Can anyone give me their opinion on this build please?

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Daz42270582

Member
I am looking for a new PC build that can handle anything I throw at it from Illustrator and Photoshop (I run a lot of complex actions using both).

Am I missing anything?... are there any bottlenecks?... am I wasting money anywhere?... is the graphics card overkill for this purpose? (I do not use this PC for gaming).

I intend to add more RAM and a 4TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W) (is this straightforward to do?)

Many thanks for any help you can give me in advance!

Darren.

Case
PCS LUMIN ARGB MID TOWER CASE (PWM)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16 Core CPU (4.3GHz-5.7GHz/80MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME X870-P WIFI (AM5, DDR5, M.2 PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (1 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB GIGABYTE GEFORCE RTX 4060 D6 - 2 x HDMI, 2 x DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CX SERIES™ CX-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 360 Series ARGB High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ASUS Xonar AE 7.1-Channel Gaming Audio Card
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License
Browser
Firefox™
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (6 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £1,716.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/7tv64d5kH2/
 
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Daz42270582

Member
That is the max budget I have (interest free). I cut the additional RAM and extra SSD to cut the initial outlay to this figure. I have time to purchase these later and install them before I need to use it (also, these components are cheaper to order separately elsewhere).
 
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TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
If you're not using anything that scales with more cores (Adobe Premiere, After Affects, Blender, DaVinci, etc), you may find the 9700X is actually faster for single-core performance in Photoshop & Illustrator.

www.pugetsystems.com

AMD Ryzen 9000 Content Creation Review

Introduction Following some launch delays, AMD has now released their entire AMD Ryzen 9000 Series of processors. These CPUs are based on AMD’s new Zen 5
www.pugetsystems.com www.pugetsystems.com
R9k_PS_Overall.png


Also, why the sound card if it's for design purposes? The motherboard will have a sound chip built in anyway.

Those two changes alone will net you £300 towards more RAM, better quality PSU and motherboard.
 
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Daz42270582

Member
Thank you. This is exactly what I was hoping for… cutting costs where I can without compromising on performance.

The sound card I want as I listen to my music though my pc and liked the headphone amplifier… But I will look into the processor and PSU again when home.

Do you have any recommendations for a better motherboard or PSU please?
 
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TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
The PSU simply needs to be a modular (i.e. cables can be removed from the unit so you only install what you need, vs having to hide all the wired in ones in the case).

In your situation, the 750w RMe will be more than enough unless you decide to get into rendering heavily and upgrade the GPU to a 5080/5090 (or later/bigger) down the line.

A TUF Gaming B650 ('gaming' is just a marketing label, but it has better components, for not a lot more), or if you want USB4 then one of the Gigabyte X870 Eagle or Asus TUF Gaming X870 motherboards (no need for theX 870E version as that's a higher level again, with extra m.2 slots).
 
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TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Case
LIAN LI O11DYNAMIC EVO RGB GAMING CASE - better quality case, to which you can find a manual (PCS components are unknown and rarely have manuals available)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 9700X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-5.5GHz/40MB CACHE/AM5) - more efficient, higher single-core performance, cheaper
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6) - better quality components than the Prime motherboards
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB) - the full amount of RAM you wanted, and in a matched pair (which may not necessarily possible to match externally without replacing all sticks)
Graphics Card
8GB MSI GEFORCE RTX 4060 Ventus 2X BLACK OC - HDMI, 3 x DP - slightly cheaper version of the same GPU
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW) - smaller primary SSD just for Windows and Apps (no documents) - to keep it clean and fast
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW) - larger secondary SSD for projects/working docs
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMe SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET - probably overkill for the current productivity build, but easier than having to rebuild if you need more power in the future
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX XT RGB High Performance CPU Cooler - better quality cooler, with none of the reliability issues we've seen with the PCS ones...although you could get away with a PCS 200 air tower cooler if you don't want RGB, however there are no non-PCS tower coolers on the configurator at the moment
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License
Browser
Firefox™
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (6 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Price: £1,665.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/8v0gmTYU7u/
 
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Daz42270582

Member
Thank you so much for your help Tony. I will have a play and see what I settle on...

One last thing... Is there any specific reason to avoid the faster Samsung SSD drives please?
 
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TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Daz42270582 said:
Thank you so much for your help Tony. I will have a play and see what I settle on...

One last thing... Is there any specific reason to avoid the faster Samsung SSD drives please?
Click to expand...
Only because they've left a poor taste in the mouth after releasing them with broken firmware which degraded their performance/lifespan very quickly (has been fixed since, but we still don't believe they're worth the extra cost) - and we've had none of the same issues with Solidigm or Crucial SSDs.
 
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