Desktop Rig for College Art Major/ Mild Gamer

Frederd4

Honorable
Jul 8, 2013
76
0
10,630
Hi all,

To go with my previous posting about a laptop for school, I'm scrapping that idea and now what to build a custom rig. My budget will be a max of $800 or there about. The PC will be used for mainly photo shop and moderate amounts of editing and color work, and than to play a couple games with the main one being FFXIV. That being said, I already have a keyboard, mouse, and monitors(I would like it to be able to support at least two maybe 3 with one HD and the others more low end models). I know my budget doesn't allow much wiggle room but in all honesty at the moment the case is unimportant so the cheapest/most affordable but still functional one will do. I want to get the most out of performance with it. I live in the US and have easy access to most stores, including MicroCenter, and obviously any internet site that will ship US. Any help is appreciated! Thanks!
 
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($234.66 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling ACFZ11-LP Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler ($18.24 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($102.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill FB-03 ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N10 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($9.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $811.77
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-16 20:43 EDT-0400

You can overclock the CPU which will help a ton in photoshop. Great motherboard open for RAM expansion, and case is cheap like you asked.
 
Solution

Frederd4

Honorable
Jul 8, 2013
76
0
10,630
Would there be an AMD equivalent in performance, but with a cheaper price? I've never used AMD before and I know it wouldn't always perform well for certain things, but from what I've read would it be a fit for my needs? I like the power behind your build but it's high on price the lower I can go the better, and maybe if I used AMD instead of intel I could even get more power? Thoughts??
 

Frederd4

Honorable
Jul 8, 2013
76
0
10,630
PCPartPicker part list](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qd9vsY) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qd9vsY/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-fd8350frhkbox) | $169.99 @ Amazon
**Motherboard** | [Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-ga970aud3p) | $74.99 @ Newegg
**Memory** | [Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/team-memory-tlyd38g1600hc9dc01) | $69.99 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex) | $56.98 @ OutletPC
**Video Card** | [MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-n760tf2gd5oc) | $219.99 @ Micro Center
**Power Supply** | [Corsair CX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx750m) | $69.99 @ Newegg
**Optical Drive** | [Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-optical-drive-drw24b1stblkbas) | $19.98 @ OutletPC
**Operating System** | [Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/microsoft-os-wn700615) | $89.98 @ OutletPC
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $771.89
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-18 08:07 EDT-0400 |


Would this be a good set up? Also, would it be able to run ffxiv? It seems good to me but I'm willing to change it to anything better in the same price range