Not quite sure what to get?

[PCGamerEssentials101]

Hi, I wanted a new PC for the year since i'll be going into AP Digital which involves lots of photo editing on a daily/weekly basis. This will be my daily driver, the task i'll put it through are:

 

• Essays, research
• Movies & Tv Series
• Productivity, Photoshop and Light Room
• Games: League, Counter strike, and Hearthstone

I currently reside in California, USA. Don't particularly have a budget, but the best components for a budget would be nice maybe under $749, would you guys possibly know a cheap way into getting windows 10 as well? Thank you

 

P.S. i have no components to reuse. 

 

Edit: Would a small barebone/ITX be a good choice since i travel a lot between two cities?

[LegacyStijncat]

 

• Essays, research
• Movies & Tv Series
• Productivity, Photoshop and Light Room
• Games: League, Counter strike, and Hearthstone

For this, I would recommend to get a good, preferably an Intel CPU (since they are most all round), and not focusing on the GPU too much. This is clearly all CPU heavy work.

 

I currently reside in California, USA. Don't particularly have a budget, but the best components for a budget would be nice maybe under $749, would you guys possibly know a cheap way into getting windows 10 as well? Thank you

Reddit software key of Windows 7/8/8.1, and then do a free upgrade.

 

 

Edit: Would a small barebone/ITX be a good choice since i travel a lot between two cities?

Depends on personal preference. See what comes out best for you!

[PCGamerEssentials101]

For this, I would recommend to get a good, preferably an Intel CPU (since they are most all round), and not focusing on the GPU too much. This is clearly all CPU heavy work.

 

Reddit software key of Windows 7/8/8.1, and then do a free upgrade.

 

 

Depends on personal preference. See what comes out best for you!

Ah so even photo editing on relied on CPU? As for the itx, this is my first build and i'm scared that i'll mess up

[rjfaber91]

Ah so even photo editing on relied on CPU? As for the itx, this is my first build and i'm scared that i'll mess up

 

Photo editing does use the GPU, but the capacity of modern GPUs for 2D applications easily overcomes anything that Photoshop or a comparable program can throw at it. The extra horsepower that high-end GPUs have is pretty much exclusively useful for 3D applications. That is unless you start working on collossal resolutions, because then you'll still need a high-end GPU (or at least one with plentiful VRAM) to accommodate the frame buffer.

 

As for the motherboard size; there are a great number of high-quality ITX motherboards for Intel CPUs, so it's a perfectly viable option there. If you go the AMD route, however, which might be advisable for your requirements, you'll be stuck with mATX or larger.

[LegacyStijncat]

Ah so even photo editing on relied on CPU? As for the itx, this is my first build and i'm scared that i'll mess up

ITX is no different from ATX, you just need to make sure that all the parts work together!

 

Photo editing does use the GPU, but the capacity of modern GPUs for 2D applications easily overcomes anything that Photoshop or a comparable program can throw at it. The extra horsepower that high-end GPUs have is pretty much exclusively useful for 3D applications. That is unless you start working on collossal resolutions, because then you'll still need a high-end GPU (or at least one with plentiful VRAM) to accommodate the frame buffer.

^This

 

 

As for the motherboard size; there are a great number of high-quality ITX motherboards for Intel CPUs, so it's a perfectly viable option there. If you go the AMD route, however, which might be advisable for your requirements, you'll be stuck with mATX or larger.

Personally, I would go for Intel. I don't mean to black talk AMD, since they make good CPU's, but IPC is quite important in gaming. AMD offers lots of cores in their price range, Intel offers lots of IPC in the same one.

[Faceman]

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/H6XzrH
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/H6XzrH/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($41.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: PNY Anarchy 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($76.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: A-Data Premier Pro SP600 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($46.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card  ($169.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Cougar MG100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($29.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $703.42
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-29 20:20 EDT-0400

 

Could even spring for a nicer chassis.

[rjfaber91]

Personally, I would go for Intel. I don't mean to black talk AMD, since they make good CPU's, but IPC is quite important in gaming. AMD offers lots of cores in their price range, Intel offers lots of IPC in the same one.

 

I think that AMD would actually be viable in this particular usage scenario because of the content creation. It wouldn't necessarily be better or worse than Intel, but unlike in a purely gaming-oriented scenario, AMD would at least be worth considering.

[PCGamerEssentials101]

 

Thank you , does hyper threading make a difference? 

[Faceman]

Thank you , does hyper threading make a difference? 

For Light Room it will.  The other applications, not so much.