Can someone clear up a couple of things for me?

Human?

Human?

Human?

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Hi all

n00b here, so be gentle!

I need a PC for Photoshop (processing large numbers of photographs) work, and I'm contemplating firing some extra money at the build and getting myself some gaming oomph at the same time, rather than throw the money at a next gen console in the next year or so.

Now I know that a PC will need upgrading over time esp from a gaming point of view, but there are varying opinions on exactly how often. I know it's probably a case of 'how long is a piece of string' but i'd be interested to head peoples opinions.

Also (and again I have googled but opinions do vary dramatically), and I'm sure this is the number one n00b question on any PC forum, but can a decent Photoshop / Gaming build (minus monitor, OS , and peripherals ) be built for around £750?

As I said, I know it's a minefield, but this place seems to be a little more intelligent than other forums I've floated about on, so I'm hoping for some good responses!
 
£750 you could do quite well. However I recon you could be looking to upgrade within 2 years. Maybe even a year depending on next gen games.

Also what level of photoshop are we talking here? People use it in different ways from taking out red eye to full on creating art. (Probably some things I haven't even thought of before as well). Depending on the level of use can drastically vary what hardware isdeemed as adaquet for it.
 
Cocky-Roach said:
Will be better off asking here http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=8
Click to expand...

Ah, ok thanks. Maybe a kind MOD could move it for me?

Mynight said:
£750 you could do quite well. However I recon you could be looking to upgrade within 2 years. Maybe even a year depending on next gen games.

Also what level of photoshop are we talking here? People use it in different ways from taking out red eye to full on creating art. (Probably some things I haven't even thought of before as well). Depending on the level of use can drastically vary what hardware isdeemed as adaquet for it.
Click to expand...

I'd be using Photoshop for processing RAW files (nothing too complex, but there could be a large number of them). I wouldn't be doing anything particularity intensive like digital art etc.

See, the thought of having to upgrade a £750 PC within a couple of years to keep up, is one of the things that puts me off having a PC as my gaming machine.
 
I should extend my answer somewhat based on your response.

If your just processing raw files you could get away with a decent cpu and say 16gb of ram(if there is lots of them).

How important are graphics to you? I have a 7970 and it looks to be strong for another year maybe 2(I`m a high quality graphics whore haha). If youre willing to go for lower quality graphics (majority of games even low settings look better than console) you could most likely extend 2 years to 4 even 5.

Even then you could pick up last gen gpu for significantly less than a current gen one and be playing games at high settings. For example before the litecoin mining kicked off the 7970 could be had for £200 even less on auction sites and its not much slower than the current generation cards.

What is your current pc? Just wondering if theres something we can reuse.
 
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Yeah, it's just RAW files (5DMkiii so they're big, but not huge).

Graphics are fairly important, I mean I know that my budget is mid range at best, and that I'm not going to get the same as if I was blowing a couple of grand on a system, but I'd hate to build this system, and then in a couple of years see the new consoles pull ahead dramatically.

I think if the next gen consoles weren't here this would be a much easier decision, but they really have put a spanner in the works!
 
O dont worry if thats your fear. I may be biased somewhat but even the latest gen consoles are not better than low/mid range pc of a year or so ago.

Somthing like this;

YOUR BASKET
1 x "AMD X8 Defender" AMD FX-8 8350 3.5GHz (4.0GHz Turbo) Eight Core Gaming PC £380.00
- 1 x Standard Build Systems - Dispatched within 7 working days £0.00
- 1 x 24 MONTH WARRANTY - COLLECT & RETURN £0.01
- 1 x No Operating System £0.00
- 1 x BitFenix Shadow Tower Case - Midnight Black £54.98
- 1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £53.99
- 1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD £41.99
- 1 x No Second Hard Drive Option (ZERO Cost) £0.00
- 1 x No Sound Card Upgrade £0.00
- 1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £161.99
Total : £713.96 (includes shipping : £17.50).




You could save a bit by building it yourself with different parts. You could stick another tb hard drive in and would be on your budget. Or even double the ram. If youre processing images is a sequential way then 8gb would be fine in my opinion if youre processing them concurrently then look at 16gb of ram.
 
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Upgrading at the start of the generation it's difficult to predict exactly how things are going to pan out, your system might last 4 years but I think realistically you'd be looking for a new graphics card within 2 (if you want to stay on the cutting edge, if you're happy with 'high-very high' settings rather than 'ultra-maxed out' you'll be fine for a while longer.

