FYI: My New Windows Computer Specs

[rexboggs5]

If you are interested in upgrading to a high-end Windows computer for Photoshop etc, here is what I have come up with.

My 5+ year old Windows computer was struggling with Photoshop (and everything else) and my 6 TB backup drive was full, so I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade to a new computer. A friend of mine builds high-end computers, mainly for gamers, so with his expertise + advice from folks on photography Facebook sites and websites, we came up with these specs for my new Windows computer:

Processor: Intel Core i9 10900
Motherboard: Asus PROART Creators Motherboard
RAM: 64GB Corsair DDR4 3000MHZ RAM (and space to add another 64GB in the future)
GPU: nVidia QUADRO p2200 Workstation GPU
Two 1 TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO m.2 NVMe SSD (1 for software programs and 1 for recently uploaded photos (and occasional videos)
Data Drives: Two 8 TB Drives (which appear as a single 16 TB drive)
Power Supply: Corsair 80+ GOLD certified 650w RMX PSU
Case: Corsair Carbide 275R Case, Black
Windows 10 Professional

I will have my files continually backed up externally. I still have to work out the best way to maintain an offsite backup.

I am now in the process of copying all of my files and software from the old computer to the new.

Cheers

Rex

[ameerat42]

Gosh, you should be able to EXCEED Warp 10 with those specs...!

[rexboggs5]

Ameerat42, that's the plan! :-) I was getting frustrated at how slowly my computer was processing my newly downloaded photos. And with my new R5 camera, I could be shooting 45 MB photos at a rate of 20 frames per second. It takes a computer with grunt to manage that seamlessly.

[Wayno]

Very handy to know Rex. My computer is fine at the moment, but these specs will noted for the future.

[arthurking83]

Nothing like a newfangled high end PC to get the heart rate going again.

I recently built an AMD based PC for a mate who's seriously getting into video editing.
For a total non techno guy, he raves about it.
More so I tell him the bulk of it's power is the 3070 GPU which Blackmagic's Davinci Resolve heavily relies on for speed.
At full tilt, it's barely idling! .. so he has a ton of headroom to get more serious with his new hobby.


BUT!!!!! I would strongly advise against a striped array for longer term storage, as you have your 2x 8Gb HDDs set up as. Sounds like a RAID0 which I read people seem to want to get into as it's so easy now with on board RAID capability built into motherboards.
RAID0 is OK for temporary stuff like installed games or programs, back in the day to get a bit more speed out of mechanical drives ... but it's very susceptible to random data loss.


Each to their own, but having been through it myself many years ago .. it's not worth the effort.
The two drives running separately (whilst still not secure) is 50% less likely to develop total loss of all the data.

Syncing data is a trivial task nowadays, can be set to auto sync/backup(but again, I'd advise not to do auto backups/syncs, just do it manually.

Having also had dramas with other variations of data storage(in a home environment). I would simply suggest that you keep them both as two separate physical drives, and just mirror them every so often rather than RAID1 too.
if you already have this 8(or 16) Tb data store backed up already, then maybe just keep them for separate tasks.

eg. one for photos and files, the other just for video.
This way it minimises the thrashing that each drive can receive as all data is written and read from it continually.
What I mean by this, is that if you do a lot of video stuff, or a lot of photography stuff(or any other 'a lot of' stuff type computery thingy) .. if you have a tandem setup where both the drives are to be written too all the time, then it can cause needless potential for mechanical failure on any one drive.

But lets say you keep them separate(and you have the entire store backed up elsewhere). make one into a V: Drive and keep it for only video related stuff, whether this stuff is just newly captured video only or any downloads you also pursue too.
With the other 8Tb drive format this one as a P: drive and this would be simply for Photography related storage.

In that scenario: lets say you do 6 months solid of just photography stuff, so the P: drive gets heavily used .. the V: drive by comparison will get minimal use.
There is a much lower probability that the V: drive will suffer mechanical failure. It's not zero, but less usage = less potential for it.

As a RAID0, all data is written to both drives all the time. You can't really control where and which drive gets it and it doesn't matter if one receives more than another anyhow. the point is that both drives work harder RAID1 and auto sync also has that same effect.

Hope that all makes sense.