I need a more powerful PC

[Jeff1530]

At the moment my computer is very slow and very annoying. It's probably because of all my Photographic editing programs. When I bought this computer just over a year ago I thought the 2.5ghz processor would be big enough but I now realise that this needs to be at least 3.5ghz. Also, I only have 8Gb of ram and really could do with a lot more. Any suggestions guys

 

[sergezap]

2.5 GHz/8Gb is a critical minimum nowadays but still totally usable to rule a 20Mp RAW files.
These 2 specs are not decisive also. I think the problem is somewhere else.

 

[smoke665]

First off, I'm running much the same, and rarely experience slowdowns. A little more information would be helpful:

1. What photo editing software are you using
2. What specifically are you doing when you experience slowdowns?
3. Are you running other software in the background at the same time?

 

[Jeff1530]

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements 18 + Topaz. My slowdowns mainly occur when I boot up Elements or use Topaz in conjunction with Elements

 

[sergezap]

OS, CPU, GPU, HDD?
Background running processes/apps?
Auto startup items?
Registry cleaning, HDD fragmentation?

 

[smoke665]

I generally have LR & PS running simultaneously. If it occurs only with these two boot up I suspect you need to tweak settings. Also are either of them trying to sync online?

 

[Jeff1530]

I already have the things you mention down to a bare minimum.

 

[smoke665]

So to be clear it takes a long time to load or is it slow after it loads and before you start any editing.

 

[Jeff1530]

New
So to be clear it takes a long time to load or is it slow after it loads and before you start any editing.

Both

 

[jcdeboever]

I don't think your specs are hurting you. I have way, way, older hardware. You should consider buying a SSD drive for OS and apps, 500 gb Samsung 850 pro series. Do diagnostic check on current spin drive, if ok, use that for storage. Download CCleaner and run the registry cleaner (assuming windows machine).

 

[smoke665]

To narrow down the problem:

1. Does this slow down occur with any other programs?
2. When you boot these have you ever monitored system performance while they're loading?? Does it max out the processor?
3. Do you by chance have face recognition activated?
4. Could you catalog be extremely large?

 

[Jeff1530]

I have tried everything you have mentioned, thanks anyway.......

 

[adamhiram]

I have found the 2 biggest bottlenecks with photo editing are insufficient RAM and slow disk I/O. I would be willing to bet that upgrading to at least 16GB of RAM and adding an SSD for your system/application disk will breathe new life into that system for a minimum investment. A fresh install of Windows and applications couldn't hurt either.

 

[espresso2x]

I agree with everything suggested, and if you can afford SSD storage with the headroom for more RAM, do it. Gotta bang the drum for Linux though; 2.5-3ghz with 6 or 8gb of ram runs very well for photo editing (Raw Therapee, Fast stone/Wine etc). There's none of the mysterious slow-downs that, for me, was characteristic of my Microsoft PC OS experience. YMMV.

 

[Jeff1530]

Thanks for all the ideas guys.................