Your Digital Darkroom: Setup P4

Motherboards

The motherboard you choose for your editing PC can come with a lot of added features or be a more barebones affair. It really depends upon your current uses and what your future use case may be, not always easy to determine.

Basic Gigabyte motherboard. No VRM heatsinks, square box shapes around the CPU socket.

For example, a high-end gaming PC will likely incorporate a board that comes with the VRM’s covered in heatsinks – usually brought about by the high wattage video cards and high-power drain modern CPU’s. The VRM’s (voltage regulation modules) are required for top line CPUs to keep the system well balanced power wise. In a more modest system this isn’t as important an issue where more entry/mid-tier processors are used. If you are planning a PC with a 12th,13th,14 generation Intel i7’s or 9’s then good voltage regulation is important. You can run these processors on lesser specced motherboards, but the results may be disastrous. The same holds true for the new AM5 generation of high-end Ryzen CPUs from AMD and for many of the Top Tier AM4 generation Ryzen’s as well. Be careful when selecting a motherboard for these types of PC’s, getting the wrong motherboard can result in disappointing performance.

For more modest systems using Intel i3’s or i5’s or Ryzen 5 CPU’s VRM heatsinks aren’t so much an issue although if you intend to upgrade your CPU you may still need to consider the type of motherboard you purchase or specify if having a PC built for you. I am not a fan of buying pre-built PCs, they have a tendency to be poorly specced and have little upgrade ability and are generally more costly.

Motherboards from:
    • Asus
    • Gigabyte
    • Asrock
    • MSI

The above manufacturers are the most common seen in computer supply stores (at least here in New Zealand) and come in a good variety of specification.

Things to consider are :

    • USB 3 ports
      USB Type C (phones etc.)
    • Wi-Fi (onboard)
    • Onboard Bluetooth
    • High end sound (5.1 or better)
    • M.2 SSD socket
    • 3 or 4 Sata ports for additional drives.
    • Multiple cooling fan connectors

There are other things that may be of interest to the end user but that will come down to individual requirements. Suffice to say that the list above is a good general overview of what makes a good motherboard connection wise.

ASUS PRIME Z790M-PLUS-CSM mATX Motherboard . Note the Heatsinks covering the VRMs and the two graphics card slots as well as the three M.2 slots for storage.

 

RAM:

As important as power control may be, what RAM (memory) is required is also central to good response times when doing intense graphic and video work.

Having the right memory both in quantity and speed is crucial in my opinion. Modern advanced motherboards and processor require memory that is both fast and a sufficient amount. Today I would advocate for no less the 16 gigs of RAM, with 32 or 64 being a better option for more graphically intense work. For the likes of 4K video work you may need a motherboard that can take 128 gig of RAM or more. Having a motherboard that can accommodate 32 gig or more of RAM is a wise choice. Most newer motherboards these days can readily accommodate 32 gig or more, just be sure to check the specs.

G.SKILL Trident Z RGB 16GB DDR4 Desktop RAM

The speed of the RAM is just, if not more important than the amount. Slow speed RAM may not be noticeable when working on photos but may be a real issue for those wanting to process video. With AMD Ryzen CPUs you will often find the to get the best overall performance you need the fastest RAM the motherboard can take, perhaps 6000mhz or faster whereas 3200mhz RAM may be all you need for an Intel PC. Again, you need to check the requirements of both the motherboard and the CPU.

What I have listed above are the main considerations when choosing your motherboard. Which platform you choose to go with is up to the individual. How ever, if you are looking to have a PC that’s more gaming orientated then a Ryzen system may be for you. Intel gaming PCs are generally as good but they work better with the likes of Adobe Premiere and Photoshop, especially if video editing is a prerequisite. Both systems do work well for anything you would throw at them. It’s likely that at the end of the day it will all come down to how much bang you can get from your hard-earned dollar and in this regard, I find mid-tier Intel PCs tend to have a slight edge.

Next time – Video cards.