Building an DIY editing only PC

[bodohboy]

Hi there fellow netizens!

I am a student designer and I am interested in building a budget PC that is capable to run Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Adobe Illustrator CS6 and various Adobe softwares. The thing is I am a complete noob in building a DIY PC and I am not sure what my build should be like.

I would really appreciate if someone can help me out here and introduce some builds that I can follow on. Also where can I get the parts and how much budget should I fork out? Currently was thinking >$300.

Thanks in advance

(P.S. I have read through the "Your Comprehensive DIY PC Dummies Guide" but still don't know which build to choose for my situation )

 

[Yureak]

Hi there fellow netizens!

I am a student designer and I am interested in building a budget PC that is capable to run Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Adobe Illustrator CS6 and various Adobe softwares. The thing is I am a complete noob in building a DIY PC and I am not sure what my build should be like.

I would really appreciate if someone can help me out here and introduce some builds that I can follow on. Also where can I get the parts and how much budget should I fork out? Currently was thinking >$300.

Thanks in advance

(P.S. I have read through the "Your Comprehensive DIY PC Dummies Guide" but still don't know which build to choose for my situation )

hello... are you referring to upgrade or full pc? if you want a proper editing rig at least 1.3-1.5 for a mediocre grade one

 

[bodohboy]

hello... are you referring to upgrade or full pc? if you want a proper editing rig at least 1.3-1.5 for a mediocre grade one

A full PC. Oh I see, I didn't know it will cost that much. Do you think this will be a good build?

Build an Editing PC for $800

AMD FX-8350 Processor

Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 Motherboard

EVGA GTX 650Ti Boost Graphics Card

8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 Memory

120GB Samsung 840 Series SSD

1TB Western Digital Caviar Green Hard Drive

500W Corsair CX500 Power Supply

Corsair Carbide 200R Case

 

[Yureak]

Build an Editing PC for $800

AMD FX-8350 Processor

(AMD might not be the best choice if you want to do video editing)

Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 Motherboard

EVGA GTX 650Ti Boost Graphics Card

(Really really really old GPU... min you should go for 750 Ti )

8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 Memory

(At this price-point you can get 8GB but dont need to splurge on Vengeance. Valueram will do)

120GB Samsung 840 Series SSD

(Can get a 120 840 evo or a 256 crucial mx100)

1TB Western Digital Caviar Green Hard Drive

(dont get a green! get a normal 1TB blue)

500W Corsair CX500 Power Supply

(This is ok but not the cheapest. Can consider Superflower HX600 or Seasonic M12 or S12 series too)

Corsair Carbide 200R Case

(think 200r is being phased out but its personal choice)

 

[Alternative X]

CPU+ Mobo: ASROCK H81M-HDS + i5 4460 (312)
RAM: CRUCIAL PC 12800/1600MHZ DDR3 VALUE RAM (101)
GPU: LEADTEK GTX 750 2GB O.C (188)
SSD: ADATA SP900 128GB (99)
HDD: TOSHIBA 1TB 7200RPM (69)
DVD-RW: LG 24X DVD-RW SATA OEM (25)
PSU: FSP 450W 80+ HEXA PLUS (59)
Case: C.M 344 MATX CASE (44)
OS: WINDOWS 7 HOME PREM (120)

Total cost: $1017

Buy at PC Themes, #04-15, and ask for discounts. DIY yourself. If you can't into DIY, go to PC Care & Solution at #02-32 and ask Nigel to help you assemble for a fee.

Notes:

1) Due to the lack of $$$, this rig is the absoloute minimum that you should get but you must be willing to pay the price of the rig.

2) Got any old computers in your house? Can consider reusing old computer parts like RAM, HDD and DVD-RW to reduce the cost of the new rig. Can also reuse laptop HDDs if there are laptops in your house.

3) This rig is considered very weaksauce when compared to a proper Adobe editing rig.

4) Got student discounts on OS?

 

[tony_ong]

if you are a student in local poly u can get the os from msdnaa or dreamspark that sch provide i suppose

 

[Felfirez]

Actually for the fx 8350 system at 800 (which can be lower with different case, ssd and ram) is not bad at all.

