Computer question

[chrisd]

I've been doing a fair amount of photography in recent years and always process them on my laptop. The laptop is fairly old and starting to slow up (yes, like me), and I've tried most of the tricks to speed it up after watching 'how to' on utube. I'm thinking maybe of buying a 2nd hand tower just to process photos on and store them as I have a decent Acer monitor.

Any advice would be gratefully received

 

[road2ruin]

I am by no means an expert however I do similar to you in terms of photography plus I use a drone and handheld video so do editing of those. I have always gone for as much memory as possible (8GB+) as that's what has tended to result in really slow running especially when handling large file sizes. There is probably someone more qualified than me however this is what's worked in the past.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

I might have one you can have, I just need to wipe the personal stuff.

 

[GreiginFife]

It all depends on your specific use case I suppose. When you say "process" them, are you heavily editing them or just uploading and storing them?

If it's the former then, whilst memory is definitely important, with new processor technologies and larger cache capabilities, 8GB of RAM is more than enough when coupled with the right processor (CPU/APU) and graphic processor (GPU). Modern AMD Ryzen processors perform marginally better than Intel on multi core/thread uses but less o on single core application. For editing, multi core is your friend. For gaming single core will win out. The main plus of Ryzen APUs is that they are significantly cheaper than Intel's equivalent. A good GPU takes most of the grunt work off of the processor/RAM where it can bottleneck. It's not essential to have a dedicated GPU in my opinion (but note that most Ryzen chips need a dedicated GPU as there is no onboard graphic capability, unlike Team Blue (Intel).

If you are just storing images then only thing that's really important is storage space rather than anything else. A quick SSD/NVMe solution would suffice.

The market is saturated with options just now. Budget is obviously a factor but I just built a machine for processing music recordings and editing on the Ryzen 5 platform for around £500 in a neat small form factor cube case. Bags of performance for the tasks I need done and looks the business too.

Currently building a micro system based on an Intel i3 processor to sit behind the TV and act as a streaming hub/daily use PC.

You don't mention the spec of the machine you have, could it be upgraded rather than "tweaked" with youtube tricks?

Remember if you move from laptop to desktop you have peripherals to think about too, keyboard, mouse, monitor etc.

 

[Foxholer]

...
Remember if you move from laptop to desktop you have peripherals to think about too, keyboard, mouse, monitor etc.

And don't forget speakers (and maybe sound card)!

 

[GreiginFife]

And don't forget speakers (and maybe sound card)!

Not really essential for photo editing. Video perhaps.

Soundcards are so 2010. Most motherboards carry native HD audio (usually through Realtek codecs) that is a match for any dedicated soundcard. Especially now that most native chips carry 8.2 capability and often DTS or at the very least Dolby Digital II.

 

[chrisd]

Thanks guys, I was thinking of buying a reconditioned one from a reputable dealer and, as I only intend to store and photoshop the pictures on it I wont need a sound card, speakers etc I will just have to get a keyboard but for the editing I use a Wacom tablet and pen

 

[GreiginFife]

Just out of curiosity I priced up a build using Ryzen 5 2400 (has onboard graphics) with 8gb RAM DDR4 RAM, decent motherboard, 1TB mechanical drive and 240GB SSD (for boot) and a case with decent power supply. Princely sum of £380.

That's actually not too shabby

Edit: chuck a decent Logitech keyboard and mouse wireless pack on that and you still don't break 400 notes.

 

[chrisd]

Just out of curiosity I priced up a build using Ryzen 5 2400 (has onboard graphics) with 8gb RAM DDR4 RAM, decent motherboard, 1TB mechanical drive and 240GB SSD (for boot) and a case with decent power supply. Princely sum of £380.

That's actually not too shabby

Edit: chuck a decent Logitech keyboard and mouse wireless pack on that and you still don't break 400 notes.

