Next PC advice

[Nutz_the_Squirrel]

I’ve had a MacBook for 6 years and it’s still running brilliantly. My partner was looking for a new budget computer to run photoshop, do photo editing etc and given my experience with a Mac, suggested an iMac refurb. Unfortunately the iOS is pretty out of date and the computer is generally slow. Going to get rid.

What should I be looking for in a PC? Get a desktop or all in one? Is SSD really important? What kind of specs do I need to run photoshop really fast and quick start up speeds? Intel or AMD nowadays? What processor speed is good enough nowadays? Looking to spend no more than £600.

Thanks!

[Homer Thompson]

2 hours ago, Nutz_the_Squirrel said:

I’ve had a MacBook for 6 years and it’s still running brilliantly. My partner was looking for a new budget computer to run photoshop, do photo editing etc and given my experience with a Mac, suggested an iMac refurb. Unfortunately the iOS is pretty out of date and the computer is generally slow. Going to get rid.

What should I be looking for in a PC? Get a desktop or all in one? Is SSD really important? What kind of specs do I need to run photoshop really fast and quick start up speeds? Intel or AMD nowadays? What processor speed is good enough nowadays? Looking to spend no more than £600.

Thanks!

Good luck  

[Homer Thompson]

Seriously, though, now isnt a great time to be buying a PC. AMD brought out new processors but they're incredibly hard to get hold of (impossible almost) which has bumped the price of the old ones up.

Theres no reason  to pick intel over AMD anymore and lots of reasons to pick AMD over intel. For photoshop you'll need plenty of RAM, at least 16GB but more if you can get it.

An SSD isnt particularly important but if you have one it will speed up your start up speed considerably. Newer machines have M2 drives which are even faster again.

I would suggest a Ryzen 5 3xxx, some RAM, an SSD or M2 and a large conventional HD for file storage. If you're not planning on using it for gaming then the graphics card wont matter.

whether you can get that for £600 is another matter. Whether you could get away with a Ryzen 3 is also debatable. To be honest, you probably could

ETA - having said dont go for intel, if you can find a decent priced i5 with a decent amount of RAM that would do the job

Edited December 20, 2020 by Mr X

[UpInTheAyr]

Looking for a desktop myself to replace my 10 year old one, still works fine amazingly apart from the minor glitch here and there, and don't use it for anything other than general tasks. People keep telling me it is better to build your own but I cannot be arsed with that at all. Best place to shop around? Been that long since I've shopped around not sure where if best, and I'd rather not give my money to PC World or Currys.

[Nutz_the_Squirrel]

What about this @Mr X https://www.amazon.co.uk/Optiplex-i7-2600-Windows-Desktop-Computer/dp/B07YST68J3/ref=pd_day0_3?pd_rd_w=tUejQ&pf_rd_p=82bea144-0110-40ad-957f-5614a5716224&pf_rd_r=8H906KRNN30BSE2YT1EE&pd_rd_r=5f0461d7-7d20-4bcb-848c-32bea7bd757f&pd_rd_wg=Z8FBq&pd_rd_i=B07YST68J3&psc=1

 

 

[Homer Thompson]

 

 

 

 

Looking for a desktop myself to replace my 10 year old one, still works fine amazingly apart from the minor glitch here and there, and don't use it for anything other than general tasks. People keep telling me it is better to build your own but I cannot be arsed with that at all. Best place to shop around? Been that long since I've shopped around not sure where if best, and I'd rather not give my money to PC World or Currys.

 

Somewher like ebuyer or Scan do prebuilds,or amazon.

 

PC world is currys

 

 

What about this [mention=1702]Mr X[/mention] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Optiplex-i7-2600-Windows-Desktop-Computer/dp/B07YST68J3/ref=pd_day0_3?pd_rd_w=tUejQ&pf_rd_p=82bea144-0110-40ad-957f-5614a5716224&pf_rd_r=8H906KRNN30BSE2YT1EE&pd_rd_r=5f0461d7-7d20-4bcb-848c-32bea7bd757f&pd_rd_wg=Z8FBq&pd_rd_i=B07YST68J3&psc=1  

 

 

 

Looks OK. It will certainly run photoshop. Whether it's will be fast enough for what you want or be able to cope if youre doing complicated stuff I don't know.

 

Eta - bear in mind that is a pretty old cpu.

 

 

[UpInTheAyr]

1 hour ago, Mr X said:

PC world is currys

So would that make them both shit or just one of them?

