Help with processors and stuff in new pc

[Guzzisti]

Recently i had a thread on whether to upgrade or buy a new PC. The good advice from most people was to buy new. Not the cheap upgrade I dreamt of, but of course they were right.

So I researched a bit for a new PC to do my Lightroom work the next 5 year or more. I’m not a computer expert, so I could use a little help to narrow down my choice: fx. I found 3 different setups at approx.. same price, but with different processors:

cores base GHz Turbo GHz

I7-7700 4 3,6 4,2

I5-8500 6 3,0 4,1

I7-8550u 4 1,8 4,0


The last one is from a small form system (intel NUC/asus vivomini). My worry here is if these small boxes would quickly get so hot that it defaults to base speed? Would such a system I real word be much slower than desktop systems with one of the other processors?

What would be the preferred processor for lightroom of the two desktop models? From what I’ve heard Lighroom needs few but fast cores, which would point to the I7-7700? Or maybe the newer 8gen processer has other advantages that makes it equally fast? fx does the pc with i5-8500 use 2666 ram, where the pc with i7-7700 use 2400.

Finally another question. I hear that a sensible (or economic) choice is to have a SSD for programs and processing, and a HDD for storing. What size SSD would You recommend to keep speed up?

 

[gwydionjhr]

I'd recommend the i5-8600K, that's the unlocked version of the i5. With a little bit of tweaking you can get it up to comparable speeds of an i7. It's what my local VR gaming company uses for their rigs.

Don't skimp on the size of your primary SSD, it will make a difference in how fast your system runs. 512GB if the budget allows, or 256GB if you're on a budget. M2 drives are preferred.

pcpartspicker.com is a fantastic resource for building your own PC.

 

[davidzvi]

Unless you need the space or a cool / quiet system and don't mind that you probably have no or only very limited upgrade options skip the i7-8550u system. Little systems are cute but they can loose their appeal quickly.

Between the other two I would pick the i5-8600 system without know the rest of the specs. But those other specs could just as easily switch the one I might pick.

 

[agentlossing]

The higher end i5 series K (overclocked) processors do just fine. I still use an i5 6600K and it's exceptionally fast and stable. No reason not to go with something a little more powerful than mine since you're building it in 2018 rather than 2016, but the newer, higher-end i5 range is still great. The i7 7700 you mentioned would also be a really good choice.