pc for my wife - budget

Auro · 13 Jul 2020 at 11:54

Hi there,
My wife needs a PC - study online and some lightroom/photoshop stuff.
And I don't know what to do ;D I have my old components in drawers but don't use them for about 6 years:
CPU - i7 920 revision D0
mobo - Asus p6t
RAM - ddr3 3x2GB OCZ - 1600MHz
GPU - Radeon R9 270
is it worth to invest in that spec? or should I buy a new platform? budget - the lower the better

For sure I will need SSD for OS + HDD, case, cooler, PSU, wifi card/dongle, maybe upgrade RAM but in that case, should I stay with the triple channel or go dual?

cheers.

pc-guy · 15 Jul 2020 at 22:36

Pretty sure those ram will struggle to cope with photoshop.

you might be better off having a look at a £500 laptop. Then you got all of them in a package and only thing you need is a laptops. Some of the ryzen 4000U laptops seem to offer decent value. Otherwise you can see if you can get 3000 series. Although intel laptops can be good options especially last next.

orbitalwalsh · 17 Jul 2020 at 10:05

Auro said:
Hi there,
My wife needs a PC - study online and some lightroom/photoshop stuff.
And I don't know what to do ;D I have my old components in drawers but don't use them for about 6 years:
CPU - i7 920 revision D0
mobo - Asus p6t
RAM - ddr3 3x2GB OCZ - 1600MHz
GPU - Radeon R9 270
is it worth to invest in that spec? or should I buy a new platform? budget - the lower the better

For sure I will need SSD for OS + HDD, case, cooler, PSU, wifi card/dongle, maybe upgrade RAM but in that case, should I stay with the triple channel or go dual?

cheers.

Ryzen APU (integrated graphics ) comes out seen, 21st. Might be worth waiting . Picking up 4600G with 6 cores/12 threads and decent on board graphics power would do lovely for Photoshop work etc .

Quartz · 17 Jul 2020 at 10:25

Auro said:
My wife needs a PC - study online and some lightroom/photoshop stuff.

How is your wife going to feel when she finds out that she has your 6YO cast-offs? For how long will you be sleeping on the couch?

Tattysnuc · 17 Jul 2020 at 11:39

I think she'd be more concerned that you're posting on the Overclockers forum under a heading that seems to imply that you're going to trade her for a PC

Vince · 17 Jul 2020 at 11:42

Invest a little bit and buy her something half decent. Recently built my wife a machine for work and managed to get b450, ryzen 2700x, 16gb 3200mhz and an nvme, case, watercooling etc all for less than £400 (most of it was second hand). Was actually a lot of fun throwing it together.

Tetras · 17 Jul 2020 at 17:39

Tattysnuc said:
I think she'd be more concerned that you're posting on the Overclockers forum under a heading that seems to imply that you're going to trade her for a PC

If she's only doing light workstation stuff, I'd just throw it together "as is" and see if she likes it. You've got to get the other stuff anyway so there's nothing to lose. If it seems like it's passable for her usage, then you can decide if it's worth investing in upgrading the memory. If you upgrade it, then go triple baby!