Computer Build For Coin Photograph Editing

In this forum and others, I have found a paucity of information in regards to computers for photo editing. So, this post is to share key points of my experiences in building a computer with coin photography in mind. Old hands at PC building may find this boring but for me it was a major learning experience.
At the beginning of last year, I retired my old PC. It was old and was really struggling with some of the tasks I was asking of it. I had wanted to use Capture one pro for editing RAW photo files but, the minimum system requirements exceeded those of the PC. The PC was so old it wasn't realistic to upgrade it.

I replaced the PC with a Laptop. The laptop met the minimum requirements for capture one pro which were; quad core CPU and 8GB Ram. I was then able to use Capture one pro. Unfortunately, I soon found the lap top wasn't up to the task. The problem was due to the file size of each Raw image produced by my main camera. The laptop just didn't have the processing and, more importantly, cooling power required. Using Capture one saw extremely slow processing times (when exporting from Raw to Tiff) and thermal shut down of the lap top. For stacking it was taking between 30min and an hour to process 200 individual shots. Sometimes, in the middle of a stack, the laptop would reboot due to thermal overload.

I could have made do by purchasing a cooling pad for the laptop. I discounted that as being a short-term solution, particularly as the slow processing speeds were irritating me.

Some might think going back to JPEGs would suffice, I say that as a few years ago I would have been one of those people. It had taken me a while to understand the importance of capturing images in Raw format. To produce JPEGs in the camera the Raw files are "developed" in the camera. This means that processing is limited by what the manufacturer is able to stuff into the particular picture- making-machine you own. If you skip the in-camera processing you can use much more powerful applications with a more powerful computer, than that installed in the camera. The usual result is better final images (dependent on skill).

By mid-2016 I decided I needed a new PC. I could have gone out and just purchased one but I have never assembled a PC before so I decided This was my opportunity to do so. For Apple fans I decided on PC simply because I didn't want to pay, as some people term it, the apple-tax. Building my own was not the cheapest option, as I got carried away. It took me a good part of a year to save and accumulate the components for the build.

The good thing about building my own is that I was forced to think seriously about what I needed and wanted in a final machine. It was only when I started thinking about what I wanted that I discovered there were so many possibilities, and YouTube became my guide. the following clip, although old, gave me the model for my PC:



The only major difference with my final build and the system shown in the above clip is my PC has an M.2(NVMe) 256 GB Boot drive (holds the OS and Apps), a 500 GB working drive (SSD) and a raid 10 array for long term storage.

For those who know as much as I did (zilch) when I started this project: Raid stands for Random Array of inexpensive disks. Raid 10 is a format which is raid one in combination with Raid zero.
Raid zero sees two hard drives (or 4,6, 8 etc. Drives) combined to produce one drive. When data is written to that combined drive half the data goes to one disk the other half to the second. This theoretically doubles read and write speeds. The disadvantage is lose one disk and you lose all the data. Raid 1 is data mirroring. The data is saved to both disks so that if one disk fails you do not lose the data. Raid 10 requires a minimum of four disks. The four disks are configured so that there are two raid zero drives, with one raid zero drive mirroring the other. This enables fast read and write speeds while ensuring data backup. Some say you can lose up to two disks in a raid 10 however as my understanding goes; two disks failing in the wrong positions can see all the data lost. So, I personally think that this set up only protects against the failure of one component drive. My raid 10 drive is made up of four 4 TB HDDs. This gives a total of just over 7 TB of long term storage (the theory says I should get 8TB).

In working out which components I would get I relied on the following (as well as downloading the user manuals from the manufacturers web site) YouTube channels( Edit I had used links to the channels but that didn't work so I have provided links to clips with in those channels. those clips are not necessarily the ones I relied on):





For Old-pharts build advice I found this channel invaluable (although I still don't have a leaf blower):



Capture one pro had shown its self to be the most demanding App, processing wise, I would use so I contacted phase one and asked some general questions about processor (particularly core count) and graphics card requirements. The answer I got back could be summed up as: "the more you put in the better". When I installed Capture one and used it the first time it became clear this was practical advice, as the first thing capture one did on initializing was scan the PC and then it optimized its-self for the hardware it detected.