[Homer Thompson]

1 hour ago, UpInTheAyr said:

So would that make them both shit or just one of them?

Lets go with both.

To be fair, some of their stuff is reasonably priced online. Some if it isnt, though, and I wouldnt trust anyone in their shops for anything

[Quiet Riot]

On 20/12/2020 at 14:44, UpInTheAyr said:

Looking for a desktop myself to replace my 10 year old one, still works fine amazingly apart from the minor glitch here and there, and don't use it for anything other than general tasks. People keep telling me it is better to build your own but I cannot be arsed with that at all. Best place to shop around? Been that long since I've shopped around not sure where if best, and I'd rather not give my money to PC World or Currys.

What sort of glitches are you getting?  Could possibly be fixed replacing one part, or if you're lucky it's a software issue that can be fixed for free.

[Ludo*1]

I'm looking to purchase my first desktop since I was a teenager. I've been getting by on fairly decent laptops but have a new house and want a room where I can do work on a desktop, play a bit of FM and maybe play the odd other game but nothing major.

Don't necessarily have a budget in mind and pretty flexible since it'll be a long term investment but at the same time having just moved, keeping the costs to a minimum will keep the missus happy.

What's the best deals out there at the moment?

[Ludo*1]

Is this any good?

https://www.chillblast.com/chillblast-fusion-ryzen-3-gtx-1650-gaming-pc.html?category_id=781#product-details-tab-tab1445

[Homer Thompson]

20 hours ago, Ludo*1 said:

Is this any good?

https://www.chillblast.com/chillblast-fusion-ryzen-3-gtx-1650-gaming-pc.html?category_id=781#product-details-tab-tab1445

Its o...k

As you'd expect for the price, its an older CPU and graphics card - the GFX card in particular is pretty low end.

However, if thats about your budget it will handle normal desktop use and FM well enough and play less demanding games.

[Ludo*1]

46 minutes ago, Mr X said:

Its o...k

As you'd expect for the price, its an older CPU and graphics card - the GFX card in particular is pretty low end.

However, if thats about your budget it will handle normal desktop use and FM well enough and play less demanding games.

Could I do better for that sort of money? It'll ultimately mainly be used for Zoom calls and working from home and would likely be the computer of choice for the next 10 or so year!

Happy to stretch the budget if there's something must have tbh but as I say, not got the first clue.

[Homer Thompson]

20 hours ago, Ludo*1 said:

Could I do better for that sort of money? It'll ultimately mainly be used for Zoom calls and working from home and would likely be the computer of choice for the next 10 or so year!

Happy to stretch the budget if there's something must have tbh but as I say, not got the first clue.

I knew you were going to ask that! Im not sure you could do that much better for the money but you could do a fair bit better by spending another £300-£400, maybe less.

Its not a great time to be buying a PC though with the scarcity of graphics cards and the knock-on effects

Edited January 12, 2021 by Mr X

[UsedToGoToCentralPark]

With power supplies and Graphics Cards being scarce and expensive it's not a great time to buy. Something with an integrated GPU like an AMD 3400G wouldn't be a bad idea and then you could stick a GPU in it in a few months time.

Would you be able to build it yourself?

[Quiet Riot]

On 11/01/2021 at 22:59, Ludo*1 said:

Could I do better for that sort of money? It'll ultimately mainly be used for Zoom calls and working from home and would likely be the computer of choice for the next 10 or so year!

Happy to stretch the budget if there's something must have tbh but as I say, not got the first clue.

 

On 12/01/2021 at 19:20, Mr X said:

I knew you were going to ask that! Im not sure you could do that much better for the money but you could do a fair bit better by spending another £300-£400, maybe less.

Its not a great time to be buying a PC though with the scarcity of graphics cards and the knock-on effects

Got to agree, it is seriously the wrong time to be buying a PC.  If you can get by on what you have for a couple of months then that is what I would be doing.

I am building/upgrading my PCs all the time, but I am buying nothing right now.

Doing my head in as I have a couple of cases just waiting for a new build.

[Quiet Riot]

It's pissing me off because I am sitting with an NZXT H1 case with included PSU and AOI cooler, Trident Z 2 x 16GB 3600MHz RAM, an ASRock B450 mini-ITX MB, Sabrent 1TB m.2 NVMe SSD, and no fucking suitable CPU or GPU.

[Lawrencereed5]

Thanks