New P.C just for photography.

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Brendan
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Hi,
I just got a bit of money and I would like some input for which P.C setup I should be buying? I would like it just to run Photoshop to edit photos as I will have a laptop for downloading etc. So what do you lot think would be good setup? Also a nice screen would be good. I don't want a super computer tho lol say £1K budget.

Thanks.
 
IMO spend half your budget on the screen. Computers get upgraded... a good screen lasts for years.

Computer wise you want something with quad core CPU, 6-8Gb RAM and two fast hard drives. Don't forget to budget for a third external drive to use as backup if you don't have one already!
 
So, do you need the PC case and all associated internal paraphernalia and a screen? Or do you need that and things like mouse, keyboard, software and OS? Only the price of those add up and can alter the choice of other components to suit the price :)
 
I have to start from scratch lol so I need everything :(
 
If you just want a unit for editing then I would spend that £1K on a quadcore MB with 12G of memory and buy a cable so that you can link it up to the TV and still have £400 left over.. This is of course if your TV has a DVI port.
 
Dell 24" IPS monitor £250
8GB RAM + Sandybridge i5 + decent mobo £300
2HDx500-1TBs on RAID - unfortunately since the floods in Thailand they are very expensive and haven't come down much so you are looking for 150-200£
Decent box and silent fans + aftermarket fan for your i5 100-130£
Spend 50-60 on a fanless GPU as well if you wish.

All that excludes the all important 100£ for OS and of course the PS which alone could set you back 150-200£. You may not really need PS and get Lightroom instead?

Have probably forgotten something but am sure people will come and correct
 
vrapan said:
Dell 24" IPS monitor £250
8GB RAM + Sandybridge i5 + decent mobo £300
2HDx500-1TBs on RAID - unfortunately since the floods in Thailand they are very expensive and haven't come down much so you are looking for 150-200£
Decent box and silent fans + aftermarket fan for your i5 100-130£
Spend 50-60 on a fanless GPU as well if you wish.

All that excludes the all important 100£ for OS and of course the PS which alone could set you back 150-200£. You may not really need PS and get Lightroom instead?

Have probably forgotten something but am sure people will come and correct
Click to expand...

Thanks for the break down :) I won't need the software as I already have it all :) but will look into the hardware you listed thanks.
 
Digifrog said:
If you just want a unit for editing then I would spend that £1K on a quadcore MB with 12G of memory and buy a cable so that you can link it up to the TV and still have £400 left over.. This is of course if your TV has a DVI port.
Click to expand...

Editing on a TV?

For a pure photography system a TV is an awful output device.
 
Digifrog said:
If you just want a unit for editing then I would spend that £1K on a quadcore MB with 12G of memory and buy a cable so that you can link it up to the TV and still have £400 left over.. This is of course if your TV has a DVI port.
Click to expand...
Why do people even bother to give such rubbish advice :bang:
 
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Personally I would be wanting 3 hard drives for raid 5 not 2 and mirrored (raid1), I would also run them from a seperate raid controler not the one built in to the motherboard result is you can move the controler to other pc's and still use the raid.

If you want a performance boost 3 big storeage drives in raid 5 and 2 smaller OS drives in raid 1 for apps and OS, price goes up a fair bit but redundancy and performance is increased.
 
Intel i5-2500k
P67 motherboard + budget gpu or z68 motherboard with built in gpu
8-16gb memory
Ssd drive as operating system and program's drive + larger mechanical drive for storage
Decent branded modular psu
Dell ips panel

Along those lines are the normal suggestions
 
neil_g said:
Intel i5-2500k
P67 motherboard + budget gpu or z68 motherboard with built in gpu
8-16gb memory
Ssd drive as operating system and program's drive + larger mechanical drive for storage
Decent branded modular psu
Dell ips panel

Along those lines are the normal suggestions
Click to expand...

Yep, about right though a case to put them in them in would be good ;)

I suggest an Antec case and a couple of DVD Rewriters.

Also you may need an aftermarket CPU cooler, I use a BeQuiet Dark Rock one.

Any old wired keyboard and mouse should complete the job.
 
Mikesphotaes said:
Yep, about right though a case to put them in them in would be good ;)

I suggest an Antec case and a couple of DVD Rewriters.

Also you may need an aftermarket CPU cooler, I use a BeQuiet Dark Rock one.

Any old wired keyboard and mouse should complete the job.
Click to expand...

Well yeah, that's a very personal thing though :) I'd suggest a lian li personally but that's a large amount of the budget :D

Yes and aftermarket coolers > stock intel.
 
