Contemplating A New Build

[Chris Moore]

If I was building for a workplace, surely the cost won't be that huge a factor.

It isn't so much building the system as figuring out what the hardware needs to be to satisfy the purpose and what vendor can satisfy the requirement at the best price. It is more like being an accountant sometimes but with figuring workloads and data growth over time. I spend a lot of time reading specifications and looking things up. The worst part is waiting for vendors to get back to me with quotes.

 

[kirkdickinson]

I tend to have @Chris Moore's mindset. I tend to build it so I don't have to mess with it for a while. My personal Windows 7 Photoshop/Video Editing workstation, I built in 2012 and has a Hex core Intel Core i7-3930K @ 3.20GHz CPU. I went top notch with that and put in a Samsung Pro SSD for the boot drive and a 4 drive hot swap rack in the front. I went to Newegg to start searching for parts for a new wishlist with a new workstation in mind and thought I would start with the CPU. The current (about to be 6 year old) system has a CPU with a PassMark of 12,026. If I were to build a workstation with the most pricy Kaby Lake i7700-T, it only has a Passmark CPU of 9,417. Looking though the charts and the CPU's, where do I go with this to get any noticeable improvement without spending a fortune? I am starting to think that wiping the computer to unload 6 years of crap, then spending three days reloading all my software might be an option to rebuilding my workstation.

As far as the original post about the NAS, I am working on a new list. Will probably step down to a E3, change to DDR4, etc...

What is the thoughts about using a USB SSD drive for boot instead of using up an SATA port for an internal one? Surely a SSD is more reliable than a thumb drive?

 

[Stux]

Looking though the charts and the CPU's, where do I go with this to get any noticeable improvement without spending a fortune?

AMD.

!

ThreadRipper

 

[joeschmuck]

I am starting to think that wiping the computer to unload 6 years of crap, then spending three days reloading all my software might be an option to rebuilding my workstation.

Yes, I think this would give you more bang for the buck. Of course I'm sure you will have a complete backup of your system before you start. Actually let me tell you how I did it... My system had two 256GB Samsung EVO SSDs and Windoze 7 Pro, it was last rebuilt 2 December 2010 (almost 7 years ago) and I have of course replaced the boot drive at least once. So what I did was to buy a new 1TB Samsung EVO SSD and I recovered my original installation of my system when it had nothing more than the OS on it. Now I did have to install a lot of updates but I did that over time, you know, you start a download and come back and install it, wait a while and repeat the process. It took a few days. I didn't us the computer for anything during this process and when I was all updated I made another backup. I use Acronis to make backups. Now I can add my program and other files to the system.

When Win10 was a free upgrade I performed the upgrade, made the install disc, and reinstalled as a clean installation (took a bit of time) and when I was done, made a backup so I now have a Win10 Pro installation I can plop on any hard drive. Of course I have to use it with this specific machine but that is okay, the machine is a nice i7 with 24GB RAM and has all the speed I desire. When it dies I will cry because replacing it will cost a lot of money. I buy a computer to last me 10 years or longer since advancements are not what they use to be. I recall building an 8088 and then I replaced the 4.7MHz CPU with an NEC V20 12MHz chip and soldered in a new oscillator, then came the 80286, 30386, then a few months later I had to add a Co-Processor, then the 486, 586, and 686. All of these changes had significant processing power changes and worth the upgrades if you were into that kind of stuff. Now days the changes are not very significant and only a few people would ever realize the increase in performance. Today it seems to be more about power savings and while that makes a difference, it's not worth spending that kind of money because you will likely never recoup the funds you spent buying the new part from the energy saved. Energy saved is not just power for the computer, it's also any cooling costs you have.

 

[kirkdickinson]

AMD.
!
ThreadRipper

Yeah, I know that TreadRipper's are pretty fast and can do wonders for multi-thread programs.

Unfortunately, most actions in Photoshop are either single threaded or lightly threaded. The fastest single core chip will probably outperform massive numbers of cores at lower speeds. This is not true of most video editors and the number of cores can take threads from other programs so that Photoshop has more access to the core/s it is using.

Was looking on New Egg and this CPU is $600 and has a PassMark of 18764
Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz LGA 2066 140W BX80673I77820X (8 core)
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-7820X+@+3.60GHz&id=3038

If I look up the PassMark chart to find the 1st Threadripper faster than that i7, I find this one:
Ryzen Threadripper 1920X at $785 with a PassMark of 19640 (12 core)

They tell me that in Photoshop, even multi-threaded actions hit a point of diminishing returns after around 6 CPU cores, and most completely stop improving after 8 CPU cores.

When I compare them, I notice that the Intel cpu has a higher per single thread rating which would benefit Photoshop. 2424 vs. 2031 with my current Hex core rating at 1936 per thread.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=3062&cmp[]=902&cmp[]=3038

Unless there are other benefits in the throughput of the ram, or the motherboards, I can't imagine that the difference between what I have now and spending the same money for a new system would yield vast improvements over my current Photoshop computer?

 

[Stux]

Well, before ThreadRipper was a thing I built two developer work stations. They’re based on i7-6900k CPUs with Corsair h110i water coolers.

I run those with an all core overclock at 4.3ghz.

 

[kirkdickinson]

Well, before ThreadRipper was a thing I built two developer work stations. They’re based on i7-6900k CPUs with Corsair h110i water coolers.

I run those with an all core overclock at 4.3ghz.

That sounds fast, but expensive. :)

 

[Stux]

That sounds fast, but expensive. :)

Yes. Having a developer twiddling thumbs waiting on a CPU is also expensive

The 1TB Samsung 960 Pro m.2 SSD drives help with reducing the twiddling time too ;)