# New PC



## Happy Haggis (Dec 4, 2014)

Hi,
I'm researching a new PC and trying to decide the best options.
I have a budget of ~£1200 for the box. My thoughts at present are for:
i5 4690 processor
16Gb Ram
Nvidia 1GB EVGA GTX 750
2x Samsung 120Gb EVO SSd for OS/Apps and Photoshop CC, LR cache and catalog and previews.
250Gb Samsung EVO for current images
3Tb WD Red for images
Realistically, £1200 is my absolute maximum budget, so I wonder if there is any overkill here e.g. the 3 SSDs? Would I be better off with just the 2 120Gb SSD and then possibly upgrade the CPU to an i7 4790?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Trevor


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 4, 2014)

A couple of thoughts:

120gb might be a bit tight for catalog, previews, ACR cache....maybe not today, but possibly in the future.

Is that 3tb drive for images going to be internal or external? If it's internal, I'd query why you need two drive for images? And I doubt I'd ever bother to put any images on an SSD, it would be just a waste of performance (you'll likely never see any performance difference between standard internal drive and an SSD with regards to image storage). So my suggestion would be to scrap the second 120gb SSD, and use the 250gb SSD for catalog, previews and cache, and use the 3tb drive for images. That'll save a bit on money to allow you to upgrade to an i7 quad core.


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## tspear (Dec 4, 2014)

I do not know that mother board but look for a mother board which has support for Intel's Smart Response Technology.
You then will need three physical drives, one of which must SSD, ideally two are SSD.
The first drive will contain OS and applications only (hopefully an SSD). 
Next install the Intel SRT, and merge the SSD and the HDD.
Now move the user profile and all data to the merged SRT disk.

This will allow SRT to cache the catalog and other images frequently accessed on the SSD and put the remainder on the HDD.

A acquaintance uses this setup with a small fast HDD for the OS, gobs of memory so no memory cache needed, a 128GB SSD and an 3TB HDD. Works like a charm.

Tim


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## Happy Haggis (Dec 4, 2014)

Thanks Jim and Tim for the advice. It's very much appreciated. I've been going dizzy with all the possible variations! Tim, I'll look into the SRT you refer to.


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