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First PC for photoshop and light gaming

_Rylai_

So here is the hardware list i put together. I am on a budget but will be upgrading in the future.

Just looking to see if this build will be good for now and if all the components work together and are upgradable 

 

 
CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor  ($124.99 @ NCIX) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($35.98 @ Newegg Canada) 
Motherboard: MSI 970 GAMING ATX AM3+ Motherboard  ($124.95 @ Vuugo) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 270 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card  ($189.64 @ TigerDirect Canada) 
Case: Azza SIRIUS ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0 DVD/CD Writer  ($16.80 @ DirectCanada) 
Total: $804.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
 
 
Now the only thing i really would change is the case. I want something close to the $50 but I dont want it to fall apart so any recommendations would be great!
 
Thanks in advance!
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My recommendation is look at kijiji/Craigslist for parts

Thats that. If you need to get in touch chances are you can find someone that knows me that can get in touch.

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Does your workload require 6 cores?

If you want to reply back to me or someone else USE THE QUOTE BUTTON!                                                      
Pascal laptops guide

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Does your workload require 6 cores?

Honestly I wouldn't be able to tell you. I am a digital artist so use photoshop ALOT Id love to use Coral Painter but my current laptop doesnt allow it to run. I would like to be able to multi task while i am in PS aswell like have browsers running and media player, without it effecting my work. I cant do that with what I have now without my PS lagging or crashing all together. 

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So here is the hardware list i put together. I am on a budget but will be upgrading in the future.

Just looking to see if this build will be good for now and if all the components work together and are upgradable 

 

 
CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor  ($124.99 @ NCIX) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($35.98 @ Newegg Canada) 
Motherboard: MSI 970 GAMING ATX AM3+ Motherboard  ($124.95 @ Vuugo) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 270 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card  ($189.64 @ TigerDirect Canada) 
Case: Azza SIRIUS ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0 DVD/CD Writer  ($16.80 @ DirectCanada) 
Total: $804.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
 
 
Now the only thing i really would change is the case. I want something close to the $50 but I dont want it to fall apart so any recommendations would be great!
 
Thanks in advance!

 

  Firs of all, welcome to the forums! Seems to be a pretty good build for the price (in Canada, of course). Here's what I generally look for in a build like yours. The budget may not allow for all or any of my suggestions, though. I don't know the Canadian market too well.

  • A good processor under load (Photoshop), and in single-core performance (Gaming, and just about everything else). That one should be good on multithreaded loads like photoshop can be, but in terms of gaming, it should be alright. An i5 should be better for gaming though, and give similar performance on multithreaded loads.
  • A good amount of RAM. Photoshop can generally use 16+ GB. Although 8GB is fine for light loads, if you're planning on multitasking with photoshop and other windows open, definitely try for 16GB. I'd recommend this Crucial Ballistix Sport RAM ($159.83 from DirectCanada). I've used it on a recent build of mine, and it seems to be pretty good value for the price.
  • Storage. As much as you can afford. Pictures, along with games and whatever else you may store can fill up 1TB pretty quickly. That's easily upgradable down the road, but I believe it's cheaper to get one 2TB drive than two 1TB drives. Also, it may be worth considering a RAID array, if you want to use a lot of drives. That motherboard supports RAID, according to pcpartpicker.
  • A decent enough video card. The R7 270 should be fine, though. Maybe not AAA titles at ultra 60fps 1080p, but for light gaming and photo editing should do the trick.

  My concerns about the build would be over its reliability. For example, I'm not sure if Thermaltake is a good brand for power supplies. I've also heard of Seagate drives failing more often than others, but there's not much that can be done, aside from RAID 1 or a WD Blue drive (I'm not sure if Blues are much better, though).

 

  In terms of upgradability, the CPU can be upgraded, but I believe that AM3+ socket has been used for around 3 years now, and although it's good, I think it may be limiting over time. Not sure though. All the parts should be compatible, aside from any SATA data cables you may need (Most motherboards I've seen only come with two, and you should need three). But those are pretty cheap anyway.

 

  In regards to the case, though, I can recommend the Corsair Carbide Series 200R case. Nice and sturdy, with built-in cable management, good room for expandability, and two decent built-in case fans for nice airflow. My only complaint would be the amount of holes in it, and I'd imagine that means it gathers dust internally very quickly. I'm currently looking at some solutions for this. It's also $10 more, but I'd say it's worthwhile. The case can largely be preference, of course.

 

  Anyway, that's just my two cents, and I'm not an expert by any means. Let me know if you have any questions! I'll try to answer them as best I can! Good luck with the build!

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  Firs of all, welcome to the forums! Seems to be a pretty good build for the price (in Canada, of course). Here's what I generally look for in a build like yours. The budget may not allow for all or any of my suggestions, though. I don't know the Canadian market too well.

  • A good processor under load (Photoshop), and in single-core performance (Gaming, and just about everything else). That one should be good on multithreaded loads like photoshop can be, but in terms of gaming, it should be alright. An i5 should be better for gaming though, and give similar performance on multithreaded loads.
  • A good amount of RAM. Photoshop can generally use 16+ GB. Although 8GB is fine for light loads, if you're planning on multitasking with photoshop and other windows open, definitely try for 16GB. I'd recommend this Crucial Ballistix Sport RAM ($159.83 from DirectCanada). I've used it on a recent build of mine, and it seems to be pretty good value for the price.
  • Storage. As much as you can afford. Pictures, along with games and whatever else you may store can fill up 1TB pretty quickly. That's easily upgradable down the road, but I believe it's cheaper to get one 2TB drive than two 1TB drives. Also, it may be worth considering a RAID array, if you want to use a lot of drives. That motherboard supports RAID, according to pcpartpicker.
  • A decent enough video card. The R7 270 should be fine, though. Maybe not AAA titles at ultra 60fps 1080p, but for light gaming and photo editing should do the trick.

