PC specs for beginner photo editing

re Hard drive reliability

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/19 ... han-others

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-dri ... mber-2014/

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thetim wrote: ↑

Dec 11th, 2014 10:19 pm

Depending on if you plan on installing much more than photo editing software, you might be happier with a 500 GB SSD if they come on sale again. My 240 (250?) GB one has about 80 GB left on it - but I have a bunch of Steam games installed, so, those obviously take up good chunks of space.

Good point. I have a fair number of Steam games as well. Quite a few were removed to free up space prior to a recent upgrade of the drive. 120G in the Steam folder alone atm. Will have to keep my eye on 500G SSD's.

da_guy2 wrote: ↑

Dec 11th, 2014 7:04 pm

If I'm not mistaken brand is more important than size. Worst is Seagate, best is Hitachi.

For hard drives, you can't discount one manufacturer over another in one broad stroke like that. It all depends on the size and model. A manufacturer may excel in quality one year but totally f up the next.

Definitely DIY.

16GB of RAM
240-256GB SSD (Cruical MX100 is nice)
2-3TB+ for storage

If you're comfortable with OC then grab a 4690K and something like a Hyper 212 Plus/Evo . Otherwise pick up a 4430 to 4690 whatever your budget allows. Even an i3 is decent if you don't have the budget.