Gaming computer = good photo-processor ?

Starting to get serious about replacing my 7yr old computer . Choices and combos are a bit over whelming. I use Canons DPP4 or ACDSee ultimate 9 for photos,,,been satisfied with my i7 870 @ 2.93ghz and 8 gb ram. with a GeForce GTX 750 . Have a 1-2k budget for computer,,,but hoping to keep my 2 dell 27" ips monitors. Would appreciate any not to complicated advice.
There always seems to be used high-end gaming computers for sale,,often self built for what seems reasonable prices but don't know if they would be best set-up for mainly doing photos ?
I7. 6700k 4.0 ghz proccessor
Asus gtx 1070 8gb you
Asus z170a motherboard
Samsung 850 evo 500 gb ssd
Samsung 850 evo 1 tb ssd
Gskill ripjaw ddr4 3000 memory 16gb
Atx full case 5 fan with usb 3.0 ports.
Running on Windows 10,,,,,,,this would be an example of one for 1500. only a few months old.

Just one person's opinion, but I'm still using a 4 year old HP running Win7 & the free PSCS2 that cost $150 refurbished + a crappy Compaq monitor.
Some of my layered TIFF files are over 100 MB, so unless you're doing some exceptionally high powered editing, any gaming computer should last you a long time.

A "gaming" computer is just a powerful PC with a good video card. There's nothing specialized about it that prevents you from doing any other task. The part of a "gaming" computer that benefits photo editing is the fast CPU. The SSDs will make everything quicker in general but won't make jpg compression/decompress​ion any faster. The video card won't help unless your software specifically uses the GPU (most don't).

5 fans could be very noisy, depending on which fans they used. I used to have a bunch of fans when I had 4 hard drives installed but I've disconnected a few since going SSD. I suspect 5 case fans are a bit of overkill in that computer unless you plan on rendering video 24/7 in an an attic without air conditioning in the summer.

A great gaming computer is not necessarily a great editing computer, the CPU doesn't matter too much for gaming these days, nor does RAM or hard drive speed, all of which matter much more for editing. The biggest factor in a gaming PC is the GPU, which makes basically no difference for photo editing.

I would suggest putting an SSD into your current system and upgrading to Windows 10 (if you haven't yet), you may be surprised at the difference just from doing that.

Newer games like Rise of the Tomb Raider, Dishonored II and Fallout 4 do require at least an Ivy Bridge i7 3770 if you want to run them at the highest settings. Though i dont think any of the mainstream games would benefit from more than 4 cores and some even punishes you for using a cpu with 6 or more weaker cores.
So yeah. OPs Skylake 6700k should be enough for both gaming and photoediting. With a decent cooler the OP will even be able to overlock it

EverydayGateway,,,than​ks for your reply ,to clarify,,,my present system,,I am not unhappy with speed wise,,,,it was a well built high spec computer,,,,,,but its 7 years old,,,am more concerned about dependability at this point and would rather replace on my terms rather then because of a major component failure {old age} . I don,t game,,,,,just want my new one to do a good-to great job editing photos,,and stay usefull for the long term,,,5 + years. You have clarified well the difference between a gaming & non gaming well, ty.

If you have the space, you can keep your old computer and buy/build a new one. Upgrade the SSD and graphics card in the old one. Put the GTX 750 into the photo editing computer. I did this when I need a photo/video editing PC last year. Although the games I play are not graphics intensive so I didn't buy an expensive card. I put more money into the CPU.

Frugivore,,thanks for your reply,,a new or fairly new used one is a given,,,but would keep the old one,,,just don't think I would see the point in putting more money into the old one,,,given its age. for what i could get for it,,worth it to me to keep as back-up. room is not a issue.

keeperseeker wrote in post #18234132
Frugivore,,thanks for your reply,,a new or fairly new used one is a given,,,but would keep the old one,,,just don't think I would see the point in putting more money into the old one,,,given its age. for what i could get for it,,worth it to me to keep as back-up. room is not a issue.

