It might be a good idea to add the Affinity Software Suite to this article. It's affordable and highly functional even at a commercial level.

Sounds like a great option! But the list of software in this guide is not meant to be exhaustive; it's just supposed to provide an overview of some of the most popular choices.

This article is not accurate. A good to high end GPU could be just as important in Photoshop as the CPU in certain functions like AI rendering. The RAM is also extremely important as you can set how much RAM the program uses. Scratch disks weren't mentioned which allows for the program to offload to another hard drive to speed things up even faster because it doesn't have to use the same drive for searching and using the program at the same time.

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts about this! We'd strongly agree that a GPU can be an important component in a photo editing PC---but relative to a PC for 3D rendering or video editing work, the hardware load is going to be much, much lower for the vast majority of users (even those working regularly with very-high-resolution images). That's why we say "it is unlikely that the typical photo editor or graphic designer will notice much of any improvement in their workflow brought about by upgrading their graphics card." For the typical user, that's the case.

And as for high-end users, you'll find that we do recommend a powerful RTX 3060 Ti in our pro-grade example build. The situation is ultimately similar for RAM and hard drives, with 64GB of RAM and a pair of SSD storage drives recommended for professionals in this article despite our general guidance that they aren't things that most people will need to worry much about.

What does the upgrade in Mobo come with between the cost effective and balanced builds? I am going for a balanced build, just curious what I gain by spending the extra $ for the more expensive ASRock vs the slightly cheaper MSI B550 MPro

Both are compatible, and if tight on budget the B550 is the way to go. The gist is that X570 simply has slightly broader compatibility and higher-speed component support. It's not a huge difference; it's just a more appropriate choice for a typical build at that level. If you want a specific breakdown of the fine details that separate the chipsets, I'd recommend perusing this article from Gamers Nexus.

"Best price to performance Image Editing Build" has DDR4-2666, DDR4-3200 is cheapest

The RAM options in this article have now be reworked slightly. Thanks for the feedback!

DDR4-2400, it's hard to get anything under 2933 now, R U living in 2018, i am talking about "Cost-Effective Image Editing Build"

The RAM in question is in-stock for the listed price, and is in our lowest-tier build for photo editing and graphic design. Even the speeds of DDR3 RAM would be fast enough for a budget photo editing build, if it were compatible.

yes, the 2400 is cheapest

Why intel over comparable AMD models for the CPU in the pro build?
Is AMD a bad idea for a pro build? If so, why?
And if not, which AMD would you go for?

AMD is certainly not a bad idea for a photo editing build. This article still favors Intel CPUs at certain points because it hasn't been updated since early October (unlike our main build chart, which is temporarily recommending only AMD CPUs).

This page is due for an update, but we've postponed the update slightly because the newer parts we would put in the guide are consistently out-of-stock from all retailers. Since you asked, though, we will likely be substituting the Ryzen 9 5950X into the 'Professional' build at the next update (with an appropriate X570 motherboard, like one of the boards listed in the 'Extremist' tier of that linked chart).

Pricing out your Professional Image Editing build at Newegg.com, the total came to $2,979, quite a bit more than the $2,500 you mention in the spec list. Still, promises to be a screaming machine once I can afford to buy it.

Yes, unfortunately, many parts are price-inflated at the moment (for predictable reasons).

The description of the "High-Performance image editing build" is outdated. The i9 10900K is about 15% faster than the R7 3700X in single-threaded tasks.

Well, since it says "some of the best," it's not false, strictly speaking. But in all seriousness, this article was last updated in mid-April, so many of the details of the example builds are now slightly outdated. This page will be due for its next full update probably about a month from now.

Hi, I don't see anything about CD-ROM or DVD players.

If I found one on my own, should they fit into the case without any issues?

Thanks

As long as it's an internal optical drive, your case has at least one unused 5.25" drive bay, your PSU can accommodate an additional SATA (or Molex, if appropriate) connection, and your motherboard has at least one unused SATA port---then yes!

If you want a more specific answer, though, just let us know which optical drive model and which build you're considering.

I changed a lot of the pieces, even the case. If this works, I wonder if I could take apart an old gateway case, using its power supply, and just update the motherboard, CPU, and RAM?

There is no special reason that we went with that mini tower; it just matched the parts and pricing for the build. That said, we would not recommend using a case from a prebuilt machine (especially an older prebuilt machine) because such systems tend to have custom layouts and custom parts creating difficulties or even incompatibilities---in addition to lacking front panel support for newer transfer standards like USB 3. Moreover, we would also not recommend using a PSU from a prebuilt in a new PC, as the PSU is one of the pieces that prebuilt manufacturers tend to (rather unwisely) skimp on, in terms of quality.

I built everything in the cost-effective build (except used 550 instead of 450 due to product expiration) and the sound won't connect. I spent hours in troubleshooting, and still, the sound says your mic or headphone isn't connected when I definitely have both headphones plugged into the front of the chassis and speakers into the back. Any ideas? A working sound menu on a former computer I built has options like speakers, headphones, etc. But this built only has three AMD Sound icons, none connected.

In theory, if it's happening on both the rear I/O and the front panel, I would think the issue is either the fault of the motherboard or the OS. If you feel that you've exhausted all possible software/OS-based solutions and haven't been able to get any sound devices to work in any port under any circumstances, there could be some kind of fault in the audio processing unit of the motherboard. Your options then would be to seek an RMA for that part with the manufacturer or retailer, or cut the audio processor on the motherboard out of the equation by getting a sound card.

