[SOLVED] Is this a decent Build for Photoshop Lightroom some video editing and general use?

[Snowdrop77]

I am an art student looking to build myself a PC that would be able to handle photoshop, lightroom and some video editing as well as MS Office Power Point, MS Work, Outlook etc. I also will be using it as a Plex Media Server mostly for audiobook and music but some videos but that is just personal use so it wouldn't need to do lots of transcoding at one time. I never play video games so there will be no gaming on the PC so no gaming requirements. I work a lot in analog materials like film photography and super 8, some stop motion animation so I don't think I'll be doing anything like 3d rendering, although I'd like to be able to do some colour grading. The films i do are typically very short not more than 15 minutes and not effect heavy. My own DSLR camera only shoots 720p film but I'll also could be using cameras that use up to 4k.

Below is my List from PC Part Picker, I am in the UK and my Budget is about £1300 max. I have a monitor I can use for now and I also have an internal Bluray Burner that I want to install into the new machine, that is why I have gone for that case. I am hoping to buy my parts and build ASAP!

CPU Cooler: This was recommended for me as it is supposed to be good and it doesn't need an extra bracket for that Motherboard. I'd rather avoid coolers with liquid pumps for now.

Motherboard: I think I am happy with this Motherboard, it was more than I hoped to spend on it but it seems to have everything I need and no need to buy extras like wifi card, Bluetooth, heatsinks for NVMe storage etc. If possible I would like to avoid having to update the bios as this seems to need either a special button on the motherboard or another CPU which I don't have.

CPU: I am between the 12700K and the 12600K but I have been told that for photoshop, lightroom and video editing that I am better to spend a bit more on the CPU as that is where much of the work is done. Both these CPU's have integrated graphics. Also I've been told intel is the better choice for creatives but I did also consider

GPU: I know that the GPU is not considered very good or modern but my budget only goes up to a 3050 GTX and as far as I can tell from various reviews they say the RTX 3050 isn't that much better than the 1660 GTX Super. I was thinking I could start with a 1600 Super now and then up grade in future? Also my case is not huge so I need to be mindful of size and heat. I suppose another option might be a 2060 RTX 6GB?

Memory: My Budget for the Memory is about £100 and I want 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 - 3600. I know 64GB is better but this is something I can add to in future. I really don't know what brand of memory to get I've had Kingston Fury recommended to me but they are a bit more pricey. I'd love some advice on this.

PSU: This was recommened to me and i thought it looked good.

Case: Fractal Pop Air Case seem to be the best for my needs, it has the hidden bay for the bluray burner I have and I also want to install an expantion hub for USB and Micro SD cards.

Storage: I have one Firecuda 1TB NVMe and one Samsung SSD Drive selected, NVMe for boot drive and general use and the Samsung SSD as my plex source and as some back up for current projects. I also use cloud storage to back up and burn to bluray when archiving. Some have suggested a smaller NVMe for just my OS and Software and then a 2TB NVMe for Storage but other say having a seperate boot drive isn't needed with the NVMe drives, I'm not sure if this is true or not? I have other HHD's as well and that is something that can be added to in future as well.

Ideally I'd like a Machine with a bit of longevity even if that means upgrading the GPU and RAM in future.

PCPartPicker Part List: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/s8wG6r

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K 3.6 GHz 12-Core Processor (£368.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: ID-COOLING SE-226-XT 68.2 CFM CPU Cooler (£44.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B660 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£199.99 @ Amazon UK) - is this plug and play with the 12700K and the 12600K, no BIOS update needed?
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£89.99 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Samsung 870 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£90.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate FireCuda 530 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£124.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI VENTUS XS OC GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB Video Card (£236.39 @ Newegg UK)
Case: Fractal Design Pop Air ATX Mid Tower Case (£94.48 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: EVGA 600 BQ 600 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£52.23 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1302.04
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-11-13 16:35 GMT+0000

I haven't build a PC before although I have opened them up and done repairs and replaced items like hard drives and memory in the past and I've watched a lot of videos on it!

Any advice would be greatfully recieved either on the build or my many questions!

Thank you for reading!

 

[Darkbreeze]

When you paste your code, use the "bb code" option in PCPP so that it posts and looks like this. Seems prices have changed by 80 bucks since you created that list as well, although that might be because you had mail in rebates turned on and I always disable that on PCPP to get a more realistic idea of the cost.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K 3.6 GHz 12-Core Processor (£369.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: ID-COOLING SE-226-XT 68.2 CFM CPU Cooler (£44.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B660 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£199.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£104.26 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 870 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£90.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate FireCuda 530 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£124.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI VENTUS XS OC GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB Video Card (£279.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Pop Air ATX Mid Tower Case (£116.19 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA 600 BQ 600 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£52.23 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1382.62
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-11-14 07:08 GMT+0000

 

[Why_Me]

@Snowdrop77 normally peeps use a 500GB SSD for their OS.

