So I'm sick of only owning a laptop, and so I've decided to bite the bullet and get a desktop. I posted to r/buildapcforme and got suggestions on a build, I thought I'd see if people here agree or have any suggestions of their own.

I will primarily be using this for Photoshop/Illustrator and browsing, but the Photoshop work is intensive, lots of big files and gif making.

I'm looking to spend around 1k on it, maybe more. I'm definitely getting a different mouse and keyboard than the ones suggested, though I'm not sure which ones.

Here is the Reddit thread.

 

I glanced through the reddit thread, and it seems to be about building PCs. That said, I'd recommend Apple for your use case. How does the 21" iMac sound? Seems to be within your budget.

 

Never.

/10char

 

Apple is extremely efficient, even if it's ridicously over priced, but I can't say anything about that since I'm exchanging my iPhone for anything else.

 

I lol'd. I like macs, though iPads and iPhones don't interest me much. That said, any particular reason (beyond hurr durr Apple sucks!) why no Apple? If there is a particular problem with macs for your use case, it would be good to know, to further refine our recommendations.

 

Unless you happen to use 10 bit displays for some reason, or do some heavy video editing, there's no need to get a Nvidia Quadro.
Ergo, the recommendation in the reddit thread for the gfx card should be good enough for your work.

Personally, I'm partial to Dell Ultrasharps for monitors (the only thing Dell does well imho), but it would cost more than the Acer the guy recced.

I'd also rec the logitech K310 keyboard, as you said you wanted a keyboard that doesn't get hair/crumbs. Those keyboards don't exist, but this one is easily washable.

Honestly, I think the guy went a bit overboard with the CPU, but a regular i5 would only cost 50$ less, so it's not that much anyways.

Software support, Games, Price.

 

Surely paying much higher prices for exactly the same specification components is reason enough? The very fact that she's building a PC in the first place, rather than going off-the-shelf, indicates a certain preference for getting the best specification possible for the money.

With regards to specific things, I'm not quite sure about the SSD that was recommended to you on Reddit. I agree that an SSD is a very good idea, given your desire for programs that open rapidly, but the SSD he's chosen is the value option. It has half the life of the Samsung equivalent and is consistently behind on speed benchmarks too (see here).

I think you could maybe save a bit of money by going for a slightly lower-spec graphics card, as you're not doing intense gaming and photoshop is more CPU than GPU heavy, and use that money to get a Samsung SSD like the Samsung 840 Evo.

 

Well, in most cases I would agree, but all my friends doing photo/video/audio editing keep telling me how awesome macs are for their work. I'd assume there's some reason they're saying that, that's why I recc'd it.

 

I would not want an Apple computer because most importantly, I'm used to Windows and I am very frustrated whenever I have to use Apple's UI. It is counter-intuitive in almost every way in addition to their aesthetic not being one I enjoy. That is reason enough, but I also dislike Apple as a company due to some of their practices (related to their app ecosystem, mostly).

This is the SSD you are suggesting, Taure? What graphics card would you suggest? I definitely care the most about speed, and very little about gaming, as I pretty much only play CK2.

@Hachi...that keyboard looks great! However, I'd much prefer a wireless keyboard, I'm thinking about getting something in the vein of this Logitech K800.

 

You don't mention gaming anywhere, do you plan to play some games at all? If yes, what games and what quality are you satisfied with? If not you can just get an i7 and use the iGPU. That would save you the cost of the dedicated GPU, and since Photoshop doesn't really benifit from a GPU you wouldn't really lose performance.

If you don't get a dedicated GPU you can also exchange the PSU. Maybe go for 400-450W and chose one with better efficiency if the price isn't that much higher. Also, like Taure mentioned, the 840 evo series is pretty good and most people go for that, but you'll probably need to update the firmware if you get one to get rid of a bug that significantly decreses performance on older files on the SSD. Also, always go for the 250/256 GB versions of SSDs if possible, since in most cases they will offer much better performance than 120/128 GB ones.

I'd also suggest getting a different case, preferably a normal ATX midi-tower instead of a microATX one, since normal ones tend to be cheaper. Since you want some colour, maybe a BitFenix Neos would suit you, although not everyone likes the full mesh front. If you're interested in it, here's a video showing the different versions of the case and it gives a general overview.

 

If you are sure you'll only play CK2, then yeah, a slow GPU will do. Or even integrated like Sacro proposed.
You can always add a dedicated gfx card later if you need it.

CS6 has some minor functions that use the GPU, but if you take an i7 4770k, the integrated HD 4600 should handle it without any problems.
You'd save 200$ as you wouldn't buy a gfx card, but the CPU is slightly pricier.