Build or prebuilt PC for my needs

[The Franchise]

I couldn’t find the “Build Your Own PC” thread, so I figured I’d create my own.

Haven’t had a gaming PC in a long time. I mostly play PS4. I’m looking into getting a desktop PC that can handle gaming (both on a monitor and a TV), Photoshop and Illustrator and then as a media PC that I can play movies. I’m looking into burning all of my DVDs to a hard drive so that I can play them in my media room or downstairs on my main TV.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

Should I go prebuilt or build my own? Keep in mind that I’ve never built my own.

[kepp]

I'm going to listen in...I've been thinking about getting a gaming laptop. They get expensive quick though. And it would be easier to keep up with hardware advancements with a desktop unit. I'm undecided.

[ModSocks]

Originally Posted by kepp

I'm going to listen in...I've been thinking about getting a gaming laptop.

Don't do it. Just build the desktop.

[Bill Brasky]

Building a PC is like an expensive lego set. It's very clear how to do things because the slots all line up. A stick of RAM only fits in the RAM slot. You can't accidentally put the RAM where the video card goes.

The main thing with building your own is the time it takes to pick the parts, assemble the pc, and then load drivers and software vs picking out a prebuilt and putting it in the car (or shipping it to your house).

Personally, I think it would be easier to split those tasks up. Get a home theater PC that's small form factor and quiet, then get a next gen console for gaming. Their value is way better that what you can get for a gaming PC right now. Video card prices are reeruned high.

edit: I just checked Amazon for fun, and a Radeon 5700, which is essentially the same as what's going into the PS5, is $330. Building a gaming PC comparable to a PS5 would easily cost over $1k. That's a non-starter on value imo.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by Bill Brasky

Building a PC is like an expensive lego set. It's very clear how to do things because the slots all line up. A stick of RAM only fits in the RAM slot. You can't accidentally put the RAM where the video card goes.

The main thing with building your own is the time it takes to pick the parts, assemble the pc, and then load drivers and software vs picking out a prebuilt and putting it in the car (or shipping it to your house).

Personally, I think it would be easier to split those tasks up. Get a home theater PC that's small form factor and quiet, then get a next gen console for gaming. Their value is way better that what you can get for a gaming PC right now. Video card prices are reeruned high.

edit: I just checked Amazon for fun, and a Radeon 5700, which is essentially the same as what's going into the PS5, is $330. Building a gaming PC comparable to a PS5 would easily cost over $1k. That's a non-starter on value imo.

Just know that if I do get a PC....I will also still be getting the PS5. This isn’t going to eliminate my console gaming. I just want to be able to play certain games on PC as well. Now with that in mind....I’m not looking to get an over the top, amazing gaming PC that will play everything.

[Pants]

I am not sure how resource-intensive PS and Illustrator are. I know for video editing, you need a beast CPU where you can get away with something much more reasonable purely for gaming. For gaming, the most important component is the GPU and you only want enough CPU to not bottleneck it. That usually means an upper mid-range CPU.

Media centers don't require much at all and you can get away with a super cheap machine serving that role. Now that $/terabyte is a complete joke, it's even less cost prohibitive.

Bill Brasky mentioned something about the drivers, but that honestly hasn't been a pain at all since Windows XP came out many years ago.

Stick to PC Part Picker (https://pcpartpicker.com/) and you can't **** up.

Putting it together is fun and will feel very rewarding when you're done. Getting the most juice out of it by overclocking your CPU and GPU while keeping your system stable is a more advanced, equally as rewarding a step.

I should add, that if you want to get OCD about cable management, it will make the putting-together part a little more time-consuming.

How much are you willing to spend?

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by Pants

I am not sure how resource-intensive PS and Illustrator are. I know for video editing, you need a beast CPU where you can get away with something much more reasonable purely for gaming. For gaming, the most important component is the GPU and you only want enough CPU to not bottleneck it. That usually means an upper mid-range CPU.

Media centers don't require much at all and you can get away with a super cheap machine serving that role. Now that $/terabyte is a complete joke, it's even less cost prohibitive.

Bill Brasky mentioned something about the drivers, but that honestly hasn't been a pain at all since Windows XP came out many years ago.

Stick to PC Part Picker (https://pcpartpicker.com/) and you can't **** up.

