Best desktop computer for Photoshop
Choosing a best desktop computer and CPU for photo editing – Photoshop, Capture One and Acd See.
After 5 years with last computer I decide it is time to move ahead and choose new photo editing computer.
As older computer with 16GB of RAM was starting to struggle with 45 Megapixel files from Nikon D850
So I started to look for best desktop computer for Photoshop.
I was using Mac Book Pro with retina display. 16GB RAM, i7 CPU and 1TB SSD was the best what money can buy in 2014.
Years ago choose Mac laptop not because of OS, but because it combined top performance with excellent display.
But things have changed since then.
After some time I have bought 30″ NEC Professional Monitor, so laptop was used mostly as computer under the table.
But then things start going wrong.
Problems with Mac Book Pro
Unfortunately IĀ got 1TB Samsung SSD inside Mac Book Pro failing due to usage of hibernation.
Apple 1TB SSD for Mac Book Pro
And Apple use proprietary interface, it wasn’t possible to be replaced with other brand or model. Ouch…
Cost to replace with even second hand were 1000GBP.
On top of this I lost some photos which were shot in recent days and were still not moved to external HDD.
This Samsung SSD failure was after only after 2.5 years of use, so I was hesitating to spend 1000GBP to buy same and get sudden failure.
Also big problem with SSD failures is that there are no warnings as bad sectors with HDD, you start loosing data very fast.
In my case it turn out some parts of SSD have reached maximum write cycles due to use of hibernation.
After this OS become unbootable and around 5% around whole drive were immediately lost.
I decide to go for external SSD via USB boot with much bigger resiliency /in Petabytes/ and bigger capacity than Apple offered SSDs.
My choice was Samsung SM863A 2TB.
Samsung sm863a 2TB Enterprise
Samsung have guaranteed reliability of 12320TBW /Terabytes written/, or 12.3Petabytes!
For comparison here it is test of its consumer brother 850 Pro, which is rated only for 450TBW or 27 times less.
Test which was done on this SSD and it give up after writing of 9100TB:
https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/endurance-test-of-samsung-850-pro-comes-to-an-end-after-9100tb-of-writes.html
Not so long after SSD failure, battery of my Mac Book Pro also failed.
And not only it stopped working, but it swollen and bubbled up inside laptop, so trackpad stopped working too.
So Mac Book Pro turn out to be not very reliable machine.
Even I have used it mostly at home and not carrying it around so much.
My current Monitor
Few year later have also replaced my 30″ Nec Monitor with 43″ Dell Professional Monitor P4317Q 4K
Dell Professional Monitor P4317Q
This worked well with my Mac Book Pro via Mini DP cable even it is 4K with resolution of 3840×2160.
But this caused problem with my Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 display also 4K at 3840×2160.
My current Tablet
Wacom Cintiq Pro 16
I couldn’t use full resolution of monitor and use tablet as extended monitor mode.
Probably because Mac Book display is 2880×1800 and graphic card cannot handle this plus 2x4K extended desktops.
So I had to give up Wacom Tabled as second monitor for daily use, and use only Dell 43″.
This was one of the main reason that I wanted best desktop computer for photoshopĀ able to do 2x4K displays in extended desktop mode.
And this why I have to go via this process of choosing proper computer for photo editing and Photoshop.
Next thing is that I waited for loooooooooooong time Apple to up its game in available RAM.
But after many years of waiting Apple laptops are having only maximum of 32GB RAM.
And I guess I will have to wait 5 more years until we get such with 64GB RAM.
My machne was also having 2TB SSD already so paying 3000GBP for new laptop to upgrade mostly from 16GB to 32GB was not good option.
Choosing process for computer for photo editing
So I decide to go in other route desktop PC or Xeon Workstation for photo editing.
There are many available with 64GB of RAM, 128GB of RAM or even 256GB of RAM.
All this on price level much lower that Mac Book Pro’s in ebay.
Now question was how to choose proper configuration for best desktop computer for photoshop.
