Low end gaming pc for photoshop?

[kitatech]

I'm not a builder but know enough about PCs as to what I should look for in terms of components and such...
1. PS should be more than the measly 200-300 watts found in most off-the-shelf major brands...like 400-500
2. Should have minimum 16GB
3. Should have minimum i5 4-core, though i7 quad wouldn't hurt (other than the wallet)
4. Should have minimum 2 HDDs...a smaller SSD for OS/programs, and a larger one for storage...and perhaps a smaller third HDD for a swap file
5. Should have discrete GPU

Most OTS branded PCs meeting these specs are well over $1k...but I've found a game builder whose basic $1k build DOES meet these specs...
http://www.cybertronpc.com/play.asp?cat=readytoship
...and though they may not satisfy gamers, they seem more than adequate for both still and video processing. My question to those here, who better know than most other community boards I suspect, am I right in my assessment that these i7-7700K (favorably reviewed on Anandtech) and i5-7500 PCs (when configured to above) would be fine for Photoshop?
AND....
Does anyone know of this company, Cybertronpc? Not being a gamer, I'm not very familiar with gamer-pc builders. Finding the "right" pc is so confusing....

BTW, I'm coming from SandyBridge i7/2.4 with basic 1gb Radeon GPU, 16GB/, and 3 sata HDDs....that still works fine but IS getting long in the tooth I know.

Thanks for your assistance and advice.

 

[sm625]

SandyBridge i7/2.4? Why not upgrade to a 2700k and overclock it?

 

[whm1974]

You could also just upgrade your GPU and add an SSD to your system. What is your budget for a new system or upgrades?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I'm not a builder but know enough about PCs as to what I should look for in terms of components and such...
1. PS should be more than the measly 200-300 watts found in most off-the-shelf major brands...like 400-500

Depends on system power needs. You want to "right-size" the PSU to provide good efficiency. (PSU should be rated at 1.5-2x the projected system power use. Less is dangerous, more is a waste.)

For a non-gaming build (just a <100w CPU, mobo, ram, and a couple SSD/HDDs) a 300w PSU is fine. It's better to have a high quality unit, though, since an off-brand PSU is still a dangerous thing.

A good 400w PSU will cost double what a crappy 600w PSU costs, and it's worth every penny.

2. Should have minimum 16GB

Photoshop will use all the RAM you can throw at it. 32GB.

Or, to literally translate an old russian idiom, "why are you screwing a cow?"

3. Should have minimum i5 4-core, though i7 quad wouldn't hurt (other than the wallet)
4. Should have minimum 2 HDDs...a smaller SSD for OS/programs, and a larger one for storage...and perhaps a smaller third HDD for a swap file

Running swap on your boot drive is fine. If you're hitting it a lot, add more RAM, not a dedicated HDD for swap. Swapping on an SSD will minimize the churning/chugging when you do hit swap.

This is not to be confused with "scratch disks" used by photoshop or video editors. SSDs are so fast that it's a moot point for most non-professionals, but there still can be some marginal performance improvement if you have a dedicated SSD for that. But the cost/benefit is pretty minimal.

SSDs really were a gamechanger for workstations - they're so freaking fast that all the old "rules" about dedicated drives for X, Y, Z are basically dumb wastes of money.

5. Should have discrete GPU

No. IGP is fine for Photoshop. The list of Photoshop functions that are sped up by a GPU is short and basically not worth the time and expense. (You should spend the GPU money on a faster CPU, more RAM, and bigger SSDs instead.)

If you're doing video editing the preview-mode effects are sometimes rendered by the GPU, but final render is usually still done by the CPU. So it can make the editing process a bit more fluid, but IMO as long as you're on a budget, the CPU/RAM/SSD upgrades will still be more beneficial, more often, than a GPU.

Most OTS branded PCs meeting these specs are well over $1k...but I've found a game builder whose basic $1k build DOES meet these specs...
http://www.cybertronpc.com/play.asp?cat=readytoship
...and though they may not satisfy gamers, they seem more than adequate for both still and video processing. My question to those here, who better know than most other community boards I suspect, am I right in my assessment that these i7-7700K (favorably reviewed on Anandtech) and i5-7500 PCs (when configured to above) would be fine for Photoshop?
AND....
Does anyone know of this company, Cybertronpc? Not being a gamer, I'm not very familiar with gamer-pc builders. Finding the "right" pc is so confusing....

