Hi all,
After an inordinate amount of huming and hawing I'm finally getting around to upgrading my home PC - i5 2500 (non k) from 2011. Mostly used for:
- hobbyist photo editing in Lightroom, with a little bit of Photoshop, maybe some basic video stuff in future
- Zwift
- maybe a bit of gaming in the future. These days I mostly game on the ipad when I snatch 10 mins by myself... ah, to be footloose and fancy free again
- ...erm that's about it really.
I work from home a lot and could use the PC for work, but I have a laptop w/docking station hooked up to same monitor as home PC, and the laptop is powerful enough for office software - no need to mess with that.
So the home PC is getting a bit slow. Lightroom and Photoshop are still mostly CPU-bound I think and various operations max out my CPU. My home PC runs Zwift ok, but a faster frame rate would be nice and I'd kind of like to play Elite or Total War Warhammer, maybe.
So an upgrade is not essential, but it's been on my mind for a while and I reckon a new system will last another 5 years, so let's go!
Here's my current system for reference.
Silverstone SG06-450
i5 2500 non k @3.3
Intel H67 mobo
16Gb RAM
Corsair GS 180Gb SSD for boot/Lightroom cache/scratch - always 80% full
Seagate Barracuda 500Gb for local storage - hardly used
NAS for photo/video/media storage
Basic DVD-Rom drive for ripping CDs
I built this myself, so I'm happy building up air-cooled systems. I went for a mini-ITX non-OC with this build, but the system sits under my desk so size isn't that important. I do want to OC a bit with the next build as long as I can keep things reasonably quiet.
Here are some questions and suggested options. Help and advice please. Budget up to £2k excluding monitor, keyboard, mouse, which I'm keeping.
Questions/thoughts - feel free to advise:
CPU - I'm pretty settled on 5820k as they seem better clockers than Broadwell-E and I fancy 6 cores, despite the fact that right now things I use aren't very well threaded.
Mobo - colour matched to build really as long as decent quality with decent OC ability - so Asus X99-AII if black/white build. Suggestions welcome!
Case - windowed and easy to use, with optical drive space, so Corsair Air540 White, or Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Tempered, or Fractal Define S. Bit lost here.
CPU Cooler - ooh, air or water. Head says Noctua U14S, heart says MORE POWER - so do I need water? I want quite quiet and low maintenance, but water looks so niiice. I'd spend an extra £150 or so on one of the EK kits (say X240?) or an EK Predator 240 (but would prefer clear tubing). I could fit the Predator myself. Not sure about the water kit - that would need Overclockers to build it for me.
PSU - EVGA P2 650W or SuperFlower equivalent? Can you get blingy braided cables for these?
Graphics card - Probably an RX480 when they're released. If anyone wants to give a spec then I suggest put a Geforce 970 for now as probably similar price to RX480?
Storage - Samsung 850 Evo U.2 500Gb? Maybe with a 256Gb 950/960 for boot/cache? I've read something about M.2 drives thermally throttling. True?
RAM - 16gb will be fine. 32Gb if a stonking deal. Something that fits the white/black theme. Mid-low range is fine. Suggestions welcome
Case fans - no idea. Suggestions please.
The door's open and I'm all ears so go for it!!
Cheers
After an inordinate amount of huming and hawing I'm finally getting around to upgrading my home PC - i5 2500 (non k) from 2011. Mostly used for:
- hobbyist photo editing in Lightroom, with a little bit of Photoshop, maybe some basic video stuff in future
- Zwift
- maybe a bit of gaming in the future. These days I mostly game on the ipad when I snatch 10 mins by myself... ah, to be footloose and fancy free again
- ...erm that's about it really.
I work from home a lot and could use the PC for work, but I have a laptop w/docking station hooked up to same monitor as home PC, and the laptop is powerful enough for office software - no need to mess with that.
So the home PC is getting a bit slow. Lightroom and Photoshop are still mostly CPU-bound I think and various operations max out my CPU. My home PC runs Zwift ok, but a faster frame rate would be nice and I'd kind of like to play Elite or Total War Warhammer, maybe.
So an upgrade is not essential, but it's been on my mind for a while and I reckon a new system will last another 5 years, so let's go!
Here's my current system for reference.
Silverstone SG06-450
i5 2500 non k @3.3
Intel H67 mobo
16Gb RAM
Corsair GS 180Gb SSD for boot/Lightroom cache/scratch - always 80% full
Seagate Barracuda 500Gb for local storage - hardly used
NAS for photo/video/media storage
Basic DVD-Rom drive for ripping CDs
I built this myself, so I'm happy building up air-cooled systems. I went for a mini-ITX non-OC with this build, but the system sits under my desk so size isn't that important. I do want to OC a bit with the next build as long as I can keep things reasonably quiet.
Here are some questions and suggested options. Help and advice please. Budget up to £2k excluding monitor, keyboard, mouse, which I'm keeping.
Questions/thoughts - feel free to advise:
CPU - I'm pretty settled on 5820k as they seem better clockers than Broadwell-E and I fancy 6 cores, despite the fact that right now things I use aren't very well threaded.
Mobo - colour matched to build really as long as decent quality with decent OC ability - so Asus X99-AII if black/white build. Suggestions welcome!
Case - windowed and easy to use, with optical drive space, so Corsair Air540 White, or Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Tempered, or Fractal Define S. Bit lost here.
CPU Cooler - ooh, air or water. Head says Noctua U14S, heart says MORE POWER - so do I need water? I want quite quiet and low maintenance, but water looks so niiice. I'd spend an extra £150 or so on one of the EK kits (say X240?) or an EK Predator 240 (but would prefer clear tubing). I could fit the Predator myself. Not sure about the water kit - that would need Overclockers to build it for me.
PSU - EVGA P2 650W or SuperFlower equivalent? Can you get blingy braided cables for these?
Graphics card - Probably an RX480 when they're released. If anyone wants to give a spec then I suggest put a Geforce 970 for now as probably similar price to RX480?
Storage - Samsung 850 Evo U.2 500Gb? Maybe with a 256Gb 950/960 for boot/cache? I've read something about M.2 drives thermally throttling. True?
RAM - 16gb will be fine. 32Gb if a stonking deal. Something that fits the white/black theme. Mid-low range is fine. Suggestions welcome
Case fans - no idea. Suggestions please.
The door's open and I'm all ears so go for it!!
Cheers
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