Upgrade my existing pc for better photo editing. £500 max

[pryere]

Pryere,
Thanks for the heads up on the monitor and GPU. the gear you suggest looks really good. One question do you think that my 550Watt PSU is strong enough for the upgrade?
Many thanks
Euge

Good point, cant say for sure. I did make sure that my 650w was up to it, it is.
It also depends on the brand, how old it is and how hard is it going to work?
Do you want to run two panels, SLi etc.
I would replace it, no point upgrading with possible failure of the PSU.

 

[Avalon]

Spend the money on an SSD, going froma mechanical drive to an SSD will transform your user experience more than anything else you could do, after that if you are actually hitting the page file on the 16GB you have then add more.

 

[stulid]

The PSU should still be fine, its is a few years old but was a quality unit made by Seasonic.

 

[Euge]

Hi Guys,
Just a heads up to let you know how I got on with the upgrade. I got the Crucial MX100 512 GB SSD..............WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It transformed my system
Then I went and got a 32 inch BenQ monitor. This monitor is designed for CAD work. I have it calibrated with my Colormunki and the colours are stunning.
To get the full benefit of the monitor I had to get a graphics card update so I got the Gigabyte R9 280.
Also have my rig overclocked to 4.5Gig, stable.
One very happy bunny here.
Thanks for all your help
Euge