PC ADVICE PLEASE

MCK wrote on 6/3/2022, 8:57 AM

Hello. This is somewhat off-topic, but I know that those of you who respond to my messages here are knowledgeable and eager to help. So...

My teenage daughter is autistic and incredibly creative, clever and artistic. She wants a new desktop computer as she gets closer to a wonderful college placement. But we are both unsure of...

Which brand to go for
Do we buy it from a major retailer - Argos, Currys, John Lewis, etc - or from one of those PC-manufacturing companies who sell online (and often on eBay)

My daughter is into graphic design, art and loves playing the likes of Minecraft. Her requirements include:

Her new PC must be capable of supporting a second monitor
It must be fit for high-end graphics work, 3D included
Similarly, high-end gaming a must
Her current PC is, and always has been, noisy as hell. She'd love a quiet one
It has to be Windows 10... 11 is not an option.

So, ladies and gentlemen, any advice, guidance, etc would be hugely appreciated. We are not wealthy and cannot go hog wild; but, equally, I don't want to cut corners now and regret it later.

Thanks in advance.

Comments

CubeAce wrote on 6/3/2022, 11:12 AM

@MCK

Hi Mark.

Boy, are you going to get some contradictory advice 😉.

How hi end a gaming rig are we talking here? Hi monitor refresh rates? wide aspect ratio? Latest HRD monitor tech? 10 bit or 8 bit?

Colour accuracy for Graphic design?

Have a look at the college courses and see what programs they will be learning.

There are specialist graphic design programs used in the industry other than ones' most people use.

Not all of them need the latest and greatest gear but it helps with rendering speeds.

Dell do some good monitors for this type of thing as do BenQ.

Games are always pushing the limits for hardware but if you can be happy at HD levels of viewing while gaming I believe it can reduce the cost a lot while getting better refresh rates. Even then you may only be as good as your internet speeds and average ping level to the servers. Depends again on the type of game being played.

I think most people go for Ryzen based systems for graphics and gaming as they tend to do best pound for pound so to speak. Graphics is an area where lots of ram is useful. I mean lots.

There are a lot of YouTube channels out there that give good advice for gaming rigs. Jays two cents is one and LTT is another. (Linus Tech Tips).

I think a good gaming rig will probably also be a good rig for Graphics design as well but I'm not really into either.

Graphics design is a huge topic and covers a lot of variation.

As for two monitors. Most systems, even basic ones, can cope now running two monitors for most things other than gaming. The only thing I would say is buy two at once from the same batch. Make sure you stipulate that at purchase. Also you will need a calibration unit to get colour accuracy across the two monitors.

You should be considering IPS panels for colour and viewing angle priority.

This is of course only my opinion base on watching too many YouTube videos as there are more videos about gaming rigs than video editing ones.

Ray.

johnebaker wrote on 6/3/2022, 11:14 AM

@MCK

From your requirements in particular items 2 & 3

You are going to be looking at a gaming machine with:

RTX 2000 or 3000 series graphics card,
10th generation or later Intel (my preference), or AMD processor, of 6 cores minimum
32 GB of RAM.
Drives is where there are many disagreements between SSD and 'mechanical' hard drives (HDD) - my preference would be for HDD and 2 - one 2TB for OS and programs, and the second, eg 4TB, for data.

. . . . Do we buy it from a major retailer - Argos, Currys, John Lewis, etc - or from one of those PC-manufacturing companies who sell online . . . .

Do you have a budget limit?

For a fully prebuilt system the retailer is not so important, I would not go to a custom system builder.

. . . . gets closer to a wonderful college placement . . .

Do they have assistance program for equipment purchase for students in your daughters position?

Should your daughter be wanting to take it to college this would put you into laptop territory where you could be looking at £1000+ - I recommend Lenovo having one myself.

HTH

John EB
Forum Moderator

MCK wrote on 6/5/2022, 3:23 AM

Thank you for these extremely helpful replies. Will discuss with my daughter and see if we can reach a conclusion. Much gratitude to you both.