Awesome, thank you for this. It’ sounds like our “previous” (my *current*) systems are a lot similar - mine is also now something like 11 years old or more. It does cope fine with pretty much everything else, but exporting images takes around 25 seconds a file (20mp Canon R6 shots) and - again like you - navigating between images comes with a several second delay that makes the experience completely not-smooth.
Unfortunately I may have to pay a lot more than you purely because of fluctuating RAM prices. That same Crucial Pro kit you mentions looks like £380+ here in the UK ($512!!).
But it’s good to see the layout of a working system from someone that’s modern and (should) run PL9 as it ought to run.
If I had to do this now, I’d consider grabbing a newer GPU, and getting a PCIE-to-NVME adapter, put a NVME SSD on there. Both the GPU and SSD would be usable when I put a new box together and they’ll make things in the current box go less slowly. I’ve no idea where PL is bottlenecking, but even a NVME3 SSD is like six times faster than SATA. And a current AMD GPU is way faster.
BTW, I think the 1050Ti I’ve got had 12GB memory (have to go dig the box out of the attic). If you want it, you’re welcome to it for the cost of postage - but it’s probably no better than what you already have. The PL v9 demo I tried didn’t crash on it, just very slow. I’m guessing the 12G had something to do with not crashing.
Also, DDR4 prices seem to not be part of what the PC builders are calling RAMageddon. So maybe a PCIE4 motherboard, AM5 CPU, 32G DDR4. Not the worst thing. If you look at RAM development, it gradually gets faster through a generation, then there’s a new gen, so it’s not a huge leap, just potential for more incremental improvement. My hesitation would be that AM5 is specifically for DDR5, so that’s also an earlier CPU. Just working it through ‘aloud’. I used to build PCs as a hobby, an new one about every six months - and things would have changed enough in 6 months that I had to re-learn a lot each time. My last one was in 2012. Looks like the best resources now for someone figuring this out are the Tom’s Hardware forums and PC part picker. Unfortunately, I didn’t know about these when I was figuring out what to buy
You know about FastRawViewer? It was blindingly fast on my previous PC (and current laptop), let me flip, flip, flip through shots, cull the ones that were either unrecoverable (e.g. blown highlights) or I just didn’t want. Unwanted shots moved into a separate folder, so a reversible action. I think it was USD35. It made workflow with PL on my old box much less painful as I wasn’t using PL to cull shots, just edit and export.
Also, you know Micron is ending Crucial? I’d very much advise against buying Crucial memory simply because matching’s important for dual channel and you’ll end up like me with ‘orphan’ memory. If I ever need to go to 64GB, it’ll be twice as expensive as just getting a second set of matching Micron/Crucial sticks. I’ll probably never do that, but still…
I agree about these affiliates, but I don’t think it’s limited to DXO. It’s another topic, but we have to recognize that the web has become a real money pit, pushing people to do business with anything and everything.
I’m a bit of an older guy now, and I’ve learned (I’m still learning, it’s a never-ending process…) not to give in to impulse and to give things time, separating “le grain de l’ivrai” (the wheat from the chaff), as we say where I come from.
I’ve always been sceptical of slogans like “It’s revolutionary! It will change your life as a photographer!”.
As a Frenchie, believe me, I know how to define revolutionary.
It’s up to us to take back control of our choices and stop '“ de prendre des vessies pour des lanternes!” (French proverb: to take something for what it is not).
What matters is to check how it works for us and not blindly obey the suggestions of people whose job it is to influence your choices in order to convince you, to persuade you to buy.
Especially as hobbyist, we’re in no hurry, I think so.
I couldn’t have put it better myself. I have just been adapting my Linus OS (dual boot machine). I struggled to get Irfanview to work. I have used this since 1998. Always found it great but I can’t get it to work properly in Zorin. So now I don’t have Irfanview. I gave it every chance but…….. So now I use another app to view jpgs and do a few small adjustments to them.
MS Office was such an amazing app. I used almost all of it albeit at a fairly rudimentary level. And gradually it morphed into a behemoth with so many bells a whistles that 99% of people would never use. Then came 365. Renting software! Linux has “forced” me to look elsewhere and Libre Office reminds me of MS Office 2000. Back when you could right click and insert a page break, those days.
So although I knew that I should change, I hadn’t. Linus has “forced” me to do that and it is one of the main benefits. It’s fast but far from perfect
Win10 is behaving offline and PL7 runs really well offline.
As far as affiliates are concerned. The instructional type videos are generally very good but…………… their “reviews” of new versions are corrupt at best.
