My PC Build for Photo and Video Editing
When the time came to purchase a new system for my photo and video workflow, I weighed up my options. I looked at the amount of time I spent editing images at home vs on the road. I realised that I processed my images while travelling very seldom so a desktop PC would be more beneficial than a laptop. That is the first decision you need to make, if portability is a must then get a laptop. This blog is going to outline what parts I have in my PC, how I picked them and I will link the videos used to help with the build. They explain it far better than I ever could.
Firstly, here is my PC Build and I will also link my Monitor below
Screenshot of my Pc Parts.
My monitor is linked here , it’s a 2k BenQ 25 inch and it is superb. Don’t skimp out on your monitor!
I get asked a lot about how I built my PC. Firstly, it sounds an awful lot harder than it is. The most difficult part was knowing where to begin! Youtube has a wealth of videos which I will link at the end of this blog to help you build the PC once you have all your parts got.
Ah yes, the parts. For someone who had never done it before I was a bit overwhelmed and spent ages delving through forums and blogs until a good friend Alan Hartigan told me about PC Part Picker. This will save you so much time and it will also make sure you buy parts which are compatible with eachother. It’s not as easy as buying a load of different PC components, they all need to work together. So here is my advice:
1) Decide on your budget, I set my budget limit at around 800 Euro.
2) Decide on a CPU, this is the chip, the processor, the main driving component for the computer that helps the programs run through instructions.
3) Got to PC Part Picker and click on system builder, type in the CPU you picked and add it to your build. Now when you go to add the motherboard, the ram, the cooling, the graphics card (also called a GPU), the SSD and HD’s etc PC Part Picker will only show parts that are compatible with that CPU, so you know that you will not end up buying parts which don’t work together. From there it can be a bit tedious but just pick a part which is within the budget, google it and look up reviews. If reviews are positive then go for it.
For your PC you will need the following:
A CPU (The processor, i5 , i7 etc. I went with AMD Ryzen 5 2600)
A graphics card (GPU - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB for me)
Storage. I recommend an SSD (Solid State Drive) that will run the operating system as this will help it run smooth and quick and a Hard Drive for back up and storage. As you can see above I went with a 500Gb SSD and a 2 TB Hard Drive. I have since added another 500GB SSD.
A tower or case that will house all your parts. Choose one with a see through side panel because well it just looks cool to see all these PC Parts lit up!!
A power supply
Cooling unit
Operating System (Windows 10 64 bit for me)
Motherboard
One piece of advice: I went a bit cheap with the motherboard and as a result the max ram I can use is 16gb. I did not know this at the time but the mother board is basically the brains of the computer. All parts plug into the motherboard and it’s what makes everything click. So when you pick a motherboard make sure and look up the max ram capacity. Don’t get me wrong, I havent really found a want for more than 16GB but the option to upgrade would be nice in the future. In terms of other parts which you can buy but aren’t initially essential:
An optical drive reader (If you want to use CD’s or Discs)
Wireless card so you can pick up Wifi (I use a Lan cable for my PC but a wifi card may be important for you). Your motherboard should already have a slot for a Lan cable so no need to worry about network adapters if you plan on using a cable. If you need wifi, then you need to buy a wireless network adapter like this which plugs into the motherboard. Or you can buy a dongle which i have used and they work really well. This is my one
Sound Cards. Again your motherboard will have one but if you are a real audiophile you may prefer an upmarket soundcard!
That is the beauty about building a PC, you can chop and change parts aslong as they are compatible and build an even bigger and more powerful machine! I went with the AMD Ryzen 5 processor, yes an i5 , not an i7. The i5 was the best value for money I could find and let me tell you it is a beast. My computer can stitch Pano’s in seconds, no lag going from lightroom to photoshop to premiere pro etc. In terms of graphics cards, these are important. Go for a minimum 4GB, ideally 6GB. The graphics card will be used a lot for photo editing. I have also done a share of gaming on it and ran games at high FPS with no issues.
Building a pc is fun and I will certainly be building a beast in the coming future. Here are a couple of videos which I used when building mine. Hope this is helpful and any questions please let me know
This video is super helpful <<< that video used a lot of the same parts I bought so it was really helpful. Perhaps that would be a good option for you, find a video of a PC Build and build a similar system, you will then basically have a step by step guide! Pc Part Picker also has saved builds where you can literally go and buy the parts in one go. I have linked that section here
Again, any questions let me know and thanks for reading.
Sean.
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