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Thread started 13 Sep 2018 (Thursday) 19:58
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Would this PC Work for Me?

 
alphamalex
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Sep 13, 2018 19:58 |  #1

Hey y'all!

I don't do any video at all; just photos. I use CS6 v13, Topaz, Nik Collection, and Perfect Effects exclusively, and sometimes dabble in Photomatix for my 5D3 RAWs. I've been looking to upgrade my PC because editing is such a bore, and takes too long!!! I'm running a 3.10 GHz i5-4440 with 32GB RAM, and a 2GB Quadro 4000 on a self-built Gigabyte GA-Z87-DS3H. All this on Windows 7 though; so I feel just an OS upgrade might make me faster.

My son's been dragging me to the outlandish looking modded computers (all over $1.5K of course), but I was just messing around today and found this: https://smile.amazon.c​om …fRID=EV2Z7EM1VC​PDDFAQTJEV (external link)

Would this be a speed demon if I upgraded to Windows 10 (I own Win 10 Pro)? I don't need a monitor, and could use the Qaudro I have; maybe even upgrade to something better. Is anyone using the HP Z800? Is it speedy? Hell, 2xQuad Zeons better be!!

Freddy ..


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5DIII, 5D II, 5Dc, 7D with 24-70 2.8L II, 24-70 2.8L, 24-105 F4L IS, 70-200 F2.8L IS, 100 2.8L IS Macro, 400 5.6L, 50 1.4, 85 1.8, 28-135, 55-250
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Moppie
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Sep 14, 2018 05:02 |  #2

Your current computer dates to around 2013, and the CPU in it was a pretty good performer up until quite recently.
The Xeon equipped computer you've found dates to around 2010, while it looks like a good deal, it's really not worth anything, it's a used refurb that is at, or beyond end of life and your current computer is 30-40% faster. It is best avoided.

Moving to Windows 10 might give you some small improvements, but the only good reason to move would be for security as Windows 7 is no longer supported.

But, there are somethings you could do.

If you don't already have an SSD then installing one for the operating system and programs would make a noticeable difference.
A 250GB SSD is very affordable, and a a 500GB or a second 250GB would allow you to put images on it to work from for another increase in performance.

You could look for a second hand higher spec CPU, an i7 4770K would be a direct replacement and combined with an SSD it would make a 20-30% increase in performance.
With your motherboard and an aftermarket cooler you should be able to lock the boost frequency of all cores (also known as frequency sync) to increase the performance even more.
That would cost about half as much as the Xeon you've found, and be considerably faster (easily twice as fast). You could then sell your current CPU to make the upgrade even cheaper.

The Quadro card you have is rather outdated, but your not doing anything that is GPU intensive, so moving to a high spec card won't help performance wise.

Beyond that, the next step for a real massive boost in performance would be a new current generation CPU which would also mean a new motherboard and DDR4 Ram.
You should be able to keep the case, power supply, hard drives GPU etc.

But you don't need a whole new computer, you can upgrade the current one easily enough and get better performance than the HP Z600 for less money. Or for more money get a considerably faster CPU, motherboard and RAM for a computer that is 2-3x faster.


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John ­ from ­ PA
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Sep 14, 2018 08:07 |  #3

Moppie wrote in post #18707643 (external link)
If you don't already have an SSD then installing one for the operating system and programs would make a noticeable difference.
A 250GB SSD is very affordable, and a a 500GB or a second 250GB would allow you to put images on it to work from for another increase in performance.

Having done the migration from HDD to SSD on numerous PC's, I can tell that the improvement is dramatic and readily apparent. One thing troubles me however and that is the use of "until recently"" in your description. I would be running some tools on the O/S (scandisk), then do a defrag, the run a utility that checks your RAM chips. Try to free up some space on the HDD (actually do this before the defrag). I recently cleared out 32 GB of cab files in the temporary folder of clients PC. Some of these actions may help but I would still do the SSD.




  
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alphamalex
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Sep 14, 2018 09:38 |  #4

Thank you gents for your astute observations. I am so glad I asked before I scratched the itch :)

I can't believe I'm running a 4th Gen i5 and the current standard is 8th gen!