I know nothing about what sort of PC is best for photo editing work, I'd guess it's pretty much the same as a PC gaming.
 
Get yourself as many "real" cores as you can afford on the CPU within your budget, an 8 core AMD can save you some cash here, 16gb or more ram, doesn't matter if it's the fastest, 1600mhz+ will do and the best gpu within your budget that has decent opencl support. That will give you a responsive photoshop rig.

Slap at least a small ssd in there for an os drive and a big mechanical for the storage.

Use that as your basis and just increase the CPU / gpu spec until it hits your max budget.

I use photoshop a lot too!
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x "AMD X8 Defender" AMD FX-8 8350 3.5GHz (4.0GHz Turbo) Eight Core Gaming PC £380.00
- 1 x Standard Build Systems - Dispatched within 7 working days £0.00
- 1 x 24 MONTH WARRANTY - COLLECT & RETURN £0.01
- 1 x No Operating System £0.00
- 1 x BitFenix Shadow Tower Case - Midnight Black £54.98
- 1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £53.99
- 1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
- 1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
- 1 x No Sound Card Upgrade £0.00
- 1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £161.99
Total : £767.95 (includes shipping : £17.50).




That would be very nice :) Some reason its not showing the 16gb of ram only showing 8gb. That is the correct price with 16gb though.
 
I've got myself on a 5ish year cycle. I've found that completley rebuilding my rig every 5 or so years, and giving it a gpu upgrade every 2.5ish years (ie 50% of the way into a build cycle) gives me a nice balance of top end power, without having to spend a small fortune.

I built the rig in my sig a little over a year ago, my guess is that in another 18 months ill sell the two 660's and replace them with something like an 880 or 970 (assuming nvidia keep the same kind of numbering). I'm hoping that doing that will see me out until the start of 2017.
 
Guys thanks for all the responses.

I should add that I do need a PSU with the build. At the moment I'm just using a laptop plugged into an external screen to edit.

With regard to the build itself, is there any point in going for an intel CPU at this price point, or is AMD a better bet?

To be honest part of me still thinks I'd be better just plumping for a basic editing PC and then grabbing a console for gaming, but then everyone I speak to says that PC gaming is just a better overall experience.

I'm pretty serious about my gaming, so its' hard to know what direction to go in.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x "Titan 410i Machete" Intel Core i7 4770K @ 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) Haswell Quad Core Gaming PC £600.00
- 1 x Standard Build Systems - Dispatched within 7 working days £0.00
- 1 x 24 MONTH WARRANTY - COLLECT & RETURN £0.01
- 1 x No Operating System £0.00
- 1 x BitFenix Shadow Tower Case - Midnight Black £54.98
- 1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
- 1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
- 1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £161.99
- 1 x No Sound Card Upgrade £0.00
Total : £935.16 (includes shipping : £18.50).



Going by a site I just checked that ^^ intel is the closest in performance. Single threaded applications it would kill the 8350 but if I am correct (I think so) the 8350 would easily outperform in multicore applications like photoshop and if pc gaming will follow consoles (usually does) then multiple cores will be well supported in the upcoming games.

I only traded to intel on my latest build 2 months ago due to certain applications were screaming for more single core grunt/AMD isnt as compatible with running mac OSX.

Until then I was more than happy with my amd 955BE for almost 4 years. So I'm not really a fanboy of either as far as I`m concerned buy whats needed regardless of branding.


PSUs are included in the ones ive linked. Has everything you could need bar what youve stated you already have (monitor,os and keyboard/mouse).

You can get a gamepad (or even use a 360 controller) for pcs. So in my opinion theres little that consoles have going for them bar the game titles they restrict for themselves.
 
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If your doing massive repetitive batch photoshop work a "true" 8 core will out perform an intel 4 core with hyper threading but it depends on your pipeline. If your loading single files, editing them and saving them out, manually, then it doesn't really matter, a faster clocked intel would probably be better.

The opencl support on the gpu will give you a massive boost in some photoshop operations.

In my experience you'll be fine with something like a 4 core intel, 770/280x type gpu and 16gb ram if your photoshop stuff doesn't involve batch work and that will fit in your budget and game well.

If your having to batch process in photoshop then get the AMD CPU as it will be working on a lot of threads at the same time.
 
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