Our Photography Blog Posts:
High end performance for the professional photographer
Updated 01/02/2024 to the new Intel 14th Generation platform.
Users of high end photography systems demand a lot of performance from their PC. This system steps up the performance by including the Intel Core i7-14700F processor which offers a high clock speed and 20 processor cores for high performance in multi-thread applications or when running multiple applications at once. The storage is upgraded to dual Western Digital SN770 Black 1TB SSD drives which offers superb levels of performance as well as offering increased capacity. We also upgraded to an 8TB storage drive.
The CPU cooler used with this system is the high performance Be Quiet! Pure Loop 2 240mm cooler. This cooler allows your CPU to run at its maximum performance for extended periods of time. Noise is also kept to a low level as the fans spin at a relatively slow speed and are an excellent low noise design.
The Be Quiet! Pure Base 600 chassis offers excellent quality and upgradability in a professional workstation product with low noise fans designed to keep your high performance PC cool. The system can accept a total of 6 SATA drives by providing capacity for 3 x 3.5″ drives and 3 x 2.5″ drives. Also, the motherboard we use can support 4 x M.2 high-performance SSDs, in total you can use six storage drives in this system. We have specified the system with dual 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSDs as the primary drive for your OS and program files, and secondary SSD which is ideal for use as your Lightroom catalogue and working ‘scratch’ area to boost performance for your ‘work in progress files’ and also an 8TB hard drive for your full image catalogue. It is also possible to configure a further three 3.5″ or 2.5″ storage drives. To add further storage drives to your PC in the configurator, hit the ‘Add Another’ button to the right-hand side of the primary storage drive header. Alternatively, contact us for a quote with additional storage options.
The system also includes a high performance memory card reader which is compatible with Memory Stick, Compact Flash and SD cards including the latest SDXC and SDHC cards. Data transfer speed is high and the device also increases the quantity of available USB ports to the front of the PC as it provides an additional 4 x USB 3.0 ports and a further 2 x USB charging ports.
We have designed the system around the new 14th Generation Intel processor. These processors offer a leap in performance per clock over the previous generation by improving efficiency across the entire range. Performance increases will depend on the software you are using, but there will be greater benefits in more complex tasks. Video editing also benefits hugely as processor core count increases, so this will be a welcome benefit to those undertaking some video work as well.
Modern commercial image processing software requires a minimum of 16GB of memory, and you will need plenty of fast storage to hold your image catalogue. This system has 32GB of memory which is ideal for handling large images with multiple layers. The 32GB of memory also enables high-resolution video editing to be undertaken on this system.
Applications like Photoshop don’t continue to perform better and better with additional cores, so we don’t recommend installing processors with more than 6 cores solely for Photoshop use but when running other background applications such as email and web browsers, additional cores can be useful. It is essential to choose a processor with a high clock frequency as the processor frequency has more of an impact on performance than the core count. We have chosen the i7-14700F processor for this system, it’s a twenty-core processor with a 2.1GHz base frequency but with a turbo clock speed of 5.4GHz and is capable of running all day under heavy workloads. Processor turbo speeds come into effect for a limited number of the cores when the system is under heavy load. As Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Lightroom CC can be particularly heavy on just 1 or 2 cores, the system will benefit from the higher turbo frequency.
