New PC for Photoshop use

Blue_Seas

So I currently have a mac mini, about 5 years old, using bootcamp and I use Windows 7 as my OS mainly, mac side is just for iTunes.

I am hoping someone could help me with a recommendation for a new PC, one that will run Photoshop smoothly and allow for me to do digital art and photo editing. I am an artist, so it's not just editing the contrast on some personal pics for facebook profiles!

I would also like to do some very light gaming, and by that I mean the Sims 3 and 2 at their highest graphical settings, however beefing up the graphics to play some newer games (Skyrim possibly, although I don't necessarily need it to be at the highest settings) or if the Sims is updated in the future, is something I'd consider.

I don't know an awful lot about PCs but I'm guessing I need a good graphics card, decent amount of RAM. I have not built any PCs before and would be willing to pay a company to do so, although I might know some people who could help me build one.

I have a monitor, although could get a new one, have Windows 7 32-bit, mouse and old keyboard. Would bootcamp a mac to get Windows if it meant it was cheaper but I doubt there's any room for updating a graphics card or ram in macs.

Budget is under 700 euro.

Any help would be appreciated

Serephucus

If you could fill this out, it would be a great help.

Blue_Seas

1. What is your budget? 500-700 euro

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Digital drawing and editing (photoshop), playing Sims 3/2/1 on highest possible settings

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Have Windows 7 32 bit

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No

5. Do you need a monitor? No

5a. If yes, what size do you need. [19'/20'/22'/24'/etc.]

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [1920x1080/1440x900/etc.] Possible upgrade, will check resolution

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Keyboard/Mouse/Wireless Card/Card Reader/Speakers/etc.]

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? No

8. How can you pay? Debit Card, Paypal

9. When are you purchasing? Over the Summer

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Dublin, Castleknock area

Serephucus

If you're buying it over the Summer, come back then. Things will have changed a lot. There'll be new motherboards, processors, graphics cards... there's a new generation of pretty much everything coming in the next three months (ish).

Blue_Seas

Any current ideas then? I'm not looking for a top-end machine I don't think, not enough money, so even if I had an idea now of what to get it would help!

Serephucus

i5 2400, 8GB RAM, H61 motherboard, 6750 graphics card, all the other usual junk.

Blue_Seas

Would a prebuilt machine be any good or should I be looking in to getting a custom build?

Serephucus

Custom, always custom. It works out a fair bit cheaper, the components are usually of much better quality, and you'll usually get a better warranty too.

Blue_Seas

Thank you!
So for getting a custom build what would you recommend? Intel i5, and 8GB Ram, and a 6750 graphics card. Is that a Radeon one? I am not the best when it comes to computer parts, apologies if I get some basic stuff incorrect!

Serephucus

No, I would recommend:

i5 3500K, Z77 motherboard, 8GB RAM, Radeon HD7950 graphics.

Three of these four aren't out yet, but they will be by the Summer, and offer significant advantages to the other parts I listed earlier, that's why if you're going to buy around Summer time, you'd do yourself a huge favour to wait.

Blue_Seas

I've never built a PC before. Whether doing it now or in a few months during the Summer, what parts do I need? If you had the time would you be able to give me a rough guide, like a list of a few cases, then motherboards, hard drives, fans, everything really. I know that's a lot to ask but I'd like to have an idea of what I'm saving towards in the coming months.
If that's too much to ask I understand!

Serephucus

I'd be happy to do that, but hardware changes extremely fast in the tech world. In three months, you could have a graphics card with 50% more power for the same price as one now. You could have a CPU that gives you 10% more performance for half the power, and much nicer cases, bigger hard drives, etc.

Best advice is to come back when you're a week or so from ordering parts, then I'd be happy to go through the whole lot with you and help you out. I could do the same now, but I grantee you, virtually all the parts will have changed come Summer time.