Desktop PCs with Intel i7 or i9 are on 99% limited to 64GB of RAM so I decided that Workstation with Xeon CPU will be much best choice for photo editing.
But which Xeon CPU and single or dual CPUs for Photo editing?
CPU Performance comparison
Process started with usingĀ CPU comparison website to compare with my current laptop CPU i7-4960
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Xeon-E5-2690-v3-vs-Intel-Core-i7-4960HQ
But it turns out that Cpuboss website was not having latest i7 and i9 CPUs, so couldn’t compare with them.
Unfortunatelly there was no Dual CPU performance shown.
So I had to go other CPU benchmark website.
Voila! It have all CPUs including dual CPU machine performance and also CPU Prices!
So it was much better to choose.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php
My current CPU as per list is having 9856 performance marks, very far from 2019 dream machines.
I wanted to have at least double performance also to be future proof while building a photo editing dream machine.
So looked at scores at 20 000+ performance marks.
But how to find correct combination here and choose photo editing machine on budget
Easy one for excel masters.
I extracted data from website and entered in Excel.
Sorted CPU based CPU Value /this is how much performance you get for money/.
And then filtered result only over 20 000 and excluded AMDs.
Here is resulting table:
Top CPUs by Value
| CPU Name | Passmark CPU Mark (higher is better) | Rank (lower is better) | CPU Value (higher is better) | Price (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2643 v2 @ 3.50GHz | 20761 | 114 | 74.69 | 277.98 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2670 v3 @ 2.30GHz | 22298 | 97 | 65.58 | 340 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2650 v3 @ 2.30GHz | 20337 | 120 | 63.96 | 317.98 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2680 v2 @ 2.80GHz | 21461 | 102 | 59.95 | 358 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 @ 2.60GHz | 25801 | 65 | 52.66 | 490 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2687W @ 3.10GHz | 20807 | 113 | 48.39 | 429.98 |
| Intel Xeon E5-2697 v3 @ 2.60GHz | 21412 | 59 | 47.96 | 446.5 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2690 v2 @ 3.00GHz | 23625 | 79 | 43.34 | 545.16 |
| Intel Core i9-9900K @ 3.60GHz | 20200 | 71 | 42.8 | 471.99 |
| Intel Core i9-9900KF @ 3.60GHz | 20510 | 65 | 42.73 | 479.99 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2643 v3 @ 3.40GHz | 21023 | 108 | 42.05 | 500 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2680 v3 @ 2.50GHz | 24247 | 77 | 40.55 | 598 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2695 v2 @ 2.40GHz | 20921 | 110 | 40.39 | 517.98 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2670 v2 @ 2.50GHz | 20611 | 116 | 39.91 | 516.4 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2687W v2 @ 3.40GHz | 23315 | 83 | 32.39 | 719.8 |
As you can see scores over 23 000 in this list are only Dual Xeon Configurations.
And only 4 of them.
[Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 @ 2.60GHz
[Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2690 v2 @ 3.00GHz
[Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2680 v3 @ 2.50GHz
[Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2687W v2 @ 3.40GHz
Now lets sort whole table in another way to be sure.
Listing all CPUs below 800$, sorted by performance.
