Building a PC for Pre-press and Photo Editing Budget ~800€-1000€

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nonexicted

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Hi,
I was wondering if someone can advise me as to what I should pay attention when building a PC for Photo Editing and Pre-press work. Programs that will be mostly used are Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Preps, some Premiere Pro and Lightroom.

For the life of me I can't remember the site where I found an End All PC Build so that I can post the specifications which was for gaming but I'm guessing I won't be needing something as bomb as that though I am looking for the PC to be a long lasting one (for 5 years at least).

No Gaming will be going on, only web-surfing.

Also any advise on monitors? I had read somewhere that the display needs to be a mat one so that the printing result will resemble the one on the screen and not a glossy but I don't know much else.

Once some of you good people tell me what to look for in CPU, Motherboard, Memory etc I'll post a Build to get opinions on. FYI I'll be looking for the components in my country since importing is just too expensive so it's not guaranteed that I will have much of a selection.
 
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logainofhades
Not sure why you couldn't price it in Euros, as there are other countries available, on PCPP. :p Also, a 1231v3 would be superior to an i5, in this case.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (€258.84 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€80.78 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (€88.86 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€88.93 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€98.27 @ Mindfactory)
Video Card:...
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smorizio

smorizio

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as your not going to game on the pc. start with a locked i5 cpu. look to see if the newer skylake are about the same price as the older haswell (1150) pin cpu. pick up a h97 mb. the h97 have 4-6 sata ports. what you want to do is pick up a 256g ssd as the boot and program drive. you then want two 2g drives as data drives. one drive is going to be the work drive the other the backup drive. when you get some more funds look into buying an small network storage device or online backup. if the shop pc dies and kills both drives you want an off site backup for your work. for ram pick up a 16g kit. if your using haswell cpu pick up a 1600 speed kit. with ddr4 ram pcik up a 2100 or 2400 speed kit.
a lot of photo editing software will use the gpu to help render the images. look to put in a 750 or 950 card if the funds are there. if this is your first build use a mid side tower..the extra room in the tower help first time builder. use an air cooler and not a sealed water unit. if a air cooler goes bad your rig will still run and any computer store have a case fan/cpu fan that you can replace withing a few min. if a sealed unit goes bad you have to rma it back or replace it to keep the pc up and running. use a good power supply like a seasonic or xfx in the pc. dont go with the lower end cx line from cosair. going cheap can kill a rig if the power supply fails badly.
 
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nonexicted

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Thank you for your answer I'm gonna research everything you advised and build from there. What I forgot to mention (hate writing from my tablet but I'm on the road >< ) is that I would be using 2 monitors. I will be buying a new Monitor around 23" and my old Viewsonic one which is either 19" or 21" (can't remember). I read somewhere that it would be better to use 2 graphic cards when doing that. Since the budget it limited up to 1000€ what would you recommend for 2 graphic cards?
 
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smorizio

smorizio

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in gaming when your trying to do 4k or high res gaming you need to gpu for a muilt monitor set up. for web and work most gpu have muilt ports on them. look for one with 2-3 hdmi ports then use for the older monitor a hdmi to dvi cable.
with newer cpu now most also have built in video too to run 3-4 monitor set up using a gpu and onboard video.
 
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Bearmann

Bearmann

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I wasn't able to price it in Euro's, but here is a Skylake build. Most important is the processor speed and having adequate RAM. Hopefully the monitors did not have to be included at that price. You'll need to add the case of your choice. At least one additional harddrive is recommended if you can budget for it. You may be better off with an X97/x99 build, but I didn't try that yet. Tier 1 monitors (for color accuracy & gamut) include Eizo and NEC. Tier 2 monitors include Dell, Asus, HP, and others.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/m4vmt6
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/m4vmt6/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($205.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($144.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Crucial 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($167.89 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Crucial MX200 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($158.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($157.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($89.88 @ OutletPC)
Other: X-Rite ColorMunki Display Colorimeter / color calibrator ($170.00)
Total: $1190.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-30 01:28 EDT-0400
 
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Thank you so much for the build I think that I will forgo the X-Rite ColorMunki in favor for a 1TB HDD and an SSD to boot the system? Also if I put a Skylake (pin 1151) can I put a motherboard with pin 1150? Also the cooler does it have to be a 1151 pin as well? 'Cos I can't find many and it's either 20€ or 90€.

What I found:
CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor > 260€
Motherboard: Gigabyte Motherboard Z170X Gaming 3 (Z170/1151/DDR4) > 181€
Memory: Crucial Desktop RAM Ballistix Sport 16GB Kit 2400MHz DDR4 > 146€
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Desktop HDD 1TB > 65€
SSD: TeamGroup SSD M.2 256GB > 120€
Video Card: MSI VGA GTX 960 GAMING 2GB > 260€ or MSI VGA GTX 960 OC 2GB > 250€
Power Supply: Corsair PSU VS Series 650 W 80+ Bronze VS650 > 80€ or Corsair PSU VS Series 550 W 80+ Bronze VS550 > 70€
----------
Total is 1092€ which is way over budget, with an OS, Case and a monitor T_T
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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Not sure why you couldn't price it in Euros, as there are other countries available, on PCPP. :p Also, a 1231v3 would be superior to an i5, in this case.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (€258.84 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€80.78 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (€88.86 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€88.93 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€98.27 @ Mindfactory)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card (€120.38 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Cooler Master N300 ATX Mid Tower Case (€45.05 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: SeaSonic ECO 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€49.93 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) (€134.70 @ Mindfactory)
Total: €965.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-30 16:18 CET+0100

 
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Only one, since I already have a 19" Viewsonic monitor and I found another 23" Viewsonic with 2ms response time. I was thinking of a pre-built myself if I can't lower the price to ~900€ or at least improve on an already built one?

I'm interested in OC but I don't have any experience on it so I don't know how successfully I might do it so with the fear of actually killing my machine I wouldn't try it.

I won't be doing much video editing really but I'd like to know that my machine can handle it without red flags going everywhere.
 
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Thank you for your build, based on your build and what I could find these are the prices from the shops in my country
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor €331
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard €93
Memory: RAM G.SKILL F3-1866C10D-16GSR 16GB (2X8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900 1866MHZ SNIPER DUAL CHANNEL KIT €101
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive €95
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive €111
Video Card: VGA GIGABYTE GEFORCE GTX750 TI GV-N75TOC-2GI 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E RETAIL €143
Case: CASE COOLERMASTER K282 BLACK €57
Power Supply: PSU CORSAIR CX500 - 80 PLUS BRONZE CERTIFIED 500W €75

Total: €863

It's a decent total though I'm missing the CPU Cooler, and I'm not 100% of the Motherboard when it comes to longevity (aka not having to replace it in 2-3yrs)
 
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Bearmann

Bearmann

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I like logainofhades build, but you still have to add a monitor. Since you are not doing much video editing, the 16GB should be fine. The colorimeter is very important to make sure that your monitor matches the colors in your prints. Preferably, you will want a monitor with a IPS (in-plane switching) panel or similar technology, and not a TN panel.
 
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Ah okay! Will definitely look at those. Thank you so much for the help
 
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The colorimeter is something that I'm not sure how easily I can find here and at what cost. I'll have to research on it and put it on the back-burner as an upgrade that will be done later on. Thank you for the info on the monitor I'll research on that as well and see what I'll find.
 
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