Photographer vs. Gamer

Budget:
2500 - 3000

Usage:
Photographer, light video

Saved Ticket #: 1416207

First and foremost I’m a photographer, with some very light video editing with Adobe, and NOT a gamer. However, I am very impressed with DS and gaming machine specs, although I have been on Mac for about 12 years. This will be my first PC of this type, and even though I am not crazy about using Windows, I know many photographers that are happy with it.

I am interested in the Velox and I certainly want to future proof my purchase. I think my budget is going to be around $2500, maybe a little more. My biggest issues are about 4-core, vs. 6-core, like… is it ridiculous for a still photographer to worry about that many cores? My largest files get around 3gb each during editing in Photoshop. The other issue is all this cooling I see, that I am completely unfamiliar with. It seems to come with the CPU cooling, so is the GPU cooling another silly thing for a “photographer?”

Last thing that is bugging the heck out of me is SSD size for my primary drive. The forums I read never address the question or actually answer the problem of “how much” since 99% of the persons responding (not this forum - my first time here) say “get what you need” then get this or that as a second drive. Problem is if I want the OS, and say, my Lightroom catalog, and Photoshop scratch disk to be on SSD - I have no clue what is needed? I don’t mind springing for the 512 SSD if I need to, but the 1TB looks to be just a bit too expensive for me.

Guess that is about it for now, thanks so much for any time and consideration.

I’m a little over my budget here, but I came up with this config first: Digital Storm Velox (Config # 1416207)

Thanks very much for your response db188 - I understood most of what you were saying, not all of it. My RAW file folders for my photography is about 4TB, and my Lightroom catalog, the part I would want on the SSD is about 50gb. And, yes I normally have a couple of huge exterior spinning HD's that hold the RAW files and photos. I actually set Photoshop to use 50gb of scratch disk so I guess that answers that question. I'm not sure what Windows takes up on an SSD. I will have my system configured with first drive and second drive both SSD and all the spinners as external (I already have those). I have also settled on the 6-core and 32 for RAM, you're the second person to suggest that.

Oh, and the DRLR is Nikon D800e so the files are 36mp as you said.

Thanks, and thanks for the info - 20gb, good to know.