Specification
Processor
- Intel Core i7-14700F 2.1Ghz Twenty Core CPU
- 24 Processor Threads
- Max Turbo Frequency 5.2Ghz
- Cache: 30MB
- Be Quiet! Pure Loop 2 240mm Cooler Installed
Memory
- 32GB DDR5 5200Mhz RAM
- Dual Channel – 2 x 16GB
- Supports up to 192GB
- 4 x DIMM sockets (2 Used)
Hard Drive
- 1TB Western Digital SN770 Black PCIe4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD Primary C: drive
- 1TB Western Digital SN770 Black PCIe4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD (D: Drive)
- 4 x M.2 sockets, 2 free
- 8TB Seagate BarraCuda 3.5″ Hard drive
- 6 SATA Ports, 4 free (2 Used for DVDRW & 8TB HDD)
Optical Drive
- Asus DVD Re-Writer, SATA, 24x, M-Disk Support
- 2 x Optical Bays, 0 free
Card Reader
- Multi Card Reader – Akasa Interconnect EX
- Support for SD Cards, Memory stick and Compact Flash
- Provides an additional 4 x USB 3.0 ports at the front of the PC
Software
- Windows 11 Home 64-bit
- Clean install, no additional software
Chipset
- Intel Z790 Chipset
Display Outputs
- 3 x DisplayPort
- 1 x HDMI
- Supports up to 4 monitors at once
- Supports HDCP
Graphics
- NVidia RTX 3060 12GB GPU
Audio
- High Definition Audio, 5.1 or 7.1 channel output
- Audio provided by Realtek Audio Chip on the motherboard
Input Devices
- No Keyboard or Mouse Included
Wired Networking
- 1 x Realtek® 2.5GbE LAN chip (2.5 Gbit/1 Gbit/100 Mbit)
Wireless Networking
- Intel Wireless-AX AX210 wifi 6e
- Speeds up to 2400mbps
- Bluetooth 5.2
Power Supply
- 850 watts
- Modular Cable Design
- Over 87% efficiency
Dimensions
- Height: 470mm
- Width: 220mm
- Depth: 492mm
Interfaces
- 4 x USB 2.0 Port (4 rear)
- 9 x USB 3.2 Port (6 front, 3 rear)
- 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Port (2 x Type-A at the rear)
- 1 x USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 x 2 Port (1 rear)
- 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet Port
- 3 x Audio Jacks at the rear including S/PDIF Out
- 2 x Audio Jacks at the front
- 3 x DisplayPort on graphics card
- 1 x HDMI on graphics card
Note the display outputs from the motherboard are disabled when a graphics card is installed
Expansion
- 3 x PCI-e x 16 Slots, 1 free (1 x Used for graphics card, 1 used for USB card)
Case
- Be Quiet! Pure Base 600 Black/Silver ATX Case
- 1 x 140mm pre-installed fans at the front
- 1 x 120mm pre-installed fan at the rear
- Space for 4 additional 120/140mm fans
- Space to accept 120/140/240mm liquid coolers
Warranty
- 3 Year Return to Base parts and labour
- 1st 30 days collect and return at our expense
Soundproofing the chassis interior
![High density soundproofing panels for a high end photography PC.](https://www.punchtechnology.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/38288439_4371480813-150x150.jpg)
High Performance Graphics
![](https://www.punchtechnology.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Gigabyte-RTX-3060-Eagle-12GB-V2-Graphics-Card-Angle-2-150x150.jpg)
Card Reader Built In
![Akasa Interconnect EX card reader](https://www.punchtechnology.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AK-HC-07BK_crop-150x150.jpg)
Gigabyte Z790 Gaming X AX
![](https://www.punchtechnology.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/z790-gaming-x-ax-150x150.jpg)
1TB WD Black SN770 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD
![](https://www.punchtechnology.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sn770-nvme-ssd-150x150.jpg)
- Be Quiet! Pure Base 600 Silver Case
- Intel Core i7-14700F 2.1/5.4GHz 20 Core, 28 Thread CPU
- Gigabyte Z790 GAMING X AX DDR5 Motherboard
- NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 12GB GDDR6 LHR GPU
- 32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5 5200MHz CL40 (2x16GB)
- 1TB WD BLACK SN770 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD (5150MB/R, 4900MB/W)
- 1TB WD BLACK SN770 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD (5150MB/R, 4900MB/W)
- 8TB Seagate BarraCuda 3.5″ Hard Drive
- Be Quiet! Pure Loop 2 240mm Liquid CPU Cooler
- Contour 850W Modular ATX 87+ Power Supply GPX850S
- Built in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
- 24x SATA Internal DVDRW
- Akasa Interconnect EX 5.25 Bay USB 3.0 Card Reader
- Built in 5.1 Sound Card
- USB 3.0 PCIe Card, 2 Internal Dual Header Ports
- Microsoft Windows® 11 Home