Graphics Design PC £2k Budget

Associate
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17 Aug 2010
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Hi All,

I am after a high-performance graphics design PC including a monitor, keyboard and mouse for a budget of £2000. I do not require the OS.

I would like the monitor to reproduce colours well as there will be a lot of work on this machine using the Adobe Suite.

I am after the best bang for my buck here so am fine with either Intel or AMD I also have no problem building this PC myself.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
Soldato
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26 Aug 2013
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I only dabble with Sketchup now and then. But now and then I spend hours reading up on recommendations for things like Premiere Pro, watch demonstration, benchmarking vids and the like. Adobe apps generally like more cores (vice versa something like AutoCad prefers a few fast cores). Today, that means a 1600/1600X processor minimum. 16GB 3000MHz DDR4 RAM minimum. And one SSD and a HDD. Consider back-up, if you don't have any then add a second HDD or external. Then PSU, motherboard (some features on the board may be nice for future upgrades, like dual or triple M.2 slots, with the fastest bandwidth, not always possible when working with a budget), and for that budget aim for a GPU like the GTX 1060 6GB, because some GPUs already have 11GB, so going into the future programs are likely to make use of a lot of video memory.

But before really going to town on all that, you could have a think about the monitor you'd like/need. Because you can make it the focus/priority of your build, once you have the minimum covered for the rest. Or if you aren't too fussed, then you can spend more of the budget on a faster processor, more RAM, and a second SSD (i.e. a scratch disk) for all the stuff like Adobe cache files, cache database, captured av, previews, media, project, cc library. It is better if you use the fastest SSD as the scratch disk. A regular SSD will be fine for OS/programs, and a regular one would be fine for all the rest too, but if you can afford a second faster one, then even better.

So as far as monitor, what do you need... 4K or less? Prefer Ultrawide or 16:10/16:9? Try and find a monitor that would work for you (preferably IPS unless you have a taste for VA, safe to say TN should be avoided for this purpose, refresh rate won't matter - 60Hz fine), and then see if the rest of the budget can make for a good system. Your input here is vital, as some might prefer a 1080p IPS monitor and the fastest system possible. Whereas others will want a better screen.

What storage size do you require for your work? This will have an impact on which SSD/s and HDD/s. SSD size is not something you want to overdo, as it can really cut into the budget, so if 500GB total SSD space (whether single SSD or 2 x 250GB) is enough, great. Then a 1/2/3/whatever TB HDD. Remember you can add more drives as time goes by, as long as the motherboard and the case can handle them, so you could perhaps think well I'll be fine with this storage amount for at least a year, so any extra in the budget can go towards other things right now.

TL; DR = please give us some input on the monitor and storage requirements.
 
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OP
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This PC will run in a active directory domain environment for someone to use in our marketing department for work on photographs and design work. We have had complaints surrounding colours on screen not ringing true with the printer etc, so the screen is very important, ultrawide would be nice but not essential, resolution 1440p+ . Marketing are trying to push for a Mac but ideally we want to stay away from this if possible. SSD is important for the boot drive, storage of the files will be network based so there are no real requirements for local storage.

Thanks for your help so far!
 
Soldato
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My brother has been a professional graphic designer for 12+ years.. Anything would suit as long as it can run the software effectively.. £2k is massive overkill for such a PC.

The majority of the cost will go towards a monitor with accurate colouring, but even then you are more likely to be using already defined colour codes, palettes and branding.
 
Soldato
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Had a look at monitors. There's a 32" Asus PA328Q 3840x2160 IPS 10-Bit* 99.5% Adobe RGB professionally calibrated monitor. That would provide plenty of real estate, including vertical (something the Ultrawide 1440p's don't so much). https://www.asus.com/us/Commercial-Monitors/PA328Q/

OcUK doesn't stock it. It's available for £1000+ from most places but one place is having a clearance for £800. Seems tempting, spec-wise. You could have a look for actual feedback on the monitor, see if there any known issues etc.

* 10-Bit colour won't be available in Adobe with a GTX 1060 though, only with Quadro workstation cards I believe. The trouble with Quadro is that you lose performance in most everything else just to get 10-bit, if you pay the same price for a budget Quadro as for a GTX 1060, that is. So it's a catch-22.