I have another question. Is there a reason you chose the ATX mini tower over mid tower? I'm hoping everything will fit in there. Also, the CPU and Power Supply have already been discontinued/updated, with which I'll try to replace with the AMD Ryzen 3 2200G and the Seasonic FOCUS Plus 550 Gold.

This is a somewhat specific question, but its based off one of the hardware recommendations on this page. I primarily use photoshop, illustrator, indesign for work but I occasionally have to edit some video. I created a build based closely on the previous High Performance suggestions on this page, including the Intel I7-8700k cpu and PNY Quadro P600 graphics card.

When attempting to render a 6 minute video to H.264 (tried with GPU Acceleration (CUDA) both on and off) in Adobe Premiere I get errors. With GPU Accel. on I get "Render Error. Error code: -1609760768." With it off I get "GPU Render Error. Unable to process frame. Error code: -1609629695"

My research on the error seems to indicate the GPU is likely the main factor. I do have Lumetri color effects on the footage. I know this site's recommendation said the Quadro P600 isn't as strong on video editing, but I would think it would be ok for standard HD (non-4k) footage rendering to H.264.

I'm building my home office computer now, and would like to know whether I should be stepping up to the Quadro P1000 or one of the GTX models.

Thanks!

After doing some research of my own, it seems that this is an error encountered by many users who try to utilize Quadro GPUs in Adobe Premiere. It is due to some kind of bug in Premiere which has not been sorted out for ages, and happens across multiple Quadro GPU models.

So, my advice would be that you will likely need to either get a consumer-grade graphics card (an RX 580 or a GTX 1060 3GB would be in the same price range as the P600) or get a different piece of video editing software. For more info and part recommendations, you should (if you have not already done so) also check out our big guide article on building a PC for video editing.

Wow thats a pretty serious error to go unfixed for an entire series of GPUs with a mainstream video editing software! Thank you for doing that research and supplying this info.

I know you suggested the Quadros on here because they offer advantages in graphics software at a low price. Would you say the RX and GTX models are still solid graphics GPUs? I do a LOT more graphics than video and don't want to sacrifice too much just for the video editing. If the RX 580 and GTX 1060 3GB are step downs from the quadros on graphics, which would you say is a more expensive model that is equivalent on graphics while also strong on video? Is that the GTX 1060 6GB and 1070 that you recommend in the video editing build article?

Thanks again.

Thanks for the great article! I've been keeping an eye on it as I get ready to build my design PC.

I noticed that in your July update you switched the High Performance build CPU pick from the Intel i7 8700k to the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, even though your section on CPUs claims that intels usually do better job with the single-core performance. Can you elaborate on the reason for the pick switch? I also notice the Ryzen comes with a cooler. Is it worth spending extra money for the Scythe Fuma to replace it?

Thanks again!

Great questions!

The short answer to your first question is that the info in the hardware section is slightly more dated than the example builds.

The long answer to that question is that the quote from Puget Systems in the hardware section of the guide is from 2017, and precedes the release of the Ryzen+ chips in April of this year. Before Ryzen+, the comparison for that example build was between the i7-8700K and the R7 1700X (in that competition, the i7 takes an easy victory). After Ryzen+, however, it's now between the i7-8700K and the R7 2700X---which is a much closer call. The i7 still does technically have slightly higher single-core speed, and would still be a great choice for such a build, but the two are so close together in performance that most users would not be able to distinguish them in-use. That being so, the R7 was selected for the new version of the build because its multi-core performance makes it a terrific choice for a workstation chip across a wide variety of professional software. In general, an update to a big guide article will prioritize having up-to-date example builds above everything else, even if it leads to slightly confusing context in other sections of the guide.

As for the CPU Cooler question, it depends on your intentions with the build. An aftermarket cooler will provide terrific cooling even for users who intend to push their system to the limit with tons of simultaneous projects, or with particularly intensive tasks, or with overclocking. But if that doesn't sound like your situation, then the stock cooler that comes with that CPU will be a sufficient cooler for the CPU under normal circumstances.

Photo editing PC seems most outdated one. I am building one with 3600X, 1TB Mushkin NVme gen3, amd 5700(X) or 2060super. Looking for software input outside of Adobe cloud. May be with DXO photolab2, Luminar and others. I appreciate update for photo editing PC.

Due to their use of older pro-grade cards, the builds in the photo editing guide do seem a bit behind the times. But not to worry! We're currently working on updating the example builds in all of our big guide articles, and the photo editing guide should receive the attention it needs within the next two weeks or so.

Thank you for answering. I would suggest to split photo editing and graphic design in different guides. Graphic design (CAD) is professional driven field. Photography is more enthusiast driven. Photo cameras are providing more and more capabilities to produce good 4k video, so correlation to video editing is more important then to Graphic Design, at least to me.

Well, as we already have a separate video editing guide, we'll probably be maintaining the current division. But folks who know they don't need as much raw power will always be able to select the lower-tier example builds provided.

Great to see this article! Very well explained. It's disappointing that Lightroom, one of the most popular photography programs, still struggles to use a professional workstation's full power. At least Photoshop and Illustrator make use of the hardware pretty well.