Looking for suggestions building a pc mainly for photoshop work and moderate gaming for 500 euros.

Rav3ngrk

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Hi guys,

I am trying to build a new pc mainly for photoshop art work and secondary for gaming/browsing etc.The Budget is 500 Euros, excluding the PSU(Corsair CX430W) and an HDD(Toshiba 1TB).

So after researching the internet for quite a while i came up with the following parts,

1.CPU: Intel Core i3 4170 3.70Ghz LGA 1150 ( I've seen pretty good reviews for this one for a dual core)
Will it be good enough though for photoshop work? or should i look for an AMD quad core like the AMD A10 7850K 3.70 Ghz?

2.MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA Z97P D3
or Asrock H97 Anniversary

3.SSD: OCZ 120 GB
or SAMSUNG 850 EVO SERIES 120 GB
I need an SSD to have my OS,photoshop and some other basic stuff there,as for the rest i have an HDD.

4.RAM: X2 Corsair XMS3 4GB 1600 Mhz
I need at least 8Gbs of ram to run photoshop work adequate.

5.GPU: Radeon Sapphire R7 250 512SP Edition 2GB GDDR 5
or VGA Msi Geforce GT740 2GB GDDR 5
About gaming i want pretty average performance,i dont care about 3A ultra settings or something.To give you some examples, i like to play XCom2,LoL, Endless Legend(Startegy games) and indies more.

6.Case: Corsair Carbide spec 2 midi
or Corsair 200R midi

That's the current parts i lean to.As an amatuer PC builder i would like to hear your suggestions about the aforemetioned or better value products or where should i focus more or even an entire new build.

Thank you for your answers!

 
Solution
RAv3ngrk, here is your current build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (€117.86 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€90.84 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (€49.74 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Crucial BX100 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€64.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For €0.00)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GT 740 2GB Video Card (€96.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (€64.89 @ Amazon...
RAv3ngrk, here is your current build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (€117.86 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€90.84 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (€49.74 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Crucial BX100 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€64.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For €0.00)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GT 740 2GB Video Card (€96.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (€64.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For €0.00)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) (€99.74 @ Mindfactory)
Total: €584.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-29 20:08 CEST+0200

For some reason I couldn't get a price on the 850 EVO so I substituted the very good Crucial BX100. Although many people guess that having a lot of cores is very beneficial for Photoshop, Photoshop is primarily single threaded, so the FX-6300 would not be a good choice. Your 4170 build is good, but I would move to a Skylake build for the same money. You might be able to get by with the on board graphics for Photoshop, but since you will be doing some gaming, I would get a better GPU.
Anyway, for the only slightly more money, this would be a much better build for you. There is room for extra memory if you need it in the future. Your PSU is not the best, and I would make a plan to replace it in the near future if it's a few years old.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (€122.82 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: ASRock H170M Pro4S Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€93.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (€34.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€74.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For €0.00)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card (€121.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Corsair 100R ATX Mid Tower Case (€52.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For €0.00)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) (€99.74 @ Mindfactory)
Total: €600.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-29 21:13 CEST+0200
 
Solution

Rav3ngrk

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Feb 1, 2016
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Hi Bearmann,

Thanks for the feedback. I like your suggestions, i can see the thought process behind those, especially the new i3 CPU & MB combo.I'll take it into consideration.
I have a couple of questions though.Wouldn't it run better and faster with x2 4GB stick rams than an 8 GB stick?
I have got already OS windows 7 home premium.Do i lose much from this build if not at all by not upgrading to a newer OS?


PS. The PSU corsair cx 430 is new(2 months old,i ve bought it for my previous system) but it is gonna struggle right?(seeing the needs of the GPU and the other parts)

 
One stick of RAM versus 2 sticks won't make any difference. You can certainly use 2 if you want. The one stick was a bit less expensive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nSX2taw-Y4

http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/1349-ram-how-dual-channel-works-vs-single-channel

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/does-dual-channel-memory-make-difference-in-gaming-performance/

Windows 7 is fine, but if it came preinstalled on your old computer it's not transferable to the new computer.

If you click on the PC Partpicker link and look at the top right, you will see that the system I configured only uses 202 watts at load. So the Corsair PSU has plenty of power and won't struggle, it's just that the quality is marginal. Since it is new, it will likely be fine, especially since it won't have to work very hard with this build. The capacitors and other components would not be expected to last as long as a better built unit, and I just prefer to have a higher quality unit, with greater protections built in, powering my systems.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=214

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html
 

Rav3ngrk

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Ok, thanks for clarifying.
 
If you are thinking about holding off on the GPU for now, I would consider the following build. The jump to an i5 would give you a great upgrade path when you are ready to add a GPU. Photoshop would benefit from the upgrade. If you added a 705ti, GTX 950 or 960, you probably wouldn't see any significant difference in gaming between the i3 and i5 because you would still be GPU limited. Excluding K processors, the i5 6500 is really in the sweet spot of the I5 Skylake lineup, so it's worth the difference over the i5 6400. Since you will now be using the onboard graphics, I upgraded your RAM to compensate. The Corsair 100R case is the silent edition. If you want a DisplayPort on your MB, upgrade from the H170M Pro4S Micro to the H170M Pro4 Micro.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (€204.93 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: ASRock H170M Pro4S Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€93.18 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2800 Memory (€56.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€74.83 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For €0.00)
Case: Corsair 100R ATX Mid Tower Case (€57.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For €0.00)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) (€100.16 @ Mindfactory)
Total: €587.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-07 18:21 CEST+0200
 

Rav3ngrk

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Ok, noted ! Thanks for the remainder.

 

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