# Building a PC for lightroom



## joemontana57 (Jan 21, 2009)

I am going to build a fast computer, primarily to run LR and Photoshop.

I read that LR doesn't really utilize the GPU

Balance between memory and processor. Would I be better off with a quad core processor, or dual Xeon processors.
How about memory? I have 8 G's (4-2G sticks of OCZ Reaper)
It's DDR2, but if an i7 processor would be significantly better, I could buy DDR3, but I'd prefer to stick with what I have if possible. Since the 8G's I have cost a fair chunk of change, I'd like to use them if possible, *however* if DDR3 would be significantly better, then let me know. Not necessarily the DDR3, I understand that it alone wouldn't be that much better, but if a motherboard or processor that needed DDR3 was significantly better, that's what I mean.

I'll be using a 64 bit OS, to utilize all of my RAM if nothing else.

I guess I'm just looking for suggestions.


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## Replytoken (Jan 21, 2009)

Joe,

I cannot comment on the specific components that you have mentioned above, but most of them are at or near the faster end of the spectrum for equipment these days (relative to what some of us are currently using).  But, I would suggest that you consider, if you have not already doen so, a hard drive and interface that will give you fast, sustainable throughput, perhaps like eSATA.  LR can be quite disk-intensive at times and this can be a bottleneck if your drive technology cannot keep up with the rest of your hardware.

--Ken


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## Denis Pagé (Jan 21, 2009)

Throughput of DDR3 over DDR2 is so small and the price difference so great, go for a DDR2 or DDR2/3 motherboard. If you have 2, 4, 8 or 16 cores, Lightroom will use them all and just perform better. And the more memory, the merrier.

If it was not because you want give a second life to existing equipment... I never had any problem, trouble or crash with any version of Lightroom from 1.' to 2.2 on a MacPro _(I never used the buggy 1.4 )_. I wonder if it is not the machine they design for first... :roll:


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## dannyrod (Jan 21, 2009)

On a similar note, I'm also upgrading and wanted some advice as to what makes LR run the best?

For the processor, is it better to get more cores at a lower speed (quad core 2.4ghz) or fewer cores at a faster speed (dual core 3.2ghz)?  Also, does the size of the processor cache make a big difference?

I'm gonna try to cram in 6 or 8gb of DDR2 RAM when I upgrade . . .

Would a Raptor hard drive be a good boost in performance over a regular 72''RPM?  I'm thinking of putting the OS & Program Files on a Raptor and keeping my photos / LR Catalog on either internal RAID mirrored SATAs or external eSATAs . . . any recommendations on these?

Last thing . . . does the bus speed make a huge difference?  Would 1333mhz be a lot better than 1'66?

Thanks for your help one and all!


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 21, 2009)

I'm going to stay out of this thread, as I'm not really up to date on the latest Windows hardware, but just wanted to welcome you to the forum dannyrod.


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## dannyrod (Jan 21, 2009)

Victoria Bampton said:


> I'm going to stay out of this thread, as I'm not really up to date on the latest Windows hardware, but just wanted to welcome you to the forum dannyrod.


Thanks Victoria! =)


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## Denis Pagé (Jan 22, 2009)

dannyrod;348'6 said:
			
		

> On a similar note, I'm also upgrading and wanted some advice as to what makes LR run the best?
> 
> ...Would a Raptor hard drive be a good boost in performance over a regular 72''RPM? I'm thinking of putting the OS & Program Files on a Raptor and keeping my photos / LR Catalog on either internal RAID mirrored SATAs or external eSATAs . . . any recommendations on these?


Put the Lightroom cache on the fastest storage device and give it room. Also, it is better to have the catalog and images on faster devices rather than the program. The program is not accessed as frequently as the data...

For the rest, not sure...


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## joemontana57 (Jan 30, 2009)

I have that planned. I'm going to use Sata hard drives for the fastest throughput I can get.
Does anyone else have more specifics?



Denis Pagé said:


> Put the Lightroom cache on the fastest storage device and give it room. Also, it is better to have the catalog and images on faster devices rather than the program.


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## Mark Sirota (Jan 30, 2009)

Not just SATA -- Western Digital VelociRaptor disks and Intel X25-E Extreme solid-state disks.


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