Budget PC for Graphic Design

[JK_07]

Hi there!
I would like to build a budget PC (The budget is about 1000$, may be lower). Computer will not be used for gaming, mainly for basic photo editing, 2D graphics (mostly Adobe package programs) and basic daily or collage tasks. Over time, the PC can become a tool for more professional purposes, so I would like to leave the possibility for future upgrade.

That's why I'm wondering if I should consider the AM4 platform or decide already on AM5. After a little research, I assembled the following set:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700 ~240$
Motherboard: ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2 ~120$
Storage: Lexar NM790 Pci-e NVMe 512B ~55$ (Most stored on external storage/cloud)
Power Supply: Corsair RM650 ~100$
CPU Cooler: ENDORFY Navis F240 ~80$ / Fera 5 ~35$

At this point, I'm considering about RAM (at least 32GB) and GPU. Not focusing on card, I was thinking of basic RX6600 (8GB) ~230$ or RTX3050 (6GB )~215$ / RTX3050 (8GB) ~250$.

What do you think of such a setup in general and what GPU and RAM can I put together with ?

Have a nice day!

 

[R0H1T]

If you don't really need GPU acceleration you can skip the dGPU altogether. Since zen4 chips already have an IGP. In which case a 7900x or 7950x could work great.

 

[JK_07]

Do you think that IGP will be enough? To be honest I dont have that much experience with those.

 

[R0H1T]

What will you use it for ~ professional work or like studies/college et al?

If it's for professional work i.e. it pays, I'd suggest wait a bit longer to get zen5 products. They will be more expensive but also faster so if it saves you time IMO they'd be worth it.

If it's not for that then zen4 is probably better value & worth investing in right now.

Lastly what applications?

 

[JK_07]

Let's say it's more for professional puropses. Primarily working in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Draw and AutoCAD.

It is possible that in the future I will need to use some 3D editors as part of my studies (basic works in Blender) and video rendering. - More amateur, or as I said as part of my studies.

Budget may be the key here, I wonder how the release of zen5's may affect zen4 prices.

 

[wNotyarD]

If you won't game at all but may be doing some rendering, I guess a Ryzen 8x00G APU may be a good option for you.
I wouldn't trust the little graphics muscle the 7000 CPUs have to do anything other than displaying the desktop and working spreadsheets.

 

[JK_07]

In that case, isn't it better to decide on a dedicated graphics card ?

 

[wNotyarD]

In that case, isn't it better to decide on a dedicated graphics card ?

It would be stronger, sure. But wouldn't it be costlier? Your thread is titled "Budget PC [...]" after all.

 

[QuietBob]

Primarily working in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Draw and AutoCAD.

All of your listed apps will take advantage of a dedicated graphics card. A dedicated GPU with support for DX12 Feature Level 12_0 and 8 GB of VRAM is in fact recommended for Photoshop, while AutoCAD recommends 12 GB.

I'd pick an RTX 3060 with 12 GB VRAM for your intended uses. It's an affordable card that checks all the boxes.

 

[JK_07]

It would be stronger, sure. But wouldn't it be costlier? Your thread is titled "Budget PC [...]" after all.

You're right However, the budget is catching the ordinary dedicated card at $200-250.

How about motherboard and RAM memory with Ryzen 7700. I need a cheap board that will do its job, nothing fancy

 

[Silencio]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D 4.4 GHz 12-Core Processor ($339.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($33.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI PRO A620M-E Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard ($74.95 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-5200 CL40 Memory ($147.36 @ Amazon)
Storage: TEAMGROUP MS30 2 TB M.2-2280 SATA Solid State Drive ($88.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: PowerColor Fighter Radeon RX 6600 XT 8 GB Video Card ($209.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 3000D AIRFLOW ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Platinum 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1059.17
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-06-28 09:26 EDT-0400

 

[bonehead123]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D 4.4 GHz 12-Core Processor ($339.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($33.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI PRO A620M-E Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard ($74.95 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-5200 CL40 Memory ($147.36 @ Amazon)
Storage: TEAMGROUP MS30 2 TB M.2-2280 SATA Solid State Drive ($88.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: PowerColor Fighter Radeon RX 6600 XT 8 GB Video Card ($209.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 3000D AIRFLOW ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Platinum 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1059.17
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-06-28 09:26 EDT-0400

This is a pretty solid & strong build for the stated purposes, except I would highly recommend changing to a WD SN850X or Sammy 990/980pro for the m.2, especially for the CAD part (TG's drives are cheap but sloooow AF)

The nice thing is that if/when your apps/work gets more demanding, you can always upgrade the GPU to a stronger/newer/faster one with 12, 16 or 24 GB of vram & keep right on working...

