Paul Greechan, 36, of Law Road, appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court and admitted to his hoard of vile content, collected over many years.
The offending material, included more than 1100 in category ‘A’, the classification for the most serious images.
He admitted that between November 16, 2009 and March 6, last year, he downloaded indecent images of children.
Also, that between the same dates he was in possession of indecent images of children.
The court was told a search warrant was executed by police at 8.35am and devices were seized.
Greechan was arrested and when interviewed he spoke openly and admitted he had an interest in looking at sexual images of children.
On the various devices, there were videos with a total running time of 454 hours.
Defence solicitor Elaine Buist said her client lives with his brother and is in employment.
Sheriff John MacRitchie imposed a community payback order with three years of supervision and 175 hours of unpaid work.
Greechan was put on the sex offenders register for three years.
The sheriff told Greechan: “I’m giving you a chance even though you’ve clearly you’ve passed the custodial threshold.”
He said a mitigating factor was Greechan admitting he had a problem and needed assistance with it.