Ron Martinsen's Photography Blog: Mini

Showing posts with label Mini. Show all posts

Monday, July 10, 2017

Ron's Windows Photo Editing System - Intel NUC i7

On June 6, 2016 I picked up an Intel NUC Kit NUC6i7KYK Mini PC as my primary computer (RAM and storage sold separately). In the past year that I've used it for my Photoshop, Lightroom and Camtasia 9 video editing system, I haven't had a single regret.

Here's some of the highlights from the system:

6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-6770HQ
Intel® Iris™ Pro Graphics 580
Up to 7.1 multichannel digital audio via HDMI or DisplayPort signals
USB 3.1, Thunderbolt, Bluetooth 4.2, 802.11ac & more
32GB 1.2v DDR4 RAM (purchased separately - Crucial 32GB Kit (16GBx2) DDR4 2133 MT/s (PC4-17000) DR x8 SODIMM 260-Pin Laptop Memory - CT2K16G4SFD8213)
512GB NVMe M.2 Internal SSD (purchased separately - the 950 I have was replaced by the improved Samsung 960 PRO Series - 512GB PCIe NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD) - this storage is the size of a stick of Wrigley's gum!
Full tech specs here and hardware compat list here

At the time I ordered this setup it was $1092.98, but the RAM was only $103.99 so as of July 9, 2017 this setup cost about $1117 USD. Now it's VERY important to note that not just any DDR4 RAM will work in this system, you must have 1.2 or 1.35v DDR 2133 SODDIMS or it WILL NOT WORK. Since this RAM type is less common, the prices will fluctuate based on availability.

Dual Displays - No Problem

NUC shown in red on my current desktop setup
Click for a full size view

For my left and primary photo editing monitor, I use a 32" 3840x2160 4K UHD native resolution (NEC PA322UHD) display in landscape orientation as shown in the middle above and a NEC PA241W in portrait orientation as shown on the right. The big gray box on the right is my GTI light box for viewing/comparing prints against my calibrated displays.

Notice how tiny the NUC is - it's about as thick as two of my Wacom Intuos Pro Pen and Touch Tablet, Medium (PTH651) (review) stacked on top of each other. It's barely wider than three of my NEC SpectraSensor Pro calibration puck. Simply put, this thing isn't a problem when it comes to space, and if it is then you can mount it to your display to get it out of the way.

Here's more info on my main display:

NEC PA322UHD-BK-SV 32" 4k Display at Amazon and at B&H (review)

Performance

Here's unedited iPhone video of me turning on my Intel NUC Kit NUC6i7KYK Mini PC with fast boot enabled and legacy boot turned off after 1 year of use with no disk degrag and 126 GB free disk space (40 seconds):

Here's unedited iPhone video of me restarting my Intel NUC Kit NUC6i7KYK Mini PC with fast boot enabled and legacy boot turned off after 1 year of use with no disk degrag and 126 GB free disk space (18 seconds):

What about Photoshop?

Here's a video I did that shows how fast Photoshop and some image files (including one that's over 700 MB) took to open:

NOTE: Please excuse my error in the video - I meant to say 10 bits per color channel, not 8. Read here to see why 30-bit (10-bit per channel) is a big deal.

I've been using this set up for over a year and edited countless files, and I've never found performance to be a problem. Because my work includes reviewing cameras, I've used the Nikon D800, D810, Sony a7R, a7R II, Canon 5Ds and 5DsR and their large files haven't been a problem for me either.

Lightroom performs well too, but for confidentiality reasons I am not able to provide a good demo. What I can say is that my catalogs are created for each calendar year and contain 35,00 - 45,000 images all living on my external NAS, and I've never been bothered by the performance.

A note about Photoshop performance & Plug-ins

90% of your boot time for Photoshop is loading your plug-ins. For the record, I load A LOT of plug-ins so if your list is smaller than this then your boot time will be faster:

Ron's Photoshop Plug-ins July 9, 2017

What about creating video?

I don't do much video so I can't comment a whole lot, but I can say that my typical 5 minute blog videos generally take about 10 minutes to render via WMV - much faster (around 2 minutes) if I'm only doing 1080p MP4. There are a lot of variables so your performance will vary. This machine can certainly handle video, but you'll want to be doing something else while it renders because it's not breakneck fast.

Is 512GB storage enough? Where do you keep your photos?

I use a Synology 1515+ with 16 terabytes of a usable space for my photo storage needs plus a ioSafe DS1515+ (review includes Synology details) for redundant data protection as mentioned in my Scott Kelby article

99.9% of my photos get loaded directly off and saved to the NAS as part of my workflow and that hasn't been a performance problem that has ever bothered me.

What about your laptop?

