Buying Small and Cheap Desktop PC for Gaming and Photoshop

Sen731

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Mar 14, 2013
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10,510
Basically, I need magic, I know.

I am looking for a PC with a smaller footprint and a smaller price tag.

I don't want a huge desktop that takes over my work space and sounds like an airplane.

I want something that I can use out of the box since I have limited experience with building computers and I don't want the stress of potentially ruining expensive parts.

Also, I would like it to be something I could upgrade in the future. I know this is hard, since I want a small desktop, but why not aim high?

I realize Intel i3 is cheaper, how different is it from i5?

How much does power wattage really matter?

What graphics card would be best for a starting out computer gamer?

What is necessary for photoshop to run at its best?

Defining expensive: in a perfect world, it would be less than $1000 CAD. I still need to get photoshop and games for said computer. And Office (I'm not a fan of Open Office).

Also, I'll need a display since the only one I have is an old beige clunker from the 90s. I have been using laptops for the past few years.

Since I need other stuff so I want it to be as great a deal as possible.
 

tator_80

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Jun 3, 2011
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18,710
I3 is cheaper, yes, but it is also a dual core processor. I5 is a quad core, so it's a heck of a step up for a desktop.Only difference between the I5 and I7 is hyper threading, hyper threading could actually do you good in photoshop or video editing.
For power if your just going to buy one already built, the manufacturer will put in one.
As far as a GPU for gaming and editing, something like the GTX 650 or 660 is a great start. the normal 650 is around $100, 650Ti is around $130-150, and 660 is at around $200 i do believe. Great cards for a value, just don't expect to run everything on ultra settings.

To run photoshop at its best an Nvidia card i believe are the best. Photoshop supports the 600 series(what i mentioned above), so it'll speed up the process.
You wont be able to get those higher end graphics unless you find site that does business desktops. Dell and Lenovo only let you customize so much. You don't wont to, but i would recommend building it. You get more bang for you $

It's not as daunting of a task as it seems
You can do a lot with $1000 building one, and you don't have to get an extremely flashy case.
If your even considering here's some help.
Newegg made a really good video series for helping you learn how to build a computer. It's a 3 part series on youtube, but it is very very detailed.

Here's what you can do for under $1000
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JIxB
 

The desktop i5 is pretty much twice the CPU the i3 is. The i3 has 2 cores, the i5 has 4. The i3 has 3 MB of cache, the i5 has 6 MB. The i3 has hyperthreading (so it shows up in Windows as 4 cores but acts more like ~2.5 cores), the i5 does not. Both have turbo boost.


If you have the computer on 24/7, and you assume the average electricity cost for the U.S. (about $0.12/kWh), in a year the wattage difference just about equals the $ difference. i.e. A system which burns 50 more Watts will cost you about $50 more in electricity if both were left on 24/7 for the year. It should be pretty easy to scale that up or down depending on your local Canadian electricity cost per kWh.


Depends what games you want to play. Some are more demanding than others. Dedicated GPUs tend to be the fastest-depreciating component of a computer (right up there with the CPU). So if you're on a budget you don't want to spend too much money on it, because a year later you'll be kicking yourself for "wasting" money. So I'd recommend getting the cheapest card which will adequately run the games you wish to play (say med to med-high settings).


RAM. 8 GB min, 16 GB might be overkill but can't hurt. 4 GB only if you are a masochist. With more RAM you can increase the size of PS' undo history, giving you more flexibility with revisions and reversions.

The CPU will make a difference when you apply a filter, but honestly there are very few filters which take a long time on a modern CPU. I'd only rate this a concern if you're working with unusually large files (like 10k x 10k pixels).

An SSD can help with file load and save times, but an SSD's forte isn't really sequential read/writes. Yes sequential read/writes are about 3-4x faster on a SSD than a HDD. But random read/writes are about 30-100x faster. PS doesn't do many random read/writes. That said, if you've only got 4 GB of RAM, the SSD causes much less slowdown when the system starts swapping memory pages to disk. But as stated above, this is best alleviated by adding more RAM.


If you're building this yourself, consider getting a Microsoft Technet Standard subscription. It's something like $179 a year and you don't have to renew it. It gives you 2 evaluation and testing license keys to most of Microsoft's software, including Windows 7/8 and Office. These are identical to the retail versions of the software, and the keys remain valid even if you cancel the subscription.

Since you're building this yourself, you need to evaluate this MS software so you can make proper recommendations to your friends when they ask you to build their computer for them, right? *wink* *wink*


I'd recommend the IPS panels since you plan to do Photoshop work. They don't color shift as your viewing angle changes. They cost more, but are well worth it in the long run IMHO. The Dell IPS panels (Ultrasharp line) are pretty highly regarded, though a bit lacking in features.


The i7 also has more cache - 8 MB vs the i5's 6 MB. Overall I think the i5 is your best bang for the buck.


There are a limited number of functions in PS which are accelerated by the GPU. If you don't use those much or don't really care about them, you don't need to worry about GPU acceleration in PS.
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/979969
 

Sen731

Honorable
Mar 14, 2013
3
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10,510
Thank you so much for your detailed response Solandri! It has been very enlightening.

Your thoughts on the i5 and on necessary RAM for photoshop were particularly helpful.

I've actually heard great things about IPS displays and I am really considering them.
 

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