| CPU Name | Passmark CPU Mark (higher is better) | Rank (lower is better) | CPU Value (higher is better) | Price (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 @ 2.60GHz | 25801 | 65 | 52.66 | 490 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2680 v3 @ 2.50GHz | 24247 | 77 | 40.55 | 598 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2690 v2 @ 3.00GHz | 23625 | 79 | 43.34 | 545.16 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2687W v2 @ 3.40GHz | 23315 | 83 | 32.39 | 719.8 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 @ 2.70GHz | 23308 | 84 | 30.7 | 759.24 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2667 v2 @ 3.30GHz | 22686 | 91 | 31.51 | 719.98 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2667 v3 @ 3.20GHz | 22609 | 94 | 28.39 | 796.28 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2670 v3 @ 2.30GHz | 22298 | 97 | 65.58 | 340 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2680 v2 @ 2.80GHz | 21461 | 102 | 59.95 | 358 |
| Intel Xeon E5-2697 v3 @ 2.60GHz | 21412 | 59 | 47.96 | 446.5 |
| Intel Xeon E5-2698 v3 @ 2.30GHz | 21042 | 63 | 28.47 | 739 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2643 v3 @ 3.40GHz | 21023 | 108 | 42.05 | 500 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2695 v2 @ 2.40GHz | 20921 | 110 | 40.39 | 517.98 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2687W @ 3.10GHz | 20807 | 113 | 48.39 | 429.98 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2643 v2 @ 3.50GHz | 20761 | 114 | 74.69 | 277.98 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2670 v2 @ 2.50GHz | 20611 | 116 | 39.91 | 516.4 |
| Intel Core i9-9900KF @ 3.60GHz | 20510 | 65 | 42.73 | 479.99 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2650 v3 @ 2.30GHz | 20337 | 120 | 63.96 | 317.98 |
| Intel Core i9-9900K @ 3.60GHz | 20200 | 71 | 42.8 | 471.99 |
This have concluded what I have to look for.
Dual Xeon Workstation with one of above 5 pairs /in bold/ of CPU models with 64/128/256GB of RAM.
Also compared to 2019 MacBook Pro with CPU Intel I9-9980HK with Performance marks of 17715 I would get 40% more CPU performance with Dual Xeon Configurations.
Now was time to look at prices and different configurations.
Keep in mind that I created below table before coming to wise conclusion to sort all CPUs by CPU Value.
There are many single CPU workstations together with i7 and i9 processors.
| CPU | CPU Benchmark | Price GBP | RAM | CPU Numbers | Model | Ebay Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Xeon E5-2697A v4 Dual | 29185 | 5053 | 256 | 2 | HP-Z640 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Z640-Xeon-2x-E5-2697A-V4-Sixteen-32-Cores-128GB-DDR4-RAM-Design-Workstation/143408619667?hash=item2163d1e093:m:mhWnM91_aBkVwFFANw5VGEw |
| Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 Dual | 25801 | 1861 | 256 | 2 | Dell T7910 | https://www.bargainhardware.co.uk/dell-precision-t7910-twr-configure-to-order |
| Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 Dual | 25801 | 1297 | 128 | 2 | Lenovo P700 | https://www.bargainhardware.co.uk/lenovo-thinkstation-p700-configure-to-order |
| Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 Dual | 25801 | 64 | 2 | |||
| Intel Xeon E5-2687W v3 Dual | 24293 | |||||