I use a Surface Pro 4 as my laptop, and I own a Mid 2015 i7 based Retina 15" Macbook Pro that I use for blog videos. I love them both, but I prefer the Surface Pro for the weight and Windows Hello for logging in. However, I don't do much photo editing on either, I use my NUC 99% of the time. That said, when I have edited photos on both of them I haven't had any issues, so I'd say I'm happy with both.

Conclusion

Yes, using a tower system with multiple SSD drives as I had done in the past is faster. However, I'm extremely happy with this much smaller, quieter, more reliable and cheaper system than ones I've purchased in the past from Alienware, Dell, Gateway, and more.

Drivers have been reliable and updates are issued more often than I need or want them, but that's a good thing. I haven't updated in months and my system has been rock solid (no blue screens or any problems whatsoever).

Windows 10 can be a little sluggish in Explorer sometimes for reasons I can't fully understand, but Devices & Printers and the Settings control panel always open instantly on the builds I'm using. Office and Outlook run extremely well too (and I have all mail dating back to 2009 loaded locally).

Geek Stuff

All of the NUC's feature the Visual BIOS which is the most beautiful BIOS I've ever used in my 30 year high tech career, and Intel has been awesome about making updates easy with the driver update utility 2.8.1.9 shown:

Intel Driver Update Utility 2.8.1.9

Where to Buy?

CLICK HERE to learn more or buy today. Intel has also has a great NUC website here, and

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Wednesday, November 30, 2016

MINI-REVIEW: Canon PRO-1000 & PRO-2000

Canon PRO-1000 17" Photo Printer

If you've followed my printing series, you know that I love printing quite a bit and that I've got a lot of time invested in both Canon and Epson printers. Both brands have their strengths and weaknesses, but I'm so excited about my two new printers that I had to write a quick blurb before the reviews are ready.

PRO-1000 Early Thoughts

Epson 80ml ink

Canon LUCIA PRO 80ml ink

While I am disappointed that it lacks the roll support that my Epson SureColor P800 offers, and the larger ink set on the Canon (12 vs 8) means higher ink costs, so far that's where my concerns have ended. With excellent build quality, a much more durable finish that looks fantastic, and most importantly gorgeous prints sent seamlessly over wifi, I've been very happy in my early testing with this printer.

All of the ICC profiles I've tested for this printer from Canon, Red River Paper, and Ilford have been excellent so far.

PRO-2000 Thoughts

Canon PRO-2000 24" Photo Printer with Optional Multi-Function Roll

I loved the prints I got from my iPF6300 and I loved the hard drive feature of the iPF6450, but the quality of the ICC profiles created for the 6450 never matched the quality that I enjoyed with the 6300. This meant that if I wanted a good print, I had to go through the effort of generating the profile myself.

For the PRO-2000, the print quality has been excellent and all of the ICC profiles I've tried so far have been very good. I did have one for the Ilford Galerie Prestige Smooth Pearl 310gsm paper that was slightly darker than I think it should have been, but the PRO-1000 profile was great so I think this was an anomaly. All of the Canon and Lexjet profiles have been great too.

The optional multi-function roll support has been fantastic and loading sheet paper has gone very well so far. However, the biggest news here is that the phenomenally improved unibody construction makes this printer significantly more stable (and heavy) resulting in less movement and noise than its predecessors. This is a good thing and the looks of this printer just puts a smile on my face every time I walk into my studio - it's stunning to look at!

Features Video

Here's a great video that Canon did that shows how sweet these printer are, and much more is to come from me when I do my official reviews:

Black & White

Black & White support is on par with Epson Advanced Black & White (ABW)

One thing that Canon has always done an excellent job with is black and white prints, and the chroma optimizer makes those blacks look even more incredible.

The new Print Shop Pro software is like a scaled down RIP that replaces my beloved Canon Export Module, but you get to this one off the Automate menu in Photoshop to create print jobs with more features than the export module supported. Sadly it lacks the roll preview feature, but I'm getting used to it despite some quirks.

Pattern Print (aka Print Variations) lives on in both color and B&W

Initially I thought my beloved variations / print pattern feature was gone, but it's alive and well in both color and black and white modes. As usual it does better with big prints vs smaller sheets, but I got up to 45 thumbnails on a letter size sheet (not that you can see squat but it's possible).

PRO-1000 almost equals the PRO-2000

Other than size, ink capacity and roll support, these printers seem to behave identically in every way. The software and print results have been identical which is a good thing for people who like to have a dedicated sheet printer to go with their big roll printers (which is great if you can afford it as you don't have to fight the curls on smaller prints).

Both supported easy to setup wireless and wired network printing. The PRO-1000 does have the added support for integrating with Google Cloud print and AirPrint, so that makes it handy for every day jobs as well. The PRO-1000 also features a night mode to make it a little quieter at night, but neither one made enough noise to wake my 13 month old daughter in an adjacent room with the doors open, so I wouldn't consider either model to be noisy.

I'm thrilled to have this combo in my studio!