[250-300] Office rig for graphic design

Whytey · 24 Mar 2015 at 17:00

Looking to build two identical rigs for creating graphics, and general office tasks nothing too expensive at the moment around £250-300.
I haven't built a rig in quite a few years so i'm not too sure what to go for e.g. AMD/Intel ATI/Nvidia. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Borealis · 24 Mar 2015 at 17:30

What graphics system do you use and what's your budget?

Whytey · 24 Mar 2015 at 17:36

We're on the bare minimum at the moment. So i don't particularly want to spend any more than £300.
I'm not too sure about the GPU. My home system uses a 5850. Not sure would would compare to that now or whats better..

Danny75 · 24 Mar 2015 at 17:58

Any OS/monitor/peripherals/particular storage size requirements?

Borealis · 24 Mar 2015 at 20:17

What I meant to say was what graphic design software do you use?

I work in 3D design and most software is CPU/memory heavy, rather than graphics card dependant.

Whytey · 24 Mar 2015 at 20:26

Photoshop, Illustrator etc..

Borealis · 24 Mar 2015 at 20:48

Ok, so you don't need a workstation class graphics card then - just checking. Our workstations can get away with onboard graphics, as rendering is more CPU/RAM intensive. What hardware do you have at the moment?

An i5+mobo will be around the £225-£275 mark, so if you can get away without changing other hardware, you may be able to stay in budget.

Whytey · 24 Mar 2015 at 21:00

Not sure on the mobo/ram/psu

Borealis · 24 Mar 2015 at 21:04

If it's a DDR3 mobo, you can re-use the RAM. Ideally, wou want at least 8GB for graphic design work though, then an i5/mobo combo on top. An SSD will seriously speed things up as well. If you change the mobo, you'll need to reinstall Windows.

Robert_G · 25 Mar 2015 at 08:44

Borealis said:
If it's a DDR3 mobo, you can re-use the RAM. Ideally, wou want at least 8GB for graphic design work though, then an i5/mobo combo on top. An SSD will seriously speed things up as well. If you change the mobo, you'll need to reinstall Windows.

He could use Paragon Adaptive Restore to save having to re-install windows.

Borealis · 25 Mar 2015 at 09:18

I've never used that program but it's an option.

gradyhawks · 25 Mar 2015 at 10:09

What I would have if I had to build some office PC's. In love with the case, its a hot box if you need a GPU, but chances are you don't need one for photoshop. Chance SSD for HDD if you need more space.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte H97M-D3H Intel H97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £59.99
1 x Crucial BX100 120GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT120BX100SSD1) £54.98
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 350W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £41.99
1 x Raijintek Metis*- Green Mini ITX Case £31.99
Total : £315.53 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Borealis · 25 Mar 2015 at 10:29

I'd agree that's a good spec for the budget. Onboard graphics should be perfectly adequate for what the OP needs.

The newer versions of Photoshop/Lightroom definitely make use of multi-threading, so this build gives the option of upgrading to an i3/i5/i7 later on if funds become available.

What CPU do you have at the moment?

moppy89 · 25 Mar 2015 at 10:32

Could even upgrade the PSU slightly so you can add in a GPU later if you need to, doubt you will however.

Whytey · 26 Mar 2015 at 16:09

Thanks for the spec @gradyhawks how does that CPU compare to the old i3 from a few years ago? i'm currently running that.

Danny75 · 26 Mar 2015 at 17:08

gradyhawks said:
What I would have if I had to build some office PC's. In love with the case, its a hot box if you need a GPU, but chances are you don't need one for photoshop. Chance SSD for HDD if you need more space.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte H97M-D3H Intel H97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £59.99
1 x Crucial BX100 120GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT120BX100SSD1) £54.98
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 350W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £41.99
1 x Raijintek Metis*- Green Mini ITX Case £31.99
Total : £315.53 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Borealis said:
I'd agree that's a good spec for the budget.

Whytey said:
Thanks for the spec @gradyhawks how does that CPU compare to the old i3 from a few years ago? i'm currently running that.

Guys, that motherboard does not fit in that case.

Whytey · 27 Mar 2015 at 17:28

Any good alternatives that will fit, around the same price?

Danny75 · 27 Mar 2015 at 18:26

Whytey said:
Any good alternatives that will fit, around the same price?

These three ITX are the cheapest OcUK stock:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI H97I AC Intel H97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £79.99
1 x ASRock B85M-ITX Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ITX Motherboard £65.99
1 x Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £58.99
Total : £217.87 (includes shipping : £10.75).

The Crucial SSD is no longer on the website for some reason. Could replace with Hynix.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI H97I AC Intel H97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £79.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x SK Hynix 128GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS128G32MNB-2201A) £44.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 350W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £41.99
1 x Raijintek Metis*- Green Mini ITX Case £31.99
Total : £316.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Micro-ATX alternative:

YOUR BASKET
1 x BitFenix Phenom MATX Cube Case - Midnight Black £64.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x SK Hynix 128GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS128G32MNB-2201A) £44.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 350W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £41.99
1 x Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
Total : £315.04 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Bit of overclocking should be possible with both motherboards if you flash the latest BIOS (or one that allows O/C), to get the best out of the Pentium-K. Otherwise save money and get a non-K.

Micro-ATX with 250GB SSD for same price:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £72.98
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 350W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £41.99
1 x Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
1 x Cooler Master N200 NSE-200-KKN1 Midi-Tower - Black £36.95
Total : £314.39 (includes shipping : £11.25).

Micro-ATX with 250GB SSD and i3 (with hyperthreading that may be more useful):

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4160 3.60GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £95.99
1 x Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £72.98
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
1 x EVGA 430W 80 Plus Power Supply (100-W1-0430-KR) £32.99
1 x Zalman T3 Micro -ATX Case USB 3.0 - Black £16.99
Total : £317.53 (includes shipping : £8.00).

And one more, to get an i5 in (but with 120GB SSD):

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel Core i5 DIY Micro ATX Motherboard, CPU & RAM Bundle £228.97
1 x SK Hynix 128GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS128G32MNB-2201A) £44.99
1 x EVGA 430W 80 Plus Power Supply (100-W1-0430-KR) £32.99
1 x Zalman T3 Micro -ATX Case USB 3.0 - Black £16.99
Total : £333.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Whytey · 29 Mar 2015 at 23:01

We're thinking about going with the i3 build. Do you think that would be the fastest build overall?

Danny75 · 30 Mar 2015 at 18:01

Whytey said:
We're thinking about going with the i3 build. Do you think that would be the fastest build overall?

i5.

But if using OpenCL, a Kaveri would be faster (unless you added a discrete GPU) for Photoshop/Illustrator.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Kaveri 7700K 10 Compute Core APU w/ Radeon R7 Graphics (4 CPU + 6 GPU Compute Cores) - Retail £99.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £49.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A88XM-HD3 AMD A88X (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £49.99
1 x SK Hynix 128GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS128G32MNB-2201A) £44.99
1 x EVGA 430W 80 Plus Power Supply (100-W1-0430-KR) £32.99
1 x Zalman T3 Micro -ATX Case USB 3.0 - Black £16.99
Total : £304.50 (includes shipping : £8.00).

So what you have to consider is if you'll be upgrading at all (adding a GPU), as you'll end up with better performance with Intel + GPU (say an R7 260X or so). Otherwise Kaveri.