
to stay out of the bog-slow for the next five years.

I have a number of questions upon which I would like comments.

1. How many threads are Photoshop/LightRoom likely to be able to use
over the next five years? Anyone who knows DxO sufficiently well is
also welcome to comment.

2. With how much RAM should should the machine be equipped?

I have a zillion other questions but that will do for a start.

1. If in doubt, get a 4-coe with hyperthreading.

2. I would start with 16 GB, and 32 GB isn't a "silly" amount.

SSD for the system. HD or two for your data. USB 3.0 and (perhaps if
you have older peripherals) USB 2.0 as well. Some USB 3 doesn't work
with USB 2, and some USB 2 doesn't work with USB 1. Sigh! USB-C?

--
Cheers,
David
Web: http://www.satsignal.eu

| I'm in the process of building a new computer and, so far, I have only
| got to the paper stage.
|
| I am not looking for the right-now blazingly fast but I would like it
| to stay out of the bog-slow for the next five years.
|

There was a discussion here awhile back where someone
demonstrated that most modern software can use all cores.
I built myself a new computer about 6 months ago.

AMD FX-8300 Processor - 8-core, 3.3GHz
Asus M5A78L-M/USB3

Altogether it was a little over $300, I think. Then I
also got an SSD. I don't find the SSD amazing, but
it's a nice boost, especially for booting.

There are so many factors. And most problems with
speed these days are about software and system
configuration rather than hardware. Hardware is way
beyond what most people need and has been for years.
I've heard warnings about Win10 being slow and heavy,
but haven't used it much myself. It might be fine if you
have lots of power and RAM for it, which you will.

RAM, of course, is important, but it should be cheap
and easy now to get far more than you really need.
And any motherboard you buy should be RAM-expandable
to your heart's content.

My own approach is to buy decent, but never the latest.
Whatever came out in the past 6 months is always
"blazingly fast". Whatever's a year old is always "good
enough for sending email". But that same hardware was
blazingly fast last year. The high end is for suckers.

For photo editing I'd be more focussed on researching
graphic cards. Buy a good CPU for not more than $100.
I'd avoid Intel. You're paying for the name and funding their
TV ads. Some swear by Intel. I haven't bought their products
since about 2000.
Motherboard: Judge it based on options and what you need.
The main difference is in the combinations of ports and
plugins. But this can also be a lot like cars and coins. You
can't just say one brand is best. Vintage and model can
make a difference, and that's not easy to just look up.
But there are sites that do testing and reports. Sometimes
there are lemon models of these things, but that doesn't
seem to be common.

Any old case should be fine. They're not fancy. Though
the last case I bought had no reboot button! I had to take
one out of an old box. But you shouldn't scrimp on the
power supply. If that overloads it will blow everything.

What I always do is to go to Tigerdirect, see what they
have, then research my likely choices. They provide a lot of
info and also list bestsellers. With model numbers one can also
search for testing site results.

Last but not least, depending on what Windows version
you plan to install, make sure there are drivers available
for all of the hardware involved.

I hope those notes may be of some value. It's sort of
a list of unrelated tips as they came to mind.

In article , Eric Stevens
wrote:

1. How many threads are Photoshop/LightRoom likely to be able to use
over the next five years? Anyone who knows DxO sufficiently well is
also welcome to comment.

photoshop will use as many threads as are necessary for a given task.
sometimes it's only one thread, sometimes it's 8 or more.

you're *way* overanalyzing things.

2. With how much RAM should should the machine be equipped?

as much as you can afford.

In article , David Taylor
wrote:


SSD for the system. HD or two for your data.

ssd for everything, hd for backups and rarely used files.

USB 3.0 and (perhaps if
you have older peripherals) USB 2.0 as well. Some USB 3 doesn't work
with USB 2, and some USB 2 doesn't work with USB 1. Sigh!

complete nonsense.

usb 3 is backwards compatible. a bunch of usb 3 ports is all that's
needed.

USB-C?

absolutely.

usb-c is the future.

| usb 3 is backwards compatible. a bunch of usb 3 ports is all that's
| needed.
|

The port is. The support is not. The only
advantage of USB3 is speed. If you use
memory sticks daily that might matter.
Otherwise it's of little relevance.

In article , Mayayana
wrote:

| usb 3 is backwards compatible. a bunch of usb 3 ports is all that's
| needed.

The port is. The support is not.

that's a contradiction.

usb 3 is backwards compatible which means that plugging a usb 2 device
into a usb 3 port or a usb 3 device into a usb 2 port will work, just
at usb 2 speeds. if it doesn't work, then something is non-compliant
with the spec.

The only
advantage of USB3 is speed.

wrong. usb3 can source substantially more power, along with other
benefits, but even if that was the only advantage, the difference is
*huge*.

If you use
memory sticks daily that might matter.
Otherwise it's of little relevance.

nonsense.

anyone that uses a hard drive or ssd daily (i.e., everyone) will
greatly benefit from the additional speed of usb3 (and power if the
device is bus-powered).

On 25/07/2016 15:33, Mayayana wrote:
[]
The port is. The support is not. The only
advantage of USB3 is speed. If you use
memory sticks daily that might matter.
Otherwise it's of little relevance.

With the size of files these days (especially camera files) USB 3 is a
significant advantage. I don't do a lot, but when backing up onto a 64
GB USB stick or 1 TB HD, or downloading an SD card, USB does show a real
speed increase.

Whether USB-C is going to replace it is another question....

I do disagree with your other comment on AMD processors. I've had some
problems with them in the past, and would never touch them now. I
always buy Intel. Even the Intel processors used in tablets are fine,
and with an SSD they will boot Windows-10 very quickly.

--
Cheers,
David
Web: http://www.satsignal.eu

| I do disagree with your other comment on AMD processors. I've had some
| problems with them in the past, and would never touch them now. I
| always buy Intel.

"Some problems"? What problems? Some years
ago they were tricky in that one needed to be
aware of possible overheating problems. They
needed good cooling and preferably a heat
monitor. But that hasn't been true for many
years. They now have built-in functionality to
shut down for microseconds at a time, when not
needed for any work, which keeps them easily
within a low temp range, not much above Summer
air temperatures.
I've built about 10 computers in the past several
years, for myself and friends. All have AMD CPUs.
None has had any problems.

In article , David Taylor
wrote:


Whether USB-C is going to replace it is another question....

one which has been answered.

usb-c is already replacing usb-a/b as well as several other connectors.

not only is usb-c capable of substantially faster speeds (currently up
to 10gbit), but it supports a *lot* more power (up to 100w and in
either direction), has a reversible plug and is also plug-compatible
with thunderbolt 3.

there already are several computers and mobile devices that *only* have
usb-c, including ones from hp and google.