For those who want to know the key components I used here is the list. {Yes, it seems like overkill but I thought long and hard about each purchase and my aim was to have a machine that would last the life of a hard drive before requiring an upgrade I also put a priority on a reasonable degree of future proofing. I expect in five years the only component's I will recycle will be the case and the PSU.}

Thermal take core 51 a mid-sized tower
Asus Strix X99 gaming mother board
I76900K CPU
64GB Ram
ASUS Strix RX 480 gaming 8 GB OC (factory overclocked model) I ended up with the OC model because it was a few Euros cheaper than the non-OC model.
EVGA 1000W P2 Power supply.

I could just not bring myself to install water cooling (mixing water and electronics just did not sit well with me) so I stuck to a tower cooler ( noctua NH D15S) and fans(7 case fans)

I never planned to overclock the machine but after becoming familiar with UEFI(BIOS)I discovered it had a factory setting for overclocking the CPU I was using. So now the CPU is set to 4500Ghz. Overclocking the ram was even easier. I just activated the XMP switch on the motherboard and the Ram now has a mild overclock of 2400Ghz. I left the graphics card at stock speed.

The machine has been running a few months now and I am really pleased with it. Batch processing a set of photographs in Capture one pro sees exports to Tiff (of 200 photographs) taking about 12 minutes (previously it used to take a good part of an hour). Stacking is now very fast with a stack of 200 photographs averaging around 10 minutes (faster if I don't have any other applications running)

Now the point of the post, the lessons learned.

With this PC build I set myself a challenge and allowed it to get a little out of hand. I applied my coin collecting principles to component buying. Specifically, buy the best you can afford and if it's just out of reach wait and save. This saw me buying components over time. This was not necessarily a good idea. I was a little annoyed with myself when Ryzen was announced, as at that time I was already committed by my motherboard purchase to an I7 or Xeon CPU. I could have gone with Ryzen and got a much cheaper 8 core CPU, even though the ryzen CPUs seem to have issues with being overclocked beyond 4000Ghz (that would not have been a big deal)

Initially I did have issues with temperature (with both Capture one and Zerene stacker). I had the PC shut down due to thermal overloading twice. The tower cooler had only one cooling fan, but with the facility to add a second. I added a second and have never had a repeat. The CPU under-load has not gone above 60 degrees C since adding the second CPU fan. The lesson here is I should have been braver and gone for water cooling. More than likely at stock speeds the single tower-cooler fan would have been OK.

There were two problems with the PC case I purchased: No PSU (Power supply unit) shroud and only two external 5.25 inch drive bays. The PSU shroud is a nice to have. I ended up finding one from a different Thermaltake case and with some minor modifications fitted it to mine. What this enabled me to do was get all the cables out of the way of the internal airflow. The shroud wasn't necessary but it did make life easier when it came to cable management. So the lesson here is look for a case that has either a separate PSU compartment or a PSU shroud (it's cheaper than adding one later) The drive bays were more serious issue. It seems today the fashion is for minimal (often "no") external drive bays. That may be fine for gamers' but I don't think it suits photographers. After buying the case I worked out I wanted a hard drive hot swap dock, an optical drive, and a card reader. That required 3 external bays my case had two. The solution, in my case, was this product:

http://www.istarusa.com/istarusa/pr....WXRnbumxUuU

There are similar products from other manufacturers (such as silver stone) but this is the one I ended up with. I had initially wanted a dual hot swap dock that would allow me to use either 3.5 inch or 2.5-inch hard drives. However, having used the computer for a number of months the 2.5-inch size is perfectly adequate. I use the hot swap dock for backing up the computer ( once every two weeks) . The great thing is when I have competed the backup. I remove the hard drive from the hot swap dock. The recent events with ransomware confirmed to me this was a good idea (just for peace of mind). Lesson learned: I would suggest to any one building their PC to look for a PC case that comes with a Hot swap dock, the extra expenditure on the case would be, IMHO, well worth it and probably cheaper than going for the option I ended up with.