That would leave around £1200 for a system.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,199.19
(includes shipping: £12.30)




How's this looking? No keyboard/mouse yet, and the red led RAM is only because it's the cheapest 32GB 3000MHz kit (case has no windows anyway). PSU ought to be reliable. Seasonic and ten-year warranty.

Always difficult to tell how much the video card will be made use of. However, some programs do, and more programs are incorporating making use of that power as time goes by. I think it would be a pity to drop 32GB RAM to 16GB RAM, to get a keyboard and mouse in. I'd probably swap video card for a GTX 1060 3GB model, if needed.

If you did decide to go for 10-bit capability, then I'd look at the P1000 as minimum:

My basket at Overclockers UK:


 
Last edited:
Associate
OP
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17 Aug 2010
Posts
180
My brother has been a professional graphic designer for 12+ years.. Anything would suit as long as it can run the software effectively.. £2k is massive overkill for such a PC.

The majority of the cost will go towards a monitor with accurate colouring, but even then you are more likely to be using already defined colour codes, palettes and branding.

The only reason we have 2k is that's what marketing want to spend on a Mac and we'd ideally like stay Windows.

Had a look at monitors. There's a 32" Asus PA328Q 3840x2160 IPS 10-Bit* 99.5% Adobe RGB professionally calibrated monitor. That would provide plenty of real estate, including vertical (something the Ultrawide 1440p's don't so much). https://www.asus.com/us/Commercial-Monitors/PA328Q/

That monitor looks exactly what we're after, many thanks for that suggestion.

In terms of the GTX 1060 vs Quadro i'll have a look into both but 10bit colour probably isn't required.

Thanks for your help.
 
Soldato
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normally the quadro graphics cards are suited for this sort of stuff, but this 1070 would do a better job for similar price to a comparable priced quadro, unless you need more than 1080 then this monitor sounds/looks impressive and should do what you ask from it, i put in a cheap keyboard & mouse bundle as i dont know your preference for that. the 1700 should be more than enough even for more demanding graphic design software.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,817.64
(includes shipping: £20.82)




or looking at a prebuilt then maybe something along the lines of this from intel? its from the workstation section, so should be up for the job as its an i7, the gpu option for the build was a 1050, so added the 1070 back in to the mix.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,978.41
(includes shipping: £28.02)




another from intel with a better 1070 included in the build.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,888.02
(includes shipping: £28.02)




prebuilt from ryzen, but with the 1600 so is much cheaper and an rx 580.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,709.96
(includes shipping: £28.02)




while you have the money to get a nice freesync monitor instead of that one i listed if you went for this cheaper prebuilt, if you wanted the 1700 still(prebuilts with the 1700x includes a gaming chair) then you would have to build it yourself or make a request as the 32gb ram options are out of stock hence why i went with the 1600 system.


edit: i havent done graphic design type stuff in years, so have no real experience with recent stuff, but i do know an overkill system would be better for when the software advances over the years like games do.
 
Soldato
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Built Raytracing and CAD workstation for a friend. Minimum would be Ryzen 7 for CPU rendering , almost went thread ripper was just a little to costly . Should save him a day of rendering over 7 day usage !
 
Associate
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Out of interest, what's the reason for wanting to stay away from a Mac? Mac's are generally more used in the graphic design industry, and the displays in the iMacs/iMac Pro's are far superior to a lot of screens. Personally, if I was going to spend £2k on a computer, I'd probably buy a Mac over a PC any day as the Mac will hold its value much better.

Having said that, I wouldn't say you'd need £2k on a machine for Adobe software.
 
Soldato
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Out of interest, what's the reason for wanting to stay away from a Mac? Mac's are generally more used in the graphic design industry, and the displays in the iMacs/iMac Pro's are far superior to a lot of screens. Personally, if I was going to spend £2k on a computer, I'd probably buy a Mac over a PC any day as the Mac will hold its value much better.

Having said that, I wouldn't say you'd need £2k on a machine for Adobe software.

sound point, sure you can have windows to boot up in apple systems (boot camp) or vise versa and do a Hackintosh
 
Soldato
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9 Jan 2016
Posts
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Location
Derbyshire
You probably wouldn't need to make it run windows as apple software might offer better, but for 2k he could get a pretty decent iMac for the design stuff and a lower cost windows pc or laptop for window based requirements
 
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