Home use and picture editing PC build

[Tezmo88]

Hi everyone

I'm currently in the process of putting together a home-pc build for my mum, for office, email, home use along with some sage accounts, and photo editing with CS4.

After confirms on a recent post, its been determined that a GPU shouldn't be necessary for the build. (If one is required/wanted i can always install at a later date).

The build will look as follows:

CPU - Intel I5-4670k
Cooler - Any ideas? hard to tell if many are compatible with new mobo?
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 Socket 1150
Case - Corsair Obsidian 350D or 550D
Ram - Corsair Memory Vengeance Jet Black 16GB DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) CAS9-9-9-24 XMP Dual Channel
SSD - 256GB Crucial RealSSD M4
HDD - Western Digital WD20EURS 2TB AV-GP Hard Drive 24 x 7 Enterprise HDD
PSU - be quiet! BN190 Straight Power E9 400W Power Supply (PSU). Would this be compatible with mobo?

My main question is would anyone know what sort of Wattage PSU would be required for a build like this, as i'm having trouble finding out the amount of power required. I'm thinking it would be best to play it safe and have a PSU that would be able to take the build above + a low end GPU incase one is needed at a later date.

I may alter the size of storage down to 128GB SSD, 1TB HDD, then use the SSD for installing programs, HDD for saving edited photos/videos.

Many thanks in advance for any help!

Cheers,

Terry

[GeorgeStorm]

That PSU should be able to power that build without an issue.

What about keyboard, monitor etc?

Rest of the build looks pretty decent, cooler wise if it's compatible with s1150 then it should be fine.

Depend how serious/heavy the photo editing is, I'd be tempted to say if anything it's a little over the top.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What system does your mum have ATM?? What screen do you have and is it calibrated??

I have a slower Core i5 in my system with 8GB of DDR3 and I do a lot of RAW development,some film scanning and a reasonable amount of gaming.

TBH,it does seem the build in the OP is a bit OTT for the purposes described and I would probably pare the build down a bit and put the money saved into a reasonable budget monitor for image editing.

[Tezmo88]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the responses so far. It probably is a bit over the top, though I was given a budget of around £800/900 to work with, with no new screen or keyboard required.

However the current screen is uncalibrated, pretty terrible and old, so a possibility would be to dampen down the build and put the money towards a new screen. cheers for that!

I'll need to check when i'm back to see the current system/screen, so will try and post that here tonight.

Think the current build i posted above is heavily influenced on my experience of my gaming pc i built last year!

[Saracen]

The only thung in that usage requiring real processing muscle is photo editing, and even that can be done with a LOT less grunt than you have there.

I agree with Cat though, a half-decent monitor (say, £200 for a 24" IPS) and a calibrator will make a lot of difference to photo editing, especially if the output is printed. Even for web use, though, it's sub-optimal to use an uncalibrated monitor, because when a picture looks decent to you, it's anybody's guess what it'll look like to others.

Also .... why an "enterprise" grade hard drive, unless it's running in something like a server, 24/7?

[Tezmo88]

Looks like i'll have to tone down the build! Though i'm still looking for super fast load times etc. Wops about that "enterprise" HDD, i was just trying to link a generic 2TB drive, will just be a normal one

I'll see if i have the time tonight to put together a more budget build then, along with convincing her that a new screen will be worth the investment!

[Saracen]

I'd say a lot depends on how serious she is about her picture editing. CS4 suggests fairly serious. In which case, a decent monitor is, IMHO, money well spent. You xan, obvioysly, spend a LOT on Pro monitors, but for home/hobbyist use, it really isn't necessary.

Calibrating the monitor, though, that's trickier. After years of tweaking and re-tweaking by eye, and by nightmares trying to get printed output right, I went for a hardware print and screen calibrator. It works like a dream, is fast and easy to use and does a great job. At £300-ish, not cheap, though. There are cheaper (and much more expensive) options, but I got a good deal on this at the now defunct Focus exhibition a couple of years ago.

But the rest of the PC doesn't need to be anything terribly dancy, and even the SSD is a luxury, not a necessity.

[b] Personally [b], I'd rather save on the SSD and put the cost toward the calibrator. But then, personally, I have both. If I had to forego one or the other, I'd rather have the calibrator.

[snikez18]

My dad uses sage quite alot on his old xp machine with an pentium as for the screen i agree with cat invest the money in a really good screen.