Build Advice for Photoshop & Illustrator

[Carm]

Hi all, I'm hoping for advice on a desktop computer. I need to be able to run Photoshop and possibly Illustrator - maybe very rarely inDesign. I've been doing an illustration degree which I'm finishing soon and hoping (lockdown permitting) to go on to a Textiles Design MA in September. On the open day they said the programs would be Photoshop and Illustrator - I know from the degree experience that my old laptop cannot handle these programs. I can't see me using inDesign after the course so could probably get away with just using the uni computers for that.

I tried googling desktops but in all honesty I really don't know what I am looking at - prior to doing this my main computing need was that kids could play Sims but they wont be allowed on this computer. I need something that will last me a good few years. I don't mind what the case looks like just that I can use those programs and a monitor with reasonably true colour display - doesn't need to be huge, I don't have a massive work area. My budget is ideally around £800 but could go a bit higher if I absolutely had to. Any advice would be really appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Scott]

At £800 for the monitor and the PC I would definitely be looking at a laptop system over a desktop. You aren't going to get a particularly good build, especially for professional applications, with this budget.

Here is a guide I put together for desktop recommendations etc. It should give you an insight into what is recommended and the reasoning behind it....

Desktop Building Guide - April 2023

A "quick" reference guide to building the perfect system. This is the sort of logic I go through when suggesting systems, so thought I would jot it down on the page. Clearly this is an ever changing suite of options but I'll update periodically as my default go-to's change... I'm noticing the...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

For £800 you could get a reasonable laptop that should do what you ask of it, it just won't be particularly focused on productivity at a professional level so you may need patience for rendering etc.

 

[Warbelian]

You'll be looking at alot of rendering with Illustrator, thankfully the Ryzen 5 2600X will do you just fine with the help of the 2060 SUPER, you could go 2060 if you want to lower the price a bit and you should still get quite good results.

Case
PCS WRAITH RGB MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.25GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B450-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 SUPER - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 80 Series High Performance CPU Cooler (AMD)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 12 to 14 working days
Price: £1,127.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-home-office/EbgYw5sp5r/

 

[Scott]

You'll be looking at alot of rendering with Illustrator, thankfully the Ryzen 5 2600X will do you just fine with the help of the 2060 SUPER, you could go 2060 if you want to lower the price a bit and you should still get quite good results.

Case
PCS WRAITH RGB MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.25GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B450-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 SUPER - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 80 Series High Performance CPU Cooler (AMD)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 12 to 14 working days
Price: £1,127.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-home-office/EbgYw5sp5r/

I don't think that's good advice at all to be honest, and you've absolutely blown the £800 budget out of the water. I understand the op suggested adding a "bit" to the budget but another 50% is going to be pushing it I imagine.

Specifically on this recommendation:

Poor case
Old CPU
Unbalanced GPU for the system
Waste of budget on the M2 drive
Low PSU
Low end cooler (un-necessary too)
Paste is a waste
Poor WIFI selection

 

[Carm]

Thank you both for your great advice. I was looking for desktop mainly because I am easily distracted and if I am contained to one area I will be more focused on work. I didn't realise there was monthly payment options so could possibly go higher if need be - is it possible to pay off a lump and then do payments on the rest do you know?

Also what is thermal paste? Is that something I would have to do or would that be done for me? Sorry - am really new at this, my last desktop was a Dell bought a good few years ago now.

 

[Scott]

Thank you both for your great advice. I was looking for desktop mainly because I am easily distracted and if I am contained to one area I will be more focused on work. I didn't realise there was monthly payment options so could possibly go higher if need be - is it possible to pay off a lump and then do payments on the rest do you know?

Also what is thermal paste? Is that something I would have to do or would that be done for me? Sorry - am really new at this, my last desktop was a Dell bought a good few years ago now.

The finance option, at my last check, allowed you to pay off the money in the first 12 months interest free. After that point you are tied into the repayment plan. Basically as long as you pay it off in 12 months there's only an admin charge.

Have a think about the budget and what is most important to you regarding the build. £1k is going to be fairly low end 1080p including a monitor. Ideally you would want a 1440p monitor for Photoshop and illustrator (IMO) but it's going to take a chunk of change just for the monitor at this point. You would be looking around £1500-£1600 for a meaningful 1440p build (again, with monitor).

 

[Carm]

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I will definitely have a think and am writing all this down - the monitor information in particular is very helpful as obviously with what I want to do I need good colours. I've noticed the computers at uni are much brighter than when I view my images on my old laptop. They use Apple products which I don't really like but must admit the colours on their screens are so good - so that must be down to what you are saying.

 

[Scott]

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I will definitely have a think and am writing all this down - the monitor information in particular is very helpful as obviously with what I want to do I need good colours. I've noticed the computers at uni are much brighter than when I view my images on my old laptop. They use Apple products which I don't really like but must admit the colours on their screens are so good - so that must be down to what you are saying.

For professional use a VA screen, I believe, would be preferred. Something like the Optix MAG272QR would be ideal.... you can see the cost of these though.

Apple products are very expensive and comparative with the high end hardware.

 

[Warbelian]

I don't think that's good advice at all to be honest, and you've absolutely blown the £800 budget out of the water. I understand the op suggested adding a "bit" to the budget but another 50% is going to be pushing it I imagine.

Specifically on this recommendation:

Poor case
Old CPU
Unbalanced GPU for the system
Waste of budget on the M2 drive
Low PSU
Low end cooler (un-necessary too)
Paste is a waste
Poor WIFI selection

Thank you for your feedback, I haven't been up to date to what's new for about 2 years now and used a few sources to see what was good back then.

Still surprised that such an outdated build costs this much then.

 

[Carm]

Thanks Scott, I see what you mean about the price but the reviews are really good on that monitor. I have saved that one and will try and get a good enough computer to go with it.

Thanks for your patience and help. It's been really appreciated.

 

[Carm]

Thank you for your feedback, I haven't been up to date to what's new for about 2 years now and used a few sources to see what was good back then.

Still surprised that such an outdated build costs this much then.

I must admit I knew it was going to be expensive to upgrade from my creaky old laptop but it's been an eye opener for sure. Am hoping though that when I finally find what I need it will do me a good few years.