  My concerns about the build would be over its reliability. For example, I'm not sure if Thermaltake is a good brand for power supplies. I've also heard of Seagate drives failing more often than others, but there's not much that can be done, aside from RAID 1 or a WD Blue drive (I'm not sure if Blues are much better, though).

 

  In terms of upgradability, the CPU can be upgraded, but I believe that AM3+ socket has been used for around 3 years now, and although it's good, I think it may be limiting over time. Not sure though. All the parts should be compatible, aside from any SATA data cables you may need (Most motherboards I've seen only come with two, and you should need three). But those are pretty cheap anyway.

 

  In regards to the case, though, I can recommend the Corsair Carbide Series 200R case. Nice and sturdy, with built-in cable management, good room for expandability, and two decent built-in case fans for nice airflow. My only complaint would be the amount of holes in it, and I'd imagine that means it gathers dust internally very quickly. I'm currently looking at some solutions for this. It's also $10 more, but I'd say it's worthwhile. The case can largely be preference, of course.

 

  Anyway, that's just my two cents, and I'm not an expert by any means. Let me know if you have any questions! I'll try to answer them as best I can! Good luck with the build!

Thanks for that very detailed list! I will definitely be upgrading my RAM sooner rather then later. I just need something to hold me over for a few months. My laptop is ready to blow up so I need something that will run for 6 months or so just fine. Once I can get more money together I will eventually end up upgrading everything. As for gaming, the most i really play is Dota 2 and sometimes Skyrim or warframe. I would like to be able to play some more demanding games that i have refrained from trying due to what im currently using, (runs dota 2 on low with low textures and still lags sometimes lol) so aslong as I can play that on high without lag Ill be a happy bunny.

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Thanks for that very detailed list! I will definitely be upgrading my RAM sooner rather then later. I just need something to hold me over for a few months. My laptop is ready to blow up so I need something that will run for 6 months or so just fine. Once I can get more money together I will eventually end up upgrading everything. As for gaming, the most i really play is Dota 2 and sometimes Skyrim or warframe. I would like to be able to play some more demanding games that i have refrained from trying due to what im currently using, (runs dota 2 on low with low textures and still lags sometimes lol) so aslong as I can play that on high without lag Ill be a happy bunny.

  Oh no problem! Sounds like you'll be alright with that list, then. It should be fine for a good while. I'm not entirely sure it can run Dota 2 and Warframe on high, but my guess is that it can. Skyrim can be a bit more demanding, so I'm not sure if it can run it on really high settings or with mods, but it should be playable, at least.

  Upgradability will almost definitely be a problem, though. I'd say the AMD FX-6350 is the highest performing CPU I'd personally get from AMD. After that, I feel Intel really shines, and I would go with an i5. I understand that on budget systems, AMD is great, but you're limiting yourself to the FX-9350 at most, which isn't as good as its specs seem to be (at what you need it for). Obviously, you can't find any motherboards that will work with both the AM3+ and LGA1150 (2011-3, etc) sockets, but I'd consider the LGA1150 (or, more generally, motherboards with a modern Intel socket) to be more upgradable, simply because on the higher end of the CPU spectrum, Intel outshines AMD.

  So to potentially remedy this, here's a generally more upgradable build at pretty much the same price. It actually may even be more powerful in some instances. Even though the i3 is dual-core, as opposed to the six cores of the AMD processor, the i3 should have much better single-core performance (most applications use one core, photoshop uses multiple though), it's hyperthreaded, and the socket has better general upgradeability.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($139.95 @ Vuugo)

Motherboard: ASRock Z97 EXTREME4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($163.98 @ Newegg Canada)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ Canada Computers)

Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ Canada Computers)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.75 @ Vuugo)

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R7 260X 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($143.95 @ Vuugo)

Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Canada Computers)

Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($67.99 @ NCIX)

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($23.05 @ Vuugo)

Total: $803.64

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-27 14:56 EST-0500

 

  Places you can upgrade: The CPU (an i5 4690k would be superb), the CPU Cooler (A Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO or better, for good overclocking), RAM (16GB would be ideal for photoshop), storage (options in my original post), video card (the 260x should do well with what you're throwing at it, but there's always room for an upgrade), and the SSD (this one is OK, but an MX100 is better, better than that is 850 or 840-EVO, even better is an MX200).

  You're very limited with the build you specified in terms of upgradability. Again, you're essentially limited to AMD's FX processors (I don't know if any other of AMD's CPUs use the AM3+), and that PSU may limit you in the future, but probably not. With the build above, you can even fit an i7 4790k CPU, if you wanted, and you can pretty easily Crossfire that GPU, and overclock the RAM, GPU, and CPU (I think). The system should only use a little over 300W, and that PSU is 600W, so there's quite a bit of room (maybe even too much). I would have actually gone with a 500-550W PSU, as it's more reasonable, but the 600W is cheaper with the rebate, so I figured I'd mention that.

  Any thoughts on this suggestion?

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A better psu is important.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Case: Antec One ATX Mid Tower Case  ($44.99 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($59.99 @ NCIX)
Total: $104.98
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-27 15:56 EST-0500

 

Note: The case will accept gpu up to 266mm long which is fine for the MSI R9 270.

 

Note: The XFX psu is not modular. If the budget will take it, I would suggest a modular model like the Corsair CX600M, Corsair CX500M, SeaSonic M12II 520 Bronze, Antec HCG-520M, or SeaSonic SSR-550RM.

80+ ratings certify electrical efficiency. Not quality.

 

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