Can this system be built better for same or less money?

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cbay

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Jan 4, 2013
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This is a pre-built system i found that looks like it would do the job for photo editing (just Lightroom). Before i pull the trigger, can you guys advise me if i can do better for the money?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014QVM2KO/ref=ox_sc_imb_mini_detail?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=tbpre-20
Always thought it would be fun to build one, but i got other things going on right now and this looks to me like it's decent. That's all i can afford price wise now as well.
Since i'm not up to date on computers i figured i should ask here first - as there could be issues i'm not awar of. No idea what exact parts are in it.
Thanks for feedback.
 
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mamasan2000
I would change every component in that build except the harddrive, if I was buying anything.
Upgradeability sucks too. DDR3 is soon obsolete. AMD will release DDR4 motherboards this year.
Intel has been using DDR4 for a year or more. So if you want to upgrade say CPU in a year or two, you would need to buy a new mobo (with DDR4 support) and DDR4 Ram. That's another 400+ dollars. It's cheaper to buy the components now than basically buying 2 systems.

Integraded GPU. As long as you don't game at all it will suffice.

That case. It probably comes with the cheapest crappiest PSU they could find. Which means if you upgrade anything, like CPU or want to use a dedicated GPU, you would most likely have to buy a new PSU which also adds another...
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NOT_PROVIDED_330

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> can i build something better than a prebuilt for less money

absolutely

building your own computer is always less expensive than buying one prebuilt

it has a "3.3ghz intel i5" which is pretty vague but an i5 should be sufficient for "photo editing".

not sure what graphics solution this particular computer is using though, but you could get a relatively low cost office tier gpu for adequate performance
 
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Victorion

Victorion

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Thats a pretty good prebuilt pc. At least price/performance ratio.

Pros:
Extremely well priced
Can be upgraded (adding videocard, SSD, more rams etc)

Cons:
- i5-6400 should have been i5-6600 which is faster.
- Rams are DDR3 - DDR4 is preferable
- PSU may be weak and unreliable

@ NOT_PROVIDED_330
Clearly states it´s Intel Core i5-6400.
It´s not a weak core - it´s quite decent both for lighter editing task and gaming.

Also it states that there are no dedicated graphics unit. It uses the integrated HD 530. And HD 530 is also quite impressive.
 
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mamasan2000

mamasan2000

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I would change every component in that build except the harddrive, if I was buying anything.
Upgradeability sucks too. DDR3 is soon obsolete. AMD will release DDR4 motherboards this year.
Intel has been using DDR4 for a year or more. So if you want to upgrade say CPU in a year or two, you would need to buy a new mobo (with DDR4 support) and DDR4 Ram. That's another 400+ dollars. It's cheaper to buy the components now than basically buying 2 systems.

Integraded GPU. As long as you don't game at all it will suffice.

That case. It probably comes with the cheapest crappiest PSU they could find. Which means if you upgrade anything, like CPU or want to use a dedicated GPU, you would most likely have to buy a new PSU which also adds another 50-100 dollars to that purchase.

When it comes to cheapo stuff, you might save a buck now but you loose in the long run.
Borderline scamming.

I can't recommend a system (cause I never buy those) and I don't have a clue about your use case. What hardware do you have now? How is it lacking? Are you running out of memory? Is it CPU-intensive?


" Can someone recommend a video card that will enable me to use dual monitors? My GeForce 5200 doesn't fit.
Answer:
The GTX 750Ti will fit and is the most powerful video card that is clearly 'within the requirements' that the power supply can handle without pushing it."

5200 doesn't fit? That was released in 2003!! It's small compared to most gfx cards. And 750Ti is also crap for most if not all games. Great for 8 year old games.
 
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cbay

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Jan 4, 2013
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I'm not in to this stuff and that's why i put this up for thoughts. All i do is use Lightroom, local adjustments with it, 24mp camera files. .Some hdr merging. Other than that i could care less.
Current laptop is a 3rd. gen i5, 8gb ram, 1 tb hdd. It is not running well anymore - getting some miles on it. It used to be "fair" for what i was doing. Local adjustments are tough on it - and has some lag.
$450 budget.

Let it rip man!!! I'm all ears! Give me a better solution. That's why i come to you guys!!

And Thank You, i really do appreciate it.

Chris
 
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Victorion

Victorion

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Usually I never ever recommends prebuilt systems. However to be fair.

- DDR3 1600 Mhz rams are so ridicously fast already that faster speeds benefits are negliable. DDR4 rams often comes with a high CL rate and DDR3 usually comes with a much lower CL rate. That means DDR3 rams sometimes outperforms more expensive DDR4 rams.

Example : DDR3-1600 CL11 is 2% faster than DDR4-2133 CL15.

- As for integrated GPU. HD 530 is quite impressive. It will play Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 i.e. at low settings with tolerable frames. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmOe-JWNEzM

- PSU chances are it´s a weak and lower end PSU, though as long it doesn´t power a gpu and it has acceptable noise levels, it should be fine.

All in all, I think on a budget, this isn´t the worst buy.
 
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