Tij da feen

Blue_Seas wrote: »

I've never built a PC before. Whether doing it now or in a few months during the Summer, what parts do I need? If you had the time would you be able to give me a rough guide, like a list of a few cases, then motherboards, hard drives, fans, everything really. I know that's a lot to ask but I'd like to have an idea of what I'm saving towards in the coming months.
If that's too much to ask I understand!

-Just go to a site like dabs or newegg and have a look around the cases etc. You'll be looking for an ATX destop mid sized tower.

-Can't link to the motherboards since you'd want to wait and see what comes out but you'll be looking for a 1155 socket(CPU Socket)

-For the HDD you'll be looking at either an SSD + mechanical HDD combo or just a mechanical drive. SSD greatly speed up booting times and loading of applications etc but you pay a lot for little space.

-For RAM you'd want 8GB of DDR3(the standard these days). Speed of the RAM doesn't really factor in much.

-Fans come pre-installed in the case and it's unlikely you'd need to add more, you might want to get a CPU cooler if you want to get some nice overclocks.

-You'd be looking at getting a decent 450-550w PSU depending on what graphics card you chose.

-On the graphics side you'd most likely be getting a 7850 or something.

It's hard to actually post a spec right now since a new line of CPU's and GPU's are on the way. Prices also fluctuate and hopefully the prices of HDDs will have dropped a bit more.

If you want a good instructional video on how to build a PC watch the newegg tutorial.

Blue_Seas

Thanks so much for the help! I was taking a look a CCLonline, they have a service where they make your custom build for you. Would that be worth it?

I understand what you're saying about upgrades and such, however I liked the interface on this site and was able to put together something (I think!). It's just an idea for now, I can always upgrade certain parts when it comes to buying, but the total currently comes to 774 pounds or 928 euro, which is quite a bit over my budget.

If I chose these same parts in the Summer, would there be enough price difference for it to be within my budget? I could post the specific parts and you could suggest cheaper alternatives too, although I'd like to work with this site if possible as they offer a build service.

Blue_Seas

Was actually able to make it a little cheaper, comes to 703 GBP or 840 euro, which I might be able to do if I was to penny pinch!

Here's what I'm getting in case anyone's interested or could tell me whether certain things will be better value in Summer/I could choose a different part


Cooler Master Elite 335 ATX Case (Black)
Arctic Cooling Arctic Fan 9 PWN
OCZ StealthXstream II 500W Power Supply
TP-Link TL-WN781ND 150Mbps Wireless Lite N PCI Express Adaptor
Intel Core i5-2400 3.1GHz Quad Core Processor
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB (7200rpm) SATA 6Gb/s 16MB 3.5 inch Hard Drive
Corsair Vengeance Performance Memory 8GB
60GB OCZ Vertex 3 2.5" Solid State Drive
Sony 24x Int DVD-RAM SATA Black Bare
ASUS ENGTX560 Ti DC/2DI/1GD5 DirectCU 1GB Graphics Card
ASUS Axe Square Amazing Series CPU Cooler
Asus P8H61-MX Socket 1155 Motherboard

Now I can't actually tell if the "Arctic Cooling Arctic Fan 9 PWN" is part of the Cooler Master case...

FlyingIrishMan

Blue_Seas wrote: »

Was actually able to make it a little cheaper, comes to 703 GBP or 840 euro, which I might be able to do if I was to penny pinch!

Here's what I'm getting in case anyone's interested or could tell me whether certain things will be better value in Summer/I could choose a different part


Cooler Master Elite 335 ATX Case (Black)
Arctic Cooling Arctic Fan 9 PWN
OCZ StealthXstream II 500W Power Supply
TP-Link TL-WN781ND 150Mbps Wireless Lite N PCI Express Adaptor
Intel Core i5-2400 3.1GHz Quad Core Processor
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB (7200rpm) SATA 6Gb/s 16MB 3.5 inch Hard Drive
Corsair Vengeance Performance Memory 8GB
60GB OCZ Vertex 3 2.5" Solid State Drive
Sony 24x Int DVD-RAM SATA Black Bare
ASUS ENGTX560 Ti DC/2DI/1GD5 DirectCU 1GB Graphics Card
ASUS Axe Square Amazing Series CPU Cooler
Asus P8H61-MX Socket 1155 Motherboard

Now I can't actually tell if the "Arctic Cooling Arctic Fan 9 PWN" is part of the Cooler Master case...