Indeed it isn't shabby, I'd be totally lost on page one of the instructions 🤔

 

[GreiginFife]

Indeed it isn't shabby, I'd be totally lost on page one of the instructions 🤔

There are loads of youtube vids on system building. It's really not hard as most parts are keyed for assembly (e.g. RAM banks have a notch just off centre that means they can only be inserted one way), same with SATA cables (L shaped female to male connector) and the processor is marked up with a matching key mark on the socket ( a little triangle on the corner of the die)

Personally I prefer self build, it#s cheaper for a start, only takes an hour tops and you know exactly what quality of parts have gone in to it.
Great as a project to kill some time too

Before my son was born, I had a little system build business on the go. I was fed up how much the big boys were charging customers for simple stuff so was cutting £100-150 off what they charged and used higher quality components. Now it's totally a buyers market as the choice is unreal.

 

[chrisd]

There are loads of youtube vids on system building. It's really not hard as most parts are keyed for assembly (e.g. RAM banks have a notch just off centre that means they can only be inserted one way), same with SATA cables (L shaped female to male connector) and the processor is marked up with a matching key mark on the socket ( a little triangle on the corner of the die)

Personally I prefer self build, it#s cheaper for a start, only takes an hour tops and you know exactly what quality of parts have gone in to it.
Great as a project to kill some time too

Before my son was born, I had a little system build business on the go. I was fed up how much the big boys were charging customers for simple stuff so was cutting £100-150 off what they charged and used higher quality components. Now it's totally a buyers market as the choice is unreal.

Interesting stuff, where did you source the components if you dont mind me asking?

 

[GreiginFife]

Interesting stuff, where did you source the components if you dont mind me asking?

There are a few retailers specialise in components now. eBuyer, Scan, CCL, Overclockers are probably the most common. I tend to use eBuyer a lot as they charge less for delivery and usually have better special offers on stuff I am after.

 

[robinthehood]

I picked a cheap refurb dell base unit of ebay to use plex/kodi box.

Core i5 with 4gB RAM.
I upgraded the 500GB drive to a 120GB SSD, which you can pick up for under £20 these days.
HDMI out for movies etc and a palm sized wireless keyboard with touch pad, all plumbed in to my AV system.

cost me 100 all in

 

[chrisd]

I picked a cheap refurb dell base unit of ebay to use plex/kodi box.

Core i5 with 4gB RAM.
I upgraded the 500GB drive to a 120GB SSD, which you can pick up for under £20 these days.
HDMI out for movies etc and a palm sized wireless keyboard with touch pad, all plumbed in to my AV system.

cost me 100 all in

That sounds like the sort of thing I'm looking for

 

[robinthehood]

There are loads of ex business base units on eBay . Dell, hp etc.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

Whatever you do Chris, make sure you back up regularly, no point in going to all this trouble only for your hard drive to fail and you lose everything.

An external hard drive will cost you under £50 , just remember to use it 👍

 

[GreiginFife]

By all means buy second hand but make sure its fit for your purpose and you don't end up no better off than you are.

Business machines are great at what they do, but not many businesses use heavy photo modding apps and are great desktops but not necessarily great workstations. I, personally, would only go ex business system if my requirements were relatively low power. Just because something has x, y or z processor or RAM doesn't always mean they have been configured or paired in the best possible way.

Oh, and what Phil said. Back up, back up and back up some more. Especially if its high volume files like photos. Luckily, these days SSDs are a lot less likely to fail than old mechanical drives that could fail at the drop of a magnet (see what I did there?)

 

[chrisd]

Whatever you do Chris, make sure you back up regularly, no point in going to all this trouble only for your hard drive to fail and you lose everything.

An external hard drive will cost you under £50 , just remember to use it 👍

I think that's one of my problems, far too many copies on the actual computer eg a raw file, an untouched jpeg and a finished jpeg as well as then being stored on an external drive and also a memory stick

Thanks for advice guys, all very useful

 

[jim8flog]

I used to system build for family and mates back in the 90s/2000s but these days I have found it easier to buy good second hand kit particularly ex company machines. I used to reckon that building was like lego with wires the real skill was working out what was wrong when they would not work and getting the software to work.

One of the problems became good old Microsoft. The cost for a single consumer copy of windows became more expensive than buying a 2nd hand M/C with it installed.

I still use ebuyer for my upgrade and repair parts.

 

[ColchesterFC]

Does anyone know how to get into an old laptop that you have forgotten the password for? Trying to donate to a kid in my son's class as they don't have one but have tried all the passwords I can remember using and none of them have worked. Thanks.