I think a lower spec system would help ts in affordability since he's just a student.

 

[Alternative X]

Actually for the fx 8350 system at 800 (which can be lower with different case, ssd and ram) is not bad at all.

I think a lower spec system would help ts in affordability since he's just a student.

Not sure, but can an i3 system offer decent performance in Photoshop and Illustrator?

 

[Jian19]

i3-4130 + Asrock h81m hds ~ $205
Crucial 4gb ddr3 ~ $50
Wd blue 1tb ~ $68
Lg dvd rom ~ $21
Fsp 300w oem psu ~ $39
Brandless matx case ~ $20

Optional : Another 4gb ram @ $50 , Plextor m6s ssd 128gb @ $104 , Win7 64 oem @ $115

$403 buy and DIY @ tradepac ask for discount. If not sure how to assemble can bring to gs shop ask him help u assemble @ a fee.

OS might wan to consider use *ahem* version to cut cost or purchase a win 8.1 from g2a and install via thumb drive

Plz google on how to install OS thru thumb drive to learn it before trying ~ kthxbye

 

[wkweewee]

Hmm.. I have been using almost all the adobe cc softwares for a couple of mths le. What I recommend you is a powerful processor and a normal gpu (or even igpu!) as gpu acceleration I find is of a limited use if you are not a software editing professional doing a lot of layering and texturing stuff. If you are tight on budget, 8gb ram is enough but the most paramount is still the cpu power if you don't want any form of stuttering in your editing work. I might swap to 4790k but right now I need to handle my academia stuff first and place my hobby as of a second importance haha. Coming from a video and photo editing point of view... again if you are on a tight budget, go for a small capacity ssd to house your os and adobe apps (abt 1gb+ to 2gb+ for each app). It makes opening of those applications alot snappier. But other than that, that's abt it. You can render the output file on ext hds.

**But 300 for your budget is very difficult to buy you anything constructive.**

**For my school, there is a dreamspark premium account for final year students. Inside, there are free windows 8.1, 8, and 7 (which I like duh!) and for normal accounts, you can only dl those programming softwares. You can save on the os if you are lucky enough.**

P.S. I am using one of the g logitech keyboard with the lcd panel and whenever I open cc stuff, I would take a look at the display panel for stats and the cpu sometimes is chomped up wrt to the ram in terms of % when you start to apply some effects. On a side note kinda hate ps.. imagine you have got 50 photos at one shot.. need to open up one by one as compared to lr due to it's 'user - friendliness'..@.@

 

[royfrosty]

This is the minimum that you will need for a editing rig.

ASRock H81M HDS + i7-4790 ~ $451
Crucial 8gb 1600mhz Value Ram x2 ~ $200
WD Blue 1tb ~ $67
Plextor m6s 128gb ~ $104
Cooler Master Elite 361 ~ $55
LG DVD Drive ~ $21
FSP 300w 80+ PSU ~ $39

Total ~ $937. Buy at tradepac, DIY

Dont need gpu. Get your OEM Windows via MSDNN. Your school should have some IT related portal where you can get them.

 

[Alternative X]

This is the minimum that you will need for a editing rig.

ASRock H81M HDS + i7-4790 ~ $451
Crucial 8gb 1600mhz Value Ram x2 ~ $200
WD Blue 1tb ~ $67
Plextor m6s 128gb ~ $104
Cooler Master Elite 361 ~ $55
LG DVD Drive ~ $21
FSP 300w 80+ PSU ~ $39

Total ~ $937. Buy at tradepac, DIY

Dont need gpu. Get your OEM Windows via MSDNN. Your school should have some IT related portal where you can get them.

Erm... even though Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are both CPU intensive programs, CPU reviews have suggested that both programs are unable to make use of hyperthreading to improve rendering performance and hence I think that the build is actually spending about $100 more on the CPU to cut rendering times by mere seconds and I think that the $$$ could be better used to get an i5 and a entry level GPU (and better PSU) as they help speed up rendering much more effectively than hyperthreading on an i7.

 

[Taveren]

Can consider a Kaveri build because of budget constraint