| Intel Xeon E5-2680 v3 Dual | 24247 | 777 | 64 | 2 | Lenovo P700 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Configure-Lenovo-P700-up-to-2x-14-Core-3-50GHz-128GB-DDR4-SSD-HDD-B-Grade/123936258472?hash=item1cdb2d39a8:m:mLBHv5I09RWx4QgUBfnD9Cw |
| Intel Xeon E5-2690 V2!! Dual | 23625 | 840 | 128 | 2 | Dell T7610 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-T7610-Workstation-20-core-2x-Xeon-E5-2690v2-128GB-RAM-480GB-SSD-K2000-2GB/153676153711?hash=item23c7d0036f:g:TskAAOSwKZtdpBLe |
| Intel Xeon E5-2687W v2 Dual | 23315 | 1729 | 256 | 2 | Dell T7610 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Precision-T7610-Tower-Server-256GB-RAM-2x-Eight-Core-E5-2687-V2/143109584204?hash=item2151fef54c:g:tGoAAOSwVVlcwcwl |
| Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Dual | 23308 | 2700 | 64 | 2 | HP-Z820 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Z820-Workstation-2x-E5-2697-V2-2-70GHz-64GB-2TB-HDD-500GB-SSD-Quadro-K4000/283471824770?epid=1517616195&hash=item42003cc782:g:dHoAAOSwT2Naq6GC |
| Intel Xeon E5-2697 v4 | 21435 | |||||
| Intel Xeon E5-2697 v3 | 21412 | |||||
| Intel Xeon E5-2687W v1 Dual | 20807 | 1085 | 128 | 2 | Dell T7610 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-T7600-Workstation-16C-32T-128GB-RAM-2x-Xeon-E5-2687W-3-10GHz-Quadro-6000/223698565911?hash=item3415793b17:g:MRgAAOSwQc1dlKlg |
| Intel i9 9900K | 20200 | 2084 | 64 | 1 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/i9-9900K-5-0GHz-8-Core-64GB-3000MHZ-500GB-M2-0-8GB-RX580-TB3-Hackintosh-Mojave/264337942932?hash=item3d8bc4e994:g:5CYAAOSwKGBdfPQJ | |
| Intel Xeon E5-2680 v4 | 19886 | |||||
| Intel Xeon E5-2690 V1!! Dual | 19639 | 899 | 96 | 2 | HP-Z620 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Z620-2x-Intel-Xeon-8Core-E5-2690-2-90GHz-96GB-1600MHz-DDR3-240GB-SSD-2TB/283632167980?hash=item4209cb6c2c:g:L6EAAOSwSFZajGcs |
| Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 | 19256 | 1719 | 256 | 1 | HP-Z440 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Z440-Xeon-Fourteen-14-Core-E5-V4-3-60GHz-256GB-DDR4-RAM-Desktop-Workstation/401923814293?hash=item5d9486b395:m:m4ovjrGYdJGnegnLd6DPzrQ |
| Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 | 19256 | 671 | 64 | 1 | HP-Z440 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Z440-Xeon-Fourteen-14-Core-E5-V4-3-60GHz-256GB-DDR4-RAM-Desktop-Workstation/401923814293?hash=item5d9486b395:m:m4ovjrGYdJGnegnLd6DPzrQ |
| Intel Xeon E5-2680 V1!! Dual | 18555 | 700 | 64 | 2 | HP-Z620 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Z620-Workstation-2x-E5-2680-64GB-RAM-Quadro-K2000-240GB-SSD-Desktop-Computer/183836909027?hash=item2acd889de3:g:VxcAAOSwuXtc950M |
| Intel Xeon E5-2680 v3 | 18465 | 514 | 64 | 1 | Dell T5810 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-T5810-Configurable-Workstation-12C-3-60GHz-E5-V4-128GB-DDR4-SSD-HDD/401918381831?hash=item5d9433cf07:m:mLa-R_lHNxgpgZjqk3vtIjA |
| Intel Xeon E5-2687W v3 | 17795 | 1020 | 64 | 1 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Workstation4u-GA-X99-SLI-E5-2687Wv3-64GB-DDR4RAM-Quadro-M4000-256GB-Nvme-Ssd-W10/264461762569?hash=item3d93264009:g:wVwAAOSwJIxdeKdB | |
| Intel I9-9980HK | 17715 | 2800 | 32 | 1 | Apple Mac Book Pro 2019 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2019-MACBOOK-PRO-15-2-4GHz-i9-8-CORE-32GB-RAM-512GB-SSD-RRP-3339-UK/392468981732?epid=21034668038&hash=item5b60f967e4:g:C7wAAOSwQYpdm4jF |
| Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 | 17202 | 661 | 64 | 1 | Dell T3610 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-T3610-Configurable-E5-V2-10-Core-Xeon-128GB-RAM-SSD-NVidia-Workstation/123941801654?hash=item1cdb81ceb6:m:my1Nt8FYzp83capl0rIjrrg |
| Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 | 17202 | 768 | 128 | 1 | Dell T3610 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-T3610-Configurable-E5-V2-10-Core-Xeon-128GB-RAM-SSD-NVidia-Workstation/123941801654?hash=item1cdb81ceb6:m:my1Nt8FYzp83capl0rIjrrg |
| Intel Xeon E5 2697 v2!! | 17202 | 768 | 128 | 1 | Dell T3610 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-T3610-Configurable-E5-V2-10-Core-Xeon-128GB-RAM-SSD-NVidia-Workstation/123941801654?hash=item1cdb81ceb6:m:my1Nt8FYzp83capl0rIjrrg |
| i7-9700K | 17188 | |||||
| Intel Xeon E5-2670 v3 | 16647 | 735 | 64 | 1 | Dell T5810 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-T5810-Configurable-Workstation-12-Core-Xeon-3-70GHz-128GB-DDR4-SSD/143412948035?hash=item216413ec43:m:mTcQmXPxgsqUfz20r5IoAIw |
| Intel Xeon E5-2637 v3 Dual | 16401 | 472 | 64 | 2 | Lenovo P700 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Configure-Lenovo-P700-up-to-2x-14-Core-3-50GHz-128GB-DDR4-SSD-HDD-B-Grade/123936258472?hash=item1cdb2d39a8:m:mLBHv5I09RWx4QgUBfnD9Cw |
| Intel Xeon E5-2660 v3 | 16213 | |||||
| Intel Xeon E5-2667 v3 | 16174 | |||||
| Intel Core i7-5960X @ 3.00GHz | 15993 | |||||
| Intel Xeon E5 2680 v2!!! | 15890 | 610 | 64 | 1 | Dell T3610 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-T3610-Configurable-E5-V2-10-Core-Xeon-128GB-RAM-SSD-NVidia-Workstation/123941801654?hash=item1cdb81ceb6:m:my1Nt8FYzp83capl0rIjrrg |
| i7-9700 at 3GHz | 15789 | |||||
| Intel Xeon E5-2630 v3 Dual | 15183 | 396 | 64 | 2 | Lenovo P700 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Configure-Lenovo-P700-up-to-2x-14-Core-3-50GHz-128GB-DDR4-SSD-HDD-B-Grade/123936258472?hash=item1cdb2d39a8:m:mLBHv5I09RWx4QgUBfnD9Cw |
| i7-8700 at 3.2GHz | 15144 | 775 | 64 | 1 | HP Elidesk 800 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Elitedesk-800-G4-SFF-i7-8700-64GB-RAM-512-M-2-SSD/223705288593?hash=item3415dfcf91:g:jC4AAOSw979dhSZv |
| Intel Xeon E5-2650 v1 Dual | 15056 | 465 | 64 | 2 | Dell T5600 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-T5600-Workstation-2-x-Xeon-E5-2650-8-Core-64GB-RAM-240GB-SSD-Win10-Pro/323903564246?hash=item4b6a2829d6:g:cwIAAOSwZYFdbSRA |
| Intel Xeon E5-2650 v3 | 14875 | 395 | 64 | 1 | Dell T7600 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-T7600-Workstation-Dual-Xeon-E5-2650-2-0GHz-64GB-RAM-256GB-SSD-Win10-Pro/123938691925?hash=item1cdb525b55:g:rawAAOSwsFZdo4VL |
| Intel Xeon E5-2643 v3 | 13887 | |||||
| Intel Xeon E5-2690 V1!!! | 13736 | 450 | 64 | 1 | Lenovo S30 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-S30-Intel-Xeon-E5-2690-2-90GHz-64GB-RAM-256GB-SSD-QUADRO-4000-Win-10/223648077439?hash=item341276d67f:g:rMkAAOSwZSRc9rtO |
| Intel Xeon E5-2643 V1!! Dual | 13673 | 809 | 128 | 2 | HP-Z820 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hp-Workstation-Z820-2x-Intel-Xeon-E5-2643-64GB-RAM-8TB-HDD-Quadro-KD6000-Win-10/202793448850?hash=item2f376e7592:m:m78dN8lDalhG8-uNdCk7JIw |
| Intel Xeon E5-1650 v3 | 13624 | |||||
| Intel Xeon E5-2680 V1!! | 12897 | 535 | 64 | 1 | Lenovo C30 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-ThinkStation-C30-1x-E5-2680-2-70GHz-64GB-512GB-SSD-Windows-10-Pro/283612204824?hash=item42089acf18:g:4U0AAOSwIYJdeiT6 |
