Another Computer Question - old workstations for photos and 3D?

ThePrettyDamned

You guys must be loving this. 

So, I've been put onto second hand kit to save some money, which led me to finding things like this 

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dfb&cs=ukdfb1&key=o0/LYu6z2eQ+Xl8J2wd+Hw==&puid=73cfc8dd

Which seemed okay (graphics card I know little of, but with no interest in games it sounds more like a Lightroom, Photoshop and Video Edit/3D friendly card). 

That then led to me going xtreme...

http://www.tier1online.com/t1-05359-0000001229/lenovo-thinksation-e31-intel-xeon-e3-1280-v2-3-60ghz-32gb-128gb-ssd-dvd-rw-nvidia-nvs-300

or 

http://www.tier1online.com/t1-03403-0000016253/refurbished-dell-precision-t3600-intel-xeon-e5-1620-0-3-60ghz-nvidia-quadro-2000-8gb

For lightroom, photoshop and possibly even some 3D rendering (I've done, and will continue, working with museums and they're quite interested in some aspects of 3D modelling...) is there life in these old beasts? Is the old architecture (2010 release I think?) still relevant on a Windows 10 system? 

Surely I could just drop a couple of SSDs in (500gb SSD's are not horribly expensive anymore) and have something that'll make quick work of my surely relatively light needs...?

Note that I don't currently do video, and don't really desire to. 3D is something I'm interested in, particularly outputting for 3D printing. 

Axe_meister

It depends on the software you are using. If it can take advantage of multiple cores or not.
but even if not it means you can kick off a render in the background and carry on doing other stuff without a slow down.
SSD + a matrox card (best for 2D) and an old dual socket Xeon with lots of memory will still be a powehouse

ToneControl

http://www.tier1online.com/t1-04389-0000006551/dell-precision-t7500-2x-intel-xeon-x5690-3-47ghz-48gb-320gb-1tb-nvidia-quadro-6000

Axe_meister

The quadro performance is equivalent to a GTX 470 so rather slow albeit with a lot of memory.
Now the 3D you are doing for 3D printing will not be that taxing on a graphics card e.g wireframe with a bit shading.
Most rendering is still done by CPUs these days, 

chrispy108

Stop thinking a flash computer is stopping you being a professional photographer.

You can edit photos on pretty much anything nowadays, it might just take a bit longer.

Just buy something, and use it!

ThePrettyDamned

chrispy108 said:

Stop thinking a flash computer is stopping you being a professional photographer.

You can edit photos on pretty much anything nowadays, it might just take a bit longer.

Just buy something, and use it!

No Doubt! I Have Already Started But My Computer takes AbOut 2 Minutes To Open A tif In Photoshop From A 10mp Camera - So Not After Top Top Kit, but Opening In Seconds Rather Than Minutes Would Be Good. 

I Am AlreadY Working Professionally - And Outputting Prints For People. but my Current 'Puter Is Slow Enough That It Genuinely Makes Editing a Very Cumbersome And Slow Process, And It Makes It Very Difficult To batch Process. 

Ive Saved Up Some Dollars, but Was Wondering If An Older Workstation Would Offer Any KiNd Of Comparison To A Modern Core Build. I Am Not Letting My CurRent Computer Stop Me, but I would like something that live updates when I move sliders around (in Lightroom, if I adjust any sliders, it can take several seconds to catch up). 

But yes, already taking and selling photos it just *really* makes sense to get a new computer. I think. Maybe. 

ThePrettyDamned

Also, my phone did that last post a bit. . . Weird. 

Apologies! 

Axe_meister

Ok for live updates (single threaded)  A modernish i7 would The the choice with a high frequency anything from Haswell onwards look at i7 4770 onwards (have this in my home build).

d8m

I think the precision line are cracking bits of kit.

My work laptop is the latest precision laptop spec' d up to the max and it flies when using Solidworks, even for large scale assemblies and rendering using keyshot.

My home PC is a precision tower(t1500), it's pretty old now but is still going strong albeit noisy, only thing I have ever done is replace the spin drive with an SSD. Everything else is as it shipped from factory and has been going since 2009!

I'm currently looking into getting a laptop for home as I no longer need a machine of that power at home and it's quite bulky, the biggest obstacle I am finding is that spec wise it's still on par or bettering quite a lot of the reasonably priced laptops available.

ToneControl

my 2008  twin Xeon  3.2Ghz 8 core  T7400 is still going strong
uses a lot of power though
I use a 32GB workstation M6700 laptop with an i7 3840QM for most stuff (again, old, about 3 or 4 years now). 

upgraded both to SSD drives and hybrids

Sporky

On the 3D side, my laptop (Yoga 900) is perfectly happy running Rhino3D with a meagre Intel Iris Graphics 540 .

ThePrettyDamned

Sporky said:

On the 3D side, my laptop (Yoga 900) is perfectly happy running Rhino3D with a meagre Intel Iris Graphics 540 .

Yeah, I've heard the newer integrated stuff is pretty powerful. I'm not fussed on graphics cards - I won't be doing 3d right away, but I know the museums are doing some 3d rendering and it might give me a bit of an edge. It's definitely not a key consideration mind. 

I've had a look for those lenovo bits of kit, they look pretty decent and a definite step up from my laptop. 

I wonder if I could just pop an ssd in mine, but I've asked a computery friend and he thinks there are some other issues with it - he said it's running far, far slower than the specs should provide and maybe something has burned out on the motherboard? 

Axe_meister

If something burnt out on the motherboard it would not work.
A new SSD, a clean install and a de-dust should help. Also up date the BIOS

ThePrettyDamned

Axe_meister said:

If something burnt out on the motherboard it would not work.
A new SSD, a clean install and a de-dust should help. Also up date the BIOS

I've not de dusted, but I have clean installed and updated drivers. Ssd is a consideration - I'd transfer it across to a new computer anyway so it's not just money down the drain. 

chrispy108

Wis.
Whack an SSD in it and install the OS from scratch. Don't install loads of stuff on it, just what you need.

ThePrettyDamned

chrispy108 said:

Wis.
Whack an SSD in it and install the OS from scratch. Don't install loads of stuff on it, just what you need.

I'll have a go. Can you create an OS image with Windows 10 easily on a USB stick? It was windows 8, but got the free update. 

I think it was windows 7 before that. So if I look on control panel, restoring the system to factory takes it to Windows 7, and from there it should upgrade to Windows 10?

Edit: maybe it's best I take it to a computer shop and beg them to jam it in. 

ToneControl

what you need to know about Dells is that the really high spec ones get bought for commercial use and sold on very cheaply

chrispy108

https://mspoweruser.com/how-to-create-a-bootable-usb-drive-for-windows-10/

Easy! No need to pay if you can follow simple instructions.

Don't restore to 7 then upgrade to 10, just put 10 straight on using a USB stick.

ThePrettyDamned

chrispy108 said:

https://mspoweruser.com/how-to-create-a-bootable-usb-drive-for-windows-10/

Easy! No need to pay if you can follow simple instructions.

Don't restore to 7 then upgrade to 10, just put 10 straight on using a USB stick.

Excellent! I'll order an ssd and hopefully do it during my week off next week. Worst case scenario I have an ssd for my next computer and save money there.  

De-dust ing. . . Any tips? 

chrispy108

Laptop or desktop?

ThePrettyDamned

chrispy108 said:

Laptop or desktop?

Laptop. It's a Dell inspiron . Spec wise, it shouldn't be this bad - 8gb ram, i7 processor (3632 I think?) and a dedicated graphics card of some kind.