Same build is around 750+30euro shipping on hardwareversand.de
They also will build it for you for an extra 20euro too.
However they only take bank transfer (or paypal but there is a 3% tax).

Blue_Seas

Thank you!

I might use hardwareversand then, since it works out cheaper.

Quick question, I want the SSD for Windows, Photoshop and games. Would a 60 GB SSD drive be good enough for that, and when building would Windows be installed on the SSD drive for me?

In other words, I want the SSD as my primary drive, will 60 GB be enough and will hardwareversand install Windows there or on the HDD, and I would have to install Windows myself when I get it?

deconduo

Blue_Seas wrote: »

Thank you!

I might use hardwareversand then, since it works out cheaper.

Quick question, I want the SSD for Windows, Photoshop and games. Would a 60 GB SSD drive be good enough for that, and when building would Windows be installed on the SSD drive for me?

In other words, I want the SSD as my primary drive, will 60 GB be enough and will hardwareversand install Windows there or on the HDD, and I would have to install Windows myself when I get it?

HWVS will assemble it for €20. If you want them to install Windows + drivers its another €35. However if you're based in Dublin I'd be happy to do the whole thing for free.

I just built a system for someone else on boards for something very similar to what you want, just with no graphics card or SSD.

If all you want to run is the Sims 3 gamewise, a 6770 will max it at 1080p if you don't run any custom content. If you're into modding you might want something with a bit more power however.

Item|Price
Total build cost: €595.79 + €30 shipping
Intel Core i5-2400 Box, LGA1155|€170.51
ASRock H61M-HVS (B3), Sockel 1155, mATX|€42.83
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€32.34
Xigmatek Asgard III Midi Tower - black, ohne Netzteil|€32.41
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA|€16.04
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€41.76
Sapphire HD6770 1G GDDR5 PCI-E|€87.01
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€92.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB, SATA II (HD502HJ)|€79.90

Blue_Seas

deconduo wrote: »

HWVS will assemble it for €20. If you want them to install Windows + drivers its another €35. However if you're based in Dublin I'd be happy to do the whole thing for free.

I just built a system for someone else on boards for something very similar to what you want, just with no graphics card or SSD.

If all you want to run is the Sims 3 gamewise, a 6770 will max it at 1080p if you don't run any custom content. If you're into modding you might want something with a bit more power however.

Item|Price
Total build cost: €595.79 + €30 shipping
Intel Core i5-2400 Box, LGA1155|€170.51
ASRock H61M-HVS (B3), Sockel 1155, mATX|€42.83
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€32.34
Xigmatek Asgard III Midi Tower - black, ohne Netzteil|€32.41
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA|€16.04
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€41.76
Sapphire HD6770 1G GDDR5 PCI-E|€87.01
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€92.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB, SATA II (HD502HJ)|€79.90

Thank you for the build idea. I will be using Photoshop and other digital drawing tools, would I need a better graphics card for that? I was also wondering about buying two 60GB SSDs and then a decent size HDD, maybe 250 GB or so. Would I be able to install the OS on the first SSD as my C:/ drive, and Photoshop and Sims 3 and 2 on the second, then other files like music, schoolwork, iTunes and the previous Sims games (just the original Sims, veery basic stuff, wouldn't want it clogging my SSD ) on the HDD? Just for conserving space

Would that be too much? Ideally I'd like it around 600-800 euro, definitely not going over 850.

EDIT: I will be using custom content, definitely. For Sims 2 alone my CC folder had to be moved to an external hard drive. Haven't seen Sims 3 CC yet though because my current PC can't run it, even though I have the game