time for a new PC - this or that?

ricklaw · Dec 7, 2017

dell inspiron
ryzen 5 1400
8gb ram
1tb hd
rx 580 8gb card
$600
Dell Inspiron 5675 Gaming Desktop: Ryzen 5 1400, 1TB HDD, RX 580 $600 after $50 SD Rebate & More + Free S&H

or this one...

HP
i5-7400
8gb ram
1tb hd
gtx 1060 3gb card
$500
HP Pavilion Power Gaming Tower: i5-7400, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, GTX 1060 $499 + Free Store Pickup

this would only be used for video/photo editing and 'regular pc work'. no gaming.

there is also an upgrade option on the dell to go to the ryzen 7 1700x for $150 more.

which would you go with for 4k editing? both are right in the amount i'd like to spend ($500-700)

Mossiback · Dec 7, 2017

My advise on buying a computer is first shop for the software. If your software requires (or works best with) a Nvidia graphics card and 16 GB of RAM, neither of your choices will work.

And RAM is cheap. I would start at 16 GB. Make sure you can add it to the existing RAM after purchase.

ricklaw · Dec 7, 2017

i'll be using power director 16. i figured ram and an ssd would be the first two things i'd add.

Bunyip · Dec 7, 2017

Computers are very much a personal thing now it is probably worth getting one built, I went down this track and opted for 500gb SSD, i7 processor (I do a lot of RAW images with work on a 36mp camera and it takes a while to process), 1TB HD plus a 5TB external drive and a few 2TB external drives.
I also have a graphics card but cannot recall what it is but my computer bloke knew what I was doing and put in a good unit.
Be particular about who the manufacturers of the components are as some work better than others and run cooler, also a good cooling system and a decent power supply.
I paid about AU$2200 for mine which is probably a bit more than off the shelf but I know I have good hardware.
I forgot the Bluray burner, you need it if recording 4K as it takes a lot of memory/space (5 minutes close on 3gb).
They say if your images are not in 3 locations they do not exist.

Edit: Computer prices here are considerably higher than in the USA.

FirstFlight · Dec 14, 2017

Buy an ATX case and the components and put it together, you will build a much better machine for less money.

I am a photographer with a couple of full frame Nikons, the RAW files are 40 mb for each picture, a machine with enough processing power and storage to handle files like this would have cost me 2 to 3K, I built one for about 1200, rastering 40mb files in photoshop CS6 needs some major processing power and this machine does the trick and has for the last 5 years.

ricklaw · Dec 14, 2017

i ended up going with a dell inspiron 5675. it was $923 shipped.

ryzen r7 1700x CPU
32gb ram
256gb m.2 ssd
1tb hd
gtx 1060 3gb video card

i tried parting it all out and couldn't come close to this price. the cheapest i could get was in the $1200-1400 range depending on cooling system and case and whatnot. plus figure the time to build it. it just couldn't be beat at this point.

FirstFlight · Dec 14, 2017

@ricklaw sounds like you are heading down the retail path, looks like it should work well. I would advise to add at least (1) additional 1TB hard drive when you receive your machine and use is for storage, (2) would be better. Internal storage is better as it will load and same your file much faster.

ricklaw · Dec 14, 2017

FirstFlight said:
@ricklaw sounds like you are heading down the retail path, looks like it should work well. I would advise to add at least (1) additional 1TB hard drive when you receive your machine and use is for storage, (2) would be better. Internal storage is better as it will load and same your file much faster.

i've got a WD 8th drive i bought for like $125 from best buy a few weeks ago ready to be shucked and installed as soon as i get the system. i'm also considering a 256gb or so ssd for a scratch drive.

FirstFlight · Dec 14, 2017

A dedicated scratch drive is the way to go that is for sure, nothing else on it allowing the editing software read and write to an SSD for rastering definitely speeds things up.

Gary1532 · Apr 8, 2018

ricklaw said:
dell inspiron
ryzen 5 1400
8gb ram
1tb hd
rx 580 8gb card
$600
Dell Inspiron 5675 Gaming Desktop: Ryzen 5 1400, 1TB HDD, RX 580 $600 after $50 SD Rebate & More + Free S&H

or this one...

HP
i5-7400
8gb ram
1tb hd
gtx 1060 3gb card
$500
HP Pavilion Power Gaming Tower: i5-7400, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, GTX 1060 $499 + Free Store Pickup

this would only be used for video/photo editing and 'regular pc work'. no gaming.

there is also an upgrade option on the dell to go to the ryzen 7 1700x for $150 more.

which would you go with for 4k editing? both are right in the amount i'd like to spend ($500-700)

I have an Inspiron 5675, I use premier pro, it has a ryzen 1700x it came with a regular 1 terabyte hard drive, I installed a crucial mx300 m.2 225 gig for my scratch files and media cache, a crucial 2.5 inch ssd 525 gig mx 300 for my OS, and a Samsung 960 nvme 125 gig for the m.2 slot. Here’s one of my mavic videos from my YouTube account here’s another one from a review team I am a part of, we shoot those on 2 go pro hero 5 sessions, here’s another anyways I like the Inspiron but if you call dell they say that things only capable of 256 gigs of ssd storage and 2 terabytes of traditional hard drive storage I have done speed test and mine function at full speed. I wonder if they would say that if you asked them and hadn’t already bought one. My render times are pretty fast. You can’t clown the hard drive though you have to do a clean install if you want to install an ssd as your OS. I also put 32 gigs of ddr4 ram. I got it all off of Newegg dell charges a ton. I paid around 1500 for the Inspiron, like 200 for the ram and like 300 for the ssds, then a 500 dollar monitor and I had a nose speaker to use for the speaker.