As someone who works with alot CAD files, I can tell you that our company's policy for our workstations has always been: "Ram it, bam it, damn it"....our current systems have 256GB of ram & 24GB GPU's, and it makes a world of difference in rendering & productivity capacity

 

[Silencio]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D 4.4 GHz 12-Core Processor ($339.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Burst Assassin 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($21.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI PRO B650M-P Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard ($109.99 @ MSI)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($219.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN580 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($64.98 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sparkle ORC OC Arc A580 8 GB Video Card ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT H5 Flow ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS GX-750 ATX 3.0 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ B&H)
Total: $1075.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-06-29 14:04 EDT-0400

=)

 

[dgianstefani]

Hi there!
I would like to build a budget PC (The budget is about 1000$, may be lower). Computer will not be used for gaming, mainly for basic photo editing, 2D graphics (mostly Adobe package programs) and basic daily or collage tasks. Over time, the PC can become a tool for more professional purposes, so I would like to leave the possibility for future upgrade.

Let's say it's more for professional puropses. Primarily working in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Draw and AutoCAD.

It is possible that in the future I will need to use some 3D editors as part of my studies (basic works in Blender) and video rendering. - More amateur, or as I said as part of my studies.

Budget may be the key here, I wonder how the release of zen5's may affect zen4 prices.

"Budget PC", "Professional purposes".

You need to pick one.

Assume you go ahead with your $1000 budget. You will build either - a reasonably powerful PC (strong CPU, with weak core components (PSU, RAM, GPU, cooling, case), giving you issues over time), or a strong base PC, but with a weak CPU and GPU, forcing you to upgrade later when you realise that the system isn't powerful enough.

If you're going to be earning money with the PC, spend what is necessary for a good one.

For professional use, you want a NVIDIA GPU. Simple as that, CUDA and the NVIDIA ecosystem are utterly dominant in both professional and university settings. Modern graphical design software also makes good use of hardware ray tracing.
You want 32 GB RAM at a minimum, preferably 48/64. DDR4/5 isn't super relevant, but DDR5 is slightly faster, and comes in higher capacities.
You want at least eight CPU P cores, or 6 P cores and 8 E cores, more is better.
You want a strong PSU for reliability, and a GPU with 16 GB or more VRAM, that supports CUDA.
At least 2 TB of fast storage, preferably a dual drive system. You want to have a scratch drive where your project has complete use of all its bandwidth.
Fast connectivity standards, since you will likely make good use of it. Therefore USB 3.2 gen 2x2 minimum, TB4 preferably.

Therefore -

At a minimum:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ss3TL9

CPU: Intel Core i5-13600K 3.5 GHz 14-Core Processor ($259.95 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Assassin X 120 Refined SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($17.89 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus PROART B760-CREATOR D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($50.97 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN580 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($119.00 @ iBUYPOWER)
Video Card: MSI VENTUS 2X BLACK OC GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB Video Card ($449.99 @ B&H)
Case: MSI MAG FORGE 321R AIRFLOW ATX Mid Tower Case ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.90 @ Amazon)
Total: $1232.68
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-06-29 14:20 EDT-0400

Optimal:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/J2yCxH

CPU: Intel Core i7-14700K 3.4 GHz 20-Core Processor ($373.96 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($33.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus PROART B760-CREATOR D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Patriot Viper Steel 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($109.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel Optane P1600X 118 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($73.94 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($169.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI EXPERT GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16 GB Video Card ($789.99 @ Newegg)
Case: MSI MAG FORGE 321R AIRFLOW ATX Mid Tower Case ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power 13 750 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($169.90 @ Amazon)
Total: $1966.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-06-29 14:25 EDT-0400

There is a significant difference between a $1000 PC and a $1200 PC if you are building new.

There's also a strong argument to wait until Arrow Lake 15th gen Core comes out, Zen 5 looks a little underwhelming, but it's still going to be better than Zen 4.

 

[pk67]

There is a significant difference between a $1000 PC and a $1200 PC if you are building new.

There's also a strong argument to wait until Arrow Lake 15th gen Core comes out, Zen 5 looks a little underwhelming, but it's still going to be better than Zen 4.

The same apply as well to discrete GPU. Especially just 6-9 months before next generations are released.
Previous generation dGPU will be obsolete pretty soon imho. So i'm not sure if building new rig with obsolete key components is really good idea.