The cheapest and maybe quickest thing I can probably do is get maxed out 4th gen i7, and an SSD .. that might make things interesting.

Let me do some reading, and I'll come back to the thread.

Thanks again!

Freddy


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5DIII, 5D II, 5Dc, 7D with 24-70 2.8L II, 24-70 2.8L, 24-105 F4L IS, 70-200 F2.8L IS, 100 2.8L IS Macro, 400 5.6L, 50 1.4, 85 1.8, 28-135, 55-250
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davesrose
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Sep 14, 2018 10:01 as a reply to  @ alphamalex's post |  #5

The current video card you have is still no slouch for professional applications. Getting the latest with multiple cores would be more advantageous if you were also doing video. SSD and faster clock speed i7 are good upgrades for CS6.


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Sep 14, 2018 12:00 |  #6

alphamalex wrote in post #18707729 (external link)
I can't believe I'm running a 4th Gen i5 and the current standard is 8th gen!

The sad thing is that a lot of the 'improvements' are not necessarily ones that our software takes advantage of, to the fullest!
Many of the things in 'newer generation' are more 'cores' and 'threads'...and a lot of software just does not SPLIT a single task into multiple parallel-processed tasks, which truly speeds up things!


Instead, task A might be in one core, task B in another, task C in yet another, and our complaints about task C being too slow are NOT addressed by such an architecture....task C needs to be able to run in multiple cores all for itself...running perhaps in core C thru G in true 'parallel processing' fashion... where task C runs 4x or takes only 25% of the single processor time. So instead speed improvements we see today are mostly when a single core increases for 2.4GHz to 3.0GHZ and a 20% time reduction


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John ­ from ­ PA
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Sep 14, 2018 13:46 |  #7

alphamalex wrote in post #18707729 (external link)
The cheapest and maybe quickest thing I can probably do is get maxed out 4th gen i7, and an SSD .. that might make things interesting.
Freddy

I personally would do the SSD drive first because you might very well be pleased with the result. The result can be truly amazing!

A 500GB Samsung 860 EVO is currently just short of the $100 mark and very easy to install.




  
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alphamalex
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Sep 14, 2018 17:28 |  #8

I really don't have the time, or the patience to rebuild everything; is there any way copy (clone) my current disk to the new SSD? I'll upgrade the OS from Windows 7 to 10 once I'm working off the new SSD?


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5DIII, 5D II, 5Dc, 7D with 24-70 2.8L II, 24-70 2.8L, 24-105 F4L IS, 70-200 F2.8L IS, 100 2.8L IS Macro, 400 5.6L, 50 1.4, 85 1.8, 28-135, 55-250
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davesrose
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Sep 14, 2018 18:12 as a reply to  @ alphamalex's post |  #9

You can get a SATA to USB 3 cable (assuming you have USB 3). You can first plug in the SSD to it, use mirroring software, then install the SSD and set it as your main drive.

USB 3.0 to 2.5” SATA III Hard Drive Adapter Cable (external link)

Cloning software:

EaseUS Free Disk Cloning Software (external link)


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EF 135mm 2.0L, EF 70-200mm 2.8L IS II, EF 24-70 2.8L II, EF 50mm 1.4, EF 100mm 2.8L Macro, EF 16-35mm 4L IS, Sigma 150-600mm C, 580EX, 600EX-RT, MeFoto Globetrotter tripod, grips, Black Rapid RS-7, CAMS plate and strap system, Lowepro Flipside 500 AW, and a few other things...
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John ­ from ­ PA
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Post edited over 5 years ago by John from PA. (3 edits in all)
     
Sep 14, 2018 18:36 |  #10

davesrose wrote in post #18708064 (external link)
You can get a SATA to USB 3 cable (assuming you have USB 3). You can first plug in the SSD to it, use mirroring software, then install the SSD and set it as your main drive.