Sorry, I didn't read your initial post correctly. I thought you were looking to do gaming as well, but you were considering a 'gaming' computer for use with photo editing. That's why I was suggesting to have a gaming computer and an editing computer. If you don't do video editing, I'd just go for a new generally good computer to get the warranty. No need for a powerful video card.

keeperseeker wrote in post #18234072
EverydayGateway,,,than​ks for your reply ,to clarify,,,my present system,,I am not unhappy with speed wise,,,,it was a well built high spec computer,,,,,,but its 7 years old,,,am more concerned about dependability at this point and would rather replace on my terms rather then because of a major component failure {old age} . I don,t game,,,,,just want my new one to do a good-to great job editing photos,,and stay usefull for the long term,,,5 + years. You have clarified well the difference between a gaming & non gaming well, ty.

I guess I can see the motivation there, but I've always been one to fix things after they break.

My PC is mostly comprised of older parts that I bought used, I also overclock everything, no problems so far.

I just bought all the parts for a new build myself. There is nothing wrong with the specs you just listed and with the new kaby Lake cpus the prices for them should go down. So right now they are probably a great performance to price set up.

I went the 6-core route with x99 and i7-6800k. I do some video editing and though the 6700 performs a little faster I like the multitasking and hope in the next few years those cores will help with a little future proofing.

I'm upgrading from the same gen cpu so I understand not needing to but wanting to retire the old system. For what its worth if you want to sell your old CPU id be interested in it.

Also what ever you go with get a mobo that can use a new M.2 SSD even better if its a NVMe one. the speed difference will be the biggest noticeable upgrade you can make right now.

keeperseeker wrote in post #18234072
,,,,,,but its 7 years old,,,am more concerned about dependability at this point and would rather replace on my terms rather then because of a major component failure {old age} . I don,t game,,,,,just want my new one to do a good-to great job editing photos,,and stay usefull for the long term,,,5 + years.

You certainly need a new keyboard - as the ',' is stuck

You'd probably be required to buy a Nvidia video card (for potential video editing) so you can support native resolution of your 27" monitors. You don't even need an Nvidia 1070 for basic photo editing. I certainly wish computers were cheap in Canada vs the US prices. If your gonna build a system you might as well built it with fast reasonably priced components so the system lasts for a good 5-7yrs.

I'm currently using the typical run of the mill 4.2 ghz i7 6700K system that I built myself. Even for my photo editing my old Sandy bridge i7 with SSD drive is almost equally as fast with LR 6.

Have fun!!! I use Macrium Reflect "free" for a piece of mind in backing up all of my windows 10 computers in my household (5 PC's). Just something to consider if your wanting a backup when "dependability" fails you due to hardware failures.

drmaxx,,,,,,,,,my keyboard isn't stuck,,,,,,,,,,,I just use the "," ,,,,to annoy people,,,,,I see it still works,,,,!! lol

During the holiday break, my son (a gamer) helped me build a new computer to replace my 5 yr. old system, which I primarily use for photo editing. I ended up with the following and it is working great with Lightroom and Photoshop CC with a fairly large catalog.

i7 6700K (not overclocked, but easy to do)
MSI Z170 ATX Krait 3X Gaming (I'm not a gamer though)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler (my son wanted me to use an AIO liquid cooler, but I'd rather not worry about leaks).
Corsair LPX 32GB DRAM 3000MHz C15 Memory Kit for DDR4 Systems
EVGA 750Ti GPU Video (I kept using my old card, which is fine)
Samsung 500GB 850 Evo 2.5" SATA III SSD (Windows, programs and LR catalog)
WD 6 TB Black (Working storage drive)
WD Green Drives (Total 16 TB in Mediasonic Probox enclosure)
EVGA 650 Watt G1 PSU
ASUS Wi-Fi PCI Express Adapter (PCE-AC56)
Fractal Design R5 ATX Case (3 case fans, 2 in front, 1 in back)
BenQ 32" BL3200 VA Panel 2560x1440 Display QHD Designer Monitor (1 year old, but I really like this monitor)
Azio MGK1-K keyboard and Logitech G602 wireless mouse
Audioengine A2+ Speakers and S8 Powered Subwoofer (I have owned these a few years, and they are GREAT)
Windows 10 Home, 64 bit

This system is more than enough to handle any LR or PS task. I'm sure most modern gaming PCs will do fine, just don't waste any extra money on the GPU video card if you aren't gaming. If I didn't build, my next choice was to buy a Dell through Costco for the extra warranty. My son talked me out of it and for the same $, I got a better PC and found a nice way to spend time with my son during the process.

Next up, I plan to give my old system to my father, which will be great since he mainly uses the computer for web browsing.