question Looking for affordable computer options for working in Game Development, Music and Illustration

[RobbyBloom]

I've already posted this question in another forum website, however I want to get as many different answers as I can.

 

I'm a digital artist who is looking to expand into game design (and development) as well as music- however my current computer cannot run more than my run of the mill art programs and small, compact games (it will even lag on Vanilla Minecraft, of all things). I'm looking for the most affordable, best option for a computer that can handle 3D and 2D game dev, music programs and basic illustration software (I currently use Paint Tool Sai). It sounds like a lot but I want to get the most I can out of my interests.

 

I would prefer a Desktop but a complimentary laptop suggestion works fine as well as I would like to bring some of my projects from my desktop to school and still be able to work on them. Thanks!

[Slottr]

How much is affordable?

[DailyProcrastinator]

Seems like your primary focus is productivity. I'd recommend the Ryzen 7 1700, its super cheap right now and with 8 cores 16 threads it's a productivity beast. Plus with continued AM4 support from AMD through until 2020 you have upgrading headroom. What's your budget and country so we can best help you?

[RobbyBloom]

19 minutes ago, JM21 said:

Seems like your primary focus is productivity. I'd recommend the Ryzen 7 1700, its super cheap right now and with 8 cores 16 threads it's a productivity beast. Plus with continued AM4 support from AMD through until 2020 you have upgrading headroom. What's your budget and country so we can best help you?

Our budget at this point in time is what minimum does a good job haha. I'm in the US and I'm just putting together a to-do list to collect my resources! I'll check out that system, if there are any other options let me know!

[RobbyBloom]

27 minutes ago, Slottr said:

How much is affordable?

As I said above, the best price for a computer that can get a good job done! It's pretty open right now budget-wise.

[Slottr]

2 minutes ago, RobbyBloom said:

As I said above, the best price for a computer that can get a good job done! It's pretty open right now budget-wise.

Then probably something like @JM21 said, a 1700 is relatively cheap right now. Then maybe pair it with something like an RX 580. 

 

580 might be overkill for what youre doing, but..

[DailyProcrastinator]

11 minutes ago, RobbyBloom said:

Our budget at this point in time is what minimum does a good job haha. I'm in the US and I'm just putting together a to-do list to collect my resources! I'll check out that system, if there are any other options let me know!

Are you looking at pre-built PC's? What I recommended was a CPU only wanted to know your budget first, cause there a better high-end CPU's on the market but again we need to know what you're willing to spend.

1 minute ago, RobbyBloom said:

As I said above, the best price for a computer that can get a good job done! It's pretty open right now budget-wise.

Is your budget around $2k or like $5k lol. I can recommend a $5k build if that's what you want haha but we aren't going to spend the time doing that only to find you budgets is $1-3k GIve us something to work with. The 'best price' is completely subjective from one person to another.

[RobbyBloom]

7 minutes ago, Slottr said:

Then probably something like @JM21 said, a 1700 is relatively cheap right now. Then maybe pair it with something like an RX 580. 

 

580 might be overkill for what youre doing, but..

 

6 minutes ago, JM21 said:

Are you looking at pre-built PC's? What I recommended was a CPU only wanted to know your budget first, cause there a better high-end CPU's on the market but again we need to know what you're willing to spend.

Is your budget around $2k or like $5k lol. I can recommend a $5k build if that's what you want haha but we aren't going to spend the time doing that only to find you budgets is $1-3k GIve us something to work with. The 'best price' is completely subjective from one person to another.

These are just fine! I just needed a basis so I could do better research into computers. This isn't an immediate "must have" it's just something I'm working into getting. (Im asking the family and just relaying what they're telling me lol). In terms of the Ryzon 7 1700 and the RX 580, how would I go about actually building a PC or finding PreBuilt PCs? Don't worry about the budget if the parts and computers you suggest are on the cheaper side of things within it's caliber, if that makes sense.

[Slottr]

4 minutes ago, RobbyBloom said:

 

These are just fine! I just needed a basis so I could do better research into computers. This isn't an immediate "must have" it's just something I'm working into getting. (Im asking the family and just relaying what they're telling me lol). In terms of the Ryzon 7 1700 and the RX 580, how would I go about actually building a PC or finding PreBuilt PCs? Don't worry about the budget if the parts and computers you suggest are on the cheaper side of things within it's caliber, if that makes sense.

For building pc's, look at pcpartpicker.com - there you will be able to choose parts from a list and it will tell you if theyre compatible or not.