USB 3.0 to 2.5” SATA III Hard Drive Adapter Cable (external link)

Cloning software:

EaseUS Free Disk Cloning Software (external link)

Samsung drives come with cloning software. Once everything is cloned to the SSD drive simply swap out the old drive and connect up the SSD. Cloning can take a few hours but it isn't active time. Start the process, go do something else and check back every hour or so.

I assume you are using a desktop. There are two types of SSD drives available; one is a 2.5 inch version not unlike the 3.5 inch that is typically in a desktop except it is fully cased. For that you would also need a 3.5 to 2.5 inch adapter. Something like that shown at https://www.amazon.com …ing-BK-HDDH/dp/B00G57BN1M (external link). About $8. There is also the M.2 SATA III Internal SSD method where the drive looks like a circuit board and plugs in a slot on the PC chassis. This type drive is more expensive. See https://www.amazon.com …words=samsung+8​50+m2.sata (external link). My personal preference is the enclosed SSD drive as I think it more universal.

Some help on the process at http://downloadcenter.​samsung.com …User_Manual_ENG​_v.3.1.pdf (external link)




  
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alphamalex
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Sep 14, 2018 21:48 |  #11

Alrighty then; what an afternoon!!

So I started tooling around and finally found the damned Samsung 850 Pro (256GB) that I had bought a while back (probably more than a year), and forgot about; like the myriad filters, lenses, etc. we buy and lose track of :oops:

Plugged it in, tried to do the cloning, failed, deleted a bunch of crap, moved stuff around, finally was able to clone.

Shut down, remove the old drive, boot up ... Boom!!

I even enabled 'Rapid Mode'; not sure if it's all that, but anyway, I now have a Win7 Ultimate machine on a Samsung SSD :lol:

While the copy was happening, I ran out to snap tonight's sunset. Both images below are handheld, first one is a single shot, the second a 5 shot vertorama; both have some minor PS, and Topaz treatments.

I do a lot of vertos, and it usually take me ages to do them; this one took maybe a third of the time, if not less. I'm friggin' GIDDY with joy :-P

I think I'm gonna upgrade to Windows 10 tonight, or maybe watch some Netflix .. I dunno.

I will be getting a 512 Pro though since I only have about 30GB left, and a maxed out 4th Gen i7. That should keep me going for sometime  :p

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5DIII, 5D II, 5Dc, 7D with 24-70 2.8L II, 24-70 2.8L, 24-105 F4L IS, 70-200 F2.8L IS, 100 2.8L IS Macro, 400 5.6L, 50 1.4, 85 1.8, 28-135, 55-250
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Moppie
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Sep 14, 2018 22:23 |  #12

A: Nice photo! That is great way to end a day.

B: Awesome that the clone worked, I've had mixed results trying it. Hopefully you can find a 4th gen i7 at a reasonable price and the replacement is just as easy.


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John ­ from ­ PA
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Sep 15, 2018 05:24 |  #13

Moppie wrote in post #18708199 (external link)
Awesome that the clone worked, I've had mixed results trying it.

I've converted about 10 machines from HDD to SSD. I always use Samsung drives and I use Samsung's migration software. The only time I had an issue was cloning a drive on a government owned machine that was encrypted. As an HDD, the drive never prompted the user for an encryption password. After the drive was fully cloned to the SSD, on installation it asked for the encryption password, something the user didn't have.




  
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John ­ from ­ PA
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Sep 15, 2018 05:56 |  #14

Things to consider with an SSD to improve the theoretical life.

Although the life of a quality SSD's is quite long there might be things you could do to improve the life with little if any impact on PC performance. The behavior and verification of hibernation, indexing, trim are all considerations. Review the article at https://www.cnet.com …s-work-increase-lifespan/ (external link) for some detailed info.




  
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John ­ from ­ PA
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Sep 15, 2018 15:43 |  #15

alphamalex wrote in post #18708186 (external link)
I do a lot of vertos, and it usually take me ages to do them; this one took maybe a third of the time, if not less. I'm friggin' GIDDY with joy :-P

So hopefully my suggestions were of some help, but now it is your turn to help me!

What is a "verto" or "vertos"?




  
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