Cases are personal preference, for me it depends where it is, I have one case that is all alluminium cost about £350 I think years ago when I bought it but it sits on the desk so needs to look the part but it has lasted as I have upgraded I did get a little worried when BTX was announced. The pc upstairs is more functional pretty much hidden behind the monitor with plenty of ventiation, drive bays and a built in sata drive dock sat on top for off site storeage/backup just attach the drive backup remove it. Its a lot quicker than an external drive. SSD is nice but still expensive.
 
Brendon, have you had any experience in building your own P.C. If you buy the parts and put it together yourself it usually turns out much cheaper than buying a computer system from the shops. I built my tower (AMD Quad core 3.4, ASUS Mobo, 8Gb DDR3 1600 Ram, 2Tb Hard drive, 1Gb Nvidia graphics, Blu-Ray writer and Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit) for well under £600 when the processor had just been released. To get a similar spec tower from the likes of Curry's, PC World etc was over £1,000 at the time. I'm sure you'd be able to get a much faster system for the same price now and it really is fairly easy to put it all together if you're the least bit technically minded.
 
modchild said:
Brendon, have you had any experience in building your own P.C. If you buy the parts and put it together yourself it usually turns out much cheaper than buying a computer system from the shops. I built my tower (AMD Quad core 3.4, ASUS Mobo, 8Gb DDR3 1600 Ram, 2Tb Hard drive, 1Gb Nvidia graphics, Blu-Ray writer and Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit) for well under £600 when the processor had just been released. To get a similar spec tower from the likes of Curry's, PC World etc was over £1,000 at the time. I'm sure you'd be able to get a much faster system for the same price now and it really is fairly easy to put it all together if you're the least bit technically minded.
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Actually the advice for an AMD Bulldozer CPU is not bad if all you are planning on doing is photo editing and it will actually cut the cost by about 100£ over a similar system with an i5. I would still bite the bullet though and get an i5/i7 even if it meant I went a bit overbudget as they are brilliant chips.

Maybe you should wait for the new ivy bridge chips and grab a bargain on an older Sandy bridge one.

What does chew into the budgets though are the HDs who have doubled/tripled in price since last year.
 
Walks in... Sees Neil has it covered.... Walks out ;)
 
modchild said:
Brendon, have you had any experience in building your own P.C. If you buy the parts and put it together yourself it usually turns out much cheaper than buying a computer system from the shops. I built my tower (AMD Quad core 3.4, ASUS Mobo, 8Gb DDR3 1600 Ram, 2Tb Hard drive, 1Gb Nvidia graphics, Blu-Ray writer and Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit) for well under £600 when the processor had just been released. To get a similar spec tower from the likes of Curry's, PC World etc was over £1,000 at the time. I'm sure you'd be able to get a much faster system for the same price now and it really is fairly easy to put it all together if you're the least bit technically minded.
Click to expand...

I have no idea lol it's apt to take in, but will have a look into everything people have said. Guess I have a lot of reading to do. Any fancy building one for me?
 
If your local to me I will build it for you or order the bits and send them to me and I will ship it to you no problem.

It is worth keeping an eye out on scan todayonly they have their component days (all the bits to build a pc at weekends so friday afternoon till about noon on Monday when they change it. look at the unbuilt pc no brainer at the top it is usually a nice spec system but Im never a fan of the case they stick them with but you can live with that just stick it under the desk.

I just had a look and I am supprised that i7 2600k is still over £200 to buy and its been about for a bit now its over 12 months since I bought mine.
 
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Dell outlet?
Might be a rude suggestion maybe but their prices are pretty good, you just have to be patient for the right machine!
 
neil_g said:
dell outlet is a good shout for an off the shelf option
Click to expand...

Yup, my laptop came from there. Managed to get one with the spec I wanted for perhaps 30% less that a comparable "new" item.
 
Thanks for all the replies I will have a look dell and see what they have.
 
I used to build my own but since discovering it I just buy from there!
Also if you use quidco you can get another 7-10% off!! 15% On business stuff also I think!
 
adamdavi3s said:
I used to build my own but since discovering it I just buy from there!
Also if you use quidco you can get another 7-10% off!! 15% On business stuff also I think!
Click to expand...

Discovering what?! Thanks
 
The Dell all in ones are OK, the older ones were a lot better speced than the new ones but you need to have the longer warranties on them as they are pretty much a laptop sat behind a big screen.
We have sold a load at work and only one (an older one) has had a problem, it was out of warranty as well but we were able to extend the warranty for less than the cost of the new motherboard and dell called and fixed it. The guy Dell sent said they are pretty reliable and he goes out to very few but those he has been to its the motherboard probably because the design means everything is on there.

But for what you want it for I would buy a proper PC.
 
Seconded, I would purchase a standard tower from them and then you can always add parts as you need them.
 
Can someone pick one out on the Dell website that they think is good?
 
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