What are the long-term upgrade suggestions?
What are the long-term upgrade suggestions?
You've got 1000 - 1500 quid to spend and you can build a pretty decent system for that amount of dosh.
Like me, you're still into Blu-ray drives so you'll have to be careful when choosing a case. Many modern cases have glass sides and are filled with LED fans (up to 13 ?!?). They're designed to look pretty but there's often no space to fit a 5.25 inch optical drive.
I'm writing this on an old i7-4770K in a Gigabyte GA-Z97-D3H system with 16GB RAM on Windows 10. The case is a "boring" black Fractal Design with a single front panel slot for a DVD/RW drive. I have other Fractal Design cases including the R5, which I like because some versions allow me to fit eight hard disks inside for server builds.
If you do choose an R-series case, check carefully before ordering. There are multiple options and some don't include front panel bays.
https://www.fractal-design.com/products/...define-r5/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fractal-Design-...B00Q2Z11QE
I also have a large number of ancient Lian-Li Aluminium cases, many of which I bought second-hand on eBay.co.uk. The V2000 features seven accessible 5.25in bays on the front panel. Only useful if you like multiple hot swap drives, but you can always buy an illuminated glass fish tank instead.
If you decide on an mATX build, the above cases may be too big for your liking, so you'll have to look elsewhere. Cases available in the USA may not be on sale in the UK.
I've used various on-line stores for builds over the years including:
https://www.ebuyer.com/
https://www.scan.co.uk/
https://box.co.uk/
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/
What Adobe apps in particular? You can get by with a "medium" spec build for Photoshop, but Premiere Pro and similar video editors require powerful multi-core CPUs and fast GPUs.
I'm running Photoshop and Topaz Video AI on a 7950X rig built in 2022 with an RTX 4070 GPU. Your budget of up to £1500 should be sufficient for a good video rig. Photoshop is less demanding, but plugins such as Topaz Photo AI still "hammer" the GPU if you're working on large RAW images.
For video editing, I'd choose an i7 or i9 Intel CPU, or an AMD Ryzen 7 or 9. A 9-series CPU might be outside your price range, but I would hesitate to recommend an i5 or Ryzen 5 for Premiere Pro, DaVinci, etc.
For inspiration when choosing a CPU and GPU for Adobe, check out the Puget Systems web site:
https://www.pugetsystems.com/soluti...on...endations/
https://www.pugetsystems.com/solutions/v...miere-pro/
Most of Puget's pre-built systems are aimed at professionals and very expensive, but it's worth checking the respective merits of different CPUs and GPUs in the comparison charts.
If you can't find an affordable CPU or GPU in Puget's current builds (they tend to recommend Threadripper and Xeon CPUs for professional users) check out a their Adobe reviews from 2022/3 for more modest (affordable) hardware.
For 4K video work consider 64GB system RAM and a GPU card with 12GB VRAM. If you work at 1080p, you can get by with 32GB system RAM and an 8GB GPU, but "more is better" (cores and RAM) in video apps.
I've not run 4 monitors off a single GPU. I think I can only use 3 monitors with one of my GPUs, despite having 4 outputs. Check the spec of any GPU before purchase and find a card that suits the inputs on all your monitors. I'm using a mixture of HDMI and Display port on an old 30" 16:10 Dell monitor from a 3800X and 7950X via a KVM. Other PCs are DVI and even VGA on 24in monitors.
With this budget you can acquire a quite impressive system that will remain functional for a long time. Since you tend to invest in long-term setups, it makes sense to opt for the highest quality within your financial limits. Please let me know more about the Adobe software you plan to use; if you rely on GPU-enabled applications, here’s what I have in mind.
I primarily work with Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Acrobat. In addition, I produce/edit eBooks and User Guides using MS Office. During video conversion tasks—such as converting VHS to digital formats or ripping DVD/BluRay files with multiple languages and subtitles—it can feel overwhelming with more than ten programs running simultaneously.
PCPartPicker Parts Selection
CPU:
*
Intel Core Ultra 7 265K 3.9 GHz 20-Core Processor
(£265.97 @ Currys PC World)
CPU Cooling:
*
ID-COOLING FROZN A620 PRO SE 58 CFM CPU Cooler
(£29.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard:
*
Gigabyte Z890 EAGLE WIFI7 ATX LGA1851 Motherboard
(£167.71 @ Amazon UK)
Memory:
*
Corsair Vengeance 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory
(£179.97 @ Amazon UK)
Storage:
*
Silicon Power UD90 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME SSD
(£89.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card:
*
MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G GeForce RTX 3060 12GB Video Card
(£249.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case:
*
Fractal Design Pop Air ATX Mid Tower Case
(£74.94 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply:
*
MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
(£89.95 @ AWD-IT)
Overall Total:
£1148.51
Costs encompass delivery, duties, and any available reductions
*Selected items based on predefined conditions
Created by
PCPartPicker
2025-06-27 12:36 BST+0100
PCPartPicker Parts Selection