Here's a couple of cost cutters.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09NVZFPT1
MSI PRO B660-A DDR4 £159.98

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/PRO-B660-A-DDR4

O/S SSD

https://www.ebuyer.com/875045-samsung-970-evo-plus-v-nand-m-2-500gb-ssd-mz-v7s500bw
Samsung 970 EVO PLUS 500GB M.2NVMe SSD £70.40

Storage SSD

https://www.ebuyer.com/989513-samsung-870-qvo-sata-iii-2-5-inch-1tb-ssd-mz-77q1t0bw
Samsung 870 QVO 1TB SATA III 2.5" SSD £82.98

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09MDHZ2YQ
Intel Core i7 12700F £339.98

https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...-25m-cache-up-to-4-90-ghz/specifications.html

Intel Core i7-12700 Review: Excellent CPU for high-end gaming

In this Intel Core i7-12700 CPU review, we're going to take a look at the overall performance of this locked non-K processor.

www.xda-developers.com

 

[Darkbreeze]

I would not recommend that BQ power supply. It is not, very recommendable. There are issues with it and better options close to it's price.

I would also not recommend that cooler. ID Cooling makes products that are not up to the same quality or fitment, or performance for that matter, as a lot of other coolers with similar pricing.

The 13600k beats the 12700k in both single and multicore performance, and is less expensive, so it seems like a much better option to me.

Also, as a creator it is likely you will likely have use for additional drive capability in addition to graphics card and possibly even an add in sound card at some point. Regardless, the B660 chipset is limited to only 14 PCIe lanes while the H670 chipset boards have 24 and the Z690 boards have 28.

This is a little bit more refined than what you had, but tried to keep it mostly the same since there were some selections you made that I saw no reason to change as they had definite advantages for a productivity build like yours.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-13600K 3.5 GHz 14-Core Processor (£338.99 @ Technextday)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H5 Ultimate 76 CFM CPU Cooler (£50.49 @ Currys PC World)
Motherboard: MSI MAG H670 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£194.25 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory (£97.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 870 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£90.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate FireCuda 530 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£124.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI VENTUS XS OC GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB Video Card (£237.59 @ Newegg UK)
Case: Fractal Design Pop Air ATX Mid Tower Case (£94.48 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: Corsair TX650M Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£45.46 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £1274.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-11-14 08:41 GMT+0000

 

[Snowdrop77]

@Darkbreeze Thank you so much for that new list, it looks great! Especially the recommedation for the CPU and the Motherboard, I think I'm going to go for that and pretty much the list as you have it! Not sure if I should do the seperate 500GB Drive as Why_Me suggests though and do you think the 1660 would be ok for me as a starting GPU, I could use the onboard GPU initially and wait for a good deal on a GPU if that ever happens lol, or maybe even buy used? I really appreciate the time you took to put that together for me

@Why_Me Thank you for the reply, I am considering, researching the 500gb OS option, would that also be for other software or just the OS? Thanks for the other reccomendations too, I think that the 12700F doesn't have integrated graphics which I'd like but I will look at all the others you mention. Thanks again"

Edit: I have pretty much bought all the bits now so please don't tell me something is wrong only kidding, it is pretty much as the list DarkBreeze posted.

 

[Darkbreeze]

For what you do, you will probably have a BUNCH of rather large installed applications, so for somebody like you it makes a lot of sense to have a 1TB drive as the primary OS drive. For most regular users and especially for gamers, not so much, because they will never install enough large programs to warrant it and gamers will mostly just install loaders with their actual game files on a separate drive. For professional or heavy-hobbyists however the amount of space needed for applications can add up fast. So no, I don't think there is anything wrong with a 1TB drive AND furthermore, the more free space that remains on your OS drive the better it's performance and longevity will be anyhow.

Plus, in almost EVERY case, the larger the drive is in it's series, the faster it's performance is. So for example, a 500GB Samsung 970 Evo plus will typically not be as fast as a 1 or 2 TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus. That applies to both SATA and NVME drives, for the most part. Also, the larger drives tend to have a moderately longer TBW (Terrabytes written) lifespan, and in some cases a longer warranty too, which is an additional nice to have.

 

[Snowdrop77]

@Darkbreeze Ok thats great I will stick with the 1tb firecuda then as my primary drive. Thanks so much for all your help, can't wait to build it now!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Good luck man. If you have questions you know where to find us.