Photo Editing PC on a Budget

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Scott Fluegge

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Sep 6, 2013
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I have a friend that is an amateur photographer. She has asked me to help her build a new PC but as a single mom she has a tight budget. I need to complete this build for $500-$600 tops for the hardware. She already has a monitor she can reuse but that is about all. Can you help recomend a build that would fit within those parameters? All the Photo Editing Machine Builds I see on the site are in the 1k-$1500 range...

Thanks!
 
Solution
A
Try to find used 2600k + mobo. Then 8GB memory and proper video card. GTX 650 or better is good.
If this need to be new. Then try to build better than this for better price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1413571

Id put in SSD and intel 3225 good mobo, good psu, and so on. But this budget is too tight to make really good proper build.
Here is my build. No video card but if she needs one then she can buy it later.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1AzXR
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1AzXR/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1AzXR/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i3-3225 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($132.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: Asus...
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haynesr07

haynesr07

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Jul 14, 2013
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Lots of people are saying you need a huge machine to run just Photoshop or something similar. Photoshop is not THAT demanding. I've ran it on my old machine since 2009 without an issue and people are trying to build VIDEO editing rigs instead of photo editing rigs. So here's my sample build for you.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4430 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($183.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: MSI H87M-G43 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial V4 64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($61.68 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB Video Card ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 3000 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: OCZ Fatal1ty 550W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $730.59
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-06 08:57 EDT-0400)


GPU is a 2GB card so that's just what I'd recommend honestly. But MicroATX is all she'll need.

 
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haynesr07

haynesr07

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Jul 14, 2013
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I'll do an AMD build for you then. I typically do not do AMD builds as I am very very impressed with my new Intel build.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($112.18 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($115.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial V4 64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($61.68 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card ($95.38 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 3000 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: OCZ Fatal1ty 550W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $605.18
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-06 09:17 EDT-0400)

I did this one pretty quickly. I dumbed down video card to a 7770GHz which should be sufficient enough for her hitting right above the 600 mark. 6-core is unnecessary for her tasks.
 
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AxlFone

Dignified
May 21, 2013
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13,960
Try to find used 2600k + mobo. Then 8GB memory and proper video card. GTX 650 or better is good.
If this need to be new. Then try to build better than this for better price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1413571

Id put in SSD and intel 3225 good mobo, good psu, and so on. But this budget is too tight to make really good proper build.
Here is my build. No video card but if she needs one then she can buy it later.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1AzXR
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1AzXR/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1AzXR/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i3-3225 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($132.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: Asus P8B75-M LX PLUS Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($69.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: A-Data XPG Gaming Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($96.86 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ Outlet PC)
Case: Fractal Design Core 3000 USB 3.0 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 450W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $529.77
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-06 09:31 EDT-0400)


Sure you can save on MoBo and psu. But is that reliable for anyone? IMO No. Good luck for this build:)

 
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Solution
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Scott Fluegge

Honorable
Sep 6, 2013
4
0
10,510


I think I can work with this! Can I assume that the SSD is for the OS only and all apps and photos would be run from the SATA drive?
 
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Scott Fluegge

Honorable
Sep 6, 2013
4
0
10,510


She primarily uses Photoshop... CS5 I believe.
 
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