How much should I spend on a 'General Use' pc?

[lumencreative]

Usually use Macs (my main computer being a MacBook Pro) but I'm now looking for a computer to do general office related tasks and also some light photoshop work (mainly resizing images, etc).

I'm just wondering how much I should spend on a PC for these uses and what sort of spec I should be looking at. Would it be worth getting a used skt1155 pc instead of buying new?

 

[ShivP]

Depends what the 1155 PC specs are...

For a general use PC if you looked around £400 you could get an i3/i5 with 8GB RAM perhaps which should work okay for light photoshop and be snappy, along with an SSD and you'll be laughing Even a Pentium would be fine

 

[edscdk]

you should be able to get a 3rd gen i3 system for not much over £130 second hand, just upgrade the ram and put in a SSD

 

[Danny75]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4150 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £92.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x SK Hynix 128GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS128G32MNB-2201A) £49.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £49.99
1 x Gigabyte H81M-D2V Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
1 x Antec VP350P 350W '80 Plus' Continuous Power Supply £31.99
1 x Raijintek Arcadia Mid Tower USB 3.0 Case - Black £24.95
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £9.49
Total : £387.98 (includes shipping : £8.00).




Something like that. Add a mechanical drive with the storage size you need. Get a B85 motherboard with four memory slots if you think there's a chance you'll need more RAM in future.

Cut down on the i3 if you want as a Pentium will probably be fine.

Compare with the price of a used 1155 based PC and see if it's worth it or not (factor in warranty and whether or not it has an SSD).

 

[joeyjojo]

For office and photoshop you could go as low as £200 for the whole unit with an AMD Kabini APU. Including a SSD. If you get an i3 you're probably overspending.

See e.g. http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18650421&highlight=kabini

 

[stulid]

Yes Kabini is perfect for this usage.

 

[lumencreative]

Thanks for all the comments. I'll have a look at the AMD Kabini as hadn't heard of that before.

I have been looking at what's around and I can get a used Dell Optiplex with a Pentium G840 for around £75 delivered. Could throw an SSD in there and add some extra memory and have a nice little PC. Could then upgrade the CPU when I have extra cash.