Putting it together is fun and will feel very rewarding when you're done. Getting the most juice out of it by overclocking your CPU and GPU while keeping your system stable is a more advanced, equally as rewarding a step.

I should add, that if you want to get OCD about cable management, it will make the putting-together part a little more time-consuming.

How much are you willing to spend?

I’m probably looking anywhere between $800-$1300. All depends on the deal and what it’s going to do.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by The Franchise

I’m probably looking anywhere between $800-$1300. All depends on the deal and what it’s going to do.

I'd recommend purchasing a Gigabyte motherboard, the latest and fastest Intel i9 processor, at least 32 gigs of Ram, a 700 watt power supply and a high end cooling fan.

I'm not up on the latest graphics cards because I'm not a gamer but if you purchase and build the fastest computer computer today, it'll last you at least 5 years, if not more.

As for Photoshop and Illustrator, you'll need at least 16 gigs of Ram at minimum and I'd recommend two SSD's, one for your system files, which can be 250 gigs and one for your data, which should be at least 750 gigs, if not a full terrabyte.

You should be able to build that system for $1,300 or less on Amazon and I'd definitely recommend purchasing your computer parts from them because it's just so easy to return and replace defective items. I received faulty motherboards for the last two computers I built. Amazon sent the replacements Next Day Air, so it wasn't a huge ordeal.

Good luck!

[Bill Brasky]

Originally Posted by The Franchise

I’m probably looking anywhere between $800-$1300. All depends on the deal and what it’s going to do.

In that case, I’d go with the AMD 3600 build on pcpart picker.

It will be more than enough for your office work and content creation and is still a beast for gaming. I recommended the AMD version because it has 6 cores 12 threads vs 6 cores 6 threads on the Intel. Also, the AMD cpu is 65 watts vs 95 watts for the intel, which means it will run quieter.

https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/gWv6M...treaming-build

[ModSocks]

Originally Posted by Pants

I am not sure how resource-intensive PS and Illustrator are. I know for video editing, you need a beast CPU where you can get away with something much more reasonable purely for gaming.

Meh.

What you need is a true quad core or greater. When building my video editing PC i chose an 8-core AMD. Nothing fancy.

Programs like Premier and After Effects are designed to utilize true multi-core processors, so the more cores the better.

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by The Franchise

Just know that if I do get a PC....I will also still be getting the PS5. This isn’t going to eliminate my console gaming. I just want to be able to play certain games on PC as well. Now with that in mind....I’m not looking to get an over the top, amazing gaming PC that will play everything.

a middle of the pack PC will play everything. It just wont play everything in 1440 or 4k thats it.

I just did a whole new AMD set up this time. I went with the Ryzen 7 3800x and a amd Radeon 5700XT. Runs everything i throw at it in 1080 easy peasy.

[ModSocks]

Photoshop and Illustrator don't take a whole lot to run, so i wouldn't worry too much about them.

I run the latest version of Photoshop on my old ass 2nd gen I5 w/ 8gigs of DDR3 and it runs smooth.

Hell, i was running photoshop back in the day on an old Windows XP w/ no dedicated video card. They really dont require a whole lot.

Premiere or any video editing software can also run on a minimal PC these days, but you'll certainly notice a performance difference there that you wouldn't with Photoshop.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

Photoshop and Illustrator don't take a whole lot to run, so i wouldn't worry too much about them.

Huh.

My wife and daughter have the Adobe Suite subscription and there are some projects in which 16 gigs of ram isn't enough. They both have i7's but my daughter is doing some intensive animation, so maybe that's the difference.

[ModSocks]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Huh.

My wife and daughter have the Adobe Suite subscription and there are some projects in which 16 gigs of ram isn't enough. They both have i7's but my daughter is doing some intensive animation, so maybe that's the difference.

I'm betting the animation is the difference. I don't do any animation. I use photoshop damn near daily though and it runs smooth as hell with half the computing power you're describing.

When you get into live rendering, i.e video editing and animation, that gets real memory intensive. Without sufficient memory and a good multi-core processor that rendering can really slow things down.

[The Franchise]

Maybe I’m ****ing stupid (I know I am)

But most of the motherboards that I’ve seen only have one HDMI input. What do I need to run dual monitors?