Some may be asking why bother with an optical drive. That was my initial view point. However, watching the YouTube channels I realized that when you build a PC yourself an internal Optical drive is worthwhile. It doesn't cost much and when you are installing drivers having it is better than not. I discounted an external Optical drive. My computer desk is small, and I am not particularly tidy. Having an external plug drive would just create more clutter, and more likely than not one day I would decide to store it in the basement and then forget where I put it (for me this principle applies also to other plug-in peripherals); it's happened before with other equipment.
For me the most important internal peripheral was a card reader. I used this product as I had purchased it for my old PC and never installed it. The reason being my old PCs motherboard did not have the necessary USB 3 socket.
http://www.akasa.com.tw/update.php?...el=AK-ICR-17

I am sure with some thinking, DSLR users will conclude; "why bother just tether your camera to the computer". Indeed, tethering is the best option for DSLR users. For majority of mirrorless users tethering (when possible) provides no real advantage and in many respects, it's a disadvantage or at the very least an unnecessary complication. To explain; when the first mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras came out, the major criticism was with the resolution of the rear monitor. DSLRs have optical view finders and the quality of those optical view finders made focusing very easy in comparison to those first mirrorless offerings. Mirrorless camera manufacturers responded to that very accurate initial criticism by increasing the resolution of the rear monitor, and when added, Electronic view finders. As a result, to match the resolution of my Sony A7rII and Olympus OMD-EM10II I would require an 8k monitor. Furthermore, all the focusing aids available to DSLR users (when using tethering) are built into the majority of Mirrorless cameras (such as magnifying the image). In discussions with other Mirrorless users I find most, like me, find the work flow is simpler to just transfer the files to the computer via the SD card. Even Wi fi or NFC transfer (both standard with most Mirrorless offering's) is slow. For that reason, a USB 3 card reader is a must. I had one issue with the card reader I use. If you look at the picture (in the last link) the right-hand USB 3 port is supported by a single external USB cable. When I contacted Akasa they told me the best solution was to route that cable through the PC case take it out of the case via a PCIe slot and plug it into an empty USB 3 port at the back of the computer. I really didn't like that solution, particularly when I ran out of spare USB 3 ports at the back of the machine. So, I had to buy two PCIe: cards that added in extra USB 3 internal ports. One was used for the Akasa port and the other served the two USB3 ports that are on the combination optical drive/hot swap dock.

I don't need, and never wanted, all the front USB ports (3 USB 2 and 6 USB 3) I ended up with, but it just annoyed me to have it non-functioning ports on the front of the computer. The lesson here, in relation to the card reader, was to shop around and get one that did plug into the mother board fully.

One simple addition to my machine was extremely worthwhile. The mother board has a DirectX jumper pins. Some PC cases (not mine: yes another lesson) have a DirectX button that can be connected to those jumper pins. I took the old power switch housing from my old PC and fitted it to the rear of my PC case. I installed a new micro switch to that housing and connected to the Direct X jumper pins. To enter UEFI-Bios I just activate that rear power switch. It makes getting to the Bios much simpler and faster. It cost very little to do.

I had one sobering lesson when putting the machine together. While wearing an anti- static bracelet I picked up the Graphic's card and a spark leapt between me and the heat sink on that card. I was amazed when I turned the machine on and found there was nothing wrong with the card. About an hour later my wife asked me if I had heard the thunder!! I had been concentrating so hard I hadn't heard it. The reason for the spark: my antic static band had been connected to a steel cable which in turn was connected to the radiator pipes of our central heating system. (if I ever do this again I will check the weather forecast!) I was very lucky!

The single greatest improvement to my photo editing (and picture taking) is not included in what has already been written. After constructing this project, I upgraded to a 4K monitor and that single purchase did more for my coin photography than anything else I did with this PC build. Finally, I could see my pictures and compare them accurately with coin pictures others had posted on the web. It was sobering to see what I thought were great photos (of my own and others) were not so great.