| Intel Xeon E5-1650 v2 | 12744 | 350 | 64 | 1 | Lenovo S30 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-ThinkStation-S30-64-GB-Intel-Xeon-E5-1650-v2-3-50-GHz-Nvidia-Quadro-K4000/293248093043?hash=item4446f2cb73:g:wG0AAOSwLKVdi6eH |
| Intel Xeon E5-2670 v1!! | 12369 | 450 | 64 | 1 | Dell T3610 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Precision-T3610-Win-10-xeon-e5-2670-8-core-64gb-ram-500GB-hdd-workstation/153342356469?hash=item23b3eaabf5:g:7bEAAOSwQXpcuH1X |
| Intel Xeon E5-4650L | 12145 | |||||
| Intel Xeon E5-4650 V1! | 11685 | |||||
| Intel Xeon E5-2637 v3 | 10117 | |||||
| i7-6700 at 3.4GHz | 10003 | |||||
| Intel Xeon E5-2620 v3 | 9979 | |||||
| Intel Core i7 4960HQ | 9856 | 16 | 1 | Apple Mac Book Pro 2013 | http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Xeon-E5620-vs-Intel-Core-i7-4960HQ | |
| Intel Xeon E5-1620 v3 | 9746 | |||||
| Intel Xeon E5-1620 v3 | 9497 | 345 | 64 | 1 | Lenovo S30 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-S30-Intel-Xeon-E5-1620v2-3-70GHz-64GB-RAM-256GB-SSD-NVS-315-Win-10/323903076563?hash=item4b6a20b8d3:g:SjcAAOSwBRBdbgBb |
| Intel Xeon E5-2643 V1!! | 8451 | 420 | 64 | 1 | HP-Z620 | https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Z620-Workstation-E5-2643-3-3-GHz-64GB-RAM-NVS-315-256GB-SSD-Win10-Pro/223649592579?hash=item34128df503:g:M8EAAOSwUgxc9r0J |
| Intel Xeon X5675 | 7994 | |||||
| Intel Xeon X5660 | 7588 | |||||
| Intel Xeon X5650 | 7300 |
Decision on RAM Size
As you can see all Dual CPU 256GB RAM configs are 1700GBP+.
More than double of price compared to 128GB RAM configs.
I decide it is not worth it to go for 256GB RAM config.
From 128GB RAM configurations, there were only 2 in top of the list.
Lenovo P700 for 1297GBP without GPU or SSD with Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 Dual.
Lenovo ThinkStation P700
and
Dell T7610 for 840GBP with GPU, 500GBP SSD, DVD and Intel Xeon E5-2690 v2Ā Dual
Dell 7610 Xeon Worksatation
Big difference between these is that Lenovo P700 use DDR4 RAM, where Dell T7610 use DDR3.
Performance difference between DDR3 and DDR4 is negligible.
But if I decide to go for 256GB RAM in future:
256GB DDR3 currently cost around 310GBP
256GB DDR4 currently cost around 800GBP
So there was only wise choice to make here to achieveĀ best desktop computer for photoshop on sensible budget.
And it was
Dell T7610 Workstation with Dual Intel Xeon E5-2690 v2, 500GBP SSD, GPU and DVD for 840GBP.
I used “Best offer” to get price down from 900GBP to 840GBP.
Dell Precision t7610 Workstation
You might wonder why I didn’t focus on GPU more as you read that Video Card is mostly used in Photo Processing.
Well yes and no. On test which I did with slowest filters in Photoshop which I use Liquify was mostly using GPU, but much slower and time consuming NIK Color Efex were using CPUs only.
And while on desktop computer it is easy to change Graphic Card later, dual CPUs and RAM /especially more than 64GB/ are only available in workstation territory.
I hope I have helped you to get idea how to choose best computer for photo editing dream machine on budget.
What to look for and how to sort criteria.
This guide is for building a photo editing dream machine, so lets hope that I won’t need to make any new guide for this in next at least 5 years.
