Desktop PC for Photo Editing

[powernerd]

Merry X-mas all,

I need a little help, my mother is looking to get a new PC primarily for Photoediting, I'm reccomending she buys from PCS after the cracking laptop they built me and so I'd like some thoughts on what sort of spec would be good. Budget is ~£500 without a monitor. I am thinking that the Graphics Card isn't that important, so would integrated be ok? She's not a gamer after all! Lots of RAM (16GB?) and a reasonably fast processor, maybe an SSD with a second hard disk for data?

Any and all comments welcome,
cheers
PN

 

[mantadog]

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD BULLDOZER QUAD CORE FX-4100 (3.60GHz/6MB CACHE/AM3)
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A78L-M/USB3: M-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 520 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SEAGATE Barracuda SATA-III 6Gb/s HDD, 32MB Cache (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
350W Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £501.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-bulldozer-top-spec-pc/

Thats what i come up with for £500. It has a decent processor, i tried to get an intel i5 but couldn't really get one for under £500. The fx-4100 should be ample as i presume any editing will be fairly light? 16GB of ram would be overkill, 8GB is ample. You have to choose a dedicated GPU with this Mobo, the GT 520 is cheap and will handle DVD's etc if the need arises. Last thing is the HDD, the barracuda is more of a performance drive giving faster load times for everything from the OS to Photoshop. A SSD is a bit out of reach on a £500 budget, but the barracuda will be fine.