Looking to buy a desktop for gaming and photo editing

[Noobgamer37]

I would love to build a computer but I can't because of some college restrictions. I found the nzxt build your own computer which I really like and they offer pretty fair prices after doing some research. Would there be something similar that anyone would recommend or maybe a prebuilt that would give me pretty good performance. I'm looking to spend around $1500 usd.

 

[sla70r]

For photo editing, your monitor is the most important aspect imo. How much of that budget are you leaving for a monitor?

 

[WildCard999]

For gaming you'll want a 8400 (Intel) or 2600 (AMD) or better. 16gb of RAM would be good (2666-Intel/3200-AMD), I would get at least a 250gb SSD for the OS and at least 1TB for storage. At 1080P a GTX 1060 6gb or RX 580 8gb would be a solid choice. Any higher of a resolution and you'll want to look at the 1070 or better. Also make sure they put a good quality PSU into the system as that's the heart of the system and you don't want anything getting destroyed.

 

[Noobgamer37]

For photo editing, your monitor is the most important aspect imo. How much of that budget are you leaving for a monitor?

I already have some pretty good monitors. Just need the computer right now

 

[Noobgamer37]

For gaming you'll want a 8400 (Intel) or 2600 (AMD) or better. 16gb of RAM would be good (2666-Intel/3200-AMD), I would get at least a 250gb SSD for the OS and at least 1TB for storage. At 1080P a GTX 1060 6gb or RX 580 8gb would be a solid choice. Any higher of a resolution and you'll want to look at the 1070 or better. Also make sure they put a good quality PSU into the system as that's the heart of the system and you don't want anything getting destroyed.

So than you would recommend I use nzxt than? My build that I built on there included your listed things

Here is the one I built on their website https://pcpartpicker.com/user/LaZyGremlin/saved/#view=C9qpGX

 

[WildCard999]

It's a good build however I'd change the CPU to a 8600K for overclocking at some point or change the motherboard to a B360 or H370 if it brings down the cost.

 

[Noobgamer37]

It's a good build however I'd change the CPU to a 8600K for overclocking at some point or change the motherboard to a B360 or H370 if it brings down the cost.

I don't plan on overclocking in the future just because I don't want to risk breaking something. Going down on the motherboard really wont save much so I'm okay with sticking with what I have

 

[Noobgamer37]

It's a good build however I'd change the CPU to a 8600K for overclocking at some point or change the motherboard to a B360 or H370 if it brings down the cost.

So do you think this is the best I can do at $1500 without being able to build it myself?

 

[WildCard999]

For $1500 it's not too shabby and will be warrantied by NZXT however if you built it yourself you could do better of course.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8500 3GHz 6-Core Processor ($204.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - Pure Rock Slim 35.1 CFM CPU Cooler ($24.00 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock - H310M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($80.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: ADATA - XPG GAMMIX D10 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($99.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.09 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB FTW3 DT GAMING Video Card ($634.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G Mini (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($54.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($58.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($94.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1452.29
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-08-18 09:13 EDT-0400

 

[Noobgamer37]

For $1500 it's not too shabby and will be warrantied by NZXT however if you built it yourself you could do better of course.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8500 3GHz 6-Core Processor ($204.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - Pure Rock Slim 35.1 CFM CPU Cooler ($24.00 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock - H310M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($80.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: ADATA - XPG GAMMIX D10 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($99.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.09 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB FTW3 DT GAMING Video Card ($634.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G Mini (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($54.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($58.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($94.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1452.29
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-08-18 09:13 EDT-0400

Sadly building myself isnt an option. Would there be a better prebuilt or build ypur own system like what nzxt offers that I could get?

 

[WildCard999]

There's sites like Digital Storm, iBuyPower or Origin PC. I don't really check them out but you could try each site and see which one offers the best price and warranty.

 

[Noobgamer37]

There's sites like Digital Storm, iBuyPower or Origin PC. I don't really check them out but you could try each site and see which one offers the best price and warranty.

Alright thanks for your help

 

[J_E_D_70]

OP, that 8400 build would game very well.

NZXT is probably a good bet. Cyber and ibuypower have very iffy build quality and cheap out on psu. Origin, Digital Storm, etc are very expensive.

 

[Noobgamer37]

OP, that 8400 build would game very well.

NZXT is probably a good bet. Cyber and ibuypower have very iffy build quality and cheap out on psu. Origin, Digital Storm, etc are very expensive.

Great. How do you think it would do for some photo editing and maybe some video editing? Also do you know of any prebuilts on like amazon Newegg or best buy that would be any better at that price range.

 

[J_E_D_70]

It’ll work well (6 threads that turbo). Not aware of any super deals on newegg or the like. Components cost what they cost and builders have to make a profit and cover warranty so if its too good a deal theres reason to be suspicious.