System for gaming and photo editing

[freeman3030]

Hi all,
I currently have a 2011 iMac and am looking to switch back to a PC. Not having bought a computer since 2011, lots has changed and I'm trying to educate myself to help work out what system specs would work for me best.
With regards to usage, I mainly play simulation games so the CPU is probably more important than the GPU. Likewise, I enjoy a bit of photography from time to time and tweak/edit photos but I mainly use my imac to play the sims 4. I have to play it on my partners laptop because my iMac runs too slowly when I start putting lots of furniture into a house.
What I'm trying to decide is, do I need a core i7, or should I save my money and get a core i5?
Likewise, should i get a decent graphics card with a good amount of memory so I can future proof a bit?
I'm not too sure what to do with regards to SSD/HDD. I really like apples time machine so i can go back in time and restore, is windows backup good/reliable? I have a drobo which I currently store all my photos and documents on but am considering ditching this as its quite slow to access the data, copy files to etc. Hence why I'm hoping windows backup is good enough to have a simple external drive plugged in for backup.

Any suggestions or ideas are welcome.

 

[Hellfire13]

You have a budget in mind???

 

[freeman3030]

The less the better, but I was kind of thinking about £800 - if that's feasible. At the same time, if I had to spend a bit more to get a lot more performance I would certainly do that.

 

[Hellfire13]

Something like this should be good for your purpose. The Ryzen cpu is pretty good currently and better value than Intel. It performs very well in gaming. Similarly, a SSD should be your primary drive with OS and your editing softwares, as it will allow all your functionalities like editing pretty fast. The HDD should be your backup drive. You should backup your data as often as you can for data loss prevention.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (£188.92 @ More Computers)
Motherboard: MSI - B350 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard (£97.47 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£126.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: SanDisk - SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£74.98 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.95 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB Mini Video Card (£239.92 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Corsair - SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case (£48.48 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£49.12 @ Ebuyer)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£82.20 @ Aria PC)
Total: £948.03
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-04 20:27 BST+0100

 

[freeman3030]

Something like this should be good for your purpose. The Ryzen cpu is pretty good currently and better value than Intel. It performs very well in gaming. Similarly, a SSD should be your primary drive with OS and your editing softwares, as it will allow all your functionalities like editing pretty fast. The HDD should be your backup drive. You should backup your data as often as you can for data loss prevention.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (£188.92 @ More Computers)
Motherboard: MSI - B350 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard (£97.47 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£126.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: SanDisk - SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£74.98 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.95 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB Mini Video Card (£239.92 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Corsair - SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case (£48.48 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£49.12 @ Ebuyer)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£82.20 @ Aria PC)
Total: £948.03
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-04 20:27 BST+0100

Wow, thank you for such a fast and comprehensive reply. I hadn't considered an AMD processor because I thought intel was what most people were working with nowadays - but I feel so out of the loop I didn't really know what was best.
Thank you for your advice!

 

[Hellfire13]

The cpu market has just come alive due to AMD coming with Ryzen after 5-6yrs. Would advice to do some research though before you finalize.