BTW, I'm coming from SandyBridge i7/2.4 with basic 1gb Radeon GPU, 16GB/, and 3 sata HDDs....that still works fine but IS getting long in the tooth I know.

Thanks for your assistance and advice.

CyberpowerPC is a well regarded company with good customer service. Although I've never purchased one of their products, I've never heard anybody say anything negative about them, aside from complaints of occasional delays with customer service response which I consider typical of small companies. (Somebody's on vacation, etc.)

It also sounds like you might be a prime candidate for an AMD Ryzen-based system. (Reviews and benchmarks seem to indicate that it is officially the budget workstation CPU of 2017. Although since the Ryzen doesn't have a built in IGP, you'd need a video card of some sort.

 

[kitatech]

I guess I should have been more clear...that $1k seems to be what I'd HAVE to spend to get what I thought I needed....as listed....
...that the name-branded PCs cost a lot more for want I thought I needed, and their PCs much less than $1k got me a lot less....and so...$1k seems to be a reasonable budget for getting so much more than what I've been using...

As for "upgrading"....I feel that spending $300 on component upgrades still leaves me with an old CPU/old power supply and a MB that is maxed out @ 16gb....and while the GPU may not be needed, it seems that it comes standard with Cyberpower PCs...for the gamers.

A new machine for $600 more than new components gets me new HDDs and more RAM.
I've had my current machine for nearly 7 years now, so it seems time to "move on up." Another upgrade would be from Win7-64 to Win10.....

Thank you for your advice....it's good to know about Cyberpower too.

 

[VirtualLarry]

err, dave... he linked to cyberTRONpc, not cyberPOWERpc. They are different companies.

 

[kitatech]

I've been looking at Cyberpower too...my initial build there along the above specs is under $1200...and looks good....again, thanks.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

err, dave... he linked to cyberTRONpc, not cyberPOWERpc. They are different companies.

Heheh... too many cybers.

 

[whm1974]

I guess I should have been more clear...that $1k seems to be what I'd HAVE to spend to get what I thought I needed....as listed....
...that the name-branded PCs cost a lot more for want I thought I needed, and their PCs much less than $1k got me a lot less....and so...$1k seems to be a reasonable budget for getting so much more than what I've been using...

As for "upgrading"....I feel that spending $300 on component upgrades still leaves me with an old CPU/old power supply and a MB that is maxed out @ 16gb....and while the GPU may not be needed, it seems that it comes standard with Cyberpower PCs...for the gamers.

A new machine for $600 more than new components gets me new HDDs and more RAM.
I've had my current machine for nearly 7 years now, so it seems time to "move on up." Another upgrade would be from Win7-64 to Win10.....

Thank you for your advice....it's good to know about Cyberpower too.

You could build a Ryzen 7 1700 for ~$1000, however don't be afraid to go over that if you can afford it since you kept your current rig for 7 years. It is nice to have good hardware that will last you quite a while.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I guess I should have been more clear...that $1k seems to be what I'd HAVE to spend to get what I thought I needed....as listed....
...that the name-branded PCs cost a lot more for want I thought I needed, and their PCs much less than $1k got me a lot less....and so...$1k seems to be a reasonable budget for getting so much more than what I've been using...

Yeah, basically. Sometimes called the elbow curve: a new rig costs at least a couple hundred bucks. There are a few good bang-for-the-buck upgrades (i5 instead of Celeron, SSD instead of HDD, etc.) that you can do, which maximize price/performance. It depends on the market, but at the moment, $1k is around where the dropoff starts - additional improvements start to suffer from diminishing returns.

As for "upgrading"....I feel that spending $300 on component upgrades still leaves me with an old CPU/old power supply and a MB that is maxed out @ 16gb....and while the GPU may not be needed, it seems that it comes standard with Cyberpower PCs...for the gamers.

Sure, the GPU is "standard," but you're paying for something you won't be benefiting from. That's silly. Hell; you're paying for overclockable parts, etc., that you're also unlikely to see a benefit from. Honestly, buying a custom-built gaming rig for your application is... not economically the best move.

There's an internet full of custom PC builders that would serve you better than that. And that's assuming you don't just go to Costco and buy an i7 rig. (There's nothing really wrong with that system, except needing to add an SSD.)

