Another PC Build

Bali_N · 23 Jul 2014 at 20:11

Hi,

I'm looking to build a computer and have a budget of £900. It will mainly be used for heavy photoshop work, some light gaming and university work. I'm definitely wanting 16GB ram and a 256GB SSD. I just want some advice on what sort of rig can be built for this price with these items in mind.

Thanks in advance.

RJC · 23 Jul 2014 at 20:19

A little over:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 280 TurboDUO 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD316G2133HC11ADC01) £119.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97-D3H Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £89.99
1 x Intel 335 Series 20nm 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail (SSDSC2CT240A4K5) £79.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black (CC-9011017-WW) £69.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £46.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £42.98
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
Total : £914.86 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Bali_N · 23 Jul 2014 at 20:35

d'you reckon it's necessary to have an i7 for photoshop work?

stulid · 23 Jul 2014 at 20:40

YOUR BASKET
1 x EPIC BUNDLE: Intel 4790K, Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7, Kingston 16GB 2400MHz Kit, Superflower 750W PSU & FREE STUFF!! **£50 SAVING** £559.92
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 280 TurboDUO 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Intel 335 Series 20nm 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail (SSDSC2CT240A4K5) £79.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £41.98
1 x Raijintek Agos Midi Tower - Black £39.95
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
Total : £901.42 (includes shipping : £8.00).

• 4 year warranty with this Gigabyte board, quality sound and does SLI/Crossfire at 8X/8X

• PSU is reeady for a 2nd GFX card too.

RJC · 23 Jul 2014 at 20:41

You can drop to the i5 but the budget allows for the i7 this should give a performance boost - I can drop the to a i5 and increase the graphics power.

Bali_N · 23 Jul 2014 at 20:45

Thanks for the quick reply. What's your recommendation with an i5 and nvidia GPU?

Fallen god · 23 Jul 2014 at 22:28

I would look at an i5 + 290, the 290 is stupidly low priced now and its equal/better then the 780.

Bali_N · 24 Jul 2014 at 19:12

Thanks for the info. I'm going to look into it a little more.

tamzzy · 24 Jul 2014 at 19:57

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X Rev2.0 WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Battlefie (GX-122-GI) £169.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD316G2133HC11ADC01) £129.95
1 x Intel 335 Series 20nm 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail (SSDSC2CT240A4K5) £79.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97-HD3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £79.99
1 x NZXT Hale Power 90+ 550W '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £43.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £41.98
1 x Zalman Z3-Plus Midi-Tower - White £39.95
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-14 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
Total : £910.73 (includes shipping : £19.10).

as you'd be doing heavy ps work, a 4790k is a no brainer really.
specced a b-grade 280x (you get the remainder of the warranty via gigabyte using the card's serial number, so win-win. cheaper gpu and still with warranty)
but depending on which ps and plug-ins you use, getting a nvidia card may be better as some plug-ins and older ps versions make use of cuda

Fallen god · 24 Jul 2014 at 20:59

Maybe something like this if you want a better GPU for gaming, PSU is enough for a 2nd 290 down the line.

290 review

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £269.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD316G2133HC11ADC01) £129.95
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Gigabyte Z97-D3H Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £89.99
1 x Intel 335 Series 20nm 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail (SSDSC2CT240A4K5) £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £42.98
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
Total : £932.42 (includes shipping : £8.00).