[DailyProcrastinator]

If you're open to building yourself then start watching some youtube videos. Pre-builts can be bought from local electronic stores but you can use the guidelines for the hardware recommended to choose your pre-built PC. Alternatively, NZXT has a cool build feature that they provide.  It's kinda gaming focused but any build with a Ryzen 7 CPU and at least an RX 580 8GB or GTX 1060 6GB should be good. They take the parts you choose adn put it together for only $100 so it's not a bad deal if you aren't comfortable with building yourself.

Check it out: https://www.letsbld.com/bld/step4?price=2500&draft=5066101178#

 

As @Slottr mentioned PCpartpicker is great to choose parts on your own. A build like this would be good:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3GHz 8-Core Processor	$179.99 @ Newegg Business
CPU Cooler	CRYORIG - H5 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler	$46.89 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	ASRock - X370 Taichi ATX AM4 Motherboard	$163.88 @ OutletPC
Memory	G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$124.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Western Digital - Blue 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$149.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$54.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB SSC GAMING Video Card	$279.99 @ B&H
Case	Fractal Design - Meshify C TG ATX Mid Tower Case	$100.82 @ Newegg
Power Supply	SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$78.20 @ B&H
Operating System	Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit	$124.79 @ OutletPC
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1344.33
	Mail-in rebates	-$40.00
	Total	$1304.33
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-16 21:20 EDT-0400

 

[Slottr]

4 minutes ago, JM21 said:

 

 

That build can easily be under $1000 by opting out of the cooler, getting a cheaper case, cheaper motherboard and smaller ssd.

[DailyProcrastinator]

1 minute ago, Slottr said:

That build can easily be under $1000 by opting out of the cooler, getting a cheaper case, cheaper motherboard and smaller ssd.

I know, wasn't going for cheaper, just around the spec of the NZXT pre-built.

[Slottr]

Just now, JM21 said:

I know

Oh sorry, didnt mean to be condescending. Meant it to be more informational for OP. 

[DailyProcrastinator]

Just now, Slottr said:

Oh sorry, didnt mean to be condescending. Meant it to be more informational for OP. 

It's all g my dude!

[RobbyBloom]

8 minutes ago, JM21 said:

If you're open to building yourself then start watching some youtube videos. Pre-builts can be bought from local electronic stores but you can use the guidelines for the hardware recommended to choose your pre-built PC. Alternatively, NZXT has a cool build feature that they provide.  It's kinda gaming focused but any build with a Ryzen 7 CPU and at least an RX 580 8GB or GTX 1060 6GB should be good. They take the parts you choose adn put it together for only $100 so it's not a bad deal if you aren't comfortable with building yourself.

Check it out: https://www.letsbld.com/bld/step4?price=2500&draft=5066101178#

 

As @Slottr mentioned PCpartpicker is great to choose parts on your own. A build like this would be good:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3GHz 8-Core Processor	$179.99 @ Newegg Business
CPU Cooler	CRYORIG - H5 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler	$46.89 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	ASRock - X370 Taichi ATX AM4 Motherboard	$163.88 @ OutletPC
Memory	G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$124.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Western Digital - Blue 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$149.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$54.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB SSC GAMING Video Card	$279.99 @ B&H
Case	Fractal Design - Meshify C TG ATX Mid Tower Case	$100.82 @ Newegg
Power Supply	SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$78.20 @ B&H
Operating System	Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit	$124.79 @ OutletPC
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1344.33
	Mail-in rebates	-$40.00
	Total	$1304.33
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-16 21:20 EDT-0400

 

Oh this is perfect! I'll look into the parts as well as NZXT. I've heard of it before and it's gotten some really great reviews. The build you offered here is at a much better price than I could imagine! Thanks so much.

 

7 minutes ago, Slottr said:

That build can easily be under $1000 by opting out of the cooler, getting a cheaper case, cheaper motherboard and smaller ssd.

I'll look into that too! We have some PC stores around and I'm sure with a bit of searching I can find what I need. Thanks again this helps a lot!

[DailyProcrastinator]

8 minutes ago, RobbyBloom said:

Oh this is perfect! I'll look into the parts as well as NZXT. I've heard of it before and it's gotten some really great reviews. The build you offered here is at a much better price than I could imagine! Thanks so much.

 

I'll look into that too! We have some PC stores around and I'm sure with a bit of searching I can find what I need. Thanks again this helps a lot!

Yeah, I definitely didn't go as cheap as I could have.

 

My recommendations though are at least a Ryzen 7 CPU, an X370 or X470 motherboard, 16GB of RAM, at least a good 500gb SSD for a boot drive and system files, an RX 580 8GB or GTX 1060 6GB, and a good 80+ Gold efficiency PSU from a reputable brand like EVGA, Seasonic, or Corsair. The rest of the parts like cases, CPU coolers, additional hard drives, case fans etc. don't matter that much. But if your budget allows it you can always make a cool looking build.