 

[dave_the_nerd]

And ultimately, you should probably just assemble it yourself.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Fv22Gf

 

[whm1974]

And ultimately, you should probably just assemble it yourself.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Fv22Gf

Not bad, but I think the OP will do better to spend little extra for a Ryzen 7 1700. Granted he will have to buy a video card but the new 1030 is cheap enough. And yes, it isn't hard at all to build your own rig yourself.

 

[Ken g6]

Not bad, but I think the OP will do better to spend little extra for a Ryzen 7 1700. Granted he will have to buy a video card but the new 1030 is cheap enough. And yes, it isn't hard at all to build your own rig yourself.

I think you should stick with Intel for Photoshop. It's not as many-thread-friendly as you might think.

 

[whm1974]

I think you should stick with Intel for Photoshop. It's not as many-thread-friendly as you might think.

I thought Photoshop was one of those applications that will highly benefit from lots of cores and large pools of memory for heavy workloads?

 

[kitatech]

I thank you all for you ideas....

Firstly, the nice thing about going to a game-builder is that I can reverse build the machine down to "bare bones," "down-grading" parts in the customizing process from what gamers might lust for to my basic needs...I also like the idea that gamer builders might know/care more than business minded builders.

It seems to me, and I may be all wrong about this, that the other option, looking at "business-class" builds and adding components bumps the price way more than I need to pay...but I have time to look into other non-game builders.

Yeah, I can push in a bunch of cards...but when you then add the cost of retail OS you do get closer to a pre-built machine.

I don't want to get into Ryzen vs Intel battles...I'm an intel guy.
The MBs on the gamers' builds seem better for multi-monitors, even without a GPU.

I'm willing to pay a 10-20% bump to have the machine built for me.
It's nice to have a techie available on the other end of the line...just in case.

 

[Ken g6]

I'm willing to pay a 10-20% bump to have the machine built for me.

Are you near a Micro Center? They'll put together a computer from parts you select. For $130.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hmm, $130? I should up my prices.

 

[kitatech]

Unfortunately, no MC anywhere near me...

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Unfortunately, no MC anywhere near me...

Are you willing to maybe tell us, roughly, where you are?

It's quite possible there's somebody reading this who lives in the area and knows this one totally awesome place, etc.

 

[kitatech]

Sure....I live in Palm Beach County, Florida....not too far from Trump International Golf Club...and no NOT in the county jail.

I thought I go to Microcenter's website and they had a $1k HP desktop that meets ALL my spec's...i7, OS10, one SSD, one HDD, discrete GP card and 16gb memory...but...
16gb is the maximum memory the MB will support....oh well.

 

[XSoldier77X]

PC Partspicker or Amazon might have solutions suited to your need. But I guess you should wait a few months and make the most of this Black Friday. That way, you'll prolly be able to get more mileage out of your 1,000 bucks

 

[kitatech]

BF is EXACTLY what I'm planning for NOW....thanks...
I went back to Microcenter and looked at their gamer PCs and did find this one:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/475438/G405_Desktop_Computer
Again, it just about meets my "specs".....doesn't have a discrete GPU but perhaps I won't need that....what is needed is a nice 2TB HDD...
Whadaya think?

 

[Crumpet]

I thought Photoshop was one of those applications that will highly benefit from lots of cores and large pools of memory for heavy workloads?

Photoshop CC and more recent versions utilise 12 or more threads for the running of filters and other transformations.

If OP works on very large images, more cores are his friend. (Ryzen/BD-E/Skylake-X??/Threadripper??)

If OP just has a bit of a muck about on photoshop, then an i7 would be my suggestion.

 

[whm1974]

Photoshop CC and more recent versions utilise 12 or more threads for the running of filters and other transformations.

If OP works on very large images, more cores are his friend. (Ryzen/BD-E/Skylake-X??/Threadripper??)

If OP just has a bit of a muck about on photoshop, then an i7 would be my suggestion.

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[kitatech]

I called Micro Center and the above PC @ 899 can be 'customized' (something not clearly stated on the website) and I can add a 2T HDD for $62.....I can add RAM later if needed and same goes for a discrete GPU...for a total of $961 + shipping....
Thanks for the suggestion to check out MC....it definitely has the best "box" I've seen so far.
This thread